18 Sep Let’s Talk about Book Publishing

I recently did a talk for the 92nd Street Y’s Women inPower fellows and alumna (of which I am one). Graciously hosted by the Roosevelt Institute, we spent two hours talking about what aspiring writers need to know about publishing a book. We wandered a bit into academia and journalism, talking about the challenges women and people from diverse backgrounds encounter on their path to being published and more importantly being published successfully a second and third time. And why anyone would want to publish a book at all…? It seems an opportune time to have a frank talk about book publishing.

Spark of an Idea

The 92Y talk, in combination with an article published the same day by Heather Demetrios about the trials and tribulations of her publishing path, made me realize there is a real need for a conversation about the basic concepts of publishing. Heather has a lot of great points in her piece and it’s well worth reading. Having worked for publishers both in-house and as a freelancer and consultant for 20 years, I can say editors and publishing staff barely have the bandwidth to do their primary functions each day. Coaching authors about the ins and outs of publishing and the financial realities and likelihood of a book’s success (or lack thereof) rarely falls into that remit. I brought a lot of the thoughts Heather brings up in her piece to the session with the Women inPower group and we had a wide ranging conversation.

With that all in mind, I’m going to run a similar session online for free on Wednesday, September 25th at 12pm eastern time. We’ll talk about some of the things that Heather struggled with as well as publishing terminology, what typically happens marketing and publicity-wise for debut authors and how that affects a debut launch, how you can think strategically about your writing career.

What We’ll Cover:

• How is your advance typically paid to you?
• What happens when you don’t deliver on time (or at all)?
• Do you have to have an agent to publish?
• What is earning out and how do you earn royalties?
• What happens if your book doesn’t earn out its advance?
• How do publishers make decisions about who and what to publish?
• How do publishers decide where their very finite marketing and publicity budgets go?
• What, in a publisher’s eyes, is a big advance and how do I know if I’m going to get a marketing campaign to match?
• Can I negotiate in my contract for things like a marketing budget?
• What about social media, websites, and the unpaid time and design fees you invest there?
• Do you need to hire people? Freelance editors, publicists, marketing or social media specialists…

We’ll have time for your questions too, so please feel free to post them in the comments below or bring them to the session.

Details

Date: September 25, 2019
Time (60 minutes): 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET
Conducted Live Online
Cost: FREE
Click here to register.

So grab a cup of coffee and join us to discuss an intro to book publishing. You can also sign up for my monthly(-ish) newsletter here. If you can’t make this session I’m sure I’ll run it again in a month or so, so stay tuned for updates.

And read my blog for more useful information for authors.