Many authors confuse the job of the proofreader with that of the copyeditor. Both are vital for helping create a polished version of your writing, yet these word experts work at two completely different stages of the editing process. After the copyediting stage—when overall content plus grammar and style are addressed—comes the proofreading stage. Generally, […]
With apologies to my mother (“Turkeys are done, young lady; people are finished”), I pose that question with sincerity, for the writer and editor in me has struggled with it for decades. When is a piece of writing or an editing job actually complete and ready to go out the door? When is “enough” really […]
Part 6: So, How Do Authors Actually Make Money? And, Is That What Matters? According to The Economist, “The open secret of publishing is that very few authors can live by books alone. Even some of the most successful ones make most of their money from public speaking, consulting, or teaching, and use the publicity […]
Selling on Amazon and Giving Your Book Away All authors clamor to receive the potential blessings of Amazon. But the ways of Amazon are mysterious and known to few (they even puzzle most publishers). Still, one widely spread belief is that you get more leverage and publicity via Amazon if you acquire a sufficient number […]
What My Publisher and Publicist Did, What I Did, and What We Did Together One of my pre-pub fantasies was seeing my book displayed at airports and watching rushed travelers grab a copy for the plane. Read on…. Airports My publisher’s distributor tried to get us airport bookstore placement to no avail. (You or your […]
What My Publisher and Publicist Did, What I Did, and What We Did Together The two most meaningful things my publisher gave me were their faith in my book and a beautiful, inviting cover. (Your title and cover are your two best tickets to success.) They also gave me a small advance, a small PR […]
And Then You Do This . . . . Yes, it’s a full-time job—or more. Here are some things I did as soon as I could: Have cards made: This meant finding a good but affordable designer and printer and then doing the writing and proposing the design plan myself. Later, I had oversized postcards […]
What to Do from Day One or, Better Yet, Before Day One One big mistake (but then I couldn’t have done it differently) was what should have been done a year or two before I signed with a publisher: Create a platform. It’s possible that this is the most important thing you can do to […]
It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times I still remember the sheer joy I felt when my agent found a publisher for my book, Recipes for a Sacred Life: True Stories and a Few Miracles. The time that followed that milestone was, um, more emotionally mixed. Looking back over the […]
When I started working as an editor, I came to despise the word “nauseous,” not because of what the word evokes but because I felt nauseated by its misuse. The word “nausea” is a derivative of the Greek word for ship, “naus.” With its “–ea” suffix, it was a name for seasickness, but now “nausea” extends to anything that makes one feel bilious. […]