Friends, colleagues, family—everyone wants to give you advice when you are writing a book. But what do you do with advice that is confusing or feels contradictory? Here are five tips to help you navigate all that feedback so you can make your manuscript even better.
You’ve written your book, and you’re ready to launch it into the world—as quickly as possible. Like most authors, you are naturally anxious to get your book out and into readers’ hands after spending so much time writing it. The hard part is complete, so there’s not much more to do, right? Well, if you’re a first-time author, you might greatly underestimate the amount of work that still needs to be done to produce your book and how important that work is to set your book up for a successful publication.
This article looks at typical book production timelines for three different publishing models: traditional publishing, self-publishing, and hybrid publishing. Publishing time can vary widely, depending on a book’s specific needs, but this overview will give you a general idea of what to expect from the standard process for most books.
In short, a synopsis is a summary of your book. It should capture the key plot points and characters or questions and arguments of the entire book, from start to finish.
The prospect of titling your book can be daunting. Surely, if you could have distilled the entire message of your book into one short catchphrase, you wouldn’t have spent the last couple of years writing 100,000+ words about it!
That’s why it’s important to use a guide when creating a title and subtitle for your book. Here are tips from our titling experts on how to create a title that garners readers and sells.
So you write poetry, or plays, or short stories, and now you’re wondering how to go about getting your work into the world. Publishing short-form content is more about finding your people than a scatter shot across the industry. The right fit depends on your subject matter, medium, and goals. If you want to publish one piece at a time and build up your following, literary magazines, personal websites, and social media are all versatile, accessible ways to get your foot in the door. If you are ready to publish a complete book of short-form content, small presses can help with the heavy lifting of production and marketing.
As an author, at some point in the publishing process, you will find yourself faced with the task of writing an author bio. An author bio will appear in the back pages of your book, and a shorter version of this bio, consisting of one to three sentences and featuring only the most important of this information, is often included on the cover. It will be used as marketing material online (such as on Amazon) and can be a very useful tool for selling your book to potential readers, especially if done well. But how do you write about yourself in this way? And what should you include
Unfortunately, publishing your book can expose you to legal risk, especially if your book reprints or otherwise incorporates other parties’ protected intellectual property, or if your book discloses sensitive, confidential, or unflattering material about real people or real organizations. This article briefly discusses some of the major areas of risk associated with book publication, as well as some measures that authors can take before publication to eliminate or reduce potential liability.
Please note that this article is for informational purposes only, and that its contents should not be construed as legal advice. Greenleaf Book Group, LLC, does not provide legal services to anyone. Authors concerned about potential liability should always retain their own qualified legal specialists to determine whether their manuscripts pose any risks.
As you are gathering the front and end matter for your manuscript, you may find yourself wondering what the differences are between a foreword, a preface, and an introduction. These are three separate and very important elements that appear in the front pages of books, and they each have their own specific functions. The roles of these pieces are often confused.