Industry News and Genre Trends

Industry News and Trends

Helpful One-Sheets

Elements of a Nonfiction Book Proposal One Sheet

Unlike fiction submissions, which require that an author have a completed manuscript ready beforehand, a nonfiction submission can consist of a proposal that will introduce key information about the book to publishers and/or agents. This one sheet covers the basic elements of that proposal.

How to Get an Agent One Sheet

If you are looking to be published by a major publishing house, having an agent is essential. This one sheet covers the basics of how to find and submit to agents.

How to Write a Query Letter One Sheet

Whether approaching an agent or a publisher, you will need to draft a query letter. This one sheet covers the essentials of what a query letter is, what it should do, and lists resources to provide further direction on crafting and formatting a query letter.

Book Cover Design Links

The Book Cover Archive

Henry Sene Yee's Blog

The Book Design Review

Tutorials and More Tutorials

Printing Technology

Typography

General Industry Resources

Publisher’s Weekly: The international news source of book publishing and book selling; PW reviews of books are displayed on Amazon, so can be important

Writer’s Digest: A comprehensive resource on all things writing and publishing. They feature industry blogs, books on writing, workshops, competitions, a monthly magazine, and online articles.

Authors Guild: An organization of published authors that shares information on trends in publishing and resources for writers.

Galley Cat: Blog with daily features on what’s happening in publishing, guest posts from authors, tips on writing, and features on breakthrough authors.

Publishing Perspectives: An International look at the publishing industry offering opinion, trends, news, and events.

Shelf Awareness: A daily newsletter about the book trade from the book sellers’ perspective.

Book Industry Study Group: The creator of the official genres that most organizations in the publishing industry use. Click here to see a full list of genres that book distributors use.

Bowker: The organization that manages, sells, and oversees ISBNs in the United States; also publishes reports on book consumer demographics and buying behaviors.

BookScan: Tracks the retail sales of books, but not from every outlet, so the BookScan sales numbers do not reflect actual number of books sold; estimates indicate that BookScan numbers reflect 75 to 85 percent of books sold.

Writer’s League of Texas: A non-profit association of Texas writers offering networking, education, resources, conferences, and information on writing and publishing. Meets every third Thursday at BookPeople and features a different panel every month.