In the increasingly difficult competition to get published, writers know they must put their best foot forward by sending out only a professional, polished, and persuasive new proposal or manuscript to any prospective literary agent or publisher.
Many authors have come to understand the value of objective help before taking the plunge, and I don’t mean […]

An author friend of mine couldn’t figure out why he was having so much trouble selling his new book.  He had a respectable list of published books to his name, a regular schedule of speeches and workshops, and a solid platform in print and broadcast media.
So on a hunch, I looked him up on Nielsen […]

We all know it’s cheaper to buy books online or at the big box national discount chains.  I could have saved $12.10 the other day if I had gone on Amazon or over to Barnes & Noble.
But if we’re lucky enough to have a local bookstore nearby we ought to do what we can to […]

Every day more than 5,000 writers and wannabes trek over to literary agent Nathan Bransford’s blog for a dose of some of the smartest, most honest, entertaining and generous advice on the book business I’ve seen online.
Leading the charge
Bransford, 28, an agent since 2005 with the venerable Curtis Brown Ltd with offices in San Francisco […]

Book publishers know that web promotion is the best way to reach readers directly, so for help they turn to experts like Fauzia Burke.
“It’s our job to find an author’s audience online,” says Burke, founder and president of FSB Associates, one of the first firms to specialize in internet book publicity and marketing.  “Our strategy […]

Does my book really need an index? And I have to pay the indexer?  Wait, isn’t that the publisher’s job?  OK, well can I just put it together myself?
I often hear questions like these from authors I work with. So I explain that an index is an indispensable tool for almost every non-fiction book.
An index […]

Reports about the demise of book publishing are once again premature.
Traditional book acquisition is alive and well.
This despite all the free-floating anxiety and doomsday scenarios about money drying up, massive cutbacks and publishing houses closing up shop.
I know this from personal experience. I got blown out of the water by aggressive colleagues at other publishing […]

“It’s a contact sport.”
That’s how one author summed up his experience in a refreshingly frank and illuminating first-person account of what it’s really like to publish your own novel.
A minefield with roads forked in every direction
David Carnoy started out with a literary agent and high hopes for placing his novel Knife Music with a traditional […]

Nothing in the publishing process seems to provoke more conflict than designing the book jacket.
Every editor, designer, sales person and publicist in the company can have a different point of view, often causing intense turf battles, expensive start-overs, blown production schedules, and snarky rants hurled between colleagues like:
“Sure, go ahead with that pretentious Picasso rip […]

This hard-working writer has been on the road selling his novel The Art of Racing in the Rain since before it was a Starbucks pick for Spring 2008.
I caught up with Garth during a recent stop in here in Berkeley for the 75th public reading of his New York Times best-seller. Earlier that day, […]

Being called “America’s Worst Mom” after letting your 9-year-old son ride home alone on the NYC subway from Bloomingdale’s is not the usual way to get a six-figure book deal for a first time author.
Media fire storm
But when the mom in question, Lenore Skenazy, a columnist and feature writer for the New York Sun, wrote […]

The secret to getting more up-front money is persuading your publisher to project higher book sales. Every publisher I know has an internal “advance offer calculation” process, based on a formula for estimating first year sales, revenues, and royalties.
The formula for book advances
It’s not a shot-in-the-dark but a scientific data dump that projects a precise […]

“There are definite advantages for me operating in Manhattan. I can visit editors at their offices and schmooze over lunch,” says top literary agent Nat Sobel.
“It’s terrific. Two or three days a week, I’m talking to an editor about projects I’ve already sold them and are now in publication, or new projects I’m pitching that […]

By Contributor Lisa Haneberg ~ I wobbled into the Kennewick, Washington, Barnes & Noble after a 300 mile motorcycle ride from Boise, Idaho. This was to be my 30th and last signing on a 9,400 mile solo motorcycle cross-country publicity tour for my book Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, and most of the earlier […]

What’s it like for a writer to work at the elbow of legendary filmmaker George Lucas?
For the answer, I turned to my son Jonathan, an executive editor and writer at LucasBooks.
He’s worked closely with the boss and other staff for the past seven years to write and produce dozens of titles related to the Star […]

Business is booming at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Eleven new major book deals nailed down and that was while Sandy was vacationing in Europe.
So look out, now that she’s back!
Widely considered the most powerful agent on the West Coast, Dijkstra has been called “tough” and “abrasive” with a keen nose for new talent.
A […]

Many successful books are written by ghost writers, co-authors, and other, often uncredited, collaborators.
If I sign up an author who’s a highly regarded expert in the field but not a professional writer, I bring in a ghost who’s a pro at getting under someone else’s skin and producing a seamless work in the author’s voice.
It’s […]

B ook publishers expect authors to take charge of their own online marketing. That means writers need to create their own clever websites and build active blogs and hopefully they’re also out there whirling on the social networks.
Cold hard reality
The cold hard reality is that many authors haven’t the foggiest idea how to do […]

“Reading and writing go on, in new forms, forever!”
That’s the rallying cry at Stanford this week, where book and magazine publishers from around the globe have gathered for the 33rd annual Professional Publishing Course.
It’s my 12th year on the faculty, and I’m witnessing a new level of excitement, stimulating ideas, and heartwarming determination.
A very smart […]

Editors pray for the perfect book title: a tight high-concept combination of words that crystallizes the content and intention of the work. A title so scintillating and irresistible that millions of readers want to run out and buy this book immediately.
Eureka! It happens.
Think of Chicken Soup for the Soul, or Men are from […]