Ex-Navy SEAL facing criticism for Bin Laden book

Also, some classic and contemporary advice on writing, extreme acts of writing, and how to promote your self-published book.

No easy day for Navy SEAL author: The former Navy SEAL and writer of the new book about the operation to kill Osama bin Laden has been revealed. That didn’t take long. Fox News identified him yesterday, and defended its position saying he had no reasonable expectation of privacy after publishing the book, titled “No Easy Day.” A bigger question, though, is whether the author—reported to be former SEAL Matt Bissonnette—will face criminal penalties if he revealed classified information. He reportedly did not run the book past the CIA or Navy, or anyone except his publisher’s lawyers. And because of how recently the bin Laden operation occurred, he’ll likely get more scrutiny than authors who write operational tell-alls years after the fact. The attention, meanwhile, has translated to sales. Although it doesn’t hit bookshelves until Sept. 11, “No Easy Day” is already topping Amazon’s bestseller list.