Publishing

Answering Questions from Last WeekI’m glad my two posts last week, How Do Book Royalties Work? and Is Your Book Worth It? seemed to be helpful. There were quite a few questions, a few of which I’ll try to answer here. Sara asked: If an author wants to help sell their own books (lectures, readings,…

Like most of you, I do a fair amount of reading on the web. I keep up with what’s going on in publishing and I like to read what industry professionals are saying. However, sometimes I cringe when I read advice that doesn’t square with what I’ve experienced. It might not be wrong, per se,…

Yesterday I told you how book royalties work, so today I want to go further and explain a little more about the finances of publishing, this time from the publisher’s perspective. One of the things that’s hard to remember is that the publisher makes a significant financial investment in each writer, with no guarantee that…

This is one of those basic topics about which you may be confused if you’re just entering the world of publishing. You’ve heard the terms advance and royalties but you’re not quite sure how it all works. I’ll try to explain as simply as possible. The concept of a royalty is that the author receives…

As you all know, yesterday Thomas Nelson announced they are launching a new imprint, WestBow Press, which will operate as a subsidy publisher. Lots of people are talking about it and I thought I’d weigh in with a few thoughts. *Please note, this is preliminary since I’ve only had a few hours to think about…

A couple of quick notes:(1) I’m all caught up on responding to queries, so if you sent one prior to October 10th and haven’t heard from me, you may resubmit if you like. I am NOT caught up on reading requested partials and fulls.(2) Shark Tank is on tonight! Set your DVR or write yourself…

I was completely impressed with how many of you chimed in on Friday’s post on You: The Marketing Machine. You eloquently expressed your enthusiasm, your dread, and/or your ambivalence about the need to market your own book. One of the themes that cropped up frequently was the romantic fantasy of the writer as a loner,…

Shelli asked: in your experience – what is the average advance $ amount? debuts vs others? I think it’s misleading and unhelpful to talk about “average” advances. All that matters is your advance. If your advance is far below the average, you’ll be bummed and it will take some of the joy away from getting…

I’m back from the long holiday & birthday weekend… thanks for all the great birthday comments yesterday and thanks for the 181 responses to my Guest Blog Challenge! It’s going to take some time to get through them, so please be patient. Hope your holiday was terrific! Today I’m going to discuss the cold, hard…

One of the most common questions I hear about CBA is why it exists in the first place. (CBA means “Christian Booksellers Association” but refers to the entire Christian publishing industry including publishers, authors, agents, bookstores, etc.) Many are concerned that it means Christians are trying to stay set apart. Others wonder about the value…

Many of my blog readers have expressed frustration about current trends in publishing. Memoir is out unless you’re famous.Chick lit is dead.Literary fiction doesn’t sell.Nobody wants books over 100k words. Yep, these are all trends. And if you send me a query for a book in any of these categories, I’ll probably send a pass…

The comments on Friday’s post confirmed that myths about publishing are alive and well, as they always have been. Of course, every myth has its basis in some kind of fact, and it’s not always easy to tease apart the truth from the lie. I’ll address a few common myths here, but just realize, for…

I really enjoyed my blogging break last week, and I’m glad I got a chance to re-run the “Proposal to Publication” series. I hope it helped de-mystify the process for you. As I was reading through it, I noticed there are some lessons you could take away in terms of what you can be preparing…

Title, Cover, and Marketing PlansWhile your book has been going through the editing and production phases, the art department, sales department, and marketing department have been busy creating the packaging of your book and planning how to market, promote and sell it. The timing of each of these steps varies, but will be happening behind…