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 […]

If you want to succeed as a writer you have to realize you’re in the book business, with all its strange ways of doing things.
Publishing is still a relationship business and you need to know the players, the powers that be, who’s making what things happen.
Publishers Marketplace draws back the curtains and reveals the nuts […]

Q:  I’ve heard that New York publishers will only accept books written from a third-person limited POV and no head hopping allowed.
Does this mean I have to rewrite my manuscript to conform to these rules?
A:  No! Stop. Don’t succumb to this kind of advice.
These rumors can start as the result of an editor or agent […]

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 […]

Welcome to round two in our series of book proposal critiques. It’s an audiocast, so to get started, just click the play button below.
Three submissions: A novel, a biography and an inspirational self-help book
The first proposal we’ll be looking at today is for an adventure novel with an environmental mission.  The story is set in […]

Agents, editors, and publishers receive queries every day from professors and other academics who say they have a great idea for a trade book based on their research, thesis, journal article or latest discoveries from the lab or clinic.
Sharp editors also scour the daily press for the latest breaking news about scientific discoveries and newly […]

Click on the audio play tab below to listen to the first in our series for writers called My Proposal Critiques.  For those who are visiting here for the first time, we recently put out a call for book proposal submissions with an offer to critique them here on The Book Deal.
Behind-the-scenes snapshot
We wanted to […]

Every writer needs to know how to write a good book proposal that will stand out and capture the attention of potential agents and publishers.
Consequently, when I appear at writers conferences and seminars, book proposals are often on the agenda.  I frequently offer my critiques of selected book proposals submitted in advance — in remarks […]

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 […]

Self-confidence is the single most essential ingredient an author needs to succeed, since good writing is never that quick or easy.
To keep at it requires energy, discipline, and a sense of humor.
The most accomplished and productive writers I work with are able to sustain a level of assurance and optimism. And that’s even when they’re  […]

Q : I submitted my manuscript to an agent and she said the plot was confusing and needed a lot of work. I was crushed!  What should I do?
A : Telling a good story is the writer’s most important task. But constructing a great plot with so many ideas, characters and actions careening […]

Once you have a book contract, the editor is your best friend in the company.
It’s your editor’s job to not only help you develop a great manuscript, but to shepherd the book through the all-important stages of copy-editing, design, production, manufacturing, publicity, and sales.
You need your editor’s dedicated support
At each stage of this process, your […]

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 […]

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 […]

“I’m eager to discover writers who aren’t famous yet but will be,” says San Francisco-based literary agent Elise Proulx.
“My mission is to promote literature and make some money for deserving authors,” said Proulx, whose five tips for unpublished writers appear below. “My specialty is both high quality fiction and what I call “pragmatic nonfiction”, meaning […]

Stop worrying about getting published and concentrate on getting better.
That was some of the sage advice the celebrated novelist offered writers at a literary seminar last week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
“Focus on the work itself and not on what may or may not eventually happen to it,” Robbins said. “If the work is […]