Everyone involved in your book is biased — including you

Everyone involved in your book is biased — including you

Books are team efforts. People involved in your book project, like editors and publishers, have vested interests in doing things a certain way. There’s nothing malign about that, but as you work with these professionals, it can be helpful to know what motivates their decisions. How the people on your book team are biased (and…

The benefits — and costs — of winning an argument with your editor

The benefits — and costs — of winning an argument with your editor

Editors often ask writers to do things they’d rather not do. I once edited a book for a brilliant thinker. He’d written the book stream of consciousness. It was full of great insights as well as infuriating, distracting, and self-serving asides. I found that if we deleted the asides, the rest was great — so…

“How big is your advance?” and other nosy discovery questions I ask to help with your book

“How big is your advance?” and other nosy discovery questions I ask to help with your book

If you’re going to hire me (or anyone else) to help you writing or editing your book, I’m going to ask a bunch of seemingly invasive questions. There are good reasons for those uncomfortable questions. In fact, I’ll go further: if you’re working with a writer, editor, or coach who doesn’t ask these sorts of…

Are editors failed writers?

Are editors failed writers?

Robert Giroux, who eventually became T.S. Eliot’s editor, once asked Eliot if he agreed with the sentiment that most editors are failed writers. Eliot’s reply: “Perhaps, but so are most writers.” Putting the witticism aside, what are editors? Failed writers? Uber-writers? Or something different? I’ve been writing professionally for 38 years and editing for almost…

Publishing is a club. Here’s how to get published if you’re not in it.

Publishing is a club. Here’s how to get published if you’re not in it.

I hear it all the time. I don’t know anybody in publishing. How am I going to get anybody to look at my (nonfiction) book idea? The editors I know are most likely to consider books from people they’ve published before. They’ll review a book represented by a reputable book agent. Outside of that, your…