Nicolas Cole 🚢👻

Arguably the greatest “growth hack” on the Internet.

I can write a 60,000-word book in 30 days.

The secret?

Math (and a simple 3-step process).

First, the numbers.

Here's how to break down your 60,000-word book:

• 10 chapters at 5,000 words each
• Each chapter has 5 to 7 sub-questions
• These sections are then only 700 to 1,000 words long

Each section is the length of a blog post or a newsletter.

So your book is a series of shorter posts bolted together.

This should help take some pressure off writing a “60,000-word book.“

Instead, take it in chunks.

Then add in an introduction and conclusion, and you can easily hit 60,000 words.

Second, the process.

(This works even if you've never written a book before.)

Here are 3 steps to write a 5,000-word chapter in 90 minutes:

Before you start writing, you need to have two items in place:

1. Your title
2. Your outline

If you don't have these, you don't know what you're writing about.

Step 1: Prep the Chapter on the page

1. Write out the overarching question for the chapter
2. List out the sub-questions/topics for the question

With the chapter prepped, writing becomes a fill-in-the-blanks exercise (and far less intimidating).

Step 2: Expand each sub-question/topic

For each of these, ask yourself:

“What does the reader need to understand about the sub-question and overarching chapter question?“

The best way to think about this?

Use the 10 magical ways of expansion.

Any piece of writing can be expanded in 10 ways:

• Tips
• Stats
• Steps
• Lessons
• Benefits
• Reasons
• Mistakes
• Examples
• Questions
• Personal Stories

Mix and match these to answer the sub-questions and overarching question of the chapter for the reader.

Step 3: Make a round of edits

Don't get bogged down in this.

Some editing pointers:

• Look out for repetition
• Edit for flow and readability
• Do a final read-through out loud to pick up any clunky parts

That's it—you just wrote a 5,000-word chapter in 90 minutes.

That's it!

📌 My first took me 4 years to write (before I learned this framework).

Since then, I've written 10+ books.

And I earned a lucrative living while doing it.

How?

By ghostwriting.

It's how I got paid to write, learn, and network with industry leaders.

Want to land high-paying writing clients?

Get started here: https://lnkd.in/e_8kiUuJ

Every writer should staple this adjectives matrix to their desk:

Over the past 5 years, I have ghostwritten more than 4,000 articles for startup founders, C-level executives, Silicon Valley investors, and more.

Want to know a secret?

I use the same 5 templates every time.

Template 1: The mistakes & the lessons

• Decision
• Outcome
• Mistake
• Lesson

Template 2: The frameworks

• Name the problem
• Pinpoint actionable steps
• Celebrate outcome

Template 3: The future—here's why

• Claim where your industry is headed
• Explain why
• Cite 2-3 studies/stats for credibility

Template 4: Category POV

• Share what's wrong with the old category
• Name & Claim new category
• Describe the outcome after moving from old to new

Template 5: Myths

• Say what most people think, but get wrong
• Say what does the world NEEDS to know (the truth)
• Explain what this knowledge unlocks

I have been ghostwriting for business founders, executives, and investors for years.

And I've accumulated tens of millions of views doing so (under other people's names).

Chances are, you've read something I've written online—you just didn't know it.

These are my secret frameworks.

I gave Claude a Gary Halbert sales letter to create a legendary AI Copywriting Coach.

Why?

Because 90% of writers study legendary copywriting but never make $1 from their writing.

They spend all their time:

• Reading copywriting books
• Watching YouTube videos about copy
• Building a swipe file full of other writers’ sales letters

All of this is just productive procrastination.

At some point, you need to STOP studying and START practicing.

So, I built a system that helps you practice copywriting.

Here's how I set this up from scratch:

I trained Claude how to write great copy using one of the most powerful sales letters of all time:

Gary Halbert’s “The Amazing Money-Making Secret Of A Desperate Nerd From Ohio.”

This direct-mail sales letter was sent out in 1990 and generated over 7 million (!!!) responses.

So, I turned it into a Claude Skill that has Gary Halbert as your personal Copywriting Coach.

Use it to:

• Practice writing copy
• Master this lucrative skill FAST
• Get paid (well) to write for clients

Basically, it’s like downloading 30 years of copywriting expertise into your workflow.

Here’s how this Claude Skill works:

Let’s say I’m writing a sales email for a new product.

Instead of spending 30-60 minutes juggling:

• Editing
• Compiling my thoughts
• Switching away from other work

I can just run my Halbert Skill.

In seconds, I get a table of:

• What needs upgrading
• Why it needs upgrading
• And how to fix each line

Then I can ask for a full rewrite, a section rewrite, or just rewritten versions of the flagged lines.

And because this has already saved me so much time (and made everyone on my entire team better copywriters)…

I’m going to share this Claude Skill for free.

Inside, you’ll get:

• A skill trained on 17 rules pulled from Gary Halbert's direct-response sales letter

• Audits tailored to the format you're writing—sales pages, landing pages, sales emails, and nurture emails

• A shortcut from "this copy feels off but I can't tell why" to "here's exactly what's broken and how to fix it"

Want access?

Click here to grab a FREE copy of my Gary Halbert Copywriting Coach Claude Skill (no opt-in required): https://lnkd.in/e2S5U7dW

3 dead-simple steps to build a Claude Skill (so you can automate boring, tedious tasks):

But first, a quick warning.

The biggest temptation when you’re building with AI is to let AI take the wheel.

Claude says, “Here’s what I’d recommend...”

And you go, “Sure, sounds good.”

Then before you know it, Claude is making all the strategic decisions and you’re just nodding along.

Which is how you end up with mediocre skills and prompts.

So when AI is like, “Hey, I could handle this for you.”

I go, "No, no, no. I don’t want you to take the wheel."

I have the wheel.

Now, here's how to create your first Claude Skill in the next 5 minutes:

—
📌 You can use Claude to build workflows that marketing agencies charge $5,000-$15,000 for.

And on Monday, May 18th, we'll show you how.

In just 2 weeks, we'll help you:

• Build
• Automate
• And scale

Your marketing with Claude Code (even if you've never written a line of code before).

Click here to join our waitlist—and unlock some FREE bonuses before May 18th: https://lnkd.in/dRhgy96d

Anyone can build a 6-figure paid newsletter on Substack in 2026.

Here's how in 6 dead-simple steps:

1. Pick a topic attached to a traffic engine

This is so simple, but everyone overcomplicates it.

• Write online for free about a topic
• Tell people "I also write about this on my paid newsletter here"
• Do this every single day (even multiple times per day) for YEARS

That's it.

The boring work is the moat.

And the secret is consistency.

2. Make your newsletter tangible

Notice how differently these two sentences feel:

• “I’ll explain how to build a paid newsletter.”
• “Here’s my six-step checklist to build a $100,000+ paid newsletter on Substack.”

Same topic.

But the first is intangible.

And the second is the digital equivalent of handing you a physical object.

Reads value tangible ideas more than intangible ones.

3. The "One Free, One Paid" strategy

Substack is becoming a platform in and of itself.

Not just a publishing tool, but an ecosystem of readers and writers.

Almost 20% of our paid subscribers have come from inside the Substack network.

So here’s how you get those readers:

• Write one free newsletter per week
• And one paid newsletter per week

Consistently. Forever.

4. Send paid snippets to your entire free list

On Substack, your free readers and paid readers are automatically segmented.

There’s a feature called the paywall preview (you choose where to insert a paywall).

• Make the first 20-50% of a paid post free to anyone
• Send the paid post to everybody on your Substack list

Paying subscribers get the whole thing.

Free subscribers only get the preview.

It’s a great way to gently encourage your free list to upgrade to paid.

Step 5: Put the paywall at a cliffhanger

Most writers don’t do this, and it is causing them to leave so much money on the table.

Don’t throw the paywall just anywhere in your paid newsletter.

Put it right before you give the reader the tangible thing you’re promising them.

Now the free subscriber has to make a choice:

• Abandon the newsletter right as it’s starting to get good
• Or upgrade to paid

(Use the AI Prompt attached to this post to optimize your newsletter content for maximum free-to-paid conversion.)

6. Republish your short-form content on Substack Notes

These are basically tweets but on Substack.

Don't overcomplicate this.

Just post multiple times per day and let the Substack algorithm push you to the right readers.

📌 This is how I've generated over $2,000,000 with my Substack paid newsletter, Write With AI.

Now, I want to share how I did it.

So I built a free email course, Substack Newsletter Kickstarter, to help you launch, grow, and monetize a category-defining newsletter on Substack.

Click here to get the Substack Newsletter Kickstarter for free (and finally launch your newsletter): https://lnkd.in/dZ7Sd5Mp

What do all of these legendary musicians have in common?

• Sia
• Lady Gaga
• Bruno Mars

Yes, they're all award-winning, stadium-filling superstars…

But the answer I'm looking for is:

They all got their start as ghostwriters!

Before Bruno Mars wrote "Uptown Funk," Lady Gaga wrote "Bad Romance," and Sia wrote "Chandelier," they each spent years quietly writing for other people.

During that time, they:

• Learned from the best
• Made connections in the industry
• Got paid before the world knew their name

And it makes total sense.

Ghostwriting is how you accelerate your skills faster than you ever could working alone.

Here's how:

• You learn how to write in different voices

• You build a body of work that compounds over time

• You get instant feedback from people with high standards (your clients!)

• You meet and get connected to industry leaders (it's how I built my billion-dollar network)

But music ghostwriting is one of the hardest industries to break into—and pays some of the lowest per hour of your time.

Premium Ghostwriting is the complete opposite.

You get paid (well) to help:

• Founders
• Executives
• Industry leaders

Build their personal brands and scale their messaging online.

And every day, more high-paying clients are waking up to the cold reality that they need an active social presence.

But the problem is they don’t have the time to write, and they make too much money to justify creating content for themselves.

This is why so many Premium Ghostwriters are:

• Making $10,000+ per month
• Putting in less than 40 hours per week
• Writing from a laptop remotely anywhere in the world

Want to start landing clients and charging a premium ASAP?

Then you need a proven blueprint to follow.

Otherwise, you'll waste the rest of 2026 (and beyond) on the wrong activities.

Click here to grab my FREE blueprint that's helped 10,000+ become Premium Ghostwriters: https://lnkd.in/dTB7qJ8F

AI is moving insanely fast:

• New workflows
• New tools every week
• New “you need to learn this NOW” posts everywhere

And it’s easy to feel like you’re behind.

Which is why I put together the Q2 2026 State of AI Tools Guide.

That way, you know:

• What's *actually* worth using
• What tools to skip over completely
• And how to think about the rest of them

These are my favorite AI tools:

1. Claude Cowork

2. Claude Code

3. NotebookLM

4. GPT Image 1.5

5. Nano Banana Pro

6. Gamma

7. Veo 3.1 / Grok Imagine Video

8. Suno v5

9. Arcee Trinity Large / Gemma 4 31B

Want to know more and stay on the cutting-edge of AI?

Click here to join my Write With AI newsletter and upgrade to get my 40-page State of AI Tools guide: https://lnkd.in/dZ7-jhQw