My next book

When I finish a book, I promptly start to write a new one. I finished my first novel The Unelected President last August. I needed to do some extra work when it first arrived, shipping back orders, sending our review copies, and so on.

I also needed to revise my book How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own How-To Book which sold out. Because I am now a novelist, the new title of that book will be How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own Book.

But I fell behind on all that because my brother-in-law died on October 11th of prostate cancer and my sister-in-law died on January 4th of melanoma cancer.

He lived in the Boston area and had a winter home in Naples, FL. She lived in Fort Myers, FL. My wife and I and our three sons have traveled back to those areas again and again to do the massive amount of detective and clean up and asset sales.

My wife is the executrix and sole heir of both estates. There is paperwork, tax returns, assets to locate and sell, many belongings to be thrown or given away, cats to relocate, permissions to get from courts, and a million other little details like contacting the unclaimed assets departments of all the states the deceased had contact with.

Tomorrow, the last of my brother-in-law’s three real estate parcels, closes. My sister-in-law’s house was sold yesterday for future closing. So we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Accordingly, I have started work on a new book. It will be a substantial expansion and reorganization of my list of intellectually honest and intellectually-dishonest debate tactics.

http://www.johntreed.com/…/60887299-intellectually-honest-a…

I have been astonished at the response to that article. Google analytics said it was one of my most visited web pages and I have about 1,000 web articles.

Readers probably think that is not a big enough topic for a book. The book will be broader and its focus will be how to see through the fallacious arguments in the media including social media. Here are a very tentative title and table of contents:

How to spot dishonest arguments and make sure your own thinking is straight

1 Overview

2 Intellectually-honest debate tactics

3 Intellectually-dishonest debate tactics

4 Objections under the Federal Rules of Evidence

5 Behavioral economics biases

6 The scientific method

7 Journalist codes of ethics

8 Parliamentary rules of procedure

9 Debate group rules

10 U.S. Senate debate rules

11 U.S. House of Representatives debate rules

12 Psychobabble

13 Heckling and the heckler’s veto

14 What subjects merit how much print space or air time?

15 The Reed Dishonesty Ratio

16 The Reed News-to-Non-News Ratio

The title will be key. I would appreciate reader suggestions. If I use one, I will give the first one who suggested it a copy of the book and an acknowledgement in it. (Do not send me my own title idea like a couple of jerks once did.)

The book, as opposed to the web article, is about all the BS coming out of the media and the trolls on line. It is about listening and thinking critically in 2017 not just some dusty old rules of order. The book is about the search for truth and seeing through those who argue fallaciously in pursuit of political or ego victory rather than learning what’s true and good.

Please send the title ideas to johnreed@johntreed.com.