It’s the #1 question aspiring authors ask me: How do I get your attention? Here’s how – with a compelling, convincing book proposal that knocks my socks off.
For those who’ve heard that a query letter should always precede a proposal, my view is you should skip the query entirely and instead send […]

L ike many authors, Guy Kawasaki has struggled with his publishers to get the cover designs he wants for his books. But unlike anyone else before him, he decided to take matters into his own hands and hold an online contest to recruit and select the best possible jacket for his book The […]

The sad demise of Cody’s Books, the iconic independent bookstore in Berkeley that closed this week, is a loss for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers everywhere. The reasons for this unfortunate event are many and complex – Amazon, over-expansion, fiscal mismanagement, the negative impact of digital publishing, the usual suspects – but I’ll leave that […]

Chappaquiddick, MA ~ I’m writing today from this remote sandy outpost off Martha’s Vineyard, the most famous literary island in the US.
The Vineyard is one of those enchanted places in the world closely associated with writers and publishing. Think of Paris with Joyce, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway drinking absinthe at the Deux Magots. San Francisco […]

M ost agents and publishers recommend a brilliant and scintillating letter that pitches and pleads for the right to send a full proposal and sample of the manuscript itself, but frankly I don’t encourage it.
Break this rule!
The only thing writing a query letter demonstrates is how well you can write a query letter, and they’re […]

A developmental editor can help a writer find ways to add greater depth and stronger identity to characters in a story.
One approach combines two characters into one more complex and diverse individual, or instead, may split apart one character […]

Writers I work with occasionally forget about dialogue entirely, summarizing the action in a stilted “told to” style, while others write quote after quote, in a voice that sounds all the same, often coincidentally like the author’s own.
I have a few tips for all such folks:

Read out loud and listen carefully. Could you tell when […]

I was interviewed last week for yet another book about the early days of Rolling Stone Magazine.
This marks the latest of nearly a dozen long interviews over the years as a primary source for writers on the founding and initial development of what was then a startup with grandiose ambitions, including two major histories […]

As an acquiring editor, one of the first things I look for in an author’s proposal is the “platform”, that is, the writer’s reputation and public visibility – and the ability, willingness, and experience to promote themselves in the marketplace.
What we publishers all hope for when opening a proposal from a literary agent is not […]