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 …
Business of writing
An Embarrassment of Riches
An embarrassment of riches. You remember the supply and demand concept from your Econ 1A class, right? Scarcity and abundance drive each market. So, what has this to do with writing? Let me explain.
The Christian publishing industry has changed …
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 …
Trash or Keep?
In this age of minimalism, do you ever wonder what things as a writer you should trash and what things you should keep? This dilemma became very real to me recently when my publisher announced they had decided to reissue …
Twelve Words of Christmas
blogger: Cynthia Ruchti
For a writer, the idea of having only twelve words of Christmas may seem like an impossible word count limit, doesn’t it? With minimal commentary, let’s ponder twelve important words for writers inspired by the one word–…
Flip Flop
At a staff meeting recently, we discussed how many things have changed in publishing. I’ve been a full-time agent for fifteen years and when I think back to what I taught or espoused back then and in the years since, …
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 …
Picking the Right Agent for You
Once you’ve created the best query you can (a la my most recent blog post) and have your proposal ready to submit, you’re mind will turn toward finding an agent. Let’s be clear about one thing: You don’t want …
Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Query
The first thing to do in writing a query is to…not write the query yet. Give it some incubation time.
Rather than jumping into your query, take your time to force yourself to define–really define–the project.
You’re ready to write
…
The Value of the Backlist
We often hear people in the publishing industry talk about backlist vs. frontlist. Today I want to talk about the value of the backlist in building an author’s career..
First a couple of definitions. The terms, backlist and frontlist came …