“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 […]

Like 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 Art of 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 […]

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 […]

Jeff Bezos has a new vision: books that go on and on with continuing updates in the plot, characterization and world events.
The founder and chairman of Amazon, in an on-stage conversation with Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) at the opening of the annual publishing industry’s BookExpo in Los Angeles today, suggested that digital technology […]

W
ho says print is dead? The book industry reported a colossal 514 percent surge last year in print-on-demand titles, giving a much needed boost to traditional publishing which was flat overall in numbers of books produced in 2007.
Print on demand (POD) is a digital technology and business model in which new copies of a […]

Garth Stein’s new book The Art of Racing in the Rain posted extraordinary sales of 15,215 copies the first week out. Of these, 3,515 flew out the door of retail bookstores, 2,217 were ordered on Amazon, and a whopping 9,483 sold at Starbucks stores throughout the country.
The relatively unknown writer’s book made a big […]

Don’t miss this laugh-out-loud piece of brilliant parody. Author Dennis Cass has created exactly what every publisher dreams of: a self-produced video that’s approaching 20,000 hits on YouTube. Hope it kick-starts a long-lasting spike of flow-through cash register sales on Nielson’s BookScan for Cass’s book Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind […]