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Needs

Here’s some stuff I could use help with. No pressure. (See also Offers.)

Book reviews on amazon dot com

Getting more reviews for my first book, Your Website Sucks is a top priority for me, as I seek to find out if there’s any chance of making nontrivial income from it. If you feel so moved to buy a copy and leave an honest review, I’ll be forever grateful.

Your stories about finding clients

Specifically, clients you found by simply sending an email (or message), getting an intro from someone you know.

These stories will help me write and market a book on the topic, and (with your permission) I’ll share them as part of the supplemental resources for the book.

Feedback on a short book about feelings

You can leave it here:

https://helpthisbook.com/briandavidhall/how-to-feel-your-feels

… or just get in touch.

Suggestions for artists, actors, directors, writers, and scientists to include in my book about criticism

You can get a feel for the tone of the book here:

https://onestar.world/

I’m looking to add about 20 more people. The loose criteria are:

• Self-evidently famous or successful in their field
• Ideally, not a dead white man (I’ve already written about lots of those)
• Subject to harsh criticism or setbacks during their career (Optional! I’m happy to do the research)

Feedback on a short book about finding clients as a freelancer

You can leave it here:

https://helpthisbook.com/briandavidhall/your-first-three-clients

… or just get in touch.

Suggestions for podcasts I should appear on (or intros to hosts!)

I’m looking to promote four different books. So if you listen to, or just somehow know about a podcast on one of these topics:

• Criticism & creativity
• Freelancing/consulting
• Men and their (often repressed) emotions
• Website UX

… please please get in touch. Or just leave an anonymous suggestion.

Suggestions for newsletters and other publications I should write for

Same topics as above!

What do you read that you think might make a good home for an original, heartfelt article on any of these subjects? Or do you happen to be a writer/publisher who’s open to a guest post or collaboration? Please do reach out.

Advice on reaching nonfiction authors, and aspiring nonfiction authors

We haven’t done a lot of marketing at Useful Books, but I’m not opposed to the idea. If there’s a way I can show up and be helpful—or put some of our already-helpful stuff—in front of people who are writing a nonfiction book—or thinking about writing one … fabulous. I’ll do it. How though? Get in touch and let me know.

Needs that have been met :)

Security advice

Update: A kind soul reached out and let me talk out my goals, offered some suggestions and reading recommendations, and after two brief exchanges I settled on a compromise that lets me stop paying for GSuite, do almost everything locally, and strategically outsource the two functions (email and web hosting) that would involve the most effort and risk. Thanks AA!

I’m slowly but surely migrating off Google Suite, and that means handling more of my own data. At some point I’ll migrate my GitHub Pages-hosted websites to a VPS. How do I go about this without exposing my data to clever haxxorz?

If you know about this stuff and are patient enough to answer some dumb questions, I’m sure it’d be of great use to me.

Alpha / beta readers for my book about criticism (or the next one)

Update: I’ve got plenty of folks on the list! Now I just need to revise my first draft.

There’s no telling exactly what phase the book will be in as you read this, but I’ve almost always got something in need of feedback. Just get in touch and let me know you’re available to help.

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This page was inspired by attending an Offers and Needs Market. If you think that sounds interesting, you should try one!