Publishing

For most of today, I’ll be at my kids’ school. It’s Civil War Day for the 5th graders, a tradition that’s the highlight of their school year and concludes their study of the War Between the States. On this day, all the kids are dressed in 1860’s garb, either as southern belles or soldiers (half…

Do the Write Thing for Nashville is raising money to help the flood victims in Nashville. They’re donating the money through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Authors, editors and agents are donating books and services that are being auctioned off to raise money. I’ve contributed a 30-minute phone call. You can bid on it…

Some of you may have read the post from agent Kristin Nelson last week about agents fighting over writers. She wrote that every single time she offers a writer representation lately, she ends up competing with several other agents who want the same client. You can go read her post now: Hot Commodity In response…

A comment on the blog this week mentioned that one of the functions of books is to reflect our world. That got me thinking. Do books reflect our world? And what other purposes do books serve? Why do we read them? Why do we write them? In the larger sense, what functions do books serve…

I’ve been asked this question several times by various people outside the publishing industry: Why don’t publishing houses do more market research? Most industries that sell to the public invest heavily in things like focus groups, surveys, and product testing. This is even done with TV shows and feature films. But it doesn’t seem the…

Our guest blogger from last Thursday, Becky Levine, has chosen the three winners to receive a copy of her book, The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide. They are: Heather Beth K. Vogt KC Frantzen Winners please email me with your mailing address so we can send you the book!

I get weary of hearing people complain about publishing, comparing it to other industries and saying, “In no other business…” followed by whatever their complaint is. People even go so far as to claim the entire publishing industry is “incompetent” because it doesn’t work like other industries with which they’re familiar. To me, those complaints…

(No regular post today in honor of Good Friday.) After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back…

One of the most frequent questions I get is, How long will it take? How long should I wait before following up with an agent on a submission? If I get an offer from a publisher, how long before they send a contract? How long until I see my first check? When will my manuscript…

Lately people have been confused about what I mean by “Christian worldview” and what kinds of projects I’ll consider representing. My experience the last seven years has been in CBA and for the first couple years of being an agent, most of my sales have been to CBA publishers. As many of you know, I’m…

Thanks for all the questions you sent me on Friday’s post! I answered most of them in the comments, so be sure to check that out. But there are a few questions that I seem to get repeatedly, so I’m addressing some of them here. What is the appropriate length of time to follow up…

As most of you know, I’ve been a devoted Kindle fan since soon after it came out, and I’ve waxed poetic about my love for it several times here on the blog. And ever since iPad came out, I’ve been sorely tested in my attempts to avoid coveting. It looks really cool. Every time I…

One of the primary questions my clients ask when I first sign them to the agency is “How should I expect to communicate with you?” This is a GREAT question by the way, and one that should always be addressed in a new agent-client relationship. While each agent will have their own preferences, I believe…

If you think things were starting to get crazy in publishing, the last week just turned everything upside down again. As you know, Apple introduced the long-awaited and much-hyped iPad (here’s a quick overview from PW), which looks to me like it’s going to live up to the hype. (Watch this video if you haven’t…