| name | david-baldacci-books-that-sell |
| description | David Baldacci's system for writing books that actually sell — reader-control mechanics (Big Pop openings, assumption-shattering), premise-as-seed construction, character baggage architecture, Gettysburg dialogue economy, two-purpose scene audits, slow-motion peaks, one-day eyewitness research, AND the business of publishing (royalty math, partnership deals, reader-location distribution). 200M+ copies sold; former trial lawyer. |
| domain | Commercial fiction craft + author business economics |
| when_to_use | Writing fiction or narrative nonfiction that must sell, ebook/digital-product creation end-to-end, book premises and jacket/back-cover copy, character design, dialogue/scene editing passes, pacing peak moments, publishing/platform/licensing deal analysis, book launch and distribution strategy, post-release breakdowns |
| version | 1.0 |
| format | completion-engine |
| workflows | 14 |
| tiers | 3 |
| source | David Perell "How I Write" interview (yDqPHJK0E5Q, 91 min, 19,708-word transcript), extracted 2026-07-19 forge-tier |
David Baldacci — Books That Actually Sell
53 novels, 7 children's books, 200M+ copies, two novels a year for 16 years — and a former trial lawyer who renegotiated his contracts from 15% royalties into partnership profit-share ("no one should make more off of the book than the person who wrote it"). Baldacci is the roster's only mastery-level holder of BOTH hats: commercial storyteller and author-businessman. His craft thesis: engineer the reader's surrender — cajole them into wrong assumptions, shatter them, take control, then make every word earn its right to be there. His business thesis: writing the books is job one; understanding how the money flows is job two, and skipping it is how careers "go down the toilet."
Load order: genius.md always → workflow → references as directed. Verbatim grounding: references/source-quotes.md. Business spine: references/business-of-publishing.md. Domain transfer: references/craft-transfer-map.md.
Available Workflows
Slash commands: /baldacci-big-pop /baldacci-premise-seed /baldacci-character-baggage /baldacci-trenches-draft /baldacci-scene-audit /baldacci-dialogue-economy /baldacci-slow-the-peak /baldacci-eyewitness-research /baldacci-stakes-forge /baldacci-author-economics /baldacci-find-your-readers /baldacci-ebook-flywheel /baldacci-game-film /baldacci-audience-downshift (wrappers in .agent/workflows/).
Tier 1 — Foundation (the core methodology)
| Workflow | Command Intent | Produces |
|---|
workflows/big-pop.md | Engineer an assumption-shattering opening | Finished opening (scene/lead/hook) + bet sheet of planted assumptions and their shatter points |
workflows/premise-seed.md | Build a premise containing all its food + jacket copy | Premise paragraph (conflict + maximal stakes + unlikely witness), plant-food ledger, sellable jacket copy |
workflows/character-baggage.md | Architect a two-layer character | Character dossier: pre-plot baggage, core-with-flexibility, value collision, motivation-magnitude ledger, reveal schedule |
