Your publisher doesn’t care

Your publisher doesn’t care

Face it. Your publisher doesn’t care about you. You have an incredible idea that will change the world. Your publisher doesn’t care. You can write with such deftness and skill that readers will be captivated. Your publisher doesn’t care. You’ve conducted three years of painstaking research. They don’t care. You have incredible ideas on how…

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…

What authors, agents, editors, and publishers worry about

What authors, agents, editors, and publishers worry about

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…

Why the editor at your publisher is so hard to get ahold of

Why the editor at your publisher is so hard to get ahold of

I recently saw a picture of the publishing industry that blew my mind. Here, in a graphic from Al Mossawi, are the imprints of the Big 5 publisher Penguin Random House. Your editor’s world All the other big publishers look like this. Consider your editor’s job. They’re probably one of four or five acquisitions and…

What to expect from your publisher’s marketing and publicity teams
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What to expect from your publisher’s marketing and publicity teams

If you signed a deal with a publisher — traditional or hybrid — they probably made you promises about all the great work their marketing teams can do for you. But the rosy picture you have in your mind about their book publicity probably doesn’t match what they actually can do. Less than half of…

What the Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger means to authors

What the Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger means to authors

The biggest publishing house, Penguin Random House, is merging with the number three publisher, Simon & Schuster. Here’s what that means for you as an author: lower advances, less service, more publisher nickel-and-diming, and still more of the responsibility for success landing on you. Publishing houses struggle to maintain profits and market power in a…