Writing and Publishing News

There’s an old statistic that I first saw probably in the 1980s, stating that 81 percent of the population believed they have a book in them. At that time, only a handful of those people actually wrote their books. Today, I’d say that most of them have written a book or two. And the publishing [...]

I had an unusual experience this week. I think you know that I often get inquiries—questions about aspects of publishing, book promotion etc. Well, recently, I received an email from an author who mentioned he was self-publishing his book. Now normally, I ask if he means true self-publishing or if he is planning to sign [...]

I had a lot of comments and requests to copy a recent blog post—the warning to authors about a way over-priced, ridiculous package one of the “self-publishing” companies was promoting. I hope this made a whole lot of authors stop and think before signing up for a publishing, editing or marketing program with any company. [...]

I often tell new authors that one of the most important things they can do to prepare for a successful publishing experience is to study the publishing industry. So how does one go about this? 1: Read my book, Publish Your Book. I wrote it specifically to help authors understand the hugely competitive and complex [...]

I received a call yesterday morning—yes, Easter—before the sun was up—from someone wanting information about publishing poetry and music. I thought you might be interested in some of the resources I gave her. 1: “Writer’s Market” is a directory listing magazines and publishers—some of which publish poetry. You can purchase it at most bookstores for [...]

Yesterday I visited a group of the Southern California Writers Association in Fountain Valley. I talked to them about book marketing for the reluctant fiction and nonfiction author. However, I got the impression from audience questions and from chatting with some of the delightful attendees that there probably wasn’t a reluctant marketer among them. This [...]

This is day one in Tucson. I will be part of two panel discussions this afternoon at the Tucson Festival of Books—on Book Publishing and Book Marketing. I look forward to sharing the experience with you in tomorrow morning’s post. Although my panels tomorrow start at 10, so I may not have the time. In [...]

Yesterday, I shared 3 publishing mistakes that authors make and how to avoid them. Today, we’ll discuss four more. 4: Many authors don’t understand publishing terms. Authors will say to me, “I’m self-publishing with ABC Publishing Company.” What they are actually doing is going with a pay-to-publish company. What are your primary publishing options? Royalty [...]

I have hundreds and hundreds of articles stored on my computer. Most of them relate to writing, publishing and book promotion. In the last eight years alone, I’ve posted over 1,750 blogs. I constantly come up with new article, blog and book ideas. But occasionally, I find it worthwhile to go back and revisit some [...]

You’ve all heard of “tough love,” related to an errant teen. If your book isn’t performing as you had hoped, you might consider using tough love with it. Sure, you want to coddle your wonderful book. You hope millions of people will buy it and love it as much as you do. But you don’t [...]