Month: June 2008

Writing is a business and like any other business there are seasons of plenty and seasons of famine. Of course life goes on whether the market is a boom or a bust, so there will always be writers selling their work to publishers. However, when times are slow a writer will need to do more research, sharpen ideas, and make sure his article pitches and book proposals address the current interests of a publisher–which by the way will be listed on the publisher’s web site.

When an editor is facing a cut back in publishing, only the most appropriate and most marketable proposals will survive. This means that on top of researching the market for your book and the needs of prospective publishers, you’ll also have to keep an eye on publishing news to see which companies are in the best financial shape. If you really want to go with a publisher who is making cuts, just be sure your work is an attractive choice.

The first place to start when seeking news about a publisher is Publisher’s Weekly, though most markets will have blogs and press release sites that track the news specific to your field of expertise.

I had a nice little idea. Contact some local authors. Put together a little promotional package. Everyone wins.

I never realized how hard it would be to simply drop an author an e-mail. It’s darn near impossible.

When you have a book, you need to make it easy for people to learn about it and you need to promote it. This should include a web site with your contact info. In my mind, if your book doesn’t have some kind of web site and if people can’t contact you, you and your book may as well not exist. If someone wants to ask me to share something from my book at an event or if they want to learn more about it, a web site is so crucial. While I don’t want to encourage stalking, it seems that setting up an e-mail address that is easy to find would be the first thing an author should do.

While authors need to be responsible for promoting their books, it strikes me as equally important to make it as easy as possible for interested readers to contact the authors. This could bring all kinds of trouble and annoying messages, but the pay off strikes me as worth while.