Getting published

Whether you're running for a political office, growing a nonprofit, sharing your experience or book with others, educating others on how to successfully do something, or being the light at the end of someone's tunnel, you're going to succeed by doing podcast interviews. Your reach is no longer relegated to just those who follow you on social media or find you on LinkedIn.  Read more

At a party many years ago, I jokingly told another guest that I'd do my best to remember his name after I published a book to great acclaim. I meant to be funny and disarming, but I bungled the delivery. I came off like a jerk. This other guest was a writer, too, and an equally self-serious one. Predictably, he took offense. He pointed his beer bottle at me.  Read more

Signing with a publishing house is undoubtedly a very exciting experience, but it can also come with a side of confusion, especially for debut authors. It can be hard to let your work go, because you've worked on it so hard and up until now, you've been in control (perhaps with your agent too). I wanted to explain some of the decisions publishers might make for your book, and why.

Paul Beatty may be the first American to win the Man Booker prize, after a rule change three years ago that made authors of any nationality eligible for the £50,000 award, so long as they were writing in English and published in the UK. But he very nearly wasn't published in Britain at all. Beatty calls his fourth novel "a hard sell" for UK publishers.  Read more

Yesterday Entertainment Weekly ran a piece about debut novels with six-figure advances and why publishers are willing to take big financial risks on (relative) literary unknowns. The answer is, among other things, "because they believe they will make even more money later," but the part that really leapt out at me was this:  Read more