March 2012
7 posts
4 tags
Don’t seek permission to quote material (or reprint an image) in your work until you’ve consulted with your agent and editor.
February 2012
60 posts
3 tags
For editors thinking of crossing over to the dark side, a word of warning: foreign royalty statements.
2 tags
Only sign authors you would have over to your house for dinner.
3 tags
If you’re shopping for an agent and many are interested, talk to all of them before you make a decision. An extra day is all it takes.
3 tags
Contracts with low-cost hardcover royalties must also define “low-cost hardcover.”
4 tags
Authors should have approval over the offering of free electronic downloads to consumers.
6 tags
It’s Publishers Weekly and Publishers Marketplace, not Publisher’s Weekly and Publisher’s Marketplace.
4 tags
Editors hate “best bids” auctions unless they know they don’t have much to offer anyway.
1 tag
If you move, send your new address and phone number to your agent and your editor.
5 tags
A good editing pace is 10 pages per hour.
4 tags
Your contract probably says that you have to deliver a hard copy, but ask your editor. An email attachment is usually OK.
4 tags
In most cases, publishers need 12 months from manuscript to bound book.
4 tags
In acknowledgments, always thank your publishing team, especially your editor, even if you don’t mean it.
2 tags
No query letters in bold, all caps, double-spaced, colored backgrounds, flash animation, or as attachments.
3 tags
Common publishing style calls for the first paragraph of a chapter or a section to be flush left. The rest are indented. Don’t skip a line space in between paragraphs.
3 tags
During layovers, stop in the airport bookstores and ask if they’d like you to sign stock of your book.
3 tags
Television rights deals are small. And rare. But mostly small. It’s only if the pilot is picked up that there can be substantial money.
2 tags
If you don’t want your age revealed in the book, tell your editor not to include your birth year in the printed CIP data that appears on the copyright page.
4 tags
Where authors see major differences in the competition, publishers and bookstores see only a few degrees.
4 tags
Compare yourself to successful authors with comparable platforms.
2 tags
Make a list of questions regarding your contract and go over them with your agent.
4 tags
You can’t go wrong with Times New Roman 12 pt.
3 tags
If the agent works for a larger agency, that agent is only receiving part of the 15% commission.
5 tags
Contracts with multiple authors have different considerations than those with single authors.
4 tags
Books are printed in “signatures” of 16 pages each, therefore book page counts are divisible by 16.
5 tags
Keep your editor and agent in the loop on everything. Don’t wait until there is a problem.
3 tags
If you’re in publishing or want to be, you should be reading published books. Preferably the bestsellers.
4 tags
Don’t send a revision before you’ve gotten feedback on what you’ve already sent.
6 tags
Don’t miss an opportunity to meet a celebrity. You never know when the connection might come in handy.
2 tags
A query letter for a memoir should not be in third person.
3 tags
Agents keep track of how and why editors pass… and submit future projects accordingly.
3 tags
If you insist on comparing your work to a phenomenal bestseller, at least get the author’s name and title right.
6 tags
All things in moderation: em dashes, parentheses, !!’s, semicolons, And, But, just, actually, and so on.
3 tags
Calling your own book “brilliantly written” will lead agents to believe that it is not.
4 tags
About eight months before publication, meet or conference call with the publisher to talk marketing and promotion plans.
4 tags
Before you post an excerpt from your own book, get the publisher’s approval.
4 tags
When you meet with your publisher, remember you’re also auditioning for national TV.
3 tags
Never give up copyright to your own work/ideas/stories.
5 tags
The publisher doesn’t have to earn back the entire advance to make a profit on the book.
3 tags
Sometimes the gem is buried in the query. It pays to pay attention.
2 tags
If I request your material, my interest/curiosity is “piqued.” My homemade meringue is “peaked.”
5 tags
Exclusive submissions to agents are generally not to an author’s advantage.
4 tags
Get contractual approval over adaptations, abridgments, and condensations of the text of the work.
3 tags
Agents don’t sit on books, especially big ones. When they’re ready, we send them out. No need to nudge.
6 tags
The “announced first printing” is never the actual first printing. It’s a target and often twice what the first print ends up being.
4 tags
Your book should have a core market, and you should know how to reach it.
6 tags
Pick your battles. Few things are worth alienating others, but some are, and that’s when you fight.
6 tags
No hands near the face in an author photo.
4 tags
Editors should respond in a timely manner even if, and especially if, they are passing.
5 tags
Authors should see sample pages of the interior before the entire book is typeset (ie. consultation rights).