I title today’s video “Leave it to the proofreader to find the ONE mistake in your entire masterpiece.”
HAHA!
H Is for Hybrid
To state the obvious, the publishing industry has changed rather dramatically over the last few years. The possibility for a writer to inexpensively produce their own books (in e-book form) shifted the sands. In addition, the economic challenges facing the brick-and-mortar bookstore reduced the amount of shelf space available to launch a new book via traditional methods. It appears to be an …
Fun Fridays – October 20, 2023
Today’s clever short movie is called The Black Hole (less than three minutes long). I’ll admit, I laughed at the end. What would you have named this if you had written this short story? (A story without words.)
P Is for Preemptive Offer
It can be exciting if more than one publisher is interested in your book. The publishers gather their calculators and prepare to make their offers on the book. Depending on how many publishers are involved in the bidding process (we’ve had as many as nine at once for a property), it can quickly become complicated. (I talked about the “auction” in a previous post.) Some will bid solely …
Fun Friday – October 13, 2023
Let us watch today’s video as a metaphor for writing a book. Piece by piece. Nail by nail. And you have to know what you are doing, or it all collapses. This is why you get annoyed when people say to you, “I’m going to write a book someday,” as if it were easy. Note something about the video. Your foundation has to be absolutely correct because everything depends on it. …
A Is for Auction
When an agent has a client who is wanting to shop for the best deal available from publishers or if there is a particular project that is bound to garner significant interest from more than one publisher, the agent can hold what it called an auction. Or if a project attracts multiple offers from different publishers a “bidding war” can ensue. The word “auction” is tossed …
Fun Fridays – October 6, 2023
A language lesson in todays’ video. Enjoy! However, don’t go swimming near sharks with this group if you are English-only. One will shout, “Shark!” The others will shout, “Hi!”
E Is for Editor
Your editor can be your best friend in the industry (besides your agent, of course). Or your editor can be your worst enemy. Bad Side First An editor who doesn’t reply to your email inquiries or return your phone calls is either ignoring you on purpose or is so busy with other pressing matters they can’t get to yours. If you have this problem, make sure you didn’t create it in …
Fun Fridays – September 29, 2023
Writing to a formula is everywhere. Today’s video shows the creation of every Hollywood movie trailer without a single picture. Figure out the formula for your next book yet?
I Is for ISBN
978-0-7852-6400-2 978-1-62184-113-5 978-1-4245-6490-3 No, these are not the plays being called by a quarterback during a football game. They are the ISBN numbers on the back of three different books by three different authors. Kudos to the first person to identify the three titles in the comments below. Origins In the mid-60s, a major British bookstore chain (W.H. Smith) moved toward a …