Nathan Baugh

Consultant → writer. I study the best storytellers ever and share with you what I learn. Writing fiction and writing to 77K storytellers every Saturday. Join us 👇

Founder

In light of Sanderson’s Apple TV deal I’d like to remind you one of the best selling authors in the world has 17+ hours of free lectures on writing and storytelling on youtube:

-> Brandon Sanderson
-> Playlists
-> Writing Lectures (2025)

An insane amount of value.

I’ll share my notes on the class this weekend: https://lnkd.in/gXaqKe2u

Ghostwriter. Exploring the art and science of storytelling. Debut fantasy novel sometime ~soon.

Turned 30, hiked the Inca Trail, went to two great friends’ wedding in Lima, and finalized the cover of my debut novel. What a month.

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After my freshman year, I did freelance writing to the tune of $0.04 per word. I'm a horrendously slow writer -- I like to take my time with each sentence, it's a habit I've tried to break for years -- and the clients were the sketchiest sites you can imagine.

The experience taught me you can't make good money as a writer, that writing is a commodity paid for by the word. A dream killer.

I could not have been more wrong.

When we moved to Madrid, someone liked my tweets and asked how much I charged for writing. Without a clue, I told him $2k per month. I made up this number. It felt like a loonshot.

He said sure sounds good, and I worked for his agency for the next year. Eventually, I went out on my own, and his advice was basically charge a lot more.

So I did, and today ghostwriting makes up about 60% of my revenue -- the rest comes from newsletter ads and info product sales.

Are there ups and downs? Absolutely. But I'm more convinced than ever now's the best time in history to be a writer. There's demand for the work, and there's non-gate kept access to distribution and knowledge.

***

My friend Nicolas Cole taught me more about this world than just about anybody. His ship30 program changed my life, and his PGA is incredible for anybody thinking about ghostwriting as a business or side gig.

They're doing a free masterclass tomorrow on nailing your client's voice. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eKQ-E67v

It's my favorite part of ghostwriting because it's the most like fiction writing. Essentially, I create a character for each client and part of my editing process is, "Would this character actually write / say this?"

If yes, it's good to go. If not, then back to the chopping block.

A friend asked me what metric his company isn’t measuring about their linkedin activity but should be.

I could tell he expected me to pull out some obscure metric but instead I simply told him number of posts per month.

Everyone tracks impressions, followers, leads, etc etc

But those are all outputs. The only input is the post, of which volume and quality are the only things that matter.

Quality is an intuition thing, but volume is a number. 

More volume, almost always good.

Decided I’m taking my own advice. Gonna post here more often, even off the cuff like this.

Aiming for 5x per week.

Here’s a collection of the 10 best books I read in 2025 — probably the most eclectic mix you’ll see:

In no particular order.

1. The Inner Compass by Lawrence Yeo
2. The entire Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio
3. The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd
4. Mists of Avalon by Marion Bradley
5. You Can Just Do Things by Jay Yang
6. Persians by Lloyd Jones
7. Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
8. The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang
9. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
10. East of Eden by Steinbeck

Tried to read very little business books given I consume that content all day. What’d you read? What’d you enjoy?

The fact Randall Wallace is casually on linkedin teaching screenwriting and storytelling with examples from his incredible career is the most underappreciated wonder of this site.

This morning I got to read the novel Tommy Clark’s working on and I regret to inform you he’s as good a fiction writer as he is on the internet.

Alex Wiec 📚

Content Writer

Creator of Alex & Books | I share book recs and tips to become a better reader. | 750k+ followers

My name is Alex Wieckowski, but most people know me better as Alex & Books.

Over the past 8 years, I've built a social media following of 1+ million readers. To date my content has been seen by 100+ million people. 

• 480,000+ followers on Instagram
• 350,000+ followers on X/Twitter
• 125,000+ followers on Threads
• 110,000+ followers on TikTok
• 20,000+ followers on LinkedIn
• 20,000+ followers on YouTube

Here are 3 ways I can help you:

1) ALEX & BOOKS NEWSLETTER

I write a newsletter where I summarize the best books I've read and the most impactful lessons from them. It's read by Fortune 500 executives, VC investors, NYT bestselling authors, and countless more people.→ Join 50,000+ readers here (it's free): alexandbooks.beehiiv.com/subscribe 

2) THE ART OF READING [DIGITAL COURSE]

Access a proven system for building a lasting reading habit, finding time to read, taking notes in books, and becoming a productive reader. Join 700+ students in this self-paced course. → Check it out: alexandbooks.mykajabi.com/taor-new

3) SPEAKING + WORKSHOPS  

Want me to speak at your next conference or run a workshop where I'll teach your employees how to read more books and become better readers?→ Email: alexwiecblog@gmail.com

Content Creator

Content creator focused on non-fiction books. Grew the brand organically to 650k+ followers across multiple social media platforms.

Ryan Holiday is one of the most hardcore readers I've ever come across.

He reads 200+ books a year (without speed-reading or using audiobooks)!

Here are 26 reading rules from him:

——
PS: Want to read more books but don't know where to start?

Grab a list of my 100 favorite books (plus a new book summary every week) for free here: https://lnkd.in/eBFYc3xE 👈

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Author of Discipline is Destiny, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego is the Enemy & others.

Creator of Alex & Books | 1M+ followers on social media | Follow me for book recs and reading tips

David Jared

Join the Mile High Book Club on your next flight:

Read a book on your next flight instead of staring at your phone, laptop, or seat screen.

Who's in?

Alex Wieckowski

Happy book release week to 4 amazing authors/friends!

Here are their books:

1) "Unhinged Habits" by Jonathan Goodman

This book shares a new strategy for building habits. Instead of focusing on small improvements when developing a habit, Jonathan tells readers to focus on intensity (be unhinged) then maintain it with consistency.  

Link here: https://amzn.to/4qR7TrY 

2) "The Money Habit" by Mike Michalowicz

Mike has helped 1M+ businesses improve their finances with his bestselling book "Profit First." Now he's on a mission to help 1M+ people improve their personal finances. If you want to better manage your money, this book is for you.

Link here: https://amzn.to/3NSosVA

3) "The Way of Excellence" by Brad Stulberg

Brad's new book book explores how true excellence is about aligning your actions with your values. Drawing from science, philosophy, and practical insights, Brad presents a new framework for reclaiming our innate drive–not hustle culture–to grow, connect, and become our best selves.

Link here: https://amzn.to/4t9sFEO

4) "How Great Ideas Happen" by George Newman

Creativity isn’t magic, it’s method. In his new book, professor George Newman shares the cognitive science behind creativity and guides you on how to unlock your creative side.

Link here: https://amzn.to/3Zz8Mcr

Which of these books are you looking forward to checking out?

I met 150+ authors in 2025!

Here are just a few of the incredible authors I was fortunate to meet:

-Tim Ferriss
-Andrew Huberman
-Susan Cain
-Jim Kwik
-Vanessa Van Edwards
-Jay Papasan
-Yeonmi Park
-Donal Miller
-Tiffany Aliche
-Hal Elrod
-Mike Michalowicz
-Michael Bungay Stanier
-Gretchen Rubin
-Arthur Brooks
-Jim Murphy
-Jenny Wood
-Anne-Laure Le Cunff 
-Sahil Bloom
-James Clear
-Steven Pressfield

Have you read any books from the authors here? 💬

Alex & Authors 2025

This is not good...

-Fewer than 50% of people read even 1 book a year
-Only 38% of people read a novel or short story
-Reading for pleasure has fallen 3% every year for the last 20 years

(source: The Atlantic)

Question: Have you noticed your friends reading more or less in the past year?

Does anyone else still prefer reading physical books over ebooks or audiobooks?

This is Patrick Bet-David (Patrick Bet-David).

He's the creator of Valuetainment, sold his company for $300 million, and has read 1,000+ books.

Here are 13 tips from him on how to read more books:

1. Always go to bed with a book next to you. 

It should be the first thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before you go to sleep. The great thing about reading books in bed is they never leave you when you wake up.

2. Instead of taking a shower, take a bath. 

This allows you to pour yourself a glass of wine, relax, and read a book and enjoy yourself.

3. Every day, take a 20-minute break. 

I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I love doing this because no one ever interrupts me in the middle of the day saying I have an appointment. I get a chance to read for 20 minutes.

4. Always have books downloaded on your mobile device. This gives you the opportunity to have a book with you no matter where you are.

5. Always have a headset with you so you can listen to audiobooks. My recommendation is to listen to biographies on audiobooks and everything else on regular books.

6. Always read while exercising. I can't think of how many books I've finished just in the gym alone.

7. Turn off all the notifications on your phone. Each notification can distract you from reading your book.

8. Share what you've learned with friends.

The best way to retain the information you get from any book is to share it with somebody else immediately.

9. Don't listen to music with lyrics while reading.

There's nothing wrong with listening to Hans Zimmer, Mozart, or white noise while reading, but your brain will get confused if you're trying to read a book and listen to Jay-Z or Justin Bieber at the same time.

10. Read multiple books at the same time.

To prevent your brain from getting bored, I suggest reading three different types of books simultaneously: a biography, a novel, and a business book.

11. Take notes and highlight while reading.

I love seeing readers who carry around books with a lot of wear and tear because it tells me that person isn't just reading the book; they're studying it. They're taking notes, highlighting things, and marking passages. This allows you to revisit the book three, six, or twelve months later to reread the content and retain that information.

12. Join a book club.

One of the great things about being part of a book club is that it allows you to see what others read in the book that you might have missed. It also helps you become accountable to a group of people with whom you're reading.

13. Encourage others to read.

I believe our mind or brain is by far the most powerful computer in the world, and many people don't use it to its full potential. This is why I believe there's nothing like encouraging others to read. When we do, and they start realizing the possibilities of what they're capable of doing, that's when their eyes open up to a whole new life.

Are you addicted to your phone or social media?

Here are 4 books that will help you overcome doomscrolling, distractions, and cheap dopamine:

-"Hyperfocus" by Chris Bailey
-"Deep Work" by Cal Newport
-"Indistractionable" by Nir Eyal
-"Break Up With Your Phone" by Catherine Price

Have you read any of these books? 💬

For the past 12+ months, I've been working 3-8 hours a day on my book.

BUT I need your help...

Help picking the title, subtitle, cover, and more.

Want to give your input and get cool behind-the-scenes content?

Comment "TEAM" & I'll DM you more info!

The journey almost every reader goes through.

You enjoy reading books as a kid, then you're forced to read a ton of books you don't care about throughout school, and then one day you find a book that resparks your love for reading.

Can you relate?

(visual by my friend Janis Ozolins)

After reading 700+ books, I put together a list of the 100 most impactful books I’ve read:

✅ Short summary of each book
✅ 20 different genres to choose from
✅ 100% chance you'll find an amazing book

Comment "List" & I'll DM it to you! 💬

"Unhinged Habits" by Jonathan Goodman will revolutionize your relationship with work, money, and friendships.

This book pushes back against making changes through slow and incremental progress. Instead, it argues that you need to build an unhinged habit–a period of intensity.

Intensity is how you move forward in any area of life, consistency is how you maintain that progress. For example: once you're in shape, it's easier to stay in shape.

If you enjoyed "Atomic Habits", "Essentialism", or "Four Thousand Weeks", you'll enjoy this book.

Swipe to read a few of my favorite lessons from the book:

PS: You can grab a copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/4a32Ey9 👈

"Unhinged Habits"

Last week I organized a fun author brunch in NYC:

Here’s what I learned and who I met:

1) Meetings are an authors kryptonite:

Every author at lunch agreed that even if they have a meeting at 12pm or 2pm, they stress about the meeting so much that they can’t do deep work in the morning. As a result, most authors try to batch all of their meetings into one day. I feel the same way and batch all of my meeting for Fridays.

2) More authors are working with hybrid publishers:

Authors want to own their IP, have more creative control, and more equity in their work. New publishers like Infinite Books and Authors Equity give authors 70% of the royalties. These publishers are also experimenting with giving equity to editors, designers, and marketing teams so that they have skin in the game and are incentivized to keep promoting the book long after it’s been released.  

3) Every author wants a social media manager:

Authors want to spend their days reading, researching, and writing books. They don’t want to spend their time on creating tons of content and reposting it on 8 different social media platforms. If you have a favorite author and have some experience with writing/creating content and want a job, email that author with your experience and how you can help them. That’s how my friend Stanley ended up working for the legendary author Robert Greene.

Here’s who joined us:

- Maria Konnikova (“The Biggest Bluff”)
- Tobias Rose-Stockwell (“The Outrage Machine”)
- Jimmy Soni (“Founders” + Publisher at Infinite Books)
- Stanley Goldberg (Content manager for several big authors)
- Panio Gianopoulos (Next Big Idea Club cofounder & Author Insider host)

PS: I host author meetups 2x a month in NYC. If you want to join my journey and see what I learn, follow Alex Wieckowski 👈 

(stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow)

Shopify founder Tobias Lütke on why he reads so many books:

“If you don’t read books, you live a lifetime. If you read books, you live 1,000 lifetimes.”

Podcaster David Senra reads a quote of Tobi’s back to him:

“Books are the closest thing you’ll ever come to finding cheat codes for real life. You can access the entire learnings of someone else’s career in a few hours.”

Tobi comments:

“I really think we need to shout this point from a rooftop. The one weird trick seems to be: read books. It kind of doesn’t matter [what you read], just make a habit of reading books and ideally change genre every three books or so. That alone will give you a range that you can draw on for basically everything you will ever do.”

Video source: David Senra 
–––
PS: For more reading tips and book content, follow Alex Wieckowski 👈

Every week I summarize a book I loved in my newsletter.

Here were my 10 most popular book summaries of 2025:

(with a link to each book summary)

1) “The Wealth Ladder” by Nick Maggiulli: https://lnkd.in/e2RDpS6y

2) “The Let Them Theory” by Mel Robbins: https://lnkd.in/eJVfHbhG

3) “The 5 Types of Wealth” by Sahil Bloom: https://lnkd.in/eJm6KJX8

4) “How To Read A Book” by Mortimer Adler: https://lnkd.in/enmBpTMG 

5) “The Expectation Effect” by David Robson: https://lnkd.in/eEhV4EGT 

6) “Why We Remember” by Charan Ranganath: https://lnkd.in/eMAv_tz9 

7) “Tiny Experiments” by Anne-Laure Le Cunff: https://lnkd.in/evvNVGem 

8) “The Next Conversation” by Jefferson Fisher: https://lnkd.in/eSMxZUDz 

9) “The Art of Spending Money” by Morgan Housel: https://lnkd.in/ebmuAnwi 

10) “How to Break Up With Your Phone” by Catherine Price: https://lnkd.in/ekg96qRz

P.S: 50,000+ readers receive my newsletter every week. If you want to read more books in 2026, sign up for free here: https://lnkd.in/eBFYc3xE 👈

Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen on why you should read books: 

“There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses and invent new technology. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these ideas down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience. There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time.”
– – –
PS: If you're interested in book reviews, recommendations, or reading tips, follow Alex Wieckowski 👈

The Library by BookXcess recently opened:

- It's the largest bookstore in Southeast Asia (32,000 square ft)
- Contains more than 1 million books
- Open 24/7 and has a cafe

What more could you ask for?

The Library

The 1st author meetup of 2026 is in the books!

This dinner was organized by two incredible authors:

Alisa Cohn ("From Start-Up to Grown-Up") & Melody Wilding, LMSW ("Managing Up").

We we're joined by:

- Mike Michalowicz ("Profit First")
- Aaron Price (CEO, TechUnited)
- Claude Silver ("Be Yourself at Work")
- Cali Williams Yost (CEO, Flex+Strategy Group)
- Stella Grizont ("The Work Happiness Method")
- Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche ("Get Good with Money")

We spent the evening talking about the books we've written, new topics we're obsessed with, how AI will impact authors, and much more.

Being an author can be a lonely journey so it's refreshing and energizing to connect and learn from other writers.

If you live in or know any authors in the tri-state area (New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut) please comment below! 💬

Mortimer Adler wrote the # 1 bestselling book about books: "How to Read a Book."

In 1941, he wrote an article titled "How to Mark a Book" about WHY people should write in their books, WHEN they should take notes, and HOW to do so.

Here are my highlights from it:
–––
Do you write in your books? 💬 

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

How to Mark a Book

According the "The Times", men don't read books any more.

Here are the stats:

• 44% of men did not read a single book last year 
• 33% of men read 3 books last year (for women it was 42%)
• 14% of men read 10 books last year (for women it was 25%)

Why are men falling behind?

The Times writes that:

"Part of this trend is driven by the growing number of celebrity book clubs targeted at female readers (Reese Witherspoon, Dua Lipa, Oprah, etc)...But there isn’t really an equivalent for men and especially young men.”

Perhaps there is a gap in the market for a celebrity to start a book club for young men. 

By the way, on the off chance that MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is reading this, here are some video ideas for you:

- "I Built 100 Free Libraries Around The World"
- "Last Person To Stop Reading Wins A Library"
- "I Bought 100,000 Books And Gave Them Away"

What are your thoughts on why men don't read as much anymore?

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The Battle

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Posts

Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nathan Baugh's LinkedIn Performance

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