Blog Archive

  • Eureka

    Aug 14, 2009

    I often discuss with you how a big part of my job is career planning, and to me that doesn’t mean just sitting down and plotting how to make the bestseller list, but discussing what direction the next writing project will take. Should a series writer continue her current, successful series and add yet another […]

    View More

  • Obtaining Cover Blurbs

    Aug 13, 2009

    Any published writer knows that writing the book, querying, and finding an agent is the easy part of your publishing career. Once you find a publisher the real work begins, and part of that work is obtaining cover blurbs for your book—you know, those quotes from other authors praising your work and you as a […]

    View More

  • Random Questions

    Aug 12, 2009

    I get a lot of questions to the BookEnds blog and I thank you for each and every one of them. Trust me, they really help keep this blog running. Unfortunately, I have yet to get to them all and yes, some are a year old. But some of you ask some really tricky questions. […]

    View More

  • LOL

    Aug 11, 2009

    More of those things that happen around the offices of BookEnds to make us chuckle. I actually rejected a client. I think I know exactly or almost exactly what happened. I had opened her email to read it and pushed it to the side of my monitor to answer later, then continued reading e-queries. I […]

    View More

  • Author 007

    Aug 10, 2009

    I have written a controversial realistic fiction novel. If I want to keep my identity not discoverable, what’s the best way to do this? I have to admit it’s really hard for me not to simply reply to this question with, “Don’t tell anyone” and leave it at that. I won’t do that though. I’ll […]

    View More

  • Who Owns Your Work

    Aug 07, 2009

    I was told recently by a published writer that an unsolicited submission literally belongs to the publisher until they tell me they’re either buying or rejecting it. This is madness! Are you kidding me? See this stuff drives me crazy! Who gives this kind of crackpot advice? See, this is why agents started blogs in […]

    View More

  • Ghostwriting

    Aug 06, 2009

    I’m an arts critic but in order to keep a decent amount of food on the table, I ghostwrite non-fiction books. So far, I’ve been lucky enough to find clients through referrals and being at the right place at the right time. The problem is, all of these projects (12) have been self-published, which means […]

    View More

  • Losing Faith

    Aug 05, 2009

    I’m sure you’ve all taken on clients that you love the writing and the book, but have a hard time getting editors to feel the same way. Does this make you lose faith in your client (their work) in any way, or do you just become more determined to see that book (or another of […]

    View More

  • The Reality of Royalties

    Aug 04, 2009

    I was talking to a client recently about royalties, and with her statement somewhere between the publisher’s office and mine she was wondering what she could reasonably expect that statement (and hopefully check) to look like. This is a common question not just among first-time authors, but from many of my more established clients as […]

    View More

  • Be True to You

    Aug 03, 2009

    As a young editorial assistant I had the luxury of exploration. I was just starting to get my feet wet in the acquisition waters and could request everything and anything that came my way. I had the opportunity to find my niche in the publishing world and see what really fit for me. One of […]

    View More

  • When in Doubt, Query

    Jul 31, 2009

    I’m considering submitting my manuscript to you, but before I do, I was wondering if you would prefer NOT to see a submission on a book that’s already been submitted to a publisher? Well, that depends . . . is the book with one publisher or has it already been seen and rejected by every […]

    View More

  • Submissions 101

    Jul 30, 2009

    Almost daily new readers are discovering the blog and many of these new readers are also new to the submission process and have lots of questions about where to even begin. Because of that today’s post is really going to be a rudimentary look at how to begin and what to do next. I’m also […]

    View More