Keeping Pace With the Ever-Evolving Publishing Industry
Whether you choose traditional or self-publishing, you must stay on top of the latest developments if you want your work to reach readers.
The Wild, Wild West of Indie Publishing
Independent publishing has been around for as long as publishing itself, but what is new about it is how it is flourishing. Today the question of what to do with your manuscript is “context dependent,” meaning that the right path will vary depending on the book, the audience, and the year.
Stalking the Elusive Literary Agent
I recently met a writer who had begun submitting her first novel to literary agents and had a lot of questions: "Why did an agent tell me that I should work with an independent editor and then resubmit it? Why didn't he offer to help me himself?” “Why do agents mail out form rejections instead...
Writing Creative Nonfiction That Editors Can't Refuse
Though there are always matters of taste and every literary journal is different, I suspect that many editors respond to creative nonfiction queries as I do.
Finding an Agent for Your Novel: How to Write a Perfect Query Letter
The power of a query letter cannot be overestimated. An agent forms a first impression of you and your manuscript from your query letter, and it's often solely responsible for convincing the agent to read your work. There's no true formula for a query letter; if there were, every single manuscript would be requested by...
Sell Your Book With a Winning Proposal
Anyone who intends to get a nonfiction book published must write a book proposal first. Here's what you need to know.
Your 10-Second Pitch to Agents and Editors
You're at a writers' conference where you're lucky enough to meet a literary agent. When you tell her you've written a book, she asks, “What's it about?” Do you start rambling aimlessly—and lose her interest? Or do you capture her imagination in seconds with one short sentence that makes her say, “Tell me more!”? A...