While an author hopes that the text of his or her book is all that’s needed to clearly communicate with the reader, in actuality, sometimes ancillary parts of a book can add much to the reader’s engagement with your book. …
A Writing Contest and Some Hints on How to Win
How Book Buyers Decide What to Stock
I find it helpful to read articles written for book buyers. Gaining insight into how they think about what to stock in their stores helps me to understand the supply chain. The more I understand what stores are choosing to …
How Readers Discover Books
One of the biggest challenges for an author, a publisher AND readers consists of the increasing difficulty of matching a wannabe reader with the type of book he or she is looking to buy. A new survey recently was conducted …
What Is Over-Editing and What to Do About It
Author Dies While Reading Edited Manuscript
Such a headline might well echo the feelings an author experiences when, much to his horror, he discovers his editor has–ahem–done some pretty creative work on the manuscript sent into the publishing house. (An …
Favorite 2020 Reads
Each January each year, I ponder which books I read the year before that were the most rewarding, stayed with me the longest (not in a bad way, like indigestion), and were the most exquisitely written. Below are my favorite …
Introducing a New Literary Agent
With the entrance of 2021, Books & Such is adding a gem of a new literary agent to our roster, Mary DeMuth. Mary has been a part of the Christian publishing industry for decades, having written 40 books, both fiction …
New Year’s Meanderings
I wrote this blog post for New Year’s 2009 (you know, during the economic recession). As I pondered leaving behind 2020 (thank, God!) and looking through the dark hours of the pandemic, I realized my 2009 meanderings are just as …
What Could Make Any Christmas the Best Ever?
This year I find myself realizing that not having a large family Christmas gathering leaves plenty of space to think about what we’re really celebrating at Christmas. To slow my heart to a more tempered pace this 2020 Christmas, I’m …
What Does an In-House Editor Do for You?
Some publishers have chosen to downsize the number of in-house editors but instead to rely on freelancers. That decision raises the question, What does an in-house editor do for you?
Having been such an editor, I have personal insights into …