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 legions of 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 and [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Q : I have so much material for my memoir. How do I sort out what to include and what to leave out?
A : This is the key problem a writer faces when constructing a non-fiction memoir. Here are six specific steps to consider when making your [...]

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 [...]

I’m among the publishing veterans who admired and benefited from the creativity and courage of Clay Felker, who died this week at the age of 82.
This celebrated and deeply influential editor made a big difference at the start of my own career when he assigned his young star reporter Tom Wolfe to write what turned [...]

It’s the #1 question aspiring authors ask me: How do I get your attention?
Here’s how: Send me 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 that you may want to skip the query entirely and instead [...]