I had the great honor of keynoting the Story Circle Network Conference in Austin earlier this month, which gave me a unique opportunity to speak about book publishing in front of a women-only audience. It’s not that I’ve shied away in the past from speaking the truth about the gender bias that runs deep through the publishing industry, but there’s…
Tag Archives book publishing
Becoming an author is a long and wending road for many. It’s challenging just to write a book — for reasons of time constraints, raging inner critics, the act of learning craft. The journey to publication is a whole other struggle, often accompanied by disappointment and rejection by traditional publishers. The decision to independently publish may follow, and while that’s…
So, the Hachette Book Group is acquiring the Perseus Books Group again, 18 months after its first failed attempt to do so. This time it looks like the deal will stick, though. If you read industry news deals or press releases, you’ll see all kinds of positive spin on deals like these. This is the third major publishing merger in…
When you hear the term “indie author,” who comes to mind? Do you think of an author published by a small but traditional independent publishing house, or do you think of a self-published author? Or maybe either/or? As the world of publishing shifts beneath our feet, so does the language of publishing. The term “indie” was at one point reserved…
We all know that books are, in fact, judged by their covers. Because of this, and because the marketplace is so crazy competitive, your cover can make or break your book. But there’s a bit of a rub where cover design is concerned, which is that many authors fancy themselves book designers. But being the expert on your book does…
Deciding you’re ready to publish is a huge deal; it’s also the point where you hand over control to someone else, putting the power in the hands of an agent, an editor, the universe. Most writers have traditional publishing aspirations. They want an agent to fall in love with their project and champion their work; they’re looking for the external…
It seems to be a law of the universe that otherwise rational people get a little whacky leading up to their publication date, and it can continue well into post-publication too. Becoming an author is an angsty life event, and even the most grounded among us become unglued. A lot of the authors I’ve worked with over the years have…
This summer I listened in on an editorial panel at a writers’ conference where I’d been invited to speak. The room was packed with aspiring authors who wanted answers to their editorial questions. There were only four panelists, but ten minutes in, I started to feel the discomfort of the audience with what seemed like contradictory answers to the moderator’s…
It’s time to blog about returns. Not because it’s a glamorous subject, but because it’s an important piece of the book publishing business that too few authors (and readers) understand. The fact that books are returnable in the first place is cause for frustration, and it should be cause for concern. I’m hard-pressed to think of another returns-based industry like…
Many aspiring authors I work with either don’t like or don’t get marketing. If you’re a writer who likes it, consider yourself lucky. Whether you like it or not, however, the important thing to understand is just how early marketing starts. One of the primary focuses of my coaching is helping authors with their platforms, which I like to describe…