The Art and Business of Online Writing

This book presents a structured framework for writing online — not from theory, but from the author’s direct experience building an audience and publishing at scale. It’s not about inspiration. It’s about attention as currency — and how to earn it.
Nicolas Cole writes like someone who’s tested every tactic he shares. It covers the mechanics of capturing attention, positioning ideas, and building long-term leverage through writing.

I highlighted so much of this ebook that Kindle stopped me with an error — apparently, I’d exceeded Amazon’s export limit. I didn’t even know such a restriction existed until now. Turns out, there's a DRM cap on how much you can copy from a book. Hitting that ceiling was unexpected — and telling. the content density here is unusually high.

What I respect most is that he published his best ideas. You can tell these are not leftover thoughts or filler chapters — they’re distilled from real practice. You’re learning from someone who’s played the game at a high level, not theorizing from the sidelines.

It also reframed writing for me. Before this book, I didn’t consider writing central to what I do. After it, I see it as a necessary skill for impact. That shift alone made it worth reading.

That said, I didn’t agree with everything. His strategies around click-driven headlines, aggressive republishing, and paywalling fiction may work algorithmically — but ethically, they raised questions for me. The idea of withholding access from younger or less privileged readers, even unintentionally, felt like a blind spot. His vision of the publishing future is business-first — effective, but not inclusive.

Still, this book is essential reading if you want to understand the mechanics of writing online — especially if you care about reach, growth, and turning ideas into leverage. It’s not a perfect book, but it’s highly useful — especially if you think writing is optional. After reading it, you may reconsider.