Alex Wiec 📚

Content Writer

Simon & Schuster

Working on my first book with Simon & Schuster. Stay tuned!

Author

Alex & Books

Content creator focused on non-fiction books. Grew the brand organically to 1,000,000+ followers across multiple social media platforms.

Find @alexandbooks_ on Instagram, Twitter, and all other social platforms.

Content Creator

Podcast Notes

Freelance 

-Worked as a brand ambassador and represented global brands at events (clients: Samsung, Adidas, American Express, and others).
-Worked as a production assistant for Eventage, CRONY Creative, McKinney, and several other event marketing agencies. 
-Assisted with event set-up, organization of materials, and breakdown of event equipment.
-Cultivated positive relationships with key stakeholders and staff members, and engaged customers to increase brand awareness.

Brand Ambassador/Production Assistant

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

-Pitched and covered local events, politics and businesses in North Brooklyn.
-Conducted interviews with business owners, professional athletes, and government officials.
-Fulfilled multifaceted duties that included researching, fact-checking, proofreading and headline writing.

Freelance Reporter

The Ticker

Contributing Writer

Penguin Random House

• Researched competitive book publishing companies’ social media presence at events using Brandwatch and presented results to VP of the department.
• Compiled monthly reports of PRH’s verticals using Adobe Analytics for the Partnerships team.
• Supported the creation of PRH’s loyalty program by researching vendors and existing loyalty programs.

Apps, Partnerships & Events Intern

• Supported the creation of new personalization programs by participating in discussions, performing initial research and planning process steps.
• Responsible for web analytics reporting, analysis, and building new dashboards.
• Built thorough and well-designed PowerPoint presentations to educate audiences on upcoming programs.
• Wrote and posted well-written and thoughtful blog posts to regularly update personalization stakeholders and the larger SAP Digital community.

Personalization Intern

Citrin Cooperman

• Assisted partners with preparing for client meetings by providing necessary paperwork and research.
• Created and assembled marketing materials for company events and conferences. 
• Assisted in maintaining overall cleanliness of databases on a daily basis.

Marketing Intern

Discovery Communications

•	Responded to AE/Sales Planner requests for client specific data analysis and strategic   positioning ideas.
•	Developed sales positioning one-sheets and presentations to sales staff using Nielsen data.
•	Tracked network and program performance in relation to audience estimates.
•	Attended executive speaker series and company network events.

Ad Sales Research Intern

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 people who enjoy reading books and my content has been seen by over 100+ million people.
 
• 500,000+ followers on Instagram
• 340,000+ followers on Twitter
• 110,000+ followers on TikTok
• 110,000+ followers on Threads
• 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 650+ 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 focused on non-fiction books. Grew the brand organically to 650k+ followers across multiple social media platforms.

October is National Book Month.

During this time people are encouraged to read a book and support authors, so let's do exactly that:

If you're an author, share a link to your book in the comments and include a 1-sentence pitch for it. 💬 

Then if any books in the comments catch your eye, order a copy and let that author know that you're supporting them.

Let's support authors and each other!

PS: For more book content like this, follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈

Alex Wieckowski 📚

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

👋 Hi there, I’m Alex Wieckowski (but most people know me as Alex & Books).

I got a bunch of new connections here recently so wanted to reintroduce myself.

I believe the world would be a better place if more people read books, so that's my mission.

Since 2017 I'm been sharing book reviews, recommendations, and reading tips on social media.

Fast-forward to today, I've built an audience of 1,000,000+ readers:

-Instagram: 490,000+ followers
-Twitter/X: 340,000+ followers
-Threads: 120,000+ followers
-TikTok: 110,000+ followers
-LinkedIn: 20,000+ followers
-YouTube: 20,000+ followers

(you can find me by searching for Alex & Books on any platform)

After reading hundreds and hundreds of books, I'm now finally working on my first book with the wonderful publisher Simon & Schuster.

I also host author meetups with my wonderful cohost Jonathan Goodman.

The author meetups are a chance for authors to connect, network, and learn from one another (authors tend to be brilliant but introverted, so this solves that haha).

To date, we've hosted 25+ meetups in multiple cities and met 100+ amazing authors including bestselling authors like:

-James Clear
-Yeonmi Park
-Arthur Brooks
-Gretchen Rubin
-Mike Michalowicz

and many more.

When I’m not reading or writing, you’ll find me: 

- In nature
- At the gym
- On the basketball court

Going forward, I'll be sharing:

-My behind-the-scenes of writing my first book
-Social media and book marketing tips for authors
-Book summaries and tips on how to read more books

If that sounds interesting to you, follow along here: Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈 

PS: If you're looking for an amazing book to read...

Join my newsletter and I'll send you a list of my 100 favorite books for free here: https://lnkd.in/eBFYc3xE

A data scientist analyzed book reviews to find the most life-changing books–statistically.

Here are the most "life-changing" books by number of reviews:

He plotted the books by total number of reviews on the x-axis and the % of people who call them life-changing on the y-axis.

A few of the outliers included:

-"Autobiography of a Yogi"
-"Nonviolent Communication"
-"Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" 

And others.

One of the biggest outliers was "Remembering Wholeness" by Carol Tuttle. The book only had 79 reviews, but 19% of them called the book life-changing.

If you want to dive deeper into this data, check out Joe Hovde's original post about this here: https://lnkd.in/eM4wzQZB 
–
PS: Looking for more life-changing books?

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

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

Published in 1876 but truer today than ever before.

From "The Royal Path of Life" by T. L. Haines.

10 Most Mentioned Books on The Huberman Lab Podcast:

1. "Why We Sleep" by Matt Walker
2. "Dopamine Nation" by Anna Lembke
3. "Breath" by James Nestor
4. "Altered Traits" by Richard J. Davidson
5. "The 4-Hour Chef" by Tim Ferriss
6. "Jaws" by Paul Erlich & Sandra Kahn
7. "Outlive" by Peter Attia 
8. "Mastery" by Robert Greene
9. "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin
10. "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker

Data is from Snipd, the AI-powered podcast app for the curious.

Snipd lets you take notes by tapping your headphones, summarize or chat with episodes, and view all the mentioned books.

PS: You can try Snipd for FREE here: https://lnkd.in/e8_bvUsp 👈

Last weekend I was out for my morning walk when the craziest thing happened...

I was listening to one of my favorite writing podcasts, "Don't Write That Book" when all of the sudden the cohosts Anjanette “AJ” Harper and Mike Michalowicz mentioned MY NAME.

I stopped walking and looked down at my phone to double check I wasn't daydreaming.  

The screen read "Alex Wieckowski" (equally surprising was that AI spelled my last name correctly).

It was a surreal moment since I had discovered AJ and Mike's wonderful podcast earlier this year and literally binged every episode.

To go from being a hardcore fan of the show to being mentioned on it just a few months later was completely mind-blowing.

Not only that, I've been fortunate to hang out with Mike and AJ in-person–they're both incredibly smart and kind human beings.

I hope this doesn't come across as a humble brag, but rather the message is that you can go from being a Fan to being a Friend rather quickly. 

If you genuinely like someone’s work...

-Share it
-Tell them
-Engage with it

That’s exactly what I did.

I read AJ's book and joined her writing community (her book is fantastic and her community is great for accountability).

And I invited Mike to join my author dinner.

So if you want to meet someone you respect or advice, it's possible.

Share their work. Engage with their community. Send them a kind email. 

The ripple effects might just surprise you.

You can listen to the episode and mention here (around 23 minutes): https://lnkd.in/esD3EdhG 
 
PS: For more book content like this, follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈

Podcast Mention

If you want to think outside the box, you need to get OUTSIDE the box.

Steve Jobs, Phil Knight, and Albert Einstein all had their biggest breakthrough ideas while taking a walk outside, not while stuck inside.

In her new book "The Wild Advantage", Jessica DeAngelo shares how getting yourself or your employees outside can actually be really good for business. 

One Stanford study found that walking outdoors can boost creative thinking by up to 60%.

A key part to boosting creativity is to disconnect from technology–especially our phones.

We check our phones 344 times PER DAY. 

And it takes us on average 25 minutes to refocus our attention. If you do the math, we're constantly distracted and never have time to think deeply.

That's why Jessica recommends we all take 30 minute technology-free walks every day.

When Ron Schneidermann was the CEO of AllTrails, he encouraged all employees to go for a hike on the first Friday of every month.

The results?

Employees came back to work energized with new ideas, more connected with their colleagues, and the company grew 2x three years in a row.

But it's not just AllTrails, more and more businesses are starting to get behind Jessica's movement–even Fortune 500 brands.

Today, Jessica helps executives trade burnout for breakthrough ideas by taking them on guided hikes. She's worked with leaders from Amazon, Nike, Uber, and several other big companies. 

Regardless of whether you're a 1-person company or a giant business, we can all benefit and boost our creativity by spending time in nature.

If you're interested in learning more, you can get a copy of Jessica's book here:  https://lnkd.in/efvDADm4 👈

The Wild Advantage

Another fantastic author meetup!

But this time there's a twist...

I didn't organize this meetup, the wonderful Dorie Clark did!

I thought I started a trend when I began hosting author meetups earlier this year, but then I met Dorie over the summer and learned she started hosting meetups YEARS ago when she first moved to NYC.

And before her Gretchen Rubin did something similar.

There's a common pattern here:

There are a ton of interesting people in the world but they tend to be introverted and stay home. 

But if you give them a reason to leave their home (like meeting other interesting people) magic happens.

All it takes is for one person to take on the task of inviting, organizing, and facilitating the dinner.

It's a bit of work, but you'll be rewarded with delightful conversations and new friendships.

It's extremely rewarding to plan of one these dinners but also a ton of fun to be invited to one. That's why I think more people should put one together.

So whether you're trying to network with other authors, business owners, or just want to make new friends, I highly recommend organizing a dinner.

Yesterday's all-star group:

Amy Radin - Keynote speaker, author, lecturer at Columbia, fmr top exec at Citi & ETrade and more, C-suite executive expert

B. Jeffrey Madoff - Founder & CEO of Madoff Productions, keynote speaker, lead producer, playwright, adjunct professor at The New School. Just off the London production of the musical he wrote!  

Jen Bender - Associate Artistic Director at Paper Mill Playhouse, adjunct professor at NYU's Steinhardt School, former resident director of multiple shows

Kate O'Neill - Keynote speaker, author, host of The Tech Humanist Show, leading voice on AI ethics and responsible tech

Meredith Lynsey Schade - Tony Award-winning Producer, Founder of Rebel Theatricals and Rebel Consulting Group, Co-Director of The Vicious Circle

David Moldawer - Literary agent for nonfiction authors at Writers House, Book Collaborator at Bookitect, ghostwriter, book proposal specialist

Scott Barry Kaufman - Cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist, author, and Professor at Columbia University
–––
PS: For more content like this, follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈

How to read 100 books a year by Darius Foroux:

1. BUY IN BULK

If you want to read more, you have to buy more books.

Having an inventory of books keeps up the momentum. You also never have an excuse not to read.

2. A(LWAYS) B(E) R(EADING)

Find a way to read around your schedule and your life situation.

Always Be Reading means that you:

-Read on the train
-Read while you’re eating
-Read at the doctor’s office
-Read at work

Most importantly–Read while everyone is wasting their time watching the news or checking Facebook for the 113th time that day.

3. READ RELEVANT BOOKS ONLY

Don’t waste your time reading about subjects you have zero interest in.

Pick out the books that are related to your profession or hobby.

4. READ MULTIPLE BOOKS SIMULTANEOUSLY

There are no rules to reading so you can do whatever you want.

If you’re reading something that’s complicated, you might want to read something that’s easier for the evenings.

5. RETAIN THE KNOWLEDGE

Read as much as you possibly can – but never forget to apply what you’ve learned.

You put in many hours to read books, make sure you get something out of it.

–
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 👈

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

Earlier this month Jonathan Goodman and I flew to Austin, Texas to host a few author meetups. 

Here's who we met and what we learned:

1. If you want to get a big publishing deal, the #1 thing publishers care about is email subscribers, not social media followers. With email you have a direct line of communication with your audience. With social media, you have to rely on the algorithm to reach your people. 

2. More and more authors (even big name ones) are moving toward hybrid publishing–you get the quality of a traditional publisher but the artistic freedom and higher royalties of self-publishing.

3. If you want to become a full-time author, you need to have a business, NOT a book, that supports you. You won't make a living from earning a $2 royalty from each book.

4. Think twice about making speaking your main source of revenue. Making $10k-$25k for a 1 hour talk seems glamorous, but you have to factor in the week long anxiety leading up to the event, the constant travel, time away from family, and more.

5. Speaking is an entirely different game from writing books. You have to network with event coordinators, work with a speaking coach, hire a speech ghostwriter, etc. Don't think you'll write a book and start charging $25k from the start. You'll likely need to do free or very low-cost speeches first and work your way up for years. 

6. Non-fiction authors are mostly middle-class. You don't need to sell a ton of books to make good money if you have a business around your book. But for fiction authors, you're either a starving artist or making a ton.

7. Be careful of studying unicorn authors. Don't study the author who wrote one book that sold millions of copies. They likely got lucky and captured lightning in a bottle. Instead, study the authors who have written several books that have done well. They likely have a formula or framework for their success that you can reverse engineer.

Thank you for joining us:

-Hal Elrod
-Chandler Bolt
-Ryan Deiss
-Ryan Moran
-Nathan Baugh
-Sam Horn
-Corey Wilks, Psy.D.

PS: I'll share part 2 tomorrow, for more follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈 

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

Reply “LIST” and I'll send you a list of my 100 favorite books.

(Important: Please send me a connection request after commenting so that I can message you the link.)

I guarantee you'll find at least a dozen life-changing books from my list.

Today is National Author's Day.

A day to honor authors and they work they've created, so let's do exactly that:

Comment below who your favorite author is and why. 💬 

(I'll share my comment below as well)

PS: For more book content, follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈

Earlier this month Jonathan Goodman and I flew to Austin, Texas to host some author meetups. 

Here's who we met and what we learned:

1. AI is here, and if you aren't using it you're racing with a horse instead of a car. Don't use it to write your book, but rather use it for researching and editing your book. Think of it as your personal intern who also has multiple PhDs. Put them to work.

2. Just how high-level athletes have multiple trainers, high-level authors have multiple editors. Many big name authors hire one, sometimes even two editors to work on their book. This is in addition to the editor from the traditional publisher. That's because editors at trad publishers are usually working on multiple books so they can't give you 100% of their focus. 

3. WHO you write your book for can have a massive difference on your revenue. If you write a book about starting a business, you'll attract a younger audience that doesn't have much income. But if you write a book about buying a business, you'll attract a more mature audience with a higher-level of income. 

4. The title of your book is one of the most important factors in writing a successful book. Even a slight tweak in the tittle such as adding one word, will give readers a different idea of the book. Test out your title and get feedback from friends, authors, and beta-readers.

5. Every author should have a CMO (Chief Media Officer). Someone who knows how to take an author's book and turn it into social media posts. Social media is now how most authors get their speaking gigs, coaching clients, and mastermind guests. A single social media post can land you a $10k speaking gig. (If you want to learn more about this DM me at Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈)

Thank you for joining us:

-Nat Eliason
-Blake Atwood
-Clay Hebert
-Billy Murphy 
-Chris Piper

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

2 Helpful reading tips from the $100M man Alex Hormozi:

1) Listen to the audiobook and read the physical book or ebook at the same time to read faster, stay focused, and remember more of what you read.

2) While reading, don’t stop in the middle of a chapter. Make it a rule that you have to finish the chapter before putting the book down.

Have you tried any of these tips?
–––
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 👈

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

Everyone's attention span is getting shorter–even readers.

Here's how publishers are reacting:

The average number of pages in a bestselling book has dropped by about 12%.

And the average words per sentence in popular books has dropped by about 30%.

What are your thoughts on this trend?
–
PS: For more book content follow Alex Wieckowski 📚 👈

Audible recently released its list of the 25 best audiobooks of the 21st century.

Here are their 25 best books of the past 25 years:

(non-fiction edition)

1) "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins: https://amzn.to/3X9wnz7

2) "The Only Plane in the Sky": https://amzn.to/4nBsb6d

3) "Talking to Strangers" by Malcolm Gladwell: https://amzn.to/4nrgcYZ

4) "In The Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado: https://amzn.to/4oK9BJV

5) "Empire of Pain" by Patrick Radden Keefe: https://amzn.to/3WvLbbi

6) "The 5 Second Rule" by Mel Robbins: https://amzn.to/3Ld9B6V

7) "Educated" by Tara Westover: https://amzn.to/4ojDKQL

8) "Atomic Habits" by James Clear: https://amzn.to/4hA5DS3

9) "Heavy" by Kiese Laymon: https://amzn.to/432rP1c

10) "Becoming" by Michelle Obama: https://amzn.to/47gHb4v

11) "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah: https://amzn.to/3Ldej4I

12) "Between The World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates: https://amzn.to/48QvkeN

13) "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari : https://amzn.to/43I2ERy

14) "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert: https://amzn.to/47yp6hq

15) "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer: https://amzn.to/49p7NBO

16) "The Power of Vulnerability" by Brené Brown: https://amzn.to/48ZTpzX

17) "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson: https://amzn.to/4nvy3Oj

18) "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot: https://amzn.to/3WsSh0f

19) "Just Kids" by Patti Smith: https://amzn.to/4oP6ErU

20) "The Hemingses of Monticello" by Annette Gordon-Reed: https://amzn.to/3X3Xdc0

21) "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris: https://amzn.to/4qSdbE3

22) "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain: https://amzn.to/4qB5p0U

23) "The Devil In The White City" by Erik Larson: https://amzn.to/43EezQj

24) "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford: https://amzn.to/4ojmBGO 

25) "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan: https://amzn.to/4oIAjmn

PS: If you want to try audiobooks, you can use my link to try Audible for FREE for 30 days here: https://amzn.to/4og3OMt 👈

10 Most Mentioned Books on The Diary of A CEO podcast by Steven Bartlett:

1. Lost Connections by Johann Hari 

2. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

3. The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

4. Indistractable by Nir Eyal

5. Start With Why by Simon Sinek
 
6. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

7. Mindset by Carol Dweck

8. Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat

9. Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat 

10. Grit by Angela Duckworth

Data is from Snipd, the AI-powered podcast app for the curious.

Snipd lets you take notes by tapping your headphones, summarize or chat with episodes, and view all the mentioned books.

PS: You can try Snipd for FREE here: https://lnkd.in/e8_bvUsp 👈

Parents if you need motivation to spend more time reading books, here it is:

Research shows that children are 40% more likely to enjoy reading if their parents or carers do.

 76% of children with parents and carers who themselves like reading enjoy reading, compared with 54% of children whose parents and carers do not.

Additionally, if parents or carers enjoy reading, children are 25% more likely to be read to every day–and 30% more likely to be regularly encouraged to read.

The pattern here is simple: When parents enjoy reading → Children enjoy reading.

As every parent knows, kids don’t do what you tell them, they do what you show them. If your kids constantly see you on your phone, they’ll mimic your behavior. But if they constantly see you reading a book, they’ll do the same.

And when the whole family reading together everyone benefits.

This study involved over 2,000 parents and was conducted by the UK’s largest reading charity, BookTrust.

Do you read to or with your kids? 💬 
–
For more content like this, follow Alex Wieckowski 📚  

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 👈

♻️ Repost if you found this helpful.

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