How to Write a Proposal for a Nonfiction Book

Writing a book proposal is not an easy task. You love your book idea, but you need to make the publisher fall in love with it too. How can you describe what it’s about? What do you say to make the publisher want to turn your idea into a printed book that you can hold in your hands?

If you’re thinking of writing a proposal for a software book to a publisher, check out this post on Medium with tips on writing a proposal for a nonfiction book on a technical topic. Even if you aren’t writing about a software topic, these tips are worth considering for technical topics.

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ChatGPT and AI: A Threat to Jobs?

The other day I had a most dreadful experience: the day after making a mistake at work, I was called into a meeting with the bosses. I thought I was in trouble. Instead, the opposite happened. They wanted me to try something that might help me to do my job better.

While feeling relieved that I wasn’t getting a notice to pack up my things, I was surprised at their request. They wanted me to try out ChatGPT because we also used our own AI and they were curious whether ChatGPT would help me do my job faster. So I tried it out, and here are my conclusions.

Creativity Isn’t AI’s Strongest Skill

Fortunately, my bosses couldn’t hear me working. I did as they requested and asked ChatGPT to do the task that one of my bosses had requested. I asked the AI to generate a workplace conversation.

The result was so generic and so far from creative that I thought it was funny. If my bosses could hear me, they would have thought I was watching entertaining cat videos on company time.

I asked the AI to improve the conversation and gave it a more industry specific example. It effortlessly created yet another workplace conversation, but again, it sounded like the average of many conversations put together, and not a real conversation that an actual worker would have at work.

I came to my first conclusion: creativity isn’t this AI’s strongest skill set. It had yet to create the level of writing that I do on the job.

AI Cannot Replace Jobs that Require Special Skills

After asking ChatGPT to complete a few more writing tasks, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that my job is still secure.

One of my job tasks is to write skills assessment questions. These questions test a person’s soft skills and their suitability for jobs in specific industries. AI is not yet at the stage where it can write materials for industry-specific tests designed to test a specific soft skill. For example, it cannot design a series of skill testing questions about a customer opening an account at the bank.

AI such as ChatGPT can answer a question that you ask it and then refine its answer again and again, but it could not achieve the final goal on the first try. It needs lots of hints and refinements.

Key Takeaways

AI can help with the initial research and generation of ideas. However, it still has a long way to go before it can think like a human. It cannot create test questions and answers unless they already exist in the public domain.

As such, those who have specialized skills, such as creating tests for industry-specific clients, won’t be replaced by test-generating AI anytime soon.

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Gratitude Quotes

Time to reflect! We’ve now completed the first three months of 2023, also known as Q1 in business circles. It’s also the end of another week. What are you grateful for?

There are so many wonderful things: family, friends, the weekend, another fulfilling week… the list goes on.

As we think about the things we’re grateful for, we’ll share some thoughts about gratitude from writers and storytellers.

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” – Aesop

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” —William Faulkner

“For my part, I am almost contented just now, and very thankful. Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.” —Charlotte Bronte

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

6 Tips to Developing an In-Demand Skill Set

How economy-proof is your skill set? Companies are cutting salaries and jobs due to rising costs, but you still need a job to pay the bills. What you need to stay employed is an in-demand skill set.

Workers with in-demand skill sets are snapped up by another company if they are laid off, or they pivot with ease into a new industry. These are the perks of an in-demand skill set: these skills ensure a stable income. To stay in demand, you’ll want to continuously improve on this skill set which includes the following expertise.

Tip 1 Speaking Skills

The ability to capture an audience and establish credibility depends on your speaking skills. Clarity and confidence are important on the job for people to understand you and believe what you say. To develop your speaking skills, work on the following:

Time and record yourself speaking about one topic for one to three minutes. Listen to the recording. Does your speech have a beginning, middle, and end? Do you speak smoothly, or fill your pauses with ums and uhs?
Watch videos about public speaking and try to implement a tip into your speaking practice. For example, focus on the volume and pitch of your voice one day, and focus on your vocabulary use for an impromptu speech on another day.
Create a list of job interview questions, write out your answers in point form, and then practice your answers until you’re confident you can ace your next job interview.
Practice giving presentations at home to sound more confident when you present at work meetings.

Tip 2 Writing Skills

Writing skills are just as important as speaking skills. The difference is you have more time to think about what you want to say. As a result, there is more expectation that you’ll write with better grammar and organization. Spelling and punctuation mistakes suggest a lack of care and professionalism. To improve your writing skills, work on the following:

Copy a piece of writing that is in the style that you want to learn. By copying it as practice, your brain learns that writing style.
Practice writing each day, for a few minutes each day. Use editing apps to review and find suggestions for improving your writing.
Make a list of your common offenders, such as misspelled words or bad grammar, and check that your writing doesn’t have these mistakes.
Outline your ideas to organize your thoughts before writing your email or report.
Make a habit of completing writing tasks ahead of schedule so you have enough time to take a break. Then return to your task and re-read your writing with fresh eyes. You will have a better chance of catching your own mistakes.

Tip 3 Tech Skills

Tech skills are vital to survival in the modern world of work. Fortunately, it’s easy to find videos on YouTube, LinkedIn, and other applications and platforms to teach you the skills you need. If your co-worker or company IT department hasn’t answered your tech question, you can educate yourself on whatever technology you use. To improve your tech skills, try the following:

Download free versions of applications or software to learn how to use them if you’re looking for a job. After practicing how to use these applications, you can add them to your resume.
Create a portfolio of work using these applications or software. For example, if you’re looking for a graphic design job, create a brochure using Canva. Add these projects to your resume.
Challenge yourself to learn how to use technology on the job. Learn to host an online meeting for twenty participants. Learn how to present the statistics using Excel, even though you haven’t used Excel’s advanced functions before.
Volunteer to take on a project to practice using a type of technology. For example, take the lead on moving company tasks to a management tool such as Click Up.

Tip 4 Leadership Skills

Career advancement is difficult without leadership skills. Empathy and understanding the people you work with, and being clear and organized about when you want something done are both in-demand skills. Here are ways to improve your leadership skills:

Volunteer to take the lead for a project, even if it is a project for a team of one. Set your own project goals and deadlines. Set milestones for reporting updates to your supervisor and demonstrate that you can complete a project on time without supervision.
Step up to lead a team for a project for which you already have a lot of experience. If you already have the skills for a similar project, you already have the confidence. Now your next goal is to prove you can help your team complete that project together.
Take the initiative to anticipate what needs completion. Suggest ways to improve current policies.

Tip 5 Sales Skills

Sales skills are crucial. You want to sell an interviewer on hiring you. You want to sell your boss on giving you a raise. Sales involve much more than money exchanged for a product or service. Here are ways to improve your sales skills:

Read books and watch videos about sales tips and techniques. Understand the psychology behind why some sales techniques are effective.
Practice mock job interviews if you are looking for a job. Focus on how you speak, your tone of voice, and enunciation. Do you sound confident? Does your body language suggest confidence?
Do your research. What does your audience want? If you want to ask for a raise, research what skills are valued in your industry. Look into your company’s goals for the coming year. Then show how your skills can help the company achieve its goals and why you deserve your value.

Tip 6 Language Skills

Language skills are highly valued, whether you’re monolingual or you’re a polyglot. Learning a language is a way to connect with and better understand other cultures. If you have a strong command of a language, you can be a professional writer, speaker, or translator. Here are ways to improve your language skills:

Practice a language with a coworker during lunch. Learn new words and learn about a culture at the same time.
Take classes or lessons online, with a class, or with a tutor, until you can work as a writer, editor, or translator.
Practice as a volunteer translator or volunteer at work until you have more experience for critical situations, such as translating to a client at your company.

Key Takeaways

Many skills are transferable from one career or industry to another. In times of economic hardship, these skills will continue to find you steady work. Strong speaking, writing, leadership, and tech skills are always in high demand. Can you think of any other transferrable, high-demand skills? Comment below!

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Why Modifiers are Important: Humor and Horror

What if you want to make an innocent comment only to sound like a weirdo instead? Jumbling up the order of your words can create some awkward misunderstandings.

Misplaced modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that have been separated from the word it describes. These misplaced modifiers can change the meaning of what you intend to say.

Here are some examples of how to fix misplaced modifiers to add some humor and horror to your day. Just remember to check your own writing to make sure you’re not accidentally creating these types of mistakes!

Writing Tip 1: Identify what you’re describing

Where you place your words matters. Otherwise, you could be describing the wrong object. In the following example, ask yourself some critical questions. Who has a camera? Who is in the tree?

Move the description closer to the word the description is about, unless you actually saw a frog that owns a camera.

We saw a frog with a camera near the tree.

We used a camera to photograph a frog near the tree.

Writing Tip 2: Break your sentence into parts

If you break your sentence into smaller parts, you will have an easier time spotting any unintended meaning in your sentence. In the following sentence, you have three ideas: You noticed a dog. You were driving. You were listening to music.

The dog you observed didn’t have any special talents. It wasn’t driving anywhere. Make sure you move the description closer to what you’re describing to clarify any misunderstandings.

I noticed a dog driving down the street while listening to music.

I was driving down the street while listening to music when I noticed a dog.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Writing Tip 3: Rearrange the words

Clarify the meaning of your sentence in one or two easy steps. Just rearrange the order of the words.

Re-ordering your words can avoid awkward misunderstandings. After all, people don’t want to be put on dishes and offered as food.

They served cake to our family on fancy plates.

They served cake on fancy plates to our family.

Writing Tip 4: Flip the sentence around

You can rewrite your sentence by putting the last part of the sentence first. In this example, flipping your sentence around makes your meaning clearer. You also avoid animating some inanimate objects, and prevent food from walking around your house.

She smelled the soup opening the door to the dining room.

Opening the door to the dining room, she smelled the soup.

Writing Tip 5: Read your work out loud

It’s not easy to look at your own writing objectively, especially if you’re writing a report or email that needs completion right away. Your words sound clear to you, but could have a different meaning to someone else.

If you can, read your work out loud, or have an app read your work out loud. You may hear what your words sound like to someone else just by listening to where you pause, or where you emphasize your words.

Misplaced modifiers sound bizarre and funny when you describe the wrong word. Ask yourself if it makes sense to watch buildings grow out of mobile phones. It might be time to rewrite that sentence if the logic seems a bit off.

We watched a house getting built on my smartphone.

On my smartphone, we watched a house getting built.

Key Takeaways

The placement of your words matters. How you phrase your ideas can make the difference between clear writing and unintended confusion. Always take an extra moment to check your work.

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