The hybrid publisher Wonderwell is ceasing operations and becoming an imprint of a competitor: Greenleaf Book Group. I’ll let you know what happened, why, and what it means for the publishing industry and for you, if you’re considering publishing with a hybrid. Start with this: this is not going to be an objective post, because…
In her article “Everyone’s a sellout now,” Vox’s Rebecca Jennings laments the poor, sad situation of authors who’ve found that only by selling out and promoting themselves can they generate books sales. Some notable excerpts: The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do — from nine-to-five middle…
Can clear communication get truant students to come back to class? According to the results of a recent experiment, a clearly written letter was 40% more effective than the school district’s usual gobbledegook communication. The truancy experiment To succeed, students generally need to attend classes. Legally, a school district must inform parents of truant students…
Writing books is hard. Collaborating without an effective plan can make it much harder. It’s okay to argue about ideas, structure, terminology, tone, case studies, or audience. Those arguments are productive. It’s not okay to argue about who’s editing which version when — that’s just a stupid waste of time. Even so, I see so…
Newsletter week 29: The danger of clickbait and other exaggerations, burgeoning deepfakes, a litany of dangers to the news business, plus three people to follow and three books to read. The Danger of Overpromising The easiest way to get attention for a product is to overpromise. It is also the best way to get customers…
Note: This convention report was originally published on JaneFriedman.com. With 164 ghostwriters in attendance, the first Gathering of the Ghosts, which took place in New York City on January 22, was likely the largest ever gathering of ghostwriters in one place. As Dan Gerstein, CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, the cosponsor of the event along with the American…
After more than 50 nonfiction book projects, I can tell you how your various partners are thinking about the book. What authors worry about What authors should worry about that they don’t: What editors worry about Here’s what your developmental editor — whether you hired one or have one through your publisher — is worried…
Every coach, publisher, and vendor targeting authors is telling you that it will help your book become a bestseller. They are bamboozling you. It’s like a hairstylist saying they can make you beautiful. First off, they can’t (unless you’re already beautiful). And second, being beautiful isn’t a very good goal anyway. In the same way,…
If it’s your ambition to ghostwrite books, what do you need to know, and what do you need to do? To start, here’s an inventory of the skills you need for nonfiction ghostwriting (with some notes about fiction at the end of this post): Whew! That’s a lot to know. But you also need a…