The Business of Being a Writer

The Design of Books

Debbie Berne

Permissions, A Survival Guide

Susan M. Bielstein

The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking

Brooke Borel

The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors

Erin Brenner

Writing Fiction

Janet Burroway, with Elizabeth Stuckey-French and Ned Stuckey-French

Immersion

Ted Conover

The Architecture of Story

Will Dunne

Character, Scene, and Story

Will Dunne

The Dramatic Writer’s Companion

Will Dunne

The Art of Creative Research

Philip Gerard

Getting It Published

William Germano

On Revision

William Germano

What Editors Do

Peter Ginna, editor

Storycraft

Jack Hart

Wordcraft

Jack Hart

Behind the Book

Chris Mackenzie Jones

A Poet’s Guide to Poetry

Mary Kinzie

Indexing Books

Nancy C. Mulvany

Developmental Editing

Scott Norton

The Subversive Copy Editor

Carol Fisher Saller

The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction

Amy J. Schneider

The Writer’s Diet

Helen Sword

A complete list of series titles is available on the University of Chicago Press website.

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© 2018, 2025 by Jane Friedman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

Published 2025

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-83865-6 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-83866-3 (e-book)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226838663.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Friedman, Jane, 1976–, author.

Title: The business of being a writer / Jane Friedman.

Other titles: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing.

Description: Second edition. | Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2025. | Series: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024043190 | ISBN 9780226838656 (paperback) | ISBN 9780226838663 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Authorship—Economic aspects. | Authors and publishers. | Fiction—Publishing. | Literary agents.

Classification: LCC PN161 .F744 2025 | DDC 808.02—dc23/eng/20241030

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024043190

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

For my mom, because when I announced my intention to study creative writing in college, she never suggested I pursue something more lucrative

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Mindset Matters

1. Can You Make a Living as a Writer?

2. It’s Not about Talent

3. Dealing with Rejection

Part Two: Platform Development

4. It All Starts with Your Work

5. Relationship Building and Literary Citizenship

6. Networking with the Powerful or Influential

7. Your Online Foundation: Website, Email, and Social Media

8. Producing Audio and Video Content

9. Developing a Sustainable Path Forward

Part Three: Book Publishing

10. Which Publishing Path Is Best for Your Project?

11. How Traditional Book Publishing Operates

12. The Challenges of Literary Publishing

13. Determining Your Category or Genre

14. Understanding and Working with Literary Agents

15. Researching Agents and Publishers

16. Writing Strong Queries

17. Nonfiction Book Proposals: Making a Business Case

18. Working Effectively with Your Publisher

19. Marketing and Promoting Your Books

20. Self-Publishing: Valid Path, Different Business Model

21. Marketing and Promoting Self-Published Books

22. Hybrid Publishing and Other Paid-for Publishing Options

Part Four: Publishing Short Work

23. The Business of Magazines and Digital Media

24. Freelance Writing and Learning to Pitch

25. Publishing in Literary Journals

Part Five: How to Make a Living as a Writer

26. Building a Business Model

27. Finding Your Readership and Building a Funnel

28. Patronage: Crowdfunding and Donations

29. Newsletters, Blogging, and Subscriptions

30. Serials and Serializations

31. Advertising, Sponsorships, and Affiliate Marketing

32. Freelance Editing

33. Teaching and Online Education

34. Contests, Prizes, Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants

Part Six: Business Basics for Writers

35. Tax Basics for Writers

36. Business Formation for Writers

37. Contract Language Every Writer Should Know

38. Common Legal Issues Writers Face

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Resources

Notes

Index

Footnotes

Introduction

Countless people dream of writing and publishing full-time, yet few have been told how to make that dream a reality. Working writers may have no more than a rudimentary understanding of how the publishing or media industry works, and longtime writing professors may be out of the loop as to what it takes to build a career in the digital era, amid more competition—and confusing advice—than ever. The best writing programs often believe their job is to teach the art and craft, or that students shouldn’t allow business concerns to influence their development and direction.

The Business of Being a Writer takes it on principle that learning about the publishing industry will lead to a more positive and productive writing career. Although business savvy may not make up for mediocre writing, or allow any writer to skip important stages of creative development, it can reduce years of frustration. Much of this frustration has its roots in writers’ misguided expectations of the industry, as well as career decisions based on insufficient knowledge of the business. In fact, writers are more likely to give up and quit before they’ve really begun if they are ignorant of the challenges, especially if they’re seeking financial security. Because writing degrees have little effect on writers’ earnings potential or industry knowledge, this guide is as much for students—or graduates—of writing programs as it is for writers working outside such programs.

Despite ongoing transformation in the publishing industry, there are fundamental business principles that underlie writing and publishing success, and those principles are this book’s primary focus. Writers who learn to recognize the models behind successful authorship and publication will feel more empowered and confident to navigate a changing field and build their own plans for long-term career development.

One underlying assumption in this guide is that many creative writers—particularly those pursuing formal degrees—wish to build careers based on publishing books. It seems like common sense: literary agents sell and profit from book-length work, not single stories or essays; and getting anyone (whether a reader or a publisher) to pay for a book can be easier than getting them to pay for an online article or poem. But books are just one component of a full-time writing career, especially early on. Perhaps you’ve read essays by debut authors “exposing” the fact that the average book advance does not equate to a full-time living wage for even a single year. Such essays reveal unrealistic expectations about the industry or magical thinking: I will be the exception and earn my living from writing great books.

This guide does offer guidance on how to get a book published, a milestone that remains foundational to many writing careers. But because few people make a living solely by writing and publishing books, it goes further, showing why this one pursuit should not constitute one’s entire business model. In the end, some writers may discover that they prefer other types of writing and publishing—and not just because it’s tough to make a living from book sales alone.

If you are a writer looking for the business education you never received, I hope this book provides the missing piece. I try to be encouraging, and I do want you to feel capable and well informed, but I don’t sugarcoat the hard realities of the business. When you decide to pursue a writing career, you’ll encounter many obstacles, and not just in the form of rejection letters. But it helps to know what’s coming and that your experience is normal. Writers who are educated about the industry typically feel less bitterness and resentment toward editors, agents, and other professionals. They are more likely to be proactive, advocate for their interests, and not become dependent on gatekeepers for advancement. And, perhaps most important, business-savvy writers are less likely to be taken advantage of. It’s the writers who lack education on how the business works who are most vulnerable to finding themselves in bad situations.

In the literary community especially, there’s a persistent and dangerous myth of the starving artist, a belief that “real art” doesn’t earn money or that “real artists” don’t consider commerce. In fact, art and business can inform each other, and successful writers throughout history have proven themselves adept at making their art pay. Dana Gioia, a celebrated poet and former vice president at General Foods, said, “There is a natural connectivity, at least in American culture, between the creative and the commercial.”1 An open attitude toward learning the business can provide focus, discipline, and, critically, self-awareness about what you want and expect from your writing career.

Too often writers assume that they are bad at business or that attending to business concerns will pollute their creative efforts. Yet the business side calls for as much imagination as the artistic process. Industry veteran Richard Nash has said, “Business and marketing are about understanding networks and patterns of influence and behavior. Writers can handle that.”2 To be sure, business can and does ask for compromises, but that’s not always to the detriment of art. A bit of friction, some kind of barrier—a net on the tennis court!—can be productive and healthy.

How This Guide Complements Other Resources

There are innumerable resources available to help writers with the business side of the writing life, often focused on how to get published. The book you’re now reading takes a strategic, high-level look at how writers can establish a lifelong writing career. Yes, it includes nuts-and-bolts information on how to get published, but its larger purpose is to push writers to apply the idea of a business model to their own careers. Many writers end up teaching, or holding down a day job, to support their writing, which is neither good nor bad—but too often it happens by accident or it’s seen as a mark of failure. This guide aims to provide writers with information that will help them make intentional choices and consider what compromises might be required to reach particular goals for earnings or prestige. There is no right or wrong way to sustain your career as a writer.

A Few Thoughts on Classroom Use

The business aspects of writing and publishing can be neglected in creative writing classrooms, and I think such neglect does students a disservice. Few graduates will secure full-time teaching positions, and many will go into debt to pay for their degrees; for them, the dream of a writing career may be shunted to the side in favor of reliable, well-paying work to repay their student loans.

Creative writing instructors sometimes argue that focusing on business too soon in one’s career is dangerous. It’s true that it can cause unproductive anxiety, but that’s partly because of bad information and gossip that passes from writer to writer. For example, some writers are led to believe they have to develop a readership before they sell a book, or “build their platform” to become more desirable to agents or publishers. That’s true only in a small percentage of cases, and rarely does it apply to the types of work produced in creative writing programs. This persistent whirlpool of misinformation about the industry is yet another reason business issues ought to be addressed up front and early. Stonewalling on the topic of business, or delaying it for some later, indeterminate time, just drives writers to go elsewhere, and sometimes to become more obsessed than they should, because they’re not getting measured guidance and wisdom from people who navigate the tension between art and business.

I do not see writing students as too delicate or underdeveloped to handle the business side of the writing life—nor do I view these matters as extracurricular. Rather, I believe students deserve considered guidance on the choices they must make as critical players in the industry. Graduate writing students, in particular, are often people who are well into adulthood, who may have significant postdegree responsibilities awaiting them. If programs want their graduates to flourish, they need to expose their students to the foundations of publishing industry success, and not give the impression that it all boils down to excellent writing. However, it’s also possible that too much attention to business concerns could stymie experimentation. Ideally, creative writers are always experimenting, failing, and improving in some manner. An overbearing focus on work that leads to a paycheck can derail less commercial work that, over the long term, might break boundaries or be more meaningful artistically.

Here’s where the biggest danger lies, in my experience: Business concerns can distract one from getting actual writing done, and can even become a pleasurable means of avoiding the work altogether. No one avoids writing like writers. Producing the best work possible is hard, and focusing on agents, social media, or conference-going feels easier. Writers may trick themselves into thinking that by developing their business acumen, they are improving as writers—but all the business acumen in the world can’t make up for lackluster writing.

Changes to the Second Edition and How to Navigate This Book

This edition dramatically revises and reenvisions how to best help writers understand the business they’re entering and how to approach their careers with the same creative spirit as their writing. It offers refreshed examples and updated industry information as well as deeper changes that reflect how my thinking has evolved. Nearly all the sections and even most paragraphs have been updated in some way. Publishing will undergo more dramatic evolution in the years ahead, with the rise of artificial intelligence just one unpredictable variable, but I’ve tried my best to avoid presenting information that will become irrelevant before the book even reaches your hands.

This book doesn’t have to be read in strict chapter order; writers (or classes and groups) should feel free to start with whatever part interests them most or applies to their immediate situation. That said, I’d suggest that you at least skim part 1, where I’ve opened with the biggest mindset issues that writers face. What seems like a small concern or anxiety at first may be the tip of the much larger iceberg that threatens to upend the entire ship. Writers must learn to recognize these issues for what they are and learn how to cope with them because they rarely disappear, even after a writer is well established.

Instead of discussing the publishing industries in a single section, as I did in the first edition, I segue immediately into platform building (part 2). While I don’t believe platform building comes before the work of writing, it has become a first-order business concern, and it’s unfortunately a topic dominated by confusion and bad advice. Thus I address it up front. Platform building, as I define it, makes a writer more visible to their readership and community. Unfortunately, writers and others in the industry might boil down platform to nothing but social media activity or an online presence. That’s but a single facet of platform, and not always a requirement. Whereas a strong platform may help a writer land publishing deals or paid writing gigs, that’s not where its most important value lies. When built with intent and your unique voice, a strong platform supports whatever business model you might create for yourself: it allows you to build the career you want rather than rely on specific people or businesses to grant entry or permission. I deconstruct the components of platform in part 2, with guidance on the technical aspects of websites and email newsletters and an explanation of how they serve as a foundation for growth. (Later on, in part 5, for writers ready and interested, we’ll discuss how platform ties into earnings.)

The number-one question I’ve received over my decades in publishing has always been “How do I get my work published?” or, for book authors, “How do I market, promote, and sell my book?” Although selling books or articles rarely leads to a full-time living, at least to start, it remains an important credential and platform-building tool. If publishing a book is your overriding goal, then part 3 remains the place to turn to first. This section works well in conjunction with research into publishing markets and opportunities, whether agents or publishers. This edition includes expanded guidance on book marketing and promotion, as well as self-publishing and hybrid publishing.

Because of the ongoing business upheaval surrounding newspapers, magazines, journals, and digital media, I’ve pulled back on in-depth discussion of these industries in the second edition. There is still considerable coverage in part 4 about how to publish short work in all types of print and digital outlets, with how-to information on freelancing and learning to pitch—skills that benefit writers no matter what or where they publish. But for the large majority of writers, even professional journalists, publishing short work is one of the most challenging ways to earn a full-time living. Short works often support one’s book publishing efforts (both before and after the book deal) or are more broadly used to increase one’s readership (and thus platform).

Part 5 describes how writers earn money beyond book sales or traditional freelancing. It begins with the basics of building a business model and how to think like a writer-entrepreneur, with a discussion of the creator economy. As a writer-entrepreneur, you adopt the role of CEO of your writing life, which isn’t about crunching numbers but applying your imagination, creative judgment, and vision toward a pathway to earnings—which in turn leads to more time and freedom to do work you choose. That’s the goal. We’ll examine how writers earn money directly from readers (through newsletter subscriptions, patronage, and crowdfunding); from advertising and sponsorships; from services and teaching; and from gifts (grants, awards, fellowships). This section drives home the point that a writer’s income is almost always cobbled together from a variety of sources. If you want to be a full-time writer and don’t have a large savings account or wealthy partner, start by reading parts 1, 2, 5, and 6.

Part 6, in fact, is an entirely new section for the second edition. It presents business basics that will familiarize writers with taxes, business formation, contract language, and common legal issues. I recommend that no one skip this part because they think they don’t need it; if you’ve picked up this book, you probably do need it now.

Last but not least, this edition includes exercises in all chapters that help you put ideas into action, so you can examine for yourself how the business works.

An appendix at the back of the book provides resources to consult for your particular areas of interest. And as before, this book offers a companion website (https://businessofwriting.org), with examples of submissions materials (queries, synopses, book proposals), as well as supporting resources and information.

Part One

Mindset Matters

As a young editor recently out of school, I asked longtime writing professor and author Michael Martone if he could tell which of his students were going to succeed—was there a defining characteristic? He told me it was the students who kept writing after they left school; somehow, they continued to hold themselves accountable for doing the work. The most talented students, he said, weren’t necessarily the ones who followed through and put in the hours required to reach conventional publishing success.

Similarly, when Ta-Nehisi Coates was interviewed by the Atlantic, he said, “The older you get, that path [of writing] is so tough and you get beat up so much that people eventually go to business school and they go and become lawyers. If you find yourself continuing up until the age of thirty-five or so . . . you will have a skill set . . . and the competition will have thinned out.”1 Many people want to stand on top of the mountain, but it’s the countless hours you spend on the mountainside that get you there. The secret to success, if any, is that you enjoy those hours of work—that the work breathes life into you, day after day.

Some people may decide they cannot tolerate the injustices of the writing and publishing industry, full stop, and may choose to fight against it—to fight for change—while some may choose to operate outside the system. Both are admirable choices, but not for everyone. This book shows you how to use, even manipulate, the system for your own ends, to take whatever opportunities suit you and find a way to flourish regardless of the failings of the industry. To use a turn of phrase from Joseph Campbell, ask yourself whether you’ll let the publishing system deny you your humanity or you’ll make use of the system for your own human purposes.

1 : Can You Make a Living as a Writer?

In the history of authorship, there have been several revolutions in how writers get published and get paid: the invention of the printing press (mid-1400s), the advent of copyright law (early 1700s), the growth of literacy (1800s), and the emergence of online and digital publishing (2000s).

The ability to make a living by the pen was rare before the growth of a literate middle class and the resulting demand for reading material. For hundreds of years after the printing press was invented, writers resisted payment even when it was offered: it was considered crass to accept money for an activity many people considered sacred or inspired by God. Writers who were able to focus on their art were either highborn or backed by generous patrons. It wasn’t until around the mid-eighteenth century that it became feasible as well as socially acceptable for writers to live solely off book sales or payments from publishers. At that time the English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, in what one historian calls the “Magna Carta of the modern author,” was able to reject support from a patron because his work was so commercially successful.1

But exceptionally few writers have ever been able to make a living solely off what they wished to write. While F. Scott Fitzgerald made good money writing short stories for magazines, he also pursued Hollywood writing stints, which he didn’t really enjoy. William Faulkner wrote scripts. Anton Chekhov wrote newspaper articles. Samuel Beckett translated for Reader’s Digest. And so on.

Some observers believe the digital era is making it increasingly difficult for writers to earn a decent living from their work. I disagree: it has always been difficult. Every revolution, including the one we’re living through now, stirs up excitement but also confusion and fear of change. In the late 1800s, during what some historians now consider a golden age for publishing (for magazines especially), you could nevertheless find disgruntled writers. One complained to a US congressional committee that he did not know any author who made a living by writing literary work. Of all the learned professions, he said, “literature is the most poorly paid.”2 The truth is that many writers’ careers, during every era, have been gifted into existence by birth, by privilege, by marriage.

During each revolution, writers (and publishers as well) seek to preserve the existing system, even if new technologies and behaviors have rendered it unworkable. Today, writers’ organizations express overarching pessimism: earnings are lower than ever, they dubiously claim. But this is no reason to be dissuaded from a writing career if that’s what you want. If you want to realize monetary gain, you have to be willing to treat (some of) your art as a business. No writer is entitled to earn a living from their writing, or even to be paid for their writing; once you seek payment, you have to consider the market for what you’re producing, especially during a time when supply outpaces demand. This is one of the most difficult tasks writers face: to adopt a market-driven perspective when necessary—to see their work as something to be positioned and sold—and to balance that with art-driven projects that may take years of effort but produce meager earnings. Writers who see this as a creative challenge rather than a brutal injustice are more likely to survive.

Although there are far easier ways to make a living than as a writer, that is not because good writing is at odds with commercial success. It’s because most people are not willing to learn the business or do what’s required to make writing pay. That said, some types of writing are more directly beholden to marketplace concerns than others. Expecting to make a living through freelance writing or journalism is a different proposition than expecting to make a living through novels, short stories, or poetry. Freelancers and journalists must pay attention to the market. They are often writers for hire, and they don’t typically expect—or shouldn’t expect—to make a living just from writing what they want. Creative writers, on the other hand, are usually presumed—and often told—to focus on their craft and mostly disregard trends, though commercial publishers are certainly influenced by the market and acquire what they think will sell. Either type of writing may be sustainable only with some form of patronage, whether from individuals or from institutions—as has been the case throughout history.

Is It Better to Have a Day Job?

If thinking about the business of writing causes you to feel, at best, uncomfortable, then it may be better to keep your pursuit of it unadulterated by market concerns. Many famous authors have held day jobs: Franz Kafka worked for an insurance company, Herman Melville as a schoolteacher and customs inspector, and Toni Morrison in book publishing, to name but a few. For some writers, the day job actually fosters their creative work. Meanwhile, other literary legends never experienced conventional employment, pursuing a writing life underwritten by existing wealth or family support—for example, Gertrude Stein and Jane Austen.

When agents, editors, and other writers say, “Don’t quit your day job,” it is simultaneously the best advice and the worst advice. On the one hand, it helps moderate your expectations and acknowledges the most common outcome for writers: you’ll need another form of income. But it also perpetuates the misconception that writing can’t or won’t make you a living. It can, just probably not in the ways you would prefer.

If your ideal writing life consists of a remote garret in which you scribble away in quiet isolation and deliver your genius unto the world via representatives—then yes, you’ll need a day job, or preexisting wealth. However, if your idea of the writing life allows for reader engagement, client work, or online media, then you’re in a better frame of mind to make a full-time living as a writer. As one example, when novelist N. K. Jemisin’s career started to accelerate in 2016, she decided to establish an account with Patreon, a paid-subscription-based platform for content delivery, with the goal of quitting her day job. She succeeded and now draws a four-figure income every month from roughly one thousand supporters. At the time, Jemisin was open about her mixed feelings about Patreon, writing, “I do think it’s a great concept in principle—a modern update of the ancient model of patronage, where ‘impressing some wealthy person who will support you’ has been replaced by ‘impressing a crowd of regular folks who’ll give you $5 a pop.’ Thing is, I also see nothing wrong with complete self-sufficiency as an artist.”3 Reader financial support—and platforms that facilitate it, like Patreon—will be discussed much more in chapter 28.

Questions to Ask Yourself

As the publishing marketplace and your engagement with it evolves—and it will—consider these questions as you make career decisions:

• What fulfills your creative or artistic goals? This is the reason you’re interested in writing in the first place. Even if you put this factor on the back burner to advance other aspects of your writing and publishing career, don’t leave it out of the equation for long. Otherwise your efforts can come off as mechanistic or uninspired, and you’re more likely to burn out or give up.

• What earns you money? Not everyone cares about earning money from writing, but as you gain experience and a name for yourself, the choices you make in this regard become more important. The more successful you become, the more you have to pay attention to what brings the greatest return on your investment of time and energy. As you grow in your career, you won’t have time to pursue every opportunity. You have to stop doing some things and say no to some other possibilities.

• What increases your readership? Gaining readers can be just as valuable as earning money. It’s an investment that pays off over time. Sometimes it’s smart to make trade-offs that involve earning less money now to increase your readership because having more readers will put you in a better position in the future. For example, you might focus on writing online, rather than for print, to develop a more direct pathway to readers.

It’s unlikely that every piece of writing you do, or every opportunity you pursue, will advance artistic, monetary, and readership goals. Commonly you can get two of the three. Sometimes you’ll pursue projects with only one of these factors in play. You get to decide based on your priorities at a given point in time.

I’ve witnessed many writers who hit their heads against the wall trying to publish or gain acclaim for a particular type of work, even as they succeed wildly with something else they don’t think is prestigious or important enough. Getting caught up in a race for prestige can be destructive in many ways, especially to your earnings—funny enough, the more prestigious something is, the more likely it pays next to nothing. (Why do traditional publishing employees typically earn so little, especially at entry level? Partly because it’s a glamorous industry that has long relied on prestige as a form of currency.) Paul Graham has written elegantly on this paradox, comparing prestige to a “powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.”4 Avoiding this trap is easier said than done. Most of us live under the weight of expectations put upon us by parents, teachers, peers, and the larger community. Breaking free of their opinions can be liberating, but what others think of us also contributes to how we form our identities and our careers. It’s not a problem you can solve so much as acknowledge and manage. Graham offers reassurance that if you pursue what you truly enjoy with as much excellence as possible, you can make it prestigious. I agree.

Parting Thoughts

A book that strongly influenced how I think about my writing career is The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. In it they write, “Many of the circumstances that seem to block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on a framework of assumptions we carry with us. Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view.”5 Consider, for example, the assumptions that art can’t pay, that great writing is created in isolation, and that serious writers never consider the reader. These are all frameworks that can hinder you. An open attitude about what the writing life might look like—based on your own unique goals, not someone else’s standards—is an invaluable asset. While some may consider the Zanders’ perspective to be hopelessly idealistic or naive (or both), writers rarely coast into a paying, satisfying career that’s free of trouble and compromise. So the ability to reframe dilemmas rather than viewing them as dead ends is like rocket fuel to continued progress.

Exercise: Research How Other Writers Make a Living

If you want writing to be your full-time living, you must pursue that goal with intention and a measure of curiosity for how other writers—especially in your category or genre—have made it work. Identify a contemporary, living writer you admire and consider successful, and study their career trajectory. Look for interviews where the writer offers transparency as to their earnings, business model, or frustrations with the publishing business. If you’re feeling ambitious or bold, reach out for an informational interview and ask how their business works and whether they’re able to make a living fully from what they write and publish.

2 : It’s Not about Talent

A question that has long fascinated me: Which writers keep going until they achieve success, whatever that might mean to them? Is there a recurring trait or quality? Prolific author Stephen King has famously said that talent is like table salt—cheap and abundant—and I agree. Talented people may in fact be more likely than others to get chewed up by the system if they feel deserving of success and to grow bitter when that success doesn’t arrive early or on time. I used to believe that great work or talent would eventually get noticed—that quality bubbles to the top and gets rewarded. I don’t believe that anymore. Great work is overlooked every day, for a million reasons. Business concerns outweigh artistic concerns. Some writers are perpetually unlucky. Some people give up because they lack a mentor or a support system, or because they fail to make the time required to develop as a writer. Others become consumed with self-doubt. They don’t believe they’re good enough (and maybe they aren’t, not yet) and they allow those doubts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

FictionDB, a site that attempts to catalog published fiction (now up to two million titles and half a million authors), released the following statistics in 2021: about 80 percent of authors stop publishing after three books; 10 percent make it to six books; less than 5 percent make it to twelve.1 Asking writers what they think of these stats is a litmus test for how they view the business of writing. Some say the stats indicate that publishers are greedy and should pay authors better, or that authors are victims of late-stage capitalism. Some claim that no one reads anymore, or that people don’t pay for art and expect writers to work for free. There’s generalized fear that writing itself has been devalued so much—or that publishers or companies like Amazon have grown so evil—that even those who do get published give up.

I see the situation differently. I believe the aforementioned statistics demonstrate that after you write and publish a book a few times, the thrill starts to fade. Being a published writer is not the incredible holy grail that people might think. You have to really want to do it to continue. And whatever self-doubt or anxieties you experience do not disappear once you publish. In fact, they tend to increase. The longer I’m in the business, the more I see it as intensely psychological. It’s not a test of writing talent. It’s a test of something else. But most of us tend to be obsessed with the talent part. (For more discussion of those earlier statistics, read the article “Writing, Failure, and Time” by author S. L. Huang.2)

During my college years, I thought people who stayed in the game were vetted or selected in some way because of evident talent. In fact, I wanted nothing more than for my professors to take me by the shoulders and tell me, “Yes, you were chosen for this. You were meant for this. You will succeed at this.” (No one did, but they were supportive in other ways.)

Then, something curious happened when I started to speak at writing conferences while working at a midsize publisher. I started to be considered an authority on whether people would make it or not as a writer, just as I saw my professors as an authority. Some writers are brave enough to say to me, “Tell me if I’m wasting my time.” Or, “Rank me on a scale of 1 to 10.” They want to know whether they have what it takes—whatever that means. This kind of validation seeking is rampant and takes many forms. And just like my writing professors, I don’t want to be in a position of rendering a verdict because I really don’t know. I can spot talent, but I can’t predict who’s going to keep doing the work. Most assuredly every writer I meet is going to fail at some point and on some level, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is what you decide to do next.

Those who seek external validation aren’t wrong to do so (everyone needs encouragement!), but it’s a tenuous and fleeting source of motivation. So what pushes any writer to keep doing the work? Is it passion? Maybe, but when I became a professor myself, I discovered that every student coming into our program proclaimed to have passion for their art, yet few actually demonstrated evidence of pursuing or acting on that passion. For most it remained an idea, a dream in their head.

There’s a Zen parable about a master violinist who is asked by a young student whether he is good enough to reach maestro standard. The master thinks for a minute and then says, “I think not.” Disappointed, the student gives up playing the violin. Decades later, the former student meets the master again and asks how he knew that his playing wasn’t good enough to reach virtuoso level. The master answers, “If you really wanted to play violin, it wouldn’t have mattered what I said.” That may seem cruel, but it’s true. I’ve met writers who have blown past all kinds of discouragement, even using it as motivation to prove the naysayers wrong.

One of the top-ranked tennis players in the world, Novak Djokovic, told a reporter, “I can carry on playing at this level because I like hitting the tennis ball.” And the reporter asked him, “Are there really players who don’t like hitting the ball?” Djokovic replied, “Oh yes. There are people out there who don’t have the right motivation. You don’t need to talk to them. I can see it.”3

That’s what it comes down to, I’ve concluded. You have to like hitting the ball. It’s not talent, it’s not about someone anointing you, it’s not passion. If you can find the thing you do for its own sake, that compulsive piece of your creative process, and dial that up (and up and up), you will massively outperform others who don’t like hitting that particular ball. If you like hitting the ball, it’s a gift that lasts forever. The inner satisfaction will keep you going. No one can take that gift away from you and it will never let you down.

If you find yourself demonizing the publishing industry in the abstract and complaining as if you’re owed something, it’s time to find the reset button. Successful writers almost always find satisfaction, joy, or fulfillment in the work itself, regardless of any external validation they receive, regardless of the financial outcome. It’s their devotion to the work that keeps them in the game. They actually like doing it (or at least having done it) no matter how the market reacts. In publishing, you can’t know in advance if or how or when you’re going to make it, even if you follow the “rules,” and anyone who commits to a hard deadline to “make it” will likely end up in another profession. Ultimately, you have to keep writing even when you don’t know what you are doing and even when no one cares what you are doing, without guarantees.

Jeff J. Lin wrote about the uncertainty of success, “Much is made of genius and talent, but the foundation of any life where you get to realize your ambitions is simply being able to out-last everyone through the tough, crappy times—whether through sheer determination, a strong support network or simply a lack of options.”4

Recognize Unproductive Thought Patterns

It’s impossible to eradicate negative or unproductive thoughts about the writing life, but you can recognize them and see them for what they are. Learn to name them, as that gives you the power and ability to set them aside rather than control you. These negative thoughts may be dark passengers that you never get rid of, and that’s OK. Just don’t let them sit in the driver’s seat, as best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert advises in her book Big Magic: Creative Living beyond Fear. These unproductive thought patterns include the following:

• Worrying about age. How old are you? It doesn’t matter. Really, it doesn’t. Young people worry that they won’t be taken seriously. Old people worry that it’s too late. While it’s true that ageism is alive and well, the writing profession is one of the few in which no one needs to know your age, at least at the outset. When you submit your work, you’ll be judged on the writing or storytelling itself, and there is rarely a reason to discuss your age. Editors, agents, and others in publishing often work until their death rather than retire, and they work with clients of all ages. Authors don’t get dropped when they reach a certain age if their books continue to do well. A quick look at the New York Times bestseller list inevitably showcases authors who are well beyond fifty or sixty, some in their seventies (hello, James Patterson, Walter Mosley, Danielle Steel). Delia Owens was sixty-nine when her first novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, was published. When asked what advice she’d give writers who feel like it might be too late in life to get a book published for the first time, author Bonnie Garmus (sixty-five at the time of her debut novel) told People magazine: “Age will never matter when you’re a writer, because no one ever sees you.”5

• Waiting for the “right” time. This is the biggest trap of all: I’ll start writing when . . . when I have the time, when my kids are grown, when I quit this job, when I have more job security. I’ve heard it all. Such thinking can be rooted in self-doubt and fear of failure, although most of us do face tangible barriers to getting our writing done. It’s just that the better conditions we think will arrive never do. A new barrier inevitably takes an old one’s place.

If you wait for the right time, it will never arrive. There is no perfect moment. Especially as you get started, writing may have to occur in the cracks of your daily routine. And it rarely gets done without sacrifice or compromise. Rewards come with consistency of practice during imperfect conditions. That’s why I’ve always loved Claire Cook’s story of how she wrote Must Love Dogs. As a middle-aged parent, she found that the only time she had for writing was the five minutes in her van while waiting to pick up her kids at school or soccer practice. And so that’s what she used. She wrote the whole novel that way, and it launched her career; Must Love Dogs became a series (of eight novels so far), and Cook has penned more than a dozen other books as well.

While I’ve heard all the excuses for not writing, I’ve also observed the people who have absolute freedom to write when, how, and where they wish. This rarely confers them any advantage. In fact, writers who are least in need of their writing to pay off tend to be the most concerned with monetary gain or recognition. That’s because it’s the most common way to determine whether what we’re doing has any value, especially in the United States. If we can’t show a payoff, how do we justify the activity? So we become uncomfortable. Guilt sets in. We blame ourselves for being frivolous or self-indulgent. Even if guilt is not an issue, too much freedom can also produce writer’s block and a paralyzing lack of focus.

Jorge Luis Borges did his best work when burdened with a day job.6 Louisa May Alcott wrote her best work because she had to earn money to support her family, and she was told that a story for young girls would sell.7 Austin Kleon keeps a file of creative people whose physical shortcomings led to their greatest work.8 Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”9

• Seeking permission or certainty. As my colleague Allison K Williams often says, there is no permission fairy who will come tap you on the shoulder and give their blessing for you to be a writer, to start writing, or to break the rules of writing. You have to grant yourself permission. There isn’t a checklist that you’ll one day complete and then earn the right to call yourself “writer.” You can claim the label for yourself as soon as you start writing. Similarly, some writers fail to start because they don’t know where to start and want to feel absolutely certain of their direction—no wrong turns! But an imperfect step forward is better than no movement at all. There isn’t a wrong way to begin. And you will experience wrong turns. Writing is defined by producing something imperfect and then fixing it. What matters isn’t the mistake itself—it’s how you handle it.

• Waiting for inspiration. You can train the muse to show up by setting up a writing schedule, even if it’s just five minutes a day or an hour a week. As Stephen King advises in On Writing, “This isn’t the Ouija board or the spirit-world we’re talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ’til noon. Or seven ’til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up.”10 Approach the work not as a precious activity requiring pristine conditions. Rather, it’s through day-to-day routine that the art finds its way to the surface. Atomic Habits by James Clear is a popular guide, for good reason, if you need help establishing a writing habit.

• Comparing oneself with others. Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber who ascended El Capitan free solo, without any safety lines. You can find videos on YouTube of him engaging in such death-defying feats, where you can admire how skilled and courageous he is. But how courageous is he really? Brain scans of Honnold have shown that his brain doesn’t behave in conventional ways: he no longer experiences fear during a climb, as the rest of us would.11 If you want to be like him, you’d first have to figure out how to turn off fear in your brain, and maybe you can’t.

It’s natural to measure yourself against others on the same path and to walk the halls of a conference such as the one hosted by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and feel diminished among those who are more accomplished, more talented, or more well-connected than you. But here’s the problem: this comparison trap exists at the highest levels of accomplishment; success doesn’t erase it. Prestigious authors notice who’s getting reviewed where, who is blurbing whom, who has the “better” agent or publisher, who is getting the awards. Although you can’t escape such thoughts, it’s helpful to label them for what they are: a distraction from your own work. In writing especially, everyone is running their own race. Each person’s journey is made up of a million factors unique to them that can’t be replicated by someone else. When you get caught in the comparison trap, the best way to escape it is to get back to your writing.

Author Melissa Yancy paraphrased advice she heard from novelist Anthony Doerr: “You’re going to get your neck sunburned looking up all the time.” She continued, “I don’t think he was just speaking of ambition and envy, but focus—about where your eyes actually go. And if you’re focused on the literary lottery, you’re looking off in the distance, spending that unearned fortune.”12

Parting Thoughts

In his book A New Earth, author Eckhart Tolle tells the story of a Buddhist monk who spends years giving spiritual talks and becomes more candid as he gets older. In one famous talk, he asks the audience if they’d like to know his secret, and then, in response to their nods, says, “I don’t mind what happens.”13 Meaning, in part: he is not attached to outcomes. That might be the best trick of all, if you can attain that mindset. Even adopting an attitude of pessimism can relieve the pressure. Lower your expectations—lower than you might think. Unhappiness and disappointment are intrinsic to the human condition, and writing and publishing are no exception. The reward is almost always in the work itself, not the brief moment of victory.

Exercise: What Constitutes a “Real” Writer?

Writers sometimes feel uncomfortable claiming the “writer” identity for themselves unless it’s their full-time occupation that pays the bills. But if this were the primary qualifying factor, only a tiny number of people could ever call themselves writers. So brainstorm a list of actions or behaviors that you believe “real” writers engage in on a regular basis. If you can, compare your list with someone else’s. Are you “real” writers based on each other’s lists?

3 : Dealing with Rejection

First, let’s get a hard truth out of the way. Your earliest writing efforts are rarely publishable, much less lucrative, yet they are necessary for growth. A writer who has just finished their first book or short work probably doesn’t realize this and may take the rejection process very badly. But it’s best to move on rather than get stuck waiting to publish or endlessly revising the same project over and over.1f In his series on storytelling, Ira Glass says:

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. The first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. . . . You can tell that it’s still sort of crappy. A lot of people never get past that phase. A lot of people, at that point, they quit.1

If you can’t perceive the gap—or if you haven’t gone through the “phase”—you probably aren’t reading enough. Writers can develop good taste and understand what high-quality work is by reading writers they admire or want to emulate. Writers also improve over time by practicing their craft in addition to getting focused feedback from experienced people who push them to improve.

With that said, let’s talk about what every professional writer is going to inevitably deal with, like it or not. In doing so, let me share yet another Buddhist parable.

Two monks come to a shallow but muddy river crossing. There they encounter a young woman dressed in a fine kimono, obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes. The older monk picks her up, carries her across the muddy river, and places her on dry ground. The woman goes on her way without a word. Hours later the monks arrive at a lodging temple. Here the younger monk can no longer restrain himself and gushes indignantly, “I cannot believe that woman. You kindly carried her on your very own back, and she did not offer thanks.” The older monk calmly observes, “I set the woman down some time ago. Why are you still carrying her?”

Although I don’t mean to make light of rejection, it’s crucial to let go of it or make use of it in a constructive manner. Here’s one method: First, acknowledge the hurt or anger that you might feel. Wallow for a set amount of time, whether that’s for five minutes or five days. (When I was a college student, one creative writing professor told us that she would “take to bed” for a few hours to sulk.) But when that time runs out, you have to promise yourself that you’ll get back to work. Other methods favored by writers include celebrating the rejection with some ritual (you took a risk, so yes, you can celebrate), pinning the rejection letter to a bulletin board (perhaps to later share and make public, especially when you gain acceptance), or keeping all rejection notifications in a single folder. This last one can be valuable because as the folder expands in size, it’s a sign of progress in your career. Most acceptances only come after countless rejections; over the course of a career, it really can be considered a numbers game.

Every writer needs to find coping mechanisms or rituals that work for them; the sooner you find your own, the better. Some writers keep their work always out on submission, meaning that if one rejection comes back, the work is always under consideration elsewhere. This is a smart strategy because it’s dangerous to tie all your hopes to one specific editor, publisher, or agent. Having a lot of irons in the fire can be productive—you always have the possibility of a positive response ahead. As you become more experienced at sending work out, and receiving responses, you’ll begin to see that your “hit rate”—or the number of relative successes you have—will be fairly consistent and also a fairly low percentage of all submissions. The sooner you can learn this business truth, the less rejection will sustain a lasting blow to your confidence.

Form Rejections versus Personalized Rejections

Generally, it’s best to avoid parsing vague or form rejection letters; it’s mostly a waste of your time and energy. Here are common phrases you might read in a form rejection:

• “Doesn’t fit our needs at this time.” This is a stock phrase that gets used again and again by everyone in the publishing industry. It could mean literally anything.

• “Doesn’t have sufficient appeal.” This is another stock phrase that means exactly what it says. Perhaps the market for your work is too small by the standards of the publication, or maybe your work lacks punch. It might not be different enough, unique enough, or special enough for people to take notice.

• “Couldn’t get excited about it.” If someone makes this comment about your fiction, it may indicate a problematic opening, a lackluster story or protagonist, or something without compelling conflict. Your story hasn’t emotionally engaged the reader. Some agents will say they really enjoyed reading your work, but they don’t possess the necessary enthusiasm to sell it or represent it. Again, this is typical form rejection language without anything useful to go on for revision.

• “The writing doesn’t stand out.” This probably means that your writing lacks voice or style. It could also mean your story is boring, unoriginal, or uninspired.

• “Not fresh enough.” For fiction writers, perhaps your plot line is too cliché, your characters are too common, or your story is predictable.

• “You don’t have a sufficient platform.” This is a reason given most often to nonfiction writers who lack adequate credentials, authority, or visibility to the target market.

A form rejection may not be signed by a specific person, it might not be specifically addressed to you, or it might not say anything specific about your work. It could very well be a copy-paste letter that’s sent to hundreds or thousands of writers. Sometimes it clearly states that it’s a form rejection. When trying to decide whether something is a form rejection, ask yourself: Could this same letter apply to other projects I’ve written? Or to what my friends have written? If the letter could be sent to just about any writer, for any project, you have a form rejection.

A personalized rejection takes time and thoughtfulness and will touch on very specific aspects of your work. An agent or editor would only take time to write one if they see something that impresses them or might merit their consideration in the future. You can consider such communication a sign that you’re getting closer to an acceptance. If you violently disagree with any criticism you receive, that might be the rarest gift of all. Put your work aside for a few weeks or months, and then revisit it. You may find the criticism right on target.

Sometimes, a personalized rejection comes with an invitation to submit your next work, or to resubmit the current work if you revise it. It can be difficult to decide what to do next. Should you stop the submissions process to revise? This is something you need to take seriously, but never undertake revision to your work unless you believe the suggestions will improve it. If the feedback opens your eyes to how your work could be genuinely taken to the next level, you should pause, revise, and resubmit. Accepting feedback and incorporating it into your work will win major points with an agent or editor; doing so demonstrates serious intent and professionalism. However, if you have doubts about the feedback, or it would necessitate an unacceptable compromise, keep submitting the original work elsewhere, and see if you receive any more personalized rejections. Although you should be attentive to common themes and patterns in the feedback you receive about your writing, ultimately you have to be true to yourself and only make revisions you can stand behind.

Whatever happens, there’s only one proper response to a personalized rejection, and that’s a thank-you. Do not try to open a conversation about the work unless explicitly invited, and never, ever argue with a rejection. You don’t want to make the agent or editor sorry they tried to help you.

The new form of rejection is often silence—meaning you’ll never receive any response or even an acknowledgment that your work was ever received. So why is this considered acceptable? Part of it has to do with the sheer volume of submissions received by agents and editors. But another reason has to do with some professionals who have grown tired of unprofessional responses to rejection. These agents and editors don’t like saying no and then having to justify their decision, or saying no multiple times when a writer continues to submit the same work after having been rejected once. Rejections consume too much time they could more profitably spend on existing clients or projects.

I once had a writer contact me and ask how they could respond to an agent who had rejected their work because there was too much passive voice. The writer was frustrated because the agent’s diagnosis was in fact wrong—and from their perspective, the agent’s misunderstanding of passive voice was leading to unfair rejections for countless writers. Most likely, though, the agent was reaching for the most convenient reason available to reject a work (or even reusing a template rejection letter). Sometimes the reasons you’re given are a poor attempt to provide a rational explanation for something that isn’t at all rational. The reality is that impressions get formed in seconds, and they’re often gut instincts. A reason or explanation is only applied after the fact.

Most agents and editors do not enjoy being the primary focus of writers’ hopes. If you, as a writer, see yourself as an equal to the people you’d like to work with, you’ll be able to better communicate and avoid acting as a supplicant. That in turn removes the emotional tension and power struggle. An editor or agent will be more honest and forthright with you if they see you as a professional and if they can expect an interaction to be productive rather than an energy drain. More progress than you might think can depend on the willingness of agents and editors to advise you even when they can’t represent you or publish you. So bottom line, be gracious during the rejection process.

Why Work Really Gets Rejected

The most basic and avoidable reason for rejection is that you submitted to someone who is ultimately inappropriate for your work. This happens if you didn’t properly research your target market and instead adopted a mass submission approach. Despite all the resources available to writers, inappropriate submissions still remain the top reason for rejection, along with submission of materials that fail to follow the agent’s or publisher’s guidelines.

Another common reason is that something similar was recently published, or you’re trying to publish in a category that is saturated. This happens particularly with nonfiction, but it can also happen in fiction when there are noticeable trends that everyone is copying. Similarly—and this is hard to pinpoint from a form rejection—your timing may just be unlucky. Maybe the editor who would’ve been receptive to your project has left. Or the publisher has cut back its list. Or the market has changed in some way.

Let’s say you’re fairly confident you haven’t been rejected for the aforementioned reasons, and you haven’t been able to gain any traction. No agent or publisher has expressed serious interest, and you have very little feedback on how to make the work more marketable. It would be helpful to know at this point how close you are to getting an acceptance. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could say, “If you just keep at it for three more years, you’re certain to make it!”

First, if you’ve been submitting manuscripts that aren’t your best work, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You have to give each manuscript everything you’ve got, with nothing held back. Too many writers save their best effort for some future work, as if they were going to run out of good material. That’s not a good way to operate. Every piece of your greatness must go into your current project. Be confident that your well is going to be refilled. Make your book better than you ever thought possible—that’s what it needs to compete. It can’t just be good. “Good” gets rejected. Your work has to be the best. How do you know when it’s your best? If you think the story has a problem, it does—and any story with a problem is not ready.

Similarly, if you’re a novelist consumed with finding an agent before you’ve even finished your manuscript, you’ve got things backward. Whenever I sit down for a consultation with a writer, I ask several questions early on:

• How long have you been working on this manuscript?

• Who else has seen it?

• Is this the first manuscript you’ve ever completed?

• How long have you been actively writing?

The answers to these questions often strongly indicate how close you are to a traditional deal if that’s what you want. A writer who has been working on the same manuscript for years and years—and has written nothing else—might be tragically stuck. There isn’t usually much valuable learning going on when someone tinkers with the same pages over a decade.

Writers who have been actively writing for many years, have produced multiple full-length manuscripts, have one or two trusted critique partners or mentors, and have attended a couple major writing conferences are often well positioned for publication. They probably know their strengths and weaknesses and have a structured revision process. Such writers often require only luck. And there’s that old saying about luck: it’s when preparedness meets opportunity.

Writers who have extensive experience in one medium and then attempt to tackle another—like when journalists tackle a novel—may overestimate their abilities to produce a publishable manuscript on the first try. That doesn’t mean their effort won’t be good, but it might not be good enough. Fortunately, any writer with professional experience will probably approach the process with more of a business mindset, as well as a good network of contacts to help him understand next steps.

Notice I have not mentioned talent. I have not mentioned creative writing classes or degrees. I have not mentioned who you know. These factors are usually less relevant in determining how close you are to a traditional publishing contract.

The two factors typically most relevant are (1) how much time you’ve put into your writing practice over time and (2) whether you’re reading enough to understand your position on the spectrum of quality for your genre—as indicated in the opening to this chapter. Indicators eventually surface if your work has sufficient quality but isn’t suited for commercial publication. You’ll get reactions like: “Your work is too quirky or eccentric.” “It has narrow appeal.” “It’s experimental.” “It doesn’t fit the model.” Possibly: “It’s too intellectual, too demanding.” These are signs that you may need to consider self-publishing, or you can wait for the publishing winds to change.

Parting Thoughts

Some people say you’re not really a writer until your work has been rejected. I agree. Rejections will come from people you know, from strangers, and from editors and agents who later accept you. You’ll get rejected by reviewers, readers, the mainstream media—anyone in a position to consider your work. Stick with it long enough and you’ll receive form-letter rejections, personalized rejections, rejections that contradict each other, and rejections that give you strength to continue.

If you’re actively producing work but have never been rejected, it’s likely you aren’t sending your work out frequently enough or widely enough. You might be playing it too safe, trying to avoid the sting of rejection. That’s understandable, but it’s not helpful for a writing career. You don’t have to develop a thick skin, but you do have to find the wherewithal to keep your work in circulation—to keep trying—especially early in your career. If you aren’t actively submitting, you will not get published. Period.

In the end, how you deal with rejection can be your superpower. Avoid giving up on yourself or your work after only a handful of rejections. Too many writers get discouraged early in the process and abandon an effort before they’ve given it a fair chance.

Even today, more than a decade after I sent my last rejection letter, I still reliably hear secondhand stories about writers who have been wounded by my feedback, long after the fact. Just about every single time, while I often remember the writer in question, I’ve completely forgotten what I said or even what the project was about. If you talk to other editors and agents, you’ll find this is pretty common. So many projects cross everyone’s desk, sending rejections is a near-daily occurrence. It’s next to impossible to keep mental track of what becomes only one detail of the business. I tell you this to help you understand why you shouldn’t take rejection personally. That’s very easy to say, harder to accomplish—especially if you’ve spent years of your life on a project that someone spends a few minutes deciding isn’t worth further consideration. But as you gain more experience and accomplishments, it becomes easier to ride this wave. You start to understand that no single rejection means anything, that rejections happen for a million reasons and are only sometimes related to the quality of the work. The more you can see rejection as a business response, and not an attack on your ability as a writer, the better.

Exercise: Study the Many Forms of Rejection

Read as many rejection letters as you can to learn what a form rejection looks like and what a personalized rejection looks like. Aside from Googling around, a good resource is RejectionWiki.com for literary journal rejections. (Click on the “Literary Journals and Rejections” link mentioned under the heading “The Basics.” You don’t have to verify your email address just to browse.) If you pay a fee for QueryTracker Premium, you can browse rejection letters sent by specific agents and publishers, posted by other users. Also seek out the collage of rejection letters received by Rebecca Skloot for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which she posted on Twitter (now X).2

Part Two

Platform Development

Platform is a tortured topic for writers, often despised but increasingly considered necessary for career success. By putting this discussion up front, I’m obviously indicating I do think it’s important to consider early on. But maybe not for the reasons you might think.

On the whole, platform is overly emphasized by everyone in the book publishing business. For agents and publishers, platform is mainly about an author’s ability to reliably sell books; an author with a big platform carries less risk than an author without any at all. Sometime during the 1990s, agents and publishers began rejecting nonfiction projects when the author lacked a “platform.” At the time—before the advent of the internet—publishers wanted authors to be in the public eye in some way (usually through mainstream media appearances) with the ability to easily spread the word to sell books. They weren’t interested in the average person who had an idea for a nonfiction book but no particular professional network or public presence.

Sometimes “platform” is used as shorthand for a writer’s celebrity factor, especially online. Because of that, platform gets conflated with a social media following. But that’s not really what platform is; impressive online followings tend to be the result of having a platform.

What Is Platform?

Frustratingly, every publisher and agent has different criteria for what constitutes a meaningful platform, making it an area rampant with conflicting and counterproductive advice. Writers can end up going in circles, expending a lot of effort in the name of “platform building” that not only isn’t useful for their career but is actively harmful. It consumes time and energy they could spend on writing and publishing. In this respect, teachers and mentors who tell you not to get distracted by platform are correct.

But it’s also foolhardy to expect that you can just write and publish, and that good things will happen without you playing a proactive role in your career and being visible. And that’s what platform is all about: visibility. You want your work to be seen, and most writers want to expand their readership, which over time leads to more opportunities and earnings. Platform growth is important to the extent that you want or expect to earn a living from your writing and publishing.

Platform has become more important over the years for all types of writers because it is not impressive or meaningful to publish something in the digital era. Many of us now publish and distribute with the click of a button on a daily basis—on social media especially, but also on all kinds of platforms. The difficult work lies in getting attention in an era of “cognitive surplus”—a term coined by author Clay Shirky that refers to the societal phenomenon wherein we now have free time to pursue all sorts of creative and collaborative activities, including writing.1 Although rarely called by this rather academic term, it’s a widely remarked-on dynamic. Author-entrepreneur Arianna Huffington once said, “Self-expression is the new form of entertainment.”2 Author George Packer wrote back in 1991, “Writing has become one of the higher forms of recreation in a leisure society.”3 These observations apply even more so now. A writer today is competing against many more would-be writers than would have been the case even a couple of decades ago.

Platform is not something you develop by engaging solely in marketing activities. It is not about self-promotion or hard selling, being an extrovert, or pleading “Look at me!” Platform isn’t about who yells the loudest or markets the best. It’s about putting in consistent effort over the course of a career and making incremental improvements in how you reach readers and extend your network. It’s about making waves that attract other people to you. Ultimately, your platform-building process will become as much a creative exercise as the work you produce.

Committed writers adopt a long-term view and recognize that most careers are launched not with a single fabulous work but through a series of small successes that build the writer’s network and visibility, step-by-step.

Where to Start

Participating in relationship building and literary citizenship activities, as described in chapter 5, is an ideal focus for an early-career writer. It’s more likely to contribute to or inspire new work rather than distract from it. While you’re focused on your writing and creative process, it can be helpful to find a new mentor or connect with another author in the same genre. Relationship building directly contributes to one’s platform and can lead to publishing opportunities.

This section offers technical and logistical guidance on author websites, email newsletters, and social media—the cornerstones of your online presence. For most writers, these are foundational tools for long-term platform building, and it is challenging to be visible to a readership without them. In part 5, I offer advanced guidance on how websites, email, and social media can be directly monetized. (Even if you don’t monetize them, they still serve as platform cornerstones.)

Whatever your path, if you’re a writer trying to earn a living off writing alone, you’ll soon realize that the size of your platform will affect how easy it is for you to earn money or bring opportunities to your door. And that’s why platform is truly important. Readers, editors, businesses, organizations, and other potential benefactors will be more likely to consider you if they’ve heard of you, seen evidence of your work in the market, or otherwise become familiar with you through online or offline interactions.

Some people have an easier time building a platform than others do. If you hold a high-profile position or have a powerful network; if you have friends in high places or are associated with powerful communities; if you have prestigious degrees or posts, then you play the field at an advantage. This is why it’s so easy for celebrities to get book deals. They have a built-in platform. I often advise writers: start with your strengths and don’t worry about what you don’t have. Most of us excel in one or two areas of platform building and leverage them repeatedly to develop our careers. Speaking for myself, I excel at email newsletters and have used that medium for my entire freelance career to fuel my business.

Platform does not develop overnight. You aren’t going to finish reading this book, follow a three-step formula, and—presto!—have a platform and be done. No two writers’ platforms are developed in the same way or have exactly the same components. Think of your platform as a fingerprint; your background, education, and network affect what your platform looks like in the beginning. Serendipity also plays a role. For most writers, their platform will be built organically over many years of writing and publishing.

4 : It All Starts with Your Work

The most important component of platform is your work, which should be a reassurance to every writer. There is no meaningful platform unless and until you have a body of work that people can experience. I use the term work here quite loosely: it could refer to a body of work on social media, published books and articles, self-published work, serializations delivered via mobile app, podcasts or videos—anything you produce that can be enjoyed and shared with others, whether free or paid.

Unless you’re experiencing unusual, serendipitous fame, platform can’t really be built separate from your work. Your work is the fabric of how you get appreciated and known. Platform grows out of writing and publishing in outlets or with partners you want to be identified with and that your target audience reads, or by producing and distributing material on your own that brings you an audience. New writers often express confusion about how to build a platform when they have not a single book or credit to their name. As they should. It’s difficult to build a platform for work that does not yet exist (unless, again, you’ve somehow stumbled into celebrity).

Thus, one of the best ways of building a strong platform is to produce work, and get it out there, regularly. The explanation for why is simple: the more work you have visible, the more opportunities there are for people to encounter it or share it. You’re building more impressions over time, and it typically takes numerous impressions for your name to stick in people’s heads—and to create demand, which is what we want.

The other big benefit to producing consistently is that you get better the more you practice and receive comments or feedback—plus it helps you avoid the common psychological traps of creative work, such as waiting for the muse or for your skills to match your ambition. (Such a time never arrives!) When Ira Glass describes that problematic gap between your good taste and the quality of your early work (in chapter 3), he also offers a solution: “The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.”1

You’re Building a Brand Whether You Like It or Not

A reliable way to upset a roomful of writers is to promote the idea of “brand building.” Unless you are already comfortable with the idea of running your writing career like a business, it goes against literary sensibilities to embrace the idea that you, or your writing, might be boiled down to something so vulgar. It can also feel suffocating—who wants to feel beholden to their “brand”?

I use the word brand here to indicate strategic awareness about what type of work you’re producing, how and where that work is being seen, and who is seeing it. Brand is about how you and your work are perceived. In a word, brand is expectation. What do readers expect from you? Like it or not, they will form expectations. You can wait and let it happen by accident, but it’s better to consider how you can shape expectations yourself—or decide when and how to work against expectations.

If you haven’t given this the slightest bit of thought, a good starting exercise is to inventory everything you’ve written or published. What topics or themes emerge in those pieces? Where have they appeared, or who has read them? What patterns can you identify? Almost every writer is preoccupied with something, and it shows up in their work. Awareness of these preoccupations is the start of describing your brand. Hopefully the type of writing you’re doing now—whether it’s published or not—bears some relation to the work you want to be known for. If you find there’s a disconnect, ask yourself why. Do you lack confidence to tackle the work that feels most important to you? Are you distracting yourself with easier writing work?

Once you’ve identified patterns, you have the start of a brand-related statement that might be part of your author bio, discussed in the next section. But you want to go beyond simply listing ideas or themes. Can you tell a story about why? There is tremendous creative power and marketing power in forming a narrative around yourself and your work. Regardless of whether you’re a poet or a businessperson, everyone recognizes the allure of story. To help spark the story you want to tell, consider these three questions:2

1. Who are you?

2. How did you get here?

3. What do you care about and why?

Deceptively simple questions! Some people spend the greater part of their lives answering and reanswering them, so don’t expect to solve this puzzle in one night. The truth is, your story (or brand) will evolve over time—it’s never meant to be a static thing. It’s something that grows, it’s organic, and it’s often unpredictable.

Another interesting exercise: develop a brand statement that gets at the essence of what you do without using external signifiers. For example, creative writing students from selective master of fine arts (MFA) programs may be tempted to say, “A graduate of [prestigious MFA program] . . .” and lean on that credit to telegraph who or what they are. This is also a common tactic if you’ve worked for well-known publications or won awards. Set those qualifications aside for the moment, and dig deeper: how does your creative work transcend markers of prestige or transient characteristics, such as your current job title? It’s not that you should leave out signifiers (which may be an important part of your platform or identity); rather, this exercise pushes you to think beyond résumé accomplishments.

Once you have a partial handle on who you are and what you’re about, you’re in a much stronger position to pursue strategic platform building. You can benefit more from connecting with others and talking about others who have a similar why. This helps you build up a network of not only goodwill but also genuine relationships that will support your writing career, which we’ll cover in chapter 5.

The Art of the Bio

It’s such a small thing, an innocuous bit of copy that can be passed over quickly, even ignored. But when your writing makes an impression, one of the first things a reader will ask is, “Who wrote this?” Your biographical note, or bio, thus represents an opportunity to establish a meaningful connection and potentially draw opportunities to you. A brief bio accompanies nearly everything you do: the publication of your work, your appearances, your social media profiles, your website, and so on. Whenever you’re in a position to be noticed, people will see your bio. What story do you want to tell?

Some writers don’t say anything substantive—and this is true of both emerging and established writers. So be careful. You won’t necessarily learn how to write a better bio by modeling yours on those of successful writers. As I write this, one of the most popular and recognized literary writers uses a bio note that just says, “[Name] is a writer.” Tendencies toward brevity and understatement can sometimes be chalked up to shyness or modesty. (Women especially need to rethink this approach, but I’ve found men using the modest bio as well.) For other writers with short bios, it’s an attempt to convey status. Famous authors are known for the one-liner—and when you’re as well known as Joyce Carol Oates, what’s needed except your name? And still other writers may be buying into the romance of the mysterious author whom one should never know too well.

Although there may be good reason to preserve some mystique, it’s still possible to say something meaningful and helpful for your career. Especially if you’re emerging, getting noticed is part of the game, and unless more amazing opportunities are landing in your lap than you can possibly accept, it’s not to your advantage to be overly coy. That’s not to say it’s easy to write about yourself. Most writers find it painful to write even fifty words without sounding overly earnest or terribly self-important. But the challenge is worth your attention.

Parting Thoughts

What happens if you’re not writing and publishing much (or at all)? You’re not alone. There are periods in your life when focused, sustained writing and publishing is simply not realistic. You might have other priorities or demands on your time. Acknowledge it and stop beating yourself up about it—it’s possible to expect too much of yourself. Monty Python alumnus John Cleese said, “If you’re racing around all day, ticking things off a list . . . and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas.”3 During some stages of your life, you will not get any writing done.

Or you may be the type of writer who always takes a long time to finish and publish a piece of work. This will indeed affect your visibility (platform) over time, and it’s why prolific writers have an advantage in business. However, there are ways to ameliorate the situation. Writers are often advised to engage with the community, or be an “authentic” member of the community. What does that mean? Talking about stuff you genuinely care about or believe in. Writers who are not prolific, whose careers may move more slowly, can benefit most from practicing literary citizenship, becoming more visible to their community primarily by never shutting up about the ideas and issues they care about. And that’s what chapter 5 is about.

Exercise: Write Your Bio

If you’re tackling a professional bio for the first time, start by listing the most important facts about your writing career, what topics or themes interest you, and where people can find more of your work. Even if the information seems boring or rote, your delivery or style doesn’t have to be.

These facts provide the foundation for your bio, but don’t limit yourself to the facts. Make your short-term or long-term goals apparent. If you’re working on a book or collection, mention it. If you’re hoping for freelance gigs, then give us a sense, or tell us explicitly, that you’re a freelance writer, and do so in the first few lines. It’s also acceptable to flat-out describe your dream job or aspirations. One journalist puts in his bio that his dream sponsor is Campari. This both demonstrates what work he’s seeking and gives us a glimpse of his personality.

Because one of the main purposes of the bio is to encourage people to contact you with opportunities or follow your updates, be sure to provide a link to your website, newsletter, online portfolio, or anywhere you’re active. You don’t have to offer a laundry list of all your social media accounts; in most cases, you’ll refer people to your website (discussed in chapter 7), where they can further explore your work and background. And this brings us to the first bio you should write, the kitchen-sink bio.

The kitchen-sink bio includes all the detail you are willing to offer on your experience and background. This bio is usually reserved for your author website only. I recommend two hundred to three hundred words, if not more, depending on your career history. Try to answer the questions discussed earlier, particularly the first two: Who am I? How did I get here? It helps if you think in terms of telling a story or building a backstory, which writers happen to be good at. While there are many ways to write such a bio, it should convey something of your voice, personality, or point of view. This detailed bio is primarily for the most interested people—editors, agents, or influencers who have read your work somewhere and are now researching you further.

The capsule bio is often easy to write once you have a long version to work from. Create a short bio (fifty to one hundred words) that would be appropriate to run with your published articles. In this short bio, it’s important to offer an explicit statement of your writing goals, and include external validators—where you’ve been published, where you’ve worked, awards you’ve won, anything that lends social proof. For example, a regional freelancer’s bio might include, “Focused on issues of poverty and the disenfranchised in Virginia and the winner of three Society of Professional Journalists awards.”

As best you can, retain a point of view or voice, and offer one or two human touches, details with the potential to create that “something in common.” For example, when I was invited to sit on a panel at the National Endowment for the Arts, I was told that the mention of being a “late-sleeping editor” in my bio added a bit of personality that indicated I was probably not so bad to work with. If you’re looking for inspiration on the task ahead of you, it’s worth getting a copy of Michael Martone: Fictions by Michael Martone, composed entirely of contributors’ notes.

Social media bios work best if they’re customized by channel. Every social media site has a slightly different demographic, and you may have differing goals or patterns of behavior at each one. Many people forget to put a public bio on their Facebook profile, which is a mistake—you never know who might read the public parts of that profile.

If you have a book launch coming up, or if you find yourself receiving frequent media or publicity requests, you should write a professional bio, in which the first 100 to 150 words nail the most important aspects of your career. That’s crucial because this bio will be cribbed by third parties for marketing and publicity purposes. If it helps, think of the newspaper journalist’s “inverted pyramid,” wherein you pack the opening with the hard-hitting facts and leave the least important information for the end. A professional bio can be very long (500 words or more), but busy people won’t read it all. Interviewers, journalists, and especially publicists will often grab copy from your site and paste it right into whatever document they’re working on. If you’ve already done the work of concisely summarizing your career in the opening lines, you’ve done them, and yourself, a favor: they can lift it word for word, giving you more control over how you’re presented.

5 : Relationship Building and Literary Citizenship

Building relationships is an activity that’s largely unquantifiable but foundational to every writing career. When you identify a successful writer and trace their path to success, keep in mind that you can only see the visible aspects of what they have done. Behind the scenes are other authors, mentors, benefactors, and communities that contributed to that success. (Acknowledgments pages: a great way to uncover that which might otherwise be invisible!)

One’s progress as a writer is inevitably affected by two things: (1) the quality of feedback or mentorship received, and (2) the support and recognition of a community of peers. Without them, writers tend to experience a longer learning curve, and—sometimes—total abandonment of writing. An old proverb says, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

While every writer needs some internal motivation to write and publish that’s not reliant on external validation, writers are also human (so far), which means they’re social creatures, and thus they generally do better when they can learn and progress with the help of others. The word community tends to be overused in gauzy and sentimental terms to include everything from social media marketing to book clubs, but ultimately if you work in isolation and haven’t been building relationships in the writing community, I’d go so far as to say you can’t meaningfully succeed in publishing.

Writing and Critique Groups

Writing and critique groups tend to be the first groups writers join as they get serious about their efforts, especially those not pursuing a writing degree. Unfortunately, writing groups have myriad pitfalls because members might not be on the same page about what the group is for, and sometimes it’s a case of one misinformed novice leading another. Before you join or start a group, consider the following:

• Define the purpose of the group. There are many types of writing group. Some are accountability groups, to keep you producing regular work. Others are traditional critique groups, where you share work in progress and get feedback. You’ll find some groups more oriented toward content generation, where members gather to write in silence and may not share the results (or, if they do, it may not be for critique). Always have clarity on the group’s purpose before investing your time.

• Secure thoughtful leadership. Where writers get into the most trouble is with critique groups. This type of group needs to be led by someone who understands the foundation of good critique. Writers have to be taught how to critique well—no one is born knowing how to do it. For those unsure where to start, I highly recommend the Lerman Method, a four-step process. First, critiquers state what is interesting or striking in the work. (This is generally positive or at least neutral feedback.) Second, the writer being critiqued asks questions about the work. (E.g., Did you catch the subtext in this paragraph? How did you feel about this character? Did this passage keep your interest?) There are no inappropriate questions; it’s whatever the writer wants to know. Third, critiquers can ask neutral questions about the work. Neutral means there is no opinion or critique being surreptitiously expressed. A neutral question might be, “What’s your goal with this scene?” Fourth, as a final step, the writer may wish to solicit the group’s opinions about the work. But by this point, it’s likely that anything useful has already been expressed.

• Avoid social complaint hour. Be wary of any group that gets stuck in a pattern of discussing the evils of publishing, how this or that editor/agent/publisher didn’t behave well, skepticism or bitterness about others’ success, or anything else that’s persistently negative. I’m not suggesting you wear rose-colored glasses, yet neither do you want to spend time among people who primarily complain or adopt a victim mentality. Look instead for a group that’s focused on celebrating milestones, no matter how small; sharing opportunities for advancement; and looking for ways to make progress together. Doing so is typically easier when you have a mix of skill levels in the group, so the more advanced writers can help the newer ones along.

Writing Organizations

If you write in a specific category or genre, research whether there is a writers organization for it. Just a few of the major writing organizations in the United States include the Authors Guild, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (which includes young adult authors), Mystery Writers of America, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, the Women’s Fiction Writing Association, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, and International Thriller Writers. These large national organizations often have regional chapters and meetings, which are an excellent way to find critique partners and mentors and learn from established authors in your community. If you’re not committed to a particular genre, these organizations can still be welcoming and accepting no matter what you write. Alternatively, look for regional or state writing organizations where you live (e.g., Pennwriters in Pennsylvania), as well as nonprofit writing organizations, such as Grub Street in Boston or the Loft in Minneapolis.

Community Events

Your local bookstore and library are often good first stops to learn about local authors, writing events, and writing groups in your area. Any city of size likely has a free reading series of some kind that hosts out-of-town authors. If authors aren’t being hosted by bookstores or libraries, check nearby universities. Becoming a familiar face at such events gives you an opportunity to build relationships with booksellers, librarians, and the authors themselves. Unless the author has a national reputation, some book events may be sparsely attended, which will make your presence all the more valued.

If you’re an ambitious type and your area doesn’t have a reading series, that means you have an opportunity to start one. It’s a well-known way of building your own author platform and also serves the literary community at the same time.

Writing Conferences

Your education and insight into writing and publishing will advance exponentially when you attend a well-run writing conference. You’ll gain an understanding that’s often impossible from just reading about the industry. You will meet agents and editors, and you’ll start to see them as fallible people, not gods. But most important, you’ll begin to develop relationships that will contribute to your professional development.

The vast majority of writing conferences offer programming that’s generally inclusive of all genres, which is not a bad thing, but it can quickly affect the quality of your experience if you need genre-specific guidance. In fact, you can get steered in the wrong direction quickly by a generalist who doesn’t know the special needs of your genre. For example, children’s writers should prioritize events hosted by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Mystery writers should consider events hosted by the Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime. Self-publishing authors should look for events that are geared to their needs, and so on.

Look for faculty or speakers who write in your genre or have accomplished goals similar to what you’d like to achieve. Keynote speakers can be entertaining, be inspiring, and drive publicity for the conference, but the real learning tends to come in the breakout sessions, master classes, or sessions with the speakers who may not be big names. Avoid committing to a conference before the speakers and sessions are announced, assuming your goal is to deepen your mastery of the craft or business. Good rule of thumb: if a keynote speaker failed to show up, would the conference still be attractive to you?

Some conferences offer consulting and critique appointments with editors, agents, and other professionals. These can help shorten your path to publication. You can get the reasons, immediately, that an agent or editor may not be responding favorably to your work. It’s also a cost-effective way to receive either editorial or business guidance, but be careful. Agents and editors may be seeing dozens of writers during the conference and may not spend much time on advance preparation, even if you pay to send materials in advance. Conversations can be rushed. The onus is often on the writer to direct the conversation in a way that’s beneficial. I’ve seen such meetings offer significant insights and advantages, but for some they can be damaging. These appointments shouldn’t be considered the final word on you or your work.

When attending a large-scale event, look for pre- and postconference master classes with more intimate gatherings. That can give you the best of both worlds, if you can afford it. Small, retreat-style events can help you with a deep dive on a manuscript or offer intensive study on a specific topic. In such cases, you may be working with only one teacher, so be confident it’s someone you respect or trust. An application process in these situations is a good sign, to ensure a quality experience for everyone. Ask past attendees about the environment and overall vibe if you can.

You may want to stick with events close to home to save on costs, but there’s also another big benefit to going local or regional. If you meet other writers at the event, they’re more likely to be from your area, too—making it easier to form relationships and collaborate over long periods, as your careers grow alongside one another. If you go to a big-city or nationally known conference, attendees are more likely to be from all over the country. That might be to your benefit if you’ve tapped out your local and regional connections and want to expand your network to a national level.

If one of your conference goals is to network and develop better relationships, then preconference prep is critical. If you’re not on social media, now is the time to establish at least one account. The biggest writing conferences may have ongoing online conversations months before the actual event. This is your opportunity to warm up the networking fires and make your conference time all the more valuable. Research the speakers, especially those you hope to meet in person. At minimum, read their bios. (Doing this actually makes you more prepared than the majority in attendance.) Remembering even a small detail about someone’s publishing history or background is invaluable if you stand in line next to this person at the bar or sit with them at a meal. A benefit of going to conferences is making connections you wouldn’t otherwise have. A speaker will be flattered and become an instant friend if you know a little something about their work, especially if they’re not a conference headliner. And while you’re at it, read up on the conference organizers, too. They put in a ton of work behind the scenes, and, again, if you show you’re paying attention, you’ll make a lifelong friend. Which brings us to . . .

Volunteering

Running writing groups, organizations, and events takes an enormous amount of work. Countless people toil behind the scenes to help things run smoothly; even small events involve dozens of volunteers. You can often secure free entry into an event if you’re a volunteer, but the main benefit is getting more access and time with all kinds of authors and publishing professionals. Volunteering increases your exposure to the community and invites serendipity to work on behalf of your career.

MFA Programs and Other Professional Writing Degrees

If you have the money and time (a big “if”), it can be worthwhile to enroll in a master of fine arts (MFA) program based solely on its faculty and networking opportunities. If faculty members are invested in seeing their students succeed; if you hope to achieve what they have achieved; if you’re confident it will move your career to the next level to study under a specific writer—those are relevant and motivating factors to pursue an MFA degree. But it’s wise to schedule a visit or series of appointments before committing, mainly to confirm that there’s good chemistry between you and the faculty members. Don’t take it on faith that you’ll love any program or faculty sight unseen—get as much exposure as possible beforehand.

Deciding to pursue an MFA degree in creative writing or a similar degree means you are largely committing to one thing: you want to devote serious time and attention to your craft. When MFA programs advertise the success of their graduates, that success is predicated on one, overarching belief: that they produce writers who accomplish great things because they produce writers who have achieved artistic excellence.

Accomplishment, however, does not always follow from artistic excellence. There are also commercial factors, sales skills, timing, luck, and connections. Master’s programs can provide valuable connections. But they have no control over timing or luck and, until recently, haven’t devoted much attention to helping students navigate the publishing industry or sell what they create. Perhaps more important, accomplishment does not equate to earning a living from writing. The majority of MFA graduates earn little from the writing they produce, so it’s not necessarily the best choice to advance a writing career, given that the average student will be thousands of dollars in debt when they graduate and likely pressured to find paying work of the nonwriting variety.

However, there can also be excellent reasons to invest in an MFA program. You’re there to get writing done and be among people who value writing and writing time above all else. That kind of unwavering devotion to the craft can lead to creative breakthroughs as well as important relationships with career-long mentors and peers. For writers interested in teaching, an MFA is a terminal degree that can lead to tenure-track positions in creative writing programs, but not by itself. There are thousands more graduates of creative writing programs than there are teaching positions available, especially tenure-track positions. The competition for a permanent position, even at a small, unknown school, is stiff. Candidates must have a strong track record of publication—usually at least one book from a well-known press—and satisfy other considerable requirements, such as a record of teaching excellence. Furthermore, MFA programs may prefer or demand candidates with a PhD in creative writing, which calls into question whether the MFA is truly a terminal degree.

The Practice of Literary Citizenship

Early in his career, author Chris Guillebeau spent two hours every day on activities that could be described as “building relationships.” He spent half a year reading the work of authors with whom he identified, and he wrote them personal letters of admiration, asking for nothing in return. He also talked them up to the small audience he had. When he managed to attract a new reader, he sent a short personal message of acknowledgment. As a result, when he started producing his own work in earnest, he had a group of people supporting him and spreading the word.1 This was not only good relationship building but good literary citizenship.

Literary citizenship is a term most prevalent in the literary/MFA publishing community. It refers to activities that support a culture of reading, writing, and publishing. The thinking is that if one wants to build a life that’s sustained by the literary community, one should be a good citizen of that community by promoting or bringing attention to others’ work in some form. Thus, much of your public activity (online or off) should be other focused, not centered on your own stuff.

I find this to be a more palatable (or friendly) way for some writers to think of platform building. What I’ve always liked about the promotion of literary citizenship is that it’s simple for people to practice—it’s straightforward to talk about the writers or books one loves—and it aligns well with the values of the literary community. Furthermore, it operates on an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset wherein it’s necessary to hoard resources and attention. In an abundance mindset, everyone can succeed. If I’m doing well, that’s going to help you, so let’s collaborate rather than compete.

Parting Thoughts

Building a supportive network takes time. Start cultivating community early on, even if your preference is to work alone. The good news is that you can be successful doing it no matter what your limitations or abilities may be. You can focus on relationship building through social media. You can focus on in-person local or regional events. You can focus on volunteering through organizations. There are many paths, and you can find one that’s sustainable for your personality, strengths, and location. Just remember that you don’t own or control a community, and you’re not building one for yourself; you participate in or engage with one. To be a recognized community member means operating so as to generate respect and trust. If you try to use the community to fulfill only your own goals (like selling a book), the community will respond less enthusiastically over time.

Exercise: Read the Acknowledgments Page

Select a recently published book of any kind and read the acknowledgments. What people does the author thank? What communities are mentioned? Can you identify the relationships that have been critical to this author’s path to publication?

6 : Networking with the Powerful or Influential

Many writers want to meet and get friendly with high-profile authors, agents, editors, and powerful people in their community—the sort of people I call “VIPs and influencers.”

“Influencers” tend to get discussed inside the publishing industry most often in connection with book launches. For example, a TikTok influencer may be able to sell hundreds of copies of a book simply by recommending it to their following. But I’m using the term influencer in a much broader sense, as shorthand for people who can bring you closer to your publishing goals, bring you more readers, or spread the word about what you’re doing.

I don’t agree with some who say you need to know “the right people” to succeed in publishing, but over the long arc of a career, you need and want people in your corner who can help open doors. My own career benefited greatly from a professor who introduced me to an esteemed editor at a traditional publishing house, who then nudged my internship application to the top of the pile at his company. I owe the launch of my publishing career to that little nudge.

All the literary citizenship principles covered in chapter 5 apply here. It’s a very fine line that separates peer relationships from VIP relationships—especially since your peers may become VIPs themselves over time. But there is a difference in the sense that more mistakes can be made in an effort to impress someone or ask a favor. Those who are well situated to boost writing careers receive countless requests, and the higher their walls tend to be (and perhaps their cynicism). So how do you break through without appearing entirely self-serving?

First, it’s OK to ask for a favor, if you do it right (which we’ll cover). Successful people generally want to help if they can, assuming the request is appropriate and doesn’t pose an undue burden. That said, it doesn’t hurt to adopt a long-term approach and be thinking of ways you might be useful to them. Who knows? You might have a solution to one of their problems. Follow them on social media or community sites and get a sense for how and where you can contribute. Respond to their calls for conversation or engagement. Write thoughtful comments on their newsletter or blog if they have one. Bring to their attention issues or ideas that you think merit their interest. In short: be helpful but not overbearing. At the very least, share what they’re doing with your community in the spirit of literary citizenship.

If you end up at a real-life event that presents a networking opportunity, and you find yourself tongue-tied, here are a couple of questions (proposed by author Michael Ellsberg) to help you start a meaningful conversation:1

• What’s the most exciting thing for you right now?

• What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Ask, and then listen to the answers—that’s the most important part by far. Perhaps there will be an opening for you to offer help or suggest further interactions. At the very least, you can draw on the conversation if you find yourself emailing or later connecting with the person.

But what if such opportunities rarely present themselves? One of the greatest gifts of the digital age is the ability to connect with people we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to reach in person. Social media can offer immediate access to people who might in fact respond and notice you. Remember, though—the consideration you would put into real-life interactions is also needed online. Taking the time to engage on social media is exactly like taking time to attend readings, community events, and parties where you can meet influencers or established authors. Don’t be so goal oriented that everyone moves far, far away from you because you’re radiating a “Please like me!” vibe. Instead, you should be there to have a good time, to listen and learn, to ask questions, to stay in touch with like-minded people. That’s why social media works best for long-term awareness and networking, not the hard sell.

Fortunately, writers—as imaginative and expressive people—have an advantage over those who use communication tools with a more antiseptic or corporate approach. Just as your work has a distinctive voice and footprint, so does (or so should) your expression online. By consistently showing up, you build awareness of who you are and what you stand for. You become more visible and identifiable. As recognition and trust develop, you’ll find that people more often think of you for opportunities, or more readily think of you, period—because they’re seeing your name more often than that of someone who’s not around.

You shouldn’t expect to develop a meaningful or ongoing relationship with every VIP or influencer who might benefit you. Sometimes the relationship will be straightforward and transactional, especially in the context of a book launch. But knowing who the influencers are in your community is powerful knowledge. Getting their support, even briefly, is like applying some rocket fuel to your platform-building efforts. An influencer might be a comparable author with a bigger audience; a podcaster, YouTuber, or BookTokker who reaches your readership; booksellers or librarians; the leaders of major writing organizations or conferences; business or community leaders relevant to you or your work; and moderators or founders of large online communities. This is not an exhaustive list—it can be anyone with community leverage or visibility. And remember that’s mainly what we’re focused on when building platform: visibility.

If You Want Influencer/VIP Support for Yourself or Your Project

The first rule is: be brief and be specific. Some people worry about being abrupt or too direct when they ask a favor. But it’s such a blessing when someone knows what they want, asks for it directly, and doesn’t waste time in doing it. Make it easy for the recipient to say yes or no, without having to ask a bunch of follow-up questions.

If there were a template for an influencer request, it might go something like this: the first paragraph should establish who you are or remind the person of who you are if there’s even the slightest possibility they need to be reminded. (If there’s no doubt, then one or two sentences of small talk is fine; for example, “Saw your latest Instagram post, how fun!”) The next paragraph is the request. The final paragraph is a closing of about one sentence, such as “I greatly appreciate your consideration.” Mention a deadline in the closing if there is one. If you’re tempted to send lots of information, add a link they can click to learn more. Or say you can send over such-and-such if they want to know more.

See how easy and brief that was? I don’t know anyone who isn’t pressed for time. Just about all of us have too much work, too much to read, and too much we owe others. Though the people you reach out to will likely want to help, if it requires too much time—especially if you ask for a conversation or meeting—you’ve just decreased your chances. Also, consider that reading and responding to someone else’s work (especially if it’s a book) is a significant investment of time and energy. It is naive to email someone who is an acquaintance or a stranger with a request to read your work unless it’s someone whose actual paying job is to read, review, or recommend books.

If you’re seeking support for your published work, you should find out how, where, and when your influencer shares or discusses such things. Is it on social media? Do they run reading or book clubs? Do they have blogs, email newsletters, or podcasts? Figure out their standard communication or publishing channels and make your request specific to their existing behavior. Don’t ask them to do something they’ve never done before, and don’t suggest long-term or high-risk commitments until trust is established.

Your request shouldn’t require additional research, intensive deliberation, or a multifaceted response addressing several issues you’ve listed. “I’d love to collaborate with you!” could strike fear in the heart of your contact, especially if such collaboration is not defined. Make it easy for influencers to agree to something specific, something they could easily envision themselves doing or adding as an item on their to-do lists.

As someone with an active blog and newsletter, I receive frequent requests for attention or book coverage, but only a tiny percentage of people seem aware that I don’t review books and I rarely interview authors. However, I do run excerpts, so that’s what I offer instead of a review. But not all people you contact will offer an alternative method of support. They’ll simply say no. That’s why, if someone does say no, keep that person on your list for the future. As the author James Clear has said, no often means “not right now” or “not in that way.”2 Your timing might be better next time—as well as your request.

When You Become an Influencer or VIP

You have the power to make someone’s day. If a reader or author mentions and tags you in a positive post, say thank you. Repost their photos of your book. Share the interview someone did with you. Show that you care, and the community will never forget it. Show gratitude to those who help spread the word about your work and have played a role in building your platform.

Parting Thoughts

It’s an old cliché in publishing that “word of mouth” is what drives success. Today, word of mouth can be sparked by anyone. Decades ago, it used to be professional book reviews that drove visibility for authors and books, but that’s rarely the case today. Now, visibility can be sparked within a niche message board, or from a ten-second TikTok video. The good news about this change: It’s now easier to find and identify readerships and see what actually works—because the evidence of word of mouth is right in front of you. While it’s very cool to be mentioned in prestigious outlets like the New York Times, if you’re seeking platform growth and visibility, that may not be the best place to focus your energies. The answer may lie in the strength and power of your relationships and influencers in your community.

Exercise: Plant the Seeds of a Relationship with a High-Profile Author

Select a high-profile author you admire who is active online, preferably someone who has released a new book within the past year or two. Study their online presence and see if you can identify a way to support their activities and be more visible to them. For example:

• If the author has an event coming up, attend it if possible. Beforehand, post on social media about looking forward to the event. Include a picture of you and the author’s book, if you have it. If you’re feeling ambitious, write a summary of the event for your blog or newsletter, or pitch coverage of the event to a media outlet. During the event, post photos or quotes on your social media network of choice, and tag the author and other participants, including the publisher and venue. If the opportunity arises, get a selfie with the author.

• If the author has an email newsletter or blog, subscribe to it or follow it regularly. Respond or comment on occasion about what you find valuable or entertaining. Repeat for as long as you’re genuinely engaged. Just about every author appreciates hearing from readers, plus by engaging in such a focused way on social media, you will be visible to that author’s larger community. The author will eventually begin to recognize your name, and this makes it more likely that they may respond warmly to a specific request in the future (e.g., an interview request, a blurb request, a speaking request).

7 : Your Online Foundation

Website, Email, and Social Media

So far we’ve discussed the following components of author platform:

• Your published work. This includes any writing or content that’s available to the public—free or paid, online or offline.

• Relationships. This includes people you know either online or in real life, or both. Relationships tend to be associated with a particular community; the more your relationships stretch across communities—the more diverse they are—the more powerful your platform tends to be.

• VIP or influencer connections. These increase with time and experience and include successful authors, editors, agents, media figures, and others who are in a position to bestow visibility, earnings, or opportunities. Such connections can also include businesses, organizations, and institutions where you’re known and have inside relationships.

I like to refer to the next three platform components as your online marketing trifecta: your website, email newsletter, and social media. They provide vital support when you are developing the first three platform components—they facilitate relationship building and generally make all your other efforts stronger and more likely to pay off. In some cases, wherein writers are comfortable or savvy with these tools and use them to produce new work, they can take the lead in platform building and even earn money, as we’ll discuss in part 5.

Author Websites

I believe that all career-minded writers, even those not yet published, should maintain a website as part of their professional development. A website serves as your online home and hub for everything you do, whether in real life or in the digital realm. You own and control it, and you can use it to tell your own story and connect directly with interested readers or influencers. It’s hard to overstate its importance over the long term. Consider it a cost of doing business.

Your website will improve over time—in search rank, appearance, and content—assuming you tend to it and don’t abandon it. And why would you, if you’re still writing and publishing? If you start the process early, before you “need” a site, you can enjoy a gentler learning curve, as well as the power of incremental progress. You don’t have to launch and perfect everything at once. Start small, and build your skills and presence over time. You want something you can manage. Sustainability is key.

At writers conferences, I’m sometimes asked: Why start an author website? Why not just use LinkedIn, Substack, or some other social network? Isn’t that where everyone is spending their time? Why would people visit my site?

If you focus on social media instead of an author website, you favor the short term over the long term. You invest your time and energy in a platform that may lose its effectiveness or disappear in several years. In the meantime, your author website will remain unfinished, and people who don’t use your preferred social network will be difficult to identify and reach. Most important, you can never control what any social media platform does or how it evolves—in terms of design and functionality, user interface, or your likes/followers/relationships. And make no mistake, the companies that run these platforms are concerned about their own needs, not yours. Whereas a site with millions of users is undeniably attractive to anyone trying to reach readers, it doesn’t eliminate the need for a website. It actually makes it more important to have a website, so that people who find you via social media have somewhere to go to learn the official story about who you are and what you do.

What to Put on Your Website

This is not an exhaustive list, only a starting point. For very new writers, a website might consist of only one or two pages, mainly focused on your bio and portfolio of work.

• About page. Your kitchen-sink bio (discussed in chapter 4) goes here. Include a professional headshot if you have one. If you don’t have one, an investment here goes a long way. For those with little or no budget, look for AI tools that can generate a decent-quality headshot based on your casual snapshots for a low price.

• A page for each published book. For each book you’ve written and published, create a stand-alone page for it. Always show the cover image. Offer a brief description of the book; include accolades or positive reviews that indicate its value; and add buy links for major retailers. Your website’s menu or navigation should have a tab labeled Books. If you have just one book, put it on this Books page along with the aforementioned details about it. If you have more than one book, show each of the cover images on the opening Books page, and create links to let visitors click on the cover to visit the dedicated page for that book for further information about it.

• Short published works. Create a page that lists the essays, articles, stories, poems, and other writing that you’ve published. Always provide a link to where a piece can be found or read, assuming it’s online. It’s usual to group publications by genre and to list them in reverse chronological order. If a piece appeared with illustrations or was otherwise highly visual, it’s helpful to add an image showing the opening or an interior spread, assuming you have permission. Prolific or multigenre writers might consider a separate page for each genre, series, or type of work (for example, pages labeled Poetry, Short Stories, and Personal Essay).

• Contact page. Always make it clear how you can be reached, especially if you’re a freelancer. Published authors can include their agent’s or publicist’s contact info if they don’t want to field media or publicity requests. If you are open to being contacted directly, then add a proper contact form to your site rather than just giving your email address. It works better for outreach.

• Links to social media profiles. If you’re active elsewhere and invite interaction, make it clear, either with social media icons/buttons in the header, footer, or sidebar, or by using widgets and badges that reflect your activity.

• Email newsletter sign-up. Every author should consider having an email newsletter, as discussed later in this chapter, to keep readers updated on new releases and events. Many authors place the sign-up option prominently on the home page or use a pop-up.

How to Craft Your Home Page

A home page typically includes the following elements:

• A header with your name and a tagline that characterizes your work. (One thriller novelist uses the tagline “thrillers with heart.”) Commercial authors often include a headshot somewhere on the page to make the site feel more welcoming. Some authors, however, believe that inclusion of a headshot would make them seem too self-absorbed. Do what feels comfortable to you.

• Website navigation or menu system that is plain and clear. This usually means providing an obvious path for people to learn more about who you are (e.g., a tab titled About), how to contact you (Contact), and what you’ve written (Books or Publications). Don’t be clever with the page titling; be direct.

• The cover of your most recent book, if you have one. Authors with multiple books may even want to show the cover of every published book on their home page. Regardless of your decision, if you have many books, include a menu tab labeled Books, as mentioned in the previous section, so visitors can jump to a complete listing.

• A call to action, such as an email newsletter sign-up. Writers with new books will often include links to an excerpt, to sites where visitors can buy the book, or to related news or event announcements. There isn’t one right answer here; emphasize what’s most important to you and update it as your priorities change.

• Social proof. We’re all susceptible to signaling that says, “This person is liked and trusted by others.” Some authors include logos of the publications they’ve appeared in or mention grants or awards received. Others mention important communities they belong to. Published authors might showcase praise about their work.

A few additional considerations regarding the home page:

• If you’re an active freelancer, mention your most recently published work, with links to read it if available.

• If you’re unpublished, add a brief description of who you are or what you do, about fifty to two hundred words. Published authors should skip any long, introductory welcome message, focus on their books instead, and have a clearly labeled About page.

• If you’re blogging, it’s rarely to your advantage for the home page to focus on your blog alone. You might include mention of recently published posts, but don’t let this content dominate your home page unless the blog is the only reason people visit your website.

Home page design is incredibly subjective, but the most important criterion is that the type of writer you are—and the work you produce or services you offer—should be recognizable quickly. You have about three seconds to convey the message, and you don’t want visitors guessing. Some authors can get away with a fair amount of intrigue or cleverness, but try to be honest about whether you’re actually intriguing people or frustrating them.

Which Website Platform Should You Use?

If you don’t yet have a website, I recommend building one with WordPress. It’s a robust, free, open-source system that will stand the test of time—something I can’t say for a lot of tech platforms today. It’s continually updated to keep pace with changes in web technology. Because it powers about one-third of the world’s websites, it’s easier to find help and ready-to-go functionality if you need it.

There are two ways to use WordPress: you can use WordPress.com, a full-service website hosting platform, which is free to start but may incur costs for customized design or functionality; or you can install the WordPress system for free on an account at most website hosting providers. (A hosting provider is a company that stores your website on its servers and keeps it up and running; basic hosting costs five to ten dollars per month but can easily cost thousands of dollars per year for high-traffic sites.) If you’re technically challenged, or a new or unpublished author, I’d suggest that you ease into site building and management with a free account at WordPress.com. If you outgrow it, you can always move your WordPress site to a host of your choice—the relocation should be seamless since it’s the same technology.

Some writers find WordPress too intimidating or difficult to use. If that describes you, a decent alternative is Squarespace, which charges monthly fees. It offers the advantage of e-commerce functionality from the start. This means you can sell services directly off your site, a very common need for freelance editors and coaches. Just know that if you ever leave Squarespace, you’ll have to rebuild your website from scratch because Squarespace is a proprietary platform.

Other options: Ghost is like a friendly mashup of WordPress and Squarespace; it also offers native functionality for sending email newsletters. To get a quick (and just temporary) website up in a pinch, look at Carrd. You can build a Carrd site in about fifteen minutes at no cost, which is helpful in case you’re headed off to a conference or networking event and you want a site available.

Although it’s not necessary to buy your own domain name in order to have a website, it’s best to do so even if you don’t use it right away. A domain is your website’s URL, and in most cases it should be based on the name you intend to publish under, not a book title. Your author name is your brand. It will span decades and appear on every book you publish. If you can’t get yourname.com, try for yournameauthor.com, yournamebooks.com, or yournamewriter.com. If that fails, consider an extension other than .com (like .co or .me). That’s not to say you can’t also buy domains based on your book titles (in most cases, they should redirect to your main author website), but that’s second priority.

If this technical conversation is causing you headaches, you may prefer to hire a web designer or developer. Costs dramatically vary, but expect to spend $2,000 to $5,000 for a simple author website, and considerably more for advanced design and functionality. But the good and bad news is that your website is never finished. It is always a work in progress. You’ll improve it, tweak it, experiment with it, and (one hopes) take pride in how it showcases your work. It’s better to get your site established while you’re unpublished, so you own your domain early on, learn how to use the tools, and begin the journey of expressing who you are within an online environment.

Email Newsletters

Early in actor Bryan Cranston’s career, when his gigs were primarily guest spots on TV shows like Matlock and Murder, She Wrote, he sent postcards to casting directors about his upcoming appearances. “I knew 99 percent of them wouldn’t watch,” he told the New Yorker, “but my face and name would get in front of them, and it would plant the subliminal message ‘He works a lot, this guy!’” Later on, when he received three Emmy nominations for his role as the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, he took out “for your consideration” ads promoting his work. He said, “The whole idea is to put yourself in a position to be recognized for your work so opportunities increase. False humility or even laziness could prevent that.”1

If Cranston’s career had begun in the internet era, his postcards might instead have been email newsletters. While email newsletters have many uses, their most immediate use for writers is to keep readers and professional connections informed about what you’re doing. A regular email newsletter sent to your readers creates a long string of impressions, keeping your name at the forefront of their mind. When an opportunity arises—a book club needs a new book to read, a publication is searching for a freelancer, a journalist is looking for an interview subject, or a conference needs speakers—people are far more likely to think of you if they regularly see your name.

The Power of Visuals and Design

A robust online presence increasingly requires finding, modifying, and posting compelling images and employing strong visual design. Memes, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube—these all attest to how strongly our attention is captured by visuals. Writers who recognize this and find ways to incorporate visuals and strong design into their work or marketing stand to gain an advantage over those who don’t.

Fortunately, nondesigners now have more tools and resources than ever to help them find and produce decent visuals:

• High-quality photographs and illustrations with Creative Commons licenses don’t require payment or permission, especially for noncommercial uses. (Commercial use typically involves monetization, like selling a mug with the image on it or turning the image into a social media ad.) However, you may need to credit the source. Flickr (under Creative Commons) is one of the largest repositories of permission-free images. Aggregators such as Pexels will also help you search for images for noncommercial use.

• Canva is cloud-based design software that helps nondesigners create good-looking images using a variety of templates for specific use scenarios. It’s mostly free for individual use, with fees for premium images or designs from their library.

• Video captured on your smartphone is of sufficient quality for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and most author websites. Social media apps today include great video editing tools built right in. You don’t need separate editing software.

Writers seeking a competitive advantage should consider the following:

• A professional headshot or illustrated portrait that looks good on social media and an author website. Like it or not, professional images convey seriousness of intent and success.

• A brief video clip of you giving a reading or speaking at an event. This feature is valuable in securing more speaking or teaching gigs, assuming you’re good on camera. You don’t have to hire a videographer, but if you want to attract paying events, it’s a wise investment.

• A customized website header or overall design that evokes your style or personality.

• A professional business card that echoes other elements of your brand (consider using design elements from your website, your professional headshot, or a book cover image).

• Professional note cards to use for thank-yous and notes of admiration—again, incorporating design elements you use consistently.

In marketingspeak, all these things represent touch points, or opportunities to make an impression on someone, whether a reader or influencer. It’s very powerful when your touch points repeat the same theme or design—it reinforces the message you want to send about who you are and what type of work you produce.

Given that most people are overwhelmed with unwanted email, it may seem counterintuitive to categorize the email newsletter as one of the more effective, even intimate, forms of digital communication. However, email has a longer, more stable shelf life than social media, which is constantly shifting. Emails can’t be missed like a social media post that disappears in readers’ feeds within minutes, if not seconds. Unlike social media, you truly own your email list. And if you treat your subscribers with respect, your newsletter will grow into a powerful sales and marketing tool—possibly even a source of income.

Developing a Content Strategy

Some writers don’t start email newsletters because they don’t know what to say, or they feel like they have nothing to say in the first place. Others fear that their newsletter will annoy people. By and large, most writers are simply putting too much pressure on themselves over this question. Author newsletters, no matter what they contain, enjoy some of the highest open rates and best subscriber loyalty in the marketing business. That means people do enjoy hearing from their favorite writers, even if the emails are read quickly or deleted quickly. And even if a virtual visit or impression is brief, the email is still doing its job, just like Cranston’s postcards.

Some writers produce entirely original content for their newsletter that doesn’t appear anywhere else, but this practice is more common with newsletters that have paid tiers (more on that later). Your newsletter doesn’t have to be 100 percent original to be valuable and worthwhile, plus you can write and send it in the true sense of the word newsletter: a summary of what’s happened in your writing life since the last issue was sent. Journalist Helen Lewis uses it exactly in this way, to summarize what pieces she’s working on or has published, to summarize what she’s recently read, and to share links to her appearances.

What you put in your newsletter is only limited by your imagination, and the most important factor to consider is what you can sustain, since this will hopefully be a career-long endeavor. What do you love sharing with other people? What are you already curating or collecting? What do people ask you about all the time? What do you have special insight or expertise on? What would be enjoyable for you to write about or compile on a regular basis?

Don’t feel like the email needs to be lengthy to be worth sending. Hardly anyone will complain that your emails are too short, and the more frequently you send, the shorter they should probably be. It can help if each email contains consistent features or elements. Your newsletter is a publication like any other, and readers will stick with you when they look forward to certain features each time. Every weekly newsletter that writer Ann Friedman (no relation) sends includes a hand-drawn pie chart of the week, beloved by her readers.

No matter what goes in the newsletter, your efforts will be more successful if you’re consistent. Weekly is a common frequency, as is monthly. If you choose a lower frequency (bimonthly or quarterly), that makes it more challenging for you to see what works best and also derive some benefit from having the list in the first place. If you wait too long between sends, you also run the risk of people forgetting they signed up, which then leads to unsubscribes. However, the more familiar with your work your subscribers are (or the bigger fans they are), the less likely it is that you’ll encounter this problem. High frequency is associated with list fatigue, when people unsubscribe or stop opening your messages. Daily is certainly too often, except for news-driven content. It’s also fine to change your frequency or take breaks, but do let your readers know when a change is going to be happening.

Starting and Building Your List

To begin, the only tool you need is an email newsletter service that will automate the subscription process, store subscriber email addresses, and archive newsletter issues. One of the most popular services as of this writing is Substack because it’s free, plus it has some other advantages we’ll discuss. For professional, full-time authors, MailerLite is often used; for hard-nosed marketers, Kit (once known as ConvertKit) is a leading choice. (I use Kit.)

The best practice for building a healthy newsletter list is collecting voluntary sign-ups at your own website or on social media. Sign-ups tend to happen most often around the time you have new work releasing (whether that’s a book or an article or something else) because people will want to be alerted when something new comes out. Whenever you have media appearances—like when you’re on a podcast or a guest poster at someone else’s website—make sure that you always mention and link to your newsletter whenever possible. Ask while you have people’s attention.

In your sign-up form, be specific and honest about what people will receive and how often. It’s also helpful to link to your newsletter archives or to an example of a past issue. Although it is possible to add names manually to your newsletter list (i.e., without permission of the recipient), don’t. The number-one reason email newsletters get a bad reputation or are marked as spam is because people add recipients without their explicit permission. Just because you connected with someone on LinkedIn or emailed them once two years ago doesn’t mean you have permission to add them to your email newsletter list.

At the time of this writing, Substack is by far the most popular way to start an email newsletter, and the service is so far free to use. What makes Substack powerful is twofold. First, it has strong community marketing and visibility. That means it’s easy for other people using Substack to discover, recommend, feature, or share your newsletter content. Traditionally it has been very challenging to share email newsletter content in a way that’s seamless and attracts new subscribers. With Substack, that hurdle is removed. Second, Substack offers a straightforward path to monetizing your newsletter. You can make some aspects of your newsletter free, others paid, or change it up at any time. It’s easy to create varying tiers of support, with monthly and annual subscriptions, or to collect “pledges” for the future if and when your newsletter transitions to a “freemium” or paid model. (Paid subscriptions are discussed in part 5.)

In Substack’s current business model, it earns a percentage of everything you earn. For that reason, you’ll be encouraged, even pressured, to start charging or otherwise asking for money from your newsletter subscribers. But you do not have to charge! And that’s definitely not the point of most author newsletters. The point is to easily and consistently reach engaged readers of your work without relying on anyone else.

In the future, it’s possible that Substack will have to charge users in some way to continue the service. And Substack may change its terms, features, or functionality at any time. Fortunately, Substack does allow you to export your subscriber list (the names, emails, and even payment data if you’re charging), so you can always switch email newsletter providers if Substack changes in some way that you don’t like.

A final note about Substack: I sometimes refer to it as Blogging 2.0 because its default is to create a public, web version of every newsletter issue you write and send. So when you publish using Substack, the issue is sent to all your email subscribers and, at the same time, it is posted to your Substack publication page where anyone can find and read it, subscriber or not. The web version will be indexed by search engines, and people can like, comment, or share. (You can turn comments off or allow only certain subscribers to comment.) If you prefer, you can suppress the web version from appearing and only send via email.

Using Your Newsletter as Part of a Book Launch

One of the big payoffs of having an email newsletter is using it to support a forthcoming book. There are several key emails you’ll want to send:

• Preorder announcement. Once the book is available for preorder at bookstores and online retailers, let your subscribers know and link to the various places they can or should preorder. Some authors will partner with an independent bookstore for preorders of signed copies; others will offer some kind of incentive for readers to place a preorder. (An incentive might be exclusive access to a virtual author event, a freebie of some kind, a special deal or offer, fun merchandise—anything that’s limited or exclusive will spur action.)

• Launch day announcement. On the day your book launches, send an email with an image of the cover, a brief description, links to retailers, advance praise or blurbs, and any accolades you or the book has already earned.

• Follow-up news. When you capture media coverage, an excellent review, a podcast feature, or anything else of note, be sure to mention it in your newsletter. Outstanding news might merit a stand-alone send. Authors will often send an alert when their book is marked down to a low price for a limited time, such as a special deal on Amazon or BookBub.

These aren’t the only times you might send an email that’s specifically and only about your books, but be disciplined. If you only send emails to tell people to buy your books, you’ll eventually lose people. A best practice is to gracefully integrate mentions of your book(s) into the newsletter itself. Authors often include images of their book covers, book events, or reader photos—and any recent coverage—at the end of each newsletter, no matter what.

Social Media

Notice that I’m covering social media dead last. That is not an accident, even though many new authors, upon securing a book contract, are advised to get active on social media. Why? To market their book. This advice presents an immediate dilemma: if you’re not already active on these channels through your own interest and volition, you now have the mindset of using them as marketing tools—and worse, you may have no idea what that means beyond telling people to follow you or buy your book. To translate social media activity into book sales requires showing up consistently within your community for long periods, communicating in an organic way that’s relationship-driven rather than sales-driven, and (eventually) sharing news about your accomplishments, in a way that aligns with your previous activity and messaging.

You’ll hear tons of conflicting advice about how to use such-and-such social media tool, perhaps more than any other aspect of author marketing. That’s because social media best practices differ depending on your unique career situation, how you behave online, what you’re using these tools for at any particular time, and how that makes you feel. There is no one-size-fits-all advice; the best strategy, frankly, is whatever works for you personally and is sustainable. Well-meaning authors (and experts) can give bad advice to writers, ignoring just how personal social media use is and must be. You can trust yourself to make many decisions, even if you’re not so experienced. Pay attention to how you feel about your actions and the results. That said, here are some of my general recommendations:

• Don’t worry about what’s popular. I’ve been using social media since the birth of MySpace and have seen many platforms come and go. What’s working today may not work tomorrow. Platforms close or fall out of favor. Young people flock to new things. Even though it’s easy to acknowledge these realities, there remains a powerful fear of missing out or being left behind by not joining whatever the hot new community is. I guarantee that you can still have a successful career even if you don’t pay attention to the newest and hottest social media app. Choose the platform(s) that work for you and that don’t make you feel miserable or out of your element. Experiment and play with something new if it’s in your nature. Just don’t feel bad if you decide it’s not for you. There will always be other things that can build your platform just as well.

• Choose one or two platforms and excel at them. Unless you truly adore spending time on social media, it is not necessary to join more than one or two platforms. The key is not being in all the places but focusing on what you do well in a single place. That said, if you’re worried about someone else claiming your author name or handle on a social media platform (especially a new one), by all means claim it for peace of mind.

• Focus mostly on literary citizenship. Social media is about seeing and being seen—being part of an ongoing conversation. The old metaphor of it being like a cocktail party is true, and we don’t go to cocktail parties foisting our business card on everyone, asking people to buy our book on the spot, and boring everyone with our life story, never shutting up. So don’t do that on social media. Instead, focus outward. Think about how you can support others. Share what delights you or is important to you, especially anything you think will be helpful or interesting to your community. And remember a key principle of social media: like attracts like.

• Avoid automated posting. This is when you have a third-party service or tool post for you based on specific triggers, without you really customizing what gets posted. One would hope this doesn’t have to be stated clearly, but it does: people don’t like engaging with bots, and they can certainly tell when you’re automating your activity. Plus, you’re missing an opportunity to say something geared for your particular community at a particular place and time—perhaps asking a compelling question to spark a discussion or otherwise conveying your perspective and personality. Usually an intimate approach is more successful. Scheduling your posts in advance, to go live at a specific time, isn’t necessarily a problem, but if you don’t show up to interact with people who comment, it’s another missed opportunity. The first hour or so of engagement on a post can affect its overall success.

• Share links. Social media sites subtly discourage linking because they want you to stay on their site. Nevertheless, you should post links to things that are important to you—like whenever you publish a new piece or have a media appearance or want to support something a friend has written and published. When you share links on social media, always offer context, whether it’s your own content or someone else’s. Explain why you’re posting, share an interesting quote from it, or otherwise introduce the content so people understand why it deserves their time. Be a thoughtful curator, not a blaster. It takes practice and skill to get people to read and possibly click or respond to whatever you’re posting. When you write a post, consider your reader’s perspective—they’ll be thinking, What’s in it for me?

As you begin to establish a name for yourself or when you do have a meaningful following, social media becomes an important means of communicating with readers between book releases or publications. It helps you stay engaged with your audience and nurture your readership for the long term. But when you’re early in your career, with little or no established readership, don’t worry about engaging with readers for work that doesn’t yet exist. Instead, you’ll likely be focused on literary citizenship. Ideally, whatever you post connects back to the motivations and themes that drive your writing. The most important thing you can do on any social network is to share things you care about—to express something meaningful rather than dutiful. The activity can and should draw on the same creativity and imagination as your “serious” work. Never throw up a link or a photo without giving the story behind it or explaining why it matters to you. People crave meaning.

When does social media reach its limits of utility? That’s kind of like asking how many relationships, or how many friends, is too many. If it’s starting to drag on your resources, consuming time needed for things more important to you (such as writing), then it’s time to reassess. I don’t recommend analyzing your social media use when you’re focused on its being, well, social, yet it’s helpful to check in with yourself on how the activity is making you feel. Energetic or drained? Positive or anxious? Empowered or jealous? Whenever you experience more negative emotions than positive, consider a social media sabbatical.

One final note: There can be significant pressure from every side to take a public stand on sociopolitical issues, but it’s OK not to express an opinion on issues that you know little or nothing about. And in cases where you do have an informed opinion or a strong position (or both), it’s also OK to keep those opinions private or reserve them for in-person conversations, where you’re most likely to encounter people who will engage with you in good faith. This point is probably not discussed enough: it’s OK to go online and focus on things that bring light or meaning into your life, and block or mute things that don’t. That’s not to say let’s all ignore important issues of the day or avoid uncomfortable conversations. Rather, each of us chooses how and where we want to make a difference on issues that matter to us. Speaking out on social media about political issues or hot-button topics works for some people on a long-term basis—but for many, it doesn’t. It just leads to a terrible experience and abandonment of social media.

I always suggest that authors set ground rules for themselves and decide what topics they will or won’t discuss on social media, and then be as consistent as possible in how and when they discuss them. Taking a stand on issues will bring as many readers to you as it drives away, so I wouldn’t worry about that part. Instead, consider your mental health, stress level, and overall well-being.

Parting Thoughts

I’ve offered a lot of prescriptive advice in this chapter. Nonetheless, I don’t believe in hard-and-fast rules when it comes to writers’ online presence. Good principles or best practices, yes. But what you create should be as distinctive as your writing. It’s hard to copy someone else’s strategy, tactics, design, or approach, and doing so is unlikely to yield the same results. To some extent, everyone must find their own way—what fits their personality, their work, and the audience they hope to find or engage. I recommend that you loosen up (especially if you need to find your voice), not take it too seriously, and experiment to find what works. If you need a place to start, then focus on talking about or posting about others you admire—that almost always brings a worthwhile reward.

Exercise: Take a Closer Look at Newsletters You Currently Receive

If you feel flummoxed by the idea of writing and publishing your own newsletter, the best thing to do is get inspired by others in your community. Check your own email folders for newsletters you’ve received, saved, or forwarded over time. Why are these newsletters valuable to you? How would you describe their readership? Do you still subscribe?

Can’t find anything? Subscribe to a handful of newsletters that might interest you; you can always unsubscribe later if they don’t. Visit Substack (https://substack.com) and go to the Discover page, where you can search all Substack newsletters by keyword. Look for newsletters by writers like you or that are related to your genre, category, community, or topic. If you can’t find anything that strikes your interest, search for “publishing” instead and browse the newsletters related to writing and book publishing. A couple to start: Counter Craft by Lincoln Michel and Publishing Confidential by Kathleen Schmidt.

8 : Producing Audio and Video Content

Of all the things that writers might try to directly earn money from, audio and video might be among the most challenging. For that reason, I mostly categorize these activities under platform building. Although producing audio or video content doesn’t require professional equipment to get started (your smartphone or computer camera is plenty, and a hundred-dollar USB microphone will do the job), it does require learning what makes for compelling online audio or video that people watch and share, which is outside the scope of this book. Anyone who is serious about learning craft and technique should consider reading How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck by Steve Stockman as well as a YouTube-specific guide like YouTube Secrets by Sean Cannell. (There are also countless free YouTube tutorials about producing high-quality YouTube video.) For podcasting, one of the biggest how-to experts is Daniel Larson (a pen name for two coauthors), and journalists will want to check out NPR’s Sound Reporting.

Deciding to launch a podcast or video series is no less a commitment than deciding to write and publish a book. It also means deciding to build your platform by producing and sharing work that people typically expect for free. Whereas the most popular platforms offer creators a cut of advertising revenue generated from their free content, anyone with a successful podcast or YouTube channel is more likely to earn meaningful money by finding sponsors within their community or by attracting patronage, as discussed in part 5. The most common reward, and the earliest reward, will be the visibility gained and relationships built from consistent content creation. Still, if you aspire to reach the top of this mountain, a good model to study is the Canadian physician Peter Attia. He essentially leveraged the publication and success of his first book, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, to drive people to his much more lucrative subscription-based podcast, The Drive—which does not accept advertising or sponsors. For readers who enjoyed his book but want to dive deeper into specific topics or recent health research, or gain access to Attia’s expertise on every conceivable health issue, they have to pay to subscribe to his podcast/website (nineteen dollars per month as of this writing).

Podcasting

Despite their ubiquity, most podcasts are downloaded only hundreds of times, and even the top podcasts might not go beyond several thousand in listens per episode. The other challenge is that the most popular podcasts tend to be hosted by celebrities or influencers, making it tougher to break through the noise if you don’t already have a known name or strong network to help you promote your show. However, if you’re serving a very targeted niche, you have a better chance to break through. Joanna Penn, who has one of the most well-known and long-running podcasts in the self-publishing community, enjoys consistent sponsorships and paid listener support via Patreon. Incentives for patrons include access to the archive of past episodes as well as exclusive access to Penn herself.

Podcasts really shine in being a platform-building tool. You’re likely to deepen the relationship with readers who hear your voice intimately through their earbuds or headphones. Podcasts offer the appeal of a regular relationship with listeners, giving you consistent opportunities to promote your work. You can weave mentions of your books into relevant segments or remind listeners about the work you do or services you provide. If you do live events, whether in person or virtual, you can record them to air on the podcast.

And then there’s the opportunity presented by the content of the show. The most predominant podcast format by far is a conversation with a featured guest or multiple guests. Sometimes these conversations are tightly edited; other times there is little to no editing. Either way, it’s an opportunity to make contact with and develop relationships with people in your community, often VIPs. The most time-intensive type of podcast is a scripted show, something that is researched or written ahead of time. Some of the most popular podcasts are scripted, such as This American Life or Serial, but they carry high costs to produce.

It’s fairly common these days for podcasts to be produced and distributed not just through Apple Podcasts or Spotify but also posted to YouTube. Sometimes hosts will record both audio and video for the show, or they will post the audio file only to YouTube. (YouTube is actually bigger than Spotify as a podcast listening platform, as of 2023.)

Podcasters can sometimes attract or secure a book deal because of a strong show. Stephanie Hitchcock, a senior editor at Simon & Schuster, saw the potential for a book when she listened to the first season of Jane Marie’s podcast The Dream, about multilevel marketing, and reached out to her. “It was so cinematically told and so interestingly plotted that I was completely hooked, but I got the sense that there were so many different and new ways of expanding the story,” said Hitchcock.1

An editor at Hachette, Jordana Hawkins, signed podcasters Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire for the book RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick, based on their podcast of the same name. The book delves more fully into cases discussed on the podcast and includes new cases. What drew Hawkins to the project was the authors’ wit and humor, plus the extensive research they’d done on their subjects.2

Literary agent Gail Ross has sold books such as Big Friendship by Call Your Girlfriend hosts Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow and represents Crazy/Genius podcaster Derek Thompson, author of Hit Makers and The Committee to Save the World. Even if the book isn’t directly based on the podcast, the podcast can inspire a viable book idea. In the case of Big Friendship, once the podcast took off, it was obvious that the relationship between the hosts as best friends, coworkers, and podcast partners was a topic that warranted deeper examination.3

Short-Form Video (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts)

Fiction book sales during the COVID-19 pandemic skyrocketed, partly owing to the influence of TikTok—or, more specifically, BookTok, the community of avid book readers who use TikTok. TikTok is characterized as a young people’s platform, yet it has more than a billion users and encompasses people of all ages and from all walks of life. Most videos are very short, less than a minute.

In 2020, older books started selling in the millions without their authors lifting a finger to market them, such as We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, because so many readers on TikTok were talking them up. Bookstores started seeing TikTok favorites fly off the shelves without any display. For romance in particular, TikTok has been important for driving book sales. Consequently, more authors than ever are wondering whether they ought to join TikTok for the sake of their careers, despite the political and privacy concerns surrounding the app. As with all social media platforms, there isn’t a right answer for everyone, but it can be helpful to know who is succeeding and why.

Poet and author Shelby Leigh built her TikTok presence by creating content for people dealing with mental health issues. When she first joined, she had self-published two poetry books; her bestseller of the two was later republished by Simon & Schuster because of her sales track record. She was able to leave her corporate job to pursue writing full-time (and she says no one in the world believes her when she says she’s a full-time writer of poetry books). Her success feels reminiscent of the success of Rupi Kaur and other Instapoets, who began using Instagram to share poems in the early 2010s and went on to commercial stardom.

When she joined TikTok, Aparna Verma knew that she wanted to target South Asian readers with her Indian fantasy novel The Boy with Fire. “One of the pitfalls as authors is we tend to make videos that are writing advice,” she said during a 2023 panel discussion.4 “But you have to talk to the people who are going to buy your book, and those are readers.” Her book hit number one on Amazon in its category and was featured on NBC News. It was republished as The Phoenix King by Hachette. Verma was convinced to join TikTok by her younger brother, who told her it wasn’t just people dancing.

What makes a good BookTok video? First, research other writers and readers in your category and see what style of video they’re posting. That’s the best way to see what works. After that, the rule of thumb is to hook people in the first second. Move fast and show something visually interesting, or add a text overlay that hooks people with a single line. The good news for time-strapped writers: you can use the same format for your videos once you’ve found what works. For Leigh, that’s reading poems and doing page-flip videos where you flip through the book, with text overlay and music. For nonfiction authors, you might target your specific community for your topic, rather than the BookTok community. (Leigh herself targets an audience interested in mental health, not poetry lovers.) Writers working in cooking, home design, and other highly visual categories are poised to succeed on TikTok—which is only logical, as such categories benefit from step-by-step as well as before-and-after videos.

Fiction writers should learn the popular BookTok tropes and point to them in their work if there. Examples of such tropes include the “meet-cute” and “enemies to lovers”; the best way to learn about such tropes is to simply consume BookTok videos and learn firsthand from the community. Verma will show a quote from her book tied to the trope, then pair it with a Bollywood song or tune to appeal to her audience of South Asians; she knows her audience and what they want to read and calls it out explicitly.

As with all social media, it works better when you engage in the comments for your own videos and on others’ videos. Leigh recommends putting the name of the book in the comments and where to find it—especially if there’s any doubt the video is about a book (rather than, say, something in real life that happened to you). Usually she will add a question to get the audience engaged. Verma comments on other people’s videos in addition to engaging on her own, which demonstrates to others that she’s an invested member of the community. She will also sometimes post a video reply to a great comment, which TikTok might send out to a totally new audience, alerting more people to her book.

So what about the time commitment or preparing to look good on camera? It might not be as burdensome as you think. Editing videos on TikTok doesn’t require third-party apps or fancy tech. In fact, getting fancy is antithetical to the point of the platform, where authenticity is prized. No one goes on TikTok to see professionally made videos. In 90 percent of her videos, Leigh does not even show her face; she shows the book. While Verma typically shows herself—a format that works for her, especially since she sometimes wears traditional dress and jewelry—she has seen authors who’ve succeeded with TikTok videos that are very audio focused. (TikTok is awash in popular songs and specific audio trends that can drive the visibility of your videos.)

If you’re opposed to using TikTok but interested in the potential for short-form video, it’s possible to follow the same principles but apply them to Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. They operate in much the same way.

Long-Form Video (Mostly YouTube)

While there are highly produced YouTube videos and live streams out there, you don’t have to start with broadcast television quality. You can start with whatever webcam you have as long as you have decent natural lighting or a good ring light. What’s most important for video is that you appear relatable and have a lively presence on camera. Perhaps two of the most charismatic authors in this regard are the Vlog Brothers: John and Hank Green, both authors and experts in producing free video content that’s turned them into celebrities. Take a look at a few hours of their video content, whether on YouTube or their social media accounts, to get an idea of what’s inspired thousands upon thousands of other people to start their own video publishing efforts.

One writer who has used YouTube to successfully build his career is Jay Swanson; he has nearly 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, along with a Patreon presence to monetize his activity. He ended up pursuing video creation as the centerpiece of his platform because he simply loves making videos. He sets himself regular deadlines and uses prompts and encouragement from his fans to keep him engaged and motivated. For him, filming the video isn’t the time-consuming part; it’s the editing, which can be an hours-long process. In an interview I conducted with Swanson in 2017, he said, “Videos are an easier point of entry than anything written. People actively ask me what my YouTube channel is when I mention I make videos. No one asks for links to Amazon when I tell them I’m a writer. . . . Don’t believe me? Try asking a stranger to read your book sometime, then ask them to check out a YouTube video. There’s a stark difference in the response.”5

Parting Thoughts

Writers don’t have to launch their own podcast or YouTube channel to test the waters. Start out by pitching yourself to established shows or accounts that tie into your genre, topic, or readership. Some publishers or authors will, in fact, focus on organizing a podcast tour or getting the attention of BookTubers, Instagram book clubs, or TikTok influencers as part of a book launch effort. If you find yourself enjoying the experience and wishing you could play host, then it might be a worthwhile platform-building activity for you—even a moneymaker if things go exceedingly well.

Exercise: Research Podcasts Related to Your Category or Genre

You can find podcasts for every conceivable interest area, including fiction. If you’re a fiction writer, search for “audio drama” podcasts at Apple or Spotify that are related to your category or genre and see what’s popular. If you’re a nonfiction writer, browse the podcast category that ties into topics you write about, whether business, mental health, relationships, or something else. If you have trouble finding podcasts related to your category, try using the podcast search engine Listen Notes (https://www.listennotes.com) and search by keyword or by popular author or book title. Does the podcast carry sponsorships or advertising? Is there an associated Patreon account or premium tier? Do the hosts publish books?

9 : Developing a Sustainable Path Forward

Throughout part 2, I’ve tried to emphasize best practices rather than rules. Advice can never be universal. In fact, it can be harmful when it’s received by the wrong person or at the wrong time—or interpreted or remembered incorrectly. (The latter happens a shocking amount.) I avoid telling people they must be on such-and-such social network or they must do anything. There are way too many “musts” circulating.

It’s human nature to want rules, checklists, procedures, and other prescriptive measures to success, which have never existed. While adhering to prescribed formulas is easier and sometimes faster than figuring it out yourself, the trick is sculpting such advice to suit your needs and abandoning it once you’ve found your way. The hardest and also most exciting thing about any creative life is figuring out your own path. If we mature alongside our writing, we enjoy (finally) the sweet self-awareness to set aside advice that’s not right for us.

One thing is certain, though: when writers conflate platform building with social media, they can suffer burnout and question whether it’s really a useful practice. For long-term sustainability, it’s best to focus on cultivating stronger relationships and partnering with other organizations, businesses, and individuals to extend your visibility. Sometimes it’s about creating and pushing out more work—being prolific—which may be preferable for writers who don’t believe that their strength is in building relationships. Other times, by experimenting with new media or distribution channels, you can reach an audience you weren’t able to find before. For example, Seth Harwood is a crime novelist with an MFA degree in fiction from the University of Iowa’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop who built his readership by distributing work in podcast form. He bought recording equipment, read out his work chapter by chapter, and distributed each installment via iTunes and his website. Before long, he had enough of a following to attract the attention of a traditional publisher, who released his book in other formats but allowed him to continue producing the free podcast.

When writers ask me if they can’t just hire someone to build their platform, they’re often missing the point. Building a readership, or networking in the community, requires just one thing for success: you. You have to be aware and present to gain any real benefit. If a third party pretends to be you, you’ll miss important insights into how people engage with your work—which can provide inspiration for new work as well as improve your marketing and promotion efforts.

However you decide to build your platform, it’s important that you enjoy the activities so you can stick with them for the long haul. This idea is too often discounted. Platform-building activities take time to gather momentum, and just about every author has abandoned an approach too soon, before it was really clear whether it would work out. Participate in platform-building activities that reflect your interest in the world, and in other people. Find ways to publish, post, and share about things that fascinate you or puzzle you. Post questions for other people to answer. Ask people to share something with you. You may not get it right at first, but that’s OK. A spirit of playfulness helps.

How to Prioritize Your Time and Focus Your Efforts

Here’s my list of platform-building priorities, specifically for new and midcareer writers:

• Identify new publishing opportunities or partnerships to spread your work to the right audience, or at least to a bigger audience than the one you currently reach.

• Add an email newsletter to your activities if you don’t have one.

• Establish or improve your website. Sometimes this means investing a little money in design or development.

• Look at new media where you might present your content or stories. If you’ve focused solely on written work, is there an opportunity to also try audio or video?

• Identify the social media outlet(s) you want to use creatively and focus on for growth, or those where you might simply experiment and play.

When online media were still relatively new, there was a lot of focus and attention on raw numbers. How many visitors do you have? How many likes? How many shares? While numbers remain a surface-level indicator of how well you’re doing, it’s all too easy to boost the numbers in an artificial way. A strategic writer evaluates next steps based on a different set of factors, including the following:

• Ability to reach new readers or influencers

• Ability to engage existing readers or influencers

• Ability to mobilize a loyal audience

Aside from word of mouth—which you can’t control—you typically reach a new readers by offering free content, posting on social media, partnering with people who have a bigger platform than you do, and appearing in the media (all in addition to publishing new work of any kind). Engaging an existing readership includes being active on social media, sending an email newsletter, and making public appearances. Mobilizing a loyal audience means getting them to do something when you ask, whether that’s in person or online—as when the popular singer Taylor Swift was able to get tens of thousands of young women to register to vote. Writers are often guilty of showing up only when they want to mobilize their audience (to get preorders, crowdfunding, or subscriptions), and doing little or nothing to reach new readers or engage the ones they already have.

To build my platform, I mainly work off signals. I pay attention to how people are responding to me and my work, and what themes show up in the comments, questions, or conversations in the community; then I adjust. I also pay attention to people I admire, and sometimes I imitate them if I see in them a better way of doing things until I find my own way. While I read trend articles and stay current on how the industry is unfolding, such things don’t influence me on a day-to-day basis; it’s more about understanding how best practices evolve and only acting when I feel compelled to do so—because that’s where the energy of the moment directs me. For example, at the time of this writing, TikTok is one of the most popular platforms for authors and publishers because of its effect on book sales, but I personally consume very little video content and don’t feel as though that’s where my talent lies. Even though several people have suggested I use TikTok, I’ve resisted because no appropriate opportunity has presented itself—but maybe it will in the future.

Parting Thoughts

Let your own enjoyment drive platform building. Whether you’re a goal setter or not, it’s important to pay attention to what gives you energy and what takes it away. Avoid pursuing a platform-building activity if it doesn’t feel like a good match for the rest of what you’re doing. Put another way: don’t make your life difficult by forcing something that’s not really you. There are so many ways to develop a strong platform that you have the freedom to focus on the activities you like, which in turn will lead to the satisfaction and growth you want.

Exercise: Conduct a Platform Inventory

Many authors believe they should actively build their platform but don’t know where to start. The first step is to identify your assets, in what direction you want to grow, and what strengths will help you get there. Create a five-column grid with these headers: Writing, Social Media, Email, Communities, and VIPs.

• Under Writing, list your body of work, whether in print or online, published or unpublished. If you have a long publishing history, stick to a high-level summary—for example, “3 published books, 1 unpublished manuscript, 13 published essays, 37 blog posts.” If you have a podcast or regularly write and produce multimedia content for online consumption (like videos on YouTube or serializations on Wattpad), put it in this column.

• Under Social Media, list the platforms where you actively participate and note your follower count. This includes places like Instagram or TikTok.

• Under Email, if you have an email newsletter, list it with the subscriber number.

• Under Communities, list the groups that you identify with, belong to, or have some visibility in. Examples include your alma mater, the city/state/region you live in, and the writing organizations you belong to. Especially for nonfiction writers, think about associations, nonprofits, and businesses that you already work or partner with.

• Under VIPs, list important people you know who have the potential to bring visibility to you or your writing career—or represent a source of opportunity. This could be an editor at a journal that’s published you, a professor, an author who has mentored you, and so on.

Now take look at your completed grid. What appear to be your platform strengths? Which columns are bursting and which are bare? What appears to be your most valuable asset—something you could build on for greater visibility? What areas of this grid excite you and lend themselves to more ideas or opportunities? What areas feel like gaps you want to fill?

This exercise is especially helpful when done with a writer friend or two, as you’ll see that no two platforms are exactly alike, and we all have distinct strengths to build on. No two careers progress in the same way because we each have unique starting points and relationships to draw on.

Part Three

Book Publishing

Before we begin this in-depth exploration, a brief warning: getting a book published is a major accomplishment that sometimes doesn’t happen for years into a writing career, and securing a traditional book deal for your first manuscript is unlikely. Paradoxically, I don’t think publishing a book necessarily leads to the kind of career success or earnings that writers think it will. Still, “published author” is the expressed goal and dream for the vast majority of writers, and having even just a single book on the market does lead to opportunities that are far more lucrative than book sales. So that’s why I’m devoting a lot of time and space to the mechanics of this milestone; the chapters that follow provide a deep understanding of the book publishing industry as well as various forms of self-publishing and paid publishing.

But to belabor a point made frequently in this book: No one should go into the writing life expecting to make a living through book sales alone, although it may be an important supplement or, over time, become the majority of a writer’s income. Genre writers are often in a better position to realize the full-time writing dream simply because they produce more work in a shorter amount of time. And that’s true generally: having a prolific pen plays a role in the business model for a writer’s career. The more work you can produce or the faster you can write, the more work you will have to sell—this does matter. For the more literary writer, however, it may not matter how prolific one is if the potential audience remains small or niche. Still, business models can be found for even the most literary and esoteric writers, as we’ll see in part 5.

10 : Which Publishing Path Is Best for Your Project?

When I first started working in publishing, no one questioned the value of a publisher. Now they do. When I tell nonfiction writers they’ll need to demonstrate to an agent or editor that they have a big enough platform—enough visibility—to sell books without the help of a publisher, they ask, “What’s the publisher for, then?” When I tell fiction writers that their work needs to be compelling, polished, and ready for publication before they query, they too ask, “What’s the publisher for, then?”

For first-time authors who have no readership, the answer is easy. Quality considerations aside, a publisher raises your profile and makes you look bigger than you’ve ever looked before. Someone is taking a financial risk to launch your work into the world and make your name recognizable, and the risk can be taken only for a finite number of authors, so readers make logical assumptions about quality that are in your favor.

Publishers do fail at launching authors every day. But authors promoting themselves tend to fail at it more dramatically. It’s not that publishing mechanics are hard. It’s the ability to spread the word about your work’s existence at the right time to the right people that’s difficult. If you’re an author who can make influencers jump when you ask, or you have a siren call that lures readers to your door, then all bets are off on what the publisher is for. You’ll have to decide. But the following are just a few of the reasons some authors prefer working with publishers:

• They want the security of an advance. For nonfiction authors who require money up front to research and write a book, this can be a significant motivation. Novelists may secure multibook deals with the promise of a paycheck over a span of years, allowing them to focus on their writing (sort of, as we’ll see in later chapters). That said, advances for most authors are in the four figures or low to mid–five figures, not a living wage.

• They trust the editor they work with. It’s one of the romantic fantasies of every author: to have a nurturing editorial relationship that makes every book better. It does still happen, and once authors find an editor they trust, they tend to stick with them.

• They don’t want to fuss with the administrative and legal work. Publishers take care of many tasks related to publication—everything from registering for an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to filing for library Cataloging in Publication (CIP) data and copyright to communicating with retailers. They can also more effectively handle problems that may arise with Amazon, especially if fraudulent or counterfeit editions of your work get distributed there.

• National print distribution is important to their goals. An author working alone will rarely see their book distributed widely to stores or libraries without the help of a publisher, plus getting on the New York Times bestseller list requires nationwide print sales.

• They seek credibility or attention from industry media and mainstream media. Publishers have established relationships and connections that open doors. Without their backing, authors are more likely to be brushed aside by reviewers and the media, as well as teachers, librarians, booksellers, and other gatekeepers.

• They hope to see their work widely licensed. Publishers and literary agents attend international book fairs and are better able to secure licensing or subsidiary rights deals that may lead to increased income and visibility. (Think: translations, audiobooks, book club editions, and more.) Publishers and agents also have relationships inside Hollywood and can shop book projects to producers and studios. It’s challenging for an author—at least a new or unknown one—to tackle such deals on their own.

Having a publisher can give you more power and visibility, but it doesn’t guarantee success or sales. Rather, it’s just the first step in a long journey; every author must then make the most of the business partnership and any prestige it brings. For a first-time author, you’ll benefit from a publisher’s in-depth experience at packaging and positioning books, and you may work with some of the best talent in the industry.

Writers new to the industry are often surprised at how long the traditional publishing process takes—typically one to three years to launch—but when you decide to traditionally publish, it’s best to accept the pace at which it works and see it as a feature, not a bug. If a publisher is doing its best job to support your book, they usually need that lead time to properly market, promote, and build buzz for your book among booksellers and retailers. They also have to allow time for the book to be printed, and for some titles that means overseas printing, which adds months to the production schedule.

Traditional Publishing: The Biggest Corporate Players

Because the biggest houses publish in incredible volume and have terrific sales and marketing data, they know a lot about success and failure in the market. A glance at the New York Times bestseller list at any time of year will show that it’s dominated by titles from Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. These companies have deep pockets and the ability to push a book into conversations across mass media, even if just for a moment.

The drawbacks, however, are just as numerous: you may feel like a small fish in a big pond and get lost among the hundreds of titles being released in the same season. If you receive an advance that’s in the four figures or low five figures, that may indicate you’ll get limited marketing, promotion, and publicity support. That’s not to say nothing will happen, but your book may receive a boilerplate marketing plan and little else, which will be discussed further in chapter 18. The contract you sign is likely to be restrictive, and if you’re a new author, you’re unlikely to have final approval over the cover, title, price, format, and so on. While big publishers never plan to hurt authors, they are still corporate machines, and it’s all too easy to get trampled.

If you think your book could be a contender for best-sellerdom, then you’ll want to focus on finding an agent who agrees with you and who will help target the right editor or imprint at a big corporate publisher who can help make that happen.

Traditional Publishing Outside the Biggest Players

What matters most to a book’s success isn’t the size of the publisher or the advance but the right editor and home for the work, where the book has a chance of living up to its full potential. For this reason, agents almost always include midsize publishers on their list in addition to the biggest houses, as well as selected small presses and university presses.

Midsize Publishers

There are no strict definitions of what constitutes a midsize publisher versus a small publisher, but generally, a midsize house brings in hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and small publishers earn less than $20 million per year.1 Examples of midsize publishers include Grove Atlantic, Scholastic (publisher of the Harry Potter books in the United States), W. W. Norton, Kensington, Chronicle Books, and Andrews McMeel. For better or for worse, such houses have become an acquisition target for the big corporations, and their numbers have been dwindling over time.

Because midsize houses have to compete against the big guns for talent, their contracts may be more flexible or attractive. The benefits and drawbacks of working with a midsize publisher are usually identical to working with a larger house, although they tend to be more focused and specialized in their publishing efforts. For example, Chronicle Books is known for beautiful, illustrated titles and gift books that you’ll often find in quirky boutiques and upscale stores. Grove Atlantic is most likely to be publishing the next literary fiction sensation or National Book Award winner.

Amazon Publishing deserves special mention here. It is a traditional publishing operation that consists of more than twenty imprints, each focused on a specific sector of the market. A couple of its more well-known imprints are Montlake (romance) and Thomas & Mercer (mystery, thriller, true crime). Amazon has powerful direct-to-consumer sales and marketing, with the ability to reach millions of book buyers with a single email, as well as promotional programs like Amazon First Reads. While the exposure to the Amazon customer base can’t be beat (nicely leading to more reader reviews), authors may have to accept lower sales and visibility in the bookstore and library markets.

Small Publishers

Since 2000, small publishers have proliferated and become so diverse and varied in their business model that it’s hard to describe them collectively. But typically they’re known for accepting and publishing work that carries less sales potential—but that doesn’t mean lesser quality. Small presses often take on literary, noncommercial work that the biggest houses have stepped away from, especially short-story collections, essay collections, anthologies, and poetry. Small presses may specialize in particular readerships or topics and have invaluable direct-to-consumer reach. While they may occasionally receive agented submissions, they’re known for being open to unagented authors. Agents might resist submitting your work to small presses on your behalf because they know the advance is so small it’s not worth their time to approach them. But small presses are more likely to offer a more flexible contract and be willing to grant the author some say over such aspects as title and cover design. They’re also known for keeping books in print for many years and can be more accepting and patient with books that build sales and visibility over a long period.

What Is an Independent Publisher?

Independent publisher is a catchall term for publishers that work outside corporate ownership. This term is sometimes used interchangeably with the term small press. Before self-publishing became a force in the industry, such publishers were often referred to collectively as the “indie publishing” community. But that descriptor has been successfully co-opted by authors who self-publish and prefer to call themselves “indie publishers.” Pay attention to the context whenever you see “indie publishing” or “indie books.” It may refer either to self-published work or to books from independent publishers.

The drawbacks: small advances, which may amount to pocket change for some writers; limited marketing and promotion budgets (but remember, big publishers may not offer much in the way of investment, either); and overall less muscle in getting attention and visibility for their books. Much depends on the reputation of the press and how well-defined its editorial mission is. The more focused and disciplined the press in what it publishes and who it serves, generally the better the sales and marketing outcomes. If the press publishes a hodgepodge, it makes it that much more difficult to find a readership for each book since there may be no foundation in place from previous successes.

Some small presses pay no advances and avoid print runs, and thus they must be evaluated carefully by authors. You’ll find countless mom-and-pop operations that offer little advantage over self-publishing, especially when it comes to distribution and sales potential. I offer extensive and free guidance on how to evaluate small publishers at my website (https://janefriedman.com/evaluate-small-publisher/).

University Presses

In addition to publishing scholarly work and monographs, university presses also publish books for a general, educated readership; win major awards; and have an occasional national bestseller. Their pricing tends to be higher than commercial publishers and they’re more likely to put out library editions—that is, high-priced hardcovers marketed to library systems rather than consumers. Their sales and marketing strength often lies in the school and library market, and authors seeking classroom adoption may especially appreciate this strength. They can still place books in bookstores as well, as long as the pricing isn’t prohibitive. (This book, you may have noticed, is published by a university press and does enjoy bookstore placement.) Advances are comparable to what you’ll find from a small press, and university publishers tend to keep books in print and available over the long haul.

Self-Publishing

I define self-publishing as publishing on your own, where you essentially start your own publishing company and directly hire and manage all help needed. You remain in complete control of all artistic and business decisions, including package, positioning, format, pricing, distribution and retail partners, and so on. Chapter 20 offers a deep dive on self-publishing, so here I’ll just focus on why and when you might choose it over traditional publishing.

Too many authors treat self-publishing as a fallback option if traditional publishing doesn’t work out. That’s not to say you shouldn’t self-publish if you can’t get a deal, but it typically takes several books, and several years, to establish oneself and gain momentum. Today’s professional self-published authors treat their writing, first and foremost, as a job. They set publishing schedules and deadlines, then meet them, typically publishing multiple titles per year. They have marketing plans and advertising budgets. They often have teams of people to support them—editors, designers, assistants. They establish publishing imprints and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) under which they publish. They are committed to developing a readership over many years and invest in assets like an author website and online storefront, email newsletter, and social media. They measure what works to sell books and adjust accordingly.

If you self-publish a single title and expect the same attention or visibility as a traditionally published title, you’ll be disappointed unless you have a well-developed platform or already reach your readers. It is difficult for unknown self-published authors to get professional reviews, mainstream media attention, or widespread placement in bookstores and libraries. Many places simply do not consider self-published work, period. Instead, you’ll have to focus on (and be happy with) reaching readers directly through whatever means you have available to you. In most cases, early-career self-published authors have to run repeated giveaways and promotions to get readers to take a chance on them—or be skilled at handselling (making a personal recommendation to a potential customer). Consider James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, whose story is now legendary: he handsold or gave away thousands of copies before it was picked up by a traditional publisher and became a bestseller.2

However, do not self-publish expecting to be picked up by a traditional publisher. Yes, it happens, but it’s like waiting for lightning to strike and nearly impossible to engineer. Rupi Kaur, a famous Instapoet with millions of followers, self-published her first collection, Milk & Honey, and was soon picked up by a midsize publisher. But her book had already broken out and was making waves when she got noticed. She had already done the work of building a readership on her own. Perhaps the most self-defeating thing you can do is self-publish, fail to make waves, and then go query agents and publishers, asking them to turn things around for you. They have zero interest in an unsuccessful published book.

It’s easier to succeed as a self-published author if you’re writing genre fiction, where there’s voracious demand, especially in categories like romance where so much reading is e-book driven. That gives you an equal opportunity to reach readers via online retailers or platforms like Amazon without needing acceptance or placement from the industry. It becomes easier still if you’re writing a series that hooks readers, as it makes selling the next book straightforward. If you’re changing up your category or genre with each release, you’ll be starting from square one each time in building a readership. Even self-published authors who are established in one genre may decide to traditionally publish if and when they step outside that genre.

Be cautious when self-publishing in certain categories. Literary fiction, short stories, literary or creative nonfiction, and poetry can be challenging to self-publish if you’re seeking meaningful sales, unless you have a Rupi Kaur–like following. More important than sales considerations, though, is community acceptance. In the literary/MFA community in particular, the imprimatur of publisher remains important for social recognition, respect, and promotion, fairly or not. It’s also tough for children’s authors (except for the young adult category) to self-publish successfully because gatekeeping roles are highly valued by librarians, educators, and parents. Before recommending a book for a child, adults often want to know that the book has been vetted by professionals and is age appropriate.

Paid-for Publishing and Hybrid Publishing

Authors who pay a service company or publisher to publish their work fall into this category. Some people consider this to be another form of self-publishing. Others do not. Technically speaking, I consider it self-publishing if you purchase and use your own ISBNs. Commonly, hybrid publishers put their name on your book and apply their own ISBN. Companies that assist you in publishing may not do this, or they may give you a choice.

Many years ago, if you paid a company to publish your work, it was called vanity publishing, but I dislike that term. Other terms you may hear: subsidy publishing or partner publishing. Regardless of what it’s called, the author is taking on the financial risk. These companies survive not because books sell but because authors pay. Never lose sight of that. You’ll find paid arrangements everywhere, sometimes even offered by traditional publishers, although they may not publicly admit it or such efforts may operate as a separate division. Some companies have rather novel ways of working with authors to avoid financial risk; for example, in the UK, Unbound will publish your book if you can run a successful crowdfunding campaign.

The value for the author? Hopefully, you get a professionally published book by collaborating with experts who have valuable experience. I say hopefully because not all services or publishers are created equal. Some people who start or run these companies have little or no experience in professional or traditional publishing. Others are on the verge of being scams. To find the best-quality companies, carefully study the team you’ll be working with. If there are no names attached, or you’re worried about the qualifications of the people mentioned, find another company.

Another value, at least when compared with self-publishing, is the possibility of bookstore placement, professional reviews, and some industry attention. But a limited number of books will have this potential, and not every author will achieve these goals. Also, such capabilities tend to be limited to hybrid publishers—that is, publishing services working with established distributors. To secure that distribution usually requires a print run and a marketing campaign to support it. And who pays for all that? The author.

Even if you find an excellent company and you’re happy with the experience, working in this way is not a sustainable model for career authors. It simply costs too much money out of pocket, and it’s hard to recoup the investment through book sales alone, especially if the company is taking cut of sales, as is the case with hybrid publishers. However, this choice has become popular with memoirists and authors in the category of women’s fiction, who sometimes have little or no interest in self-publishing. It is also popular with well-compensated businesspeople or thought leaders who want a nonfiction book as a calling card.

Social Publishing

I use social publishing as an umbrella term for writing, publishing, and distributing your work online in public or semipublic form, directly for readers. Publication is self-directed and continues on an at-will basis. Emphasis tends to be on community feedback and writerly growth; sales or income may be beside the point. The goal might be to develop an early readership for your work, sometimes while also learning to write. A classic example is Wattpad, which has a community of 100 million readers and writers and is known for its support and encouragement.

Social efforts will always be an important and meaningful way that writers build a readership or gain attention, and it’s not necessary to publish and distribute a book to say that you’re an active and published writer. Social forms of publishing increasingly have monetization built in—such as Substack, a newsletter platform. The writers who excel and break out typically hear from agents and publishers in short order. The most common forms of social publishing are discussed further in part 5.

Parting Thoughts

As you consider the best publishing path for you, realize that you can and should make these decisions on a project-by-project basis, not a career-long basis. You won’t be committing to traditional or self-publishing forever just because you start that way. A savvy author will decide which path is best based on goals for the project and big-picture career objectives; there is no one path or publisher that’s right for everyone all the time. Always ask yourself what you seek from a publishing partnership. The answer is likely to change over time, especially as you gain experience. Avoid seeking just validation from a publisher—it’s certainly nice when it happens, but it is not the path to success.

Exercise: Study the Bestsellers

Not all bestsellers are created equal. Although the New York Times bestseller list is widely considered the most important one in the United States, it is a highly curated list that prioritizes certain types of sales, such as hardcover print sales, especially through independent bookstores. The USA Today bestseller list combines sales in all formats and has less of an editorial hand at play. Amazon, because of the underlying bias of bestseller lists, started its own—known as Amazon Charts—split into “most sold” and “most read.” The latter list reflects what’s most popular in Amazon’s subscription-based programs, like Kindle Unlimited and Audible. There are also weekly bestseller lists produced by Publishers Weekly, derived from Circana BookScan sales reports (print sales through retailers).

Compare the overlap between two or more of these lists. What types of publishers predominate on each? Are any of the books are self-published? Commonly, the big New York publishers dominate the New York Times lists, while smaller publishers and independent authors have a chance of hitting the others.

11 : How Traditional Book Publishing Operates

Traditional publishing includes the biggest publishers based in New York, as well as small and independent presses of all shapes and sizes that publish books for profit. What typically defines them: they sell through bookstores, libraries, and online outlets that reach a wide range of consumers. You might also hear the term trade publishing, which more or less means the same thing. Other sectors of book publishing include professional, scholarly, and educational publishing; they operate similarly in terms of their internal processes, but they don’t base publishing decisions on consumer or retail sales potential. Instead, they publish for more specialized markets, like school systems, universities, academics, and various professions. (These latter publishers tend to have different contracts and may even take author’s copyright.)

What drives decision-making at many publishers, especially big corporations, is the bottom line. The most commercial publishers use P&Ls, or profit-and-loss statements, to determine which publishing projects have the best chance of succeeding. We’ll take a look at simplified versions of P&Ls and how they work, which can be an eye-opening exercise for writers new to the business.

However, not every decision is driven by the bottom line or only the bottom line. In fact, the deepest, most persistent tension in the publishing industry is art versus commerce. If you ask any editor or publishing industry professional, “Why do you do it?” they likely have a passion for the written word and believe such work is important to society, art, or culture. People in publishing believe that what they do fundamentally matters to life as we know it. And if you’re reading this book, you may agree. But more often than not, the profitable, commercial work helps subsidize what’s considered art. If I had to choose a figure to represent publishers, it would be Janus, the two-faced god, with one eye always on art and the other always on commerce. Most publishers can’t survive long unless they balance the two.

Although some people imagine there was once a golden era of book publishing when selecting and producing the best literature took priority—when art was more important than commerce—today’s book publishing industry has its roots in Gutenberg-era printers, a distinctly commercial lineage. Since the invention of the movable-type printing press in the mid-1400s, publishers have remained fairly consistent in their profit-driven approach, even as authors’ business models and attitudes have shifted over time. What has remained consistent: authors complain about the moneygrubbing tendencies of book publishers and booksellers, who until the nineteenth century were typically one and the same. Even Horace, a Roman poet in the first century BC, warned writers of the Sosii, the brothers who published his work and were, in his view, less than honest in their business dealings. Yet he also acknowledged that without their efforts, his work would never have become so well known throughout the Roman Empire.

When authors’ complaints about publishers reached critical mass in the late nineteenth century—which ultimately precipitated the advent of literary agents—publisher G. H. Putnam wrote a “manual of suggestions for beginners in literature” that outlined operating standards and sought to improve the public relations surrounding publishing companies. In 1897, he argued that when literary workers complain, it’s because they don’t understand the business of making and selling books, nor their actual rights and obligations.1 Authors’ understanding has not improved much, and publishers are partly to blame. It’s rare these days to find a Putnam-like figure inside a publishing house, offering transparency into operations.

A chink in the armor appeared in 2022, when the biggest US publisher, Penguin Random House, sought to buy Simon & Schuster. The US Department of Justice sued to block the acquisition on antitrust grounds, resulting in a trial that surfaced a great deal of information, some of it embarrassing, about how the biggest publishers in the country operate. Powerful executives in the business claimed they didn’t know how to reliably select and publish profitable books. Penguin Random House’s CEO at the time, Markus Dohle, testified, “Everything is random in publishing. Success is random. Best sellers are random.”2 His is a common view. In their acquisitions of new authors or titles, publishers have long been guilty of “let’s throw it at the wall and see what sticks.” Worse, as we’ll discuss, they don’t adequately support everything they publish. Publishing is one of the few consumer-driven businesses that conducts almost no market research on its products before investing in them. While sales and marketing departments can and do influence editorial decisions, most editors who control acquisitions freely admit, even celebrate, that they’re driven by gut instinct, not numbers.

Whether this is reassuring or not depends on your perspective. On the one hand, it’s nice to know that not everything in publishing has been reduced to a business formula. But when you look at the demographics of those who make these “random” publishing decisions, they reflect a privileged class of people (more on this later). And it’s telling that some of the most successful books of the twenty-first century have been written by authors who self-published first: E. L. James and Colleen Hoover.

The Conglomeration of Publishing

When the average person is asked to name a book publisher, they will probably mention one of the corporate New York houses. These include Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette. Consolidation began in the 1980s and 1990s and has never really stopped. Big publishers bought smaller ones, and multimedia companies bought the big publishers. Penguin Random House (PRH) is the biggest of all, with more than three hundred imprints worldwide and fifteen thousand new titles every year.3

The DOJ v. PRH Antitrust Trial

In 2021, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster on antitrust grounds—and succeeded. Penguin Random House (PRH) is the biggest US publisher by a large margin, so acquiring another one of the big publishers, Simon & Schuster, would have created a giant in the US market.

In its first filing related to the case, the government granted authors something of a fairy-tale wish: it centered the role of authors in the publishing ecosystem. The complaint states, “Authors are the lifeblood of book publishing. Without authors, there would be no stories; no poetry; no biographies; no written discourse on history, arts, culture, society, or politics. . . . Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster would result in substantial harm to authors.”a

But which authors? This is where the plot thickens. The DOJ’s case focused on the “anticipated top selling books” that garner advances of $250,000 and up, or about 2 percent of all books released by commercial publishers. The government tried to prove how advances for these top-selling authors would decline if PRH were allowed to acquire Simon & Schuster. The DOJ wrote in its initial filing that “hundreds” of authors would have “fewer alternatives and less leverage.” That’s not many, but ultimately, the judge agreed that market harm would indeed come to this specific and small number of authors.

Industry veteran Michael Cader, writing in the Publishers Lunch subscription-based newsletter, offered perhaps the best summary of the case: “Antitrust trials are technical and complicated and have little to do with the nuances of the businesses involved. They are about market definition, market concentration, and market constraints, and about pricing power and econometric models. . . . The government brought a very focused case about the small set of authors and deals that win contracts of $250,000 or more every year (or about 1,200 projects a year, as we learned). It was the DOJ, not anyone in publishing, that had no regard—in an antitrust case—for the other tens of thousands of authors and books brought to market every year.”b Frustratingly, evidence presented during the trial showed that authors receiving typical advances, in the four or five figures, saw no change or even a beneficial change to their earnings when Penguin and Random House merged in 2013.

That’s not to say mergers are without harm. The judge who ruled on the case called out a serious injustice that affects authors who must deal with these big corporations, writing, “Recent years have seen the industry-wide standardization of certain contract terms—involving payment structure, audio rights, and ebook royalties—in ways that favor publishers over authors, suggesting that the top publishers have engaged in coordinated conduct. . . . Thus, in an industry where the competition to acquire anticipated top sellers is intense, the competing publishers nevertheless choose, almost always, not to gain advantage by offering more favorable contract terms. This phenomenon bespeaks a tacit agreement among the publishers to compete only on the basis of advance levels because it collectively benefits them not to yield on other contract terms.”c

None of that “standardization” is subject to change with the judge’s ruling; it shall continue. So while it may be a feel-good story for authors, and maybe it’s truly a win in the face of increased corporatization of the industry, we all face the same constraints and problems of yesterday. In the end, the big dogs remain the big dogs. Mega-advances will still be paid, and it will remain challenging to make a living if you’re the average author. Preventing the merger was mainly about protecting the status quo, not making progress. In one of its early reactions to the case, the Authors Guild said, “Unless [the US government addresses] antitrust reform in relation to Amazon’s practices, preventing the PRH/S&S merger will do little to reduce harm to authors and the publishing industry as a whole and may injure mid-list authors short term.”d

a. Office of Public Affairs, US Department of Justice, “Justice Department Sues to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Rival Publisher Simon & Schuster,” press release, November 2, 2021, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-block-penguin-random-house-s-acquisition-rival-publisher-simon.

b. Michael Cader, “The Beginning of the End of the Beginning,” Publishers Lunch newsletter, August 19, 2022, https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2022/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-beginning/.

c. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, “Memorandum Opinion [Redacted]: U.S. v. Bertelsmann SE & CO,” Case 1:21-cv-02886-FYP, Document 194, US Department of Justice, November 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-document/file/1549941/dl?inline.

d. “The Authors Guild Responds to DOJ Plan to Stop Proposed PRH/S&S Merger,” Authors Guild, November 2, 2021, https://authorsguild.org/news/the-authors-guild-responds-to-doj-plan-to-stop-proposed-prh-ss-merger/.

No one argues whether consolidation has been good for authors or literature. It can reduce competition, since imprints within the same house won’t bid against each other for books. (PRH leadership has claimed otherwise, but the antitrust trial revealed that this isn’t necessarily the case.) Also, in part because of consolidation, big publishers have been accused of producing homogeneous work that doesn’t reflect the diversity of our society, a problem the industry has been trying to address for decades. An underlying issue is the lack of diversity among staff and the executive suite; surveys continually show a predominantly white, female workforce.4 But that’s not the only challenge. A 2022 report by Pen America stated, “Diversity in the books sector isn’t just a question of who is on editorial staffs and which authors receive book contracts. Our research and interviews revealed a host of historically underexplored financial and institutional factors that feed into underrepresentation across the industry . . . These factors include policies and strategies for entry-level pay, author advances, employee retention, professional mobility, mentorship, book sales, audience development, and marketing—all of which shape a book’s chance of publication and commercial success as well as an author, bookseller, or publishing professional’s capacity to remain and flourish in the industry.”5 Even if publishers correct course, it’s the entire literary ecosystem—including university and government institutions alongside commercial ones—that affects not only who is published and seen but also who has the capability to stay in the game for the time required to achieve a sustainable living.

On the bright side, New York publishing’s focus on mass-market, commercial work provides an opening for quality midsize and small publishers to serve both authors and readers who have been abandoned or neglected. While corporately published books fill the majority of shelf space in the average bookstore, independent and small presses can and do compete, particularly when they have strong and recognizable brands. Graywolf Press, for instance, is well known in literary circles for producing some of the highest-quality poetry and fiction, and its books have hit the New York Times bestseller list. Even university presses have stepped into the gap: West Virginia University Press published a debut short-story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw, which won the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and became a finalist for the National Book Award.

And here’s the hard evidence things aren’t as bleak as they might appear: as a collective group, authors and publishers outside the conglomerates have been gaining in market share. In fact, after its big merger in 2013, Penguin Random House lost market share over the next ten years, precipitating its bid to acquire Simon & Schuster. Circana BookScan, which tracks print book sales, has reported that the largest share of book sales belongs to publishers outside the top fifteen in the US, and that effect is even more pronounced on the digital side.6 More titles are released each year than ever before, and there is no evidence that mergers have led to decreased diversity in publishing and less opportunity for authors. In fact, history demonstrates the opposite.

Professor Dan Sinykin, a scholar on the history of publishing, said in a 2022 interview, “It’s a mistake to think that the ongoing conglomeration will lead directly to the destruction of literature. A lot of interesting things are generated in resistance to conglomeration. The nonprofit presses exist as a direct result of it. . . . In order to see what’s truly limiting the possibilities for what kind of literature is published, you actually have to look much more broadly, at the class structure in the US, like who gets to go to MFA [master of fine arts] programs, who actually gets opportunities, and the deep nepotism involved in mentor-mentee relationships that all happen before you even get to an agent submitting a query to a publishing house. [Mergers draw] our attention to this much larger set of networked problems.”7

In a 2011 article about the Penguin merger with Random House, Planet Money’s Adam Davidson wrote, “It’s difficult to imagine how, in the digital world, publishers could ever monopolize the sale of written material. Even if there were only one [publishing] house left, it would compete with every blogger and self-published ebook author. Eventually, it’s likely that book publishing will embody both conflicting visions of digital-age commerce—lots of small businesses and a few massive ones that handle big-ticket items.”8

The Book P&L, or the Publishing Business Model

While traditional publishers tend to follow similar editorial and production standards regardless of what they publish, business strategies do vary. Here’s what you’ll commonly see:

• Print focused. This describes most of the big publishers as well as companies that have been around for decades. They publish nearly every title in hardcover or paperback format (or both), e-book format, and usually audio as well. They tend to sell most of their books through traditional channels like online retailers, bookstores, and libraries. When averaged together, 20 to 30 percent of their sales come from digital formats (e-book and audio); the rest comes from print. Partly this is by design, as the big publishers price e-books in such a way that print may appear the far better value to readers.

• Digital first. With the relative ease and low overhead of digital and print-on-demand publishing, small presses have proliferated. Some small presses avoid investing in print runs and focus on publishing books primarily sold via Amazon at low prices. Examples include Wolfpack Publishing and LMBPN Publishing. Some of the biggest New York houses also run imprints that are digital first or digital only, such as Hachette’s Bookouture. With the growth of audio, there is also a new set of publishers focused on audio originals or licensing audio rights. Podium Publishing is one successful example.

• Direct to consumer. Some publishers reach their readership directly and can afford to ignore traditional distribution and bookstore retail. Instead, they focus on selling directly off their website, with a few trusted partners, or through in-person opportunities. This usually works because the publisher specializes in a particular topic or has a very strong brand identity. Good examples include O’Reilly Media (tech education), Lost Art Press (woodworking), and The School of Life (intellectual self-help). You’ll also find some efforts unique and specific to the publisher, like Scholastic’s beloved school book fairs. More and more publishers have been investing to direct-to-consumer sales for increased profitability, but it can be a challenging model for general-interest publishers that publish anything and everything and don’t focus on a particular community.

Category or genre can have a tremendous effect on business model. For example, romance imprints often publish in high volume at low prices and rely on digital sales, while publishers of heavily illustrated, full-color titles produce fewer books at higher prices, with a focus on traditional print distribution and sometimes boutique sales. While writers tend to think of publishers as being reliant on bookstore sales, they are ultimately a small percentage of the overall picture. Plus there are countless publishers who don’t care about or don’t sell through bookstores. If you study a publisher’s website, you’ll find clues as to where the publisher makes its profit. A company like O’Reilly Media focuses on digital learning—providing continuous access to its new content, with books nowhere to be seen—while a small press like Microcosm has its online bookstore front and center, focused on direct-to-consumer sales.

For now, though, let’s consider the traditional publisher that is in fact focused on breaking out in the bookstore and library market, which describes big New York publishing houses. Writers often overestimate the amount of money such a book deal might bring them, so let’s be up front: most authors will earn little, or at least nothing close to a living wage, from their books. While advances vary depending on the size of the publisher, trends in the market, and the publisher’s enthusiasm for a project, a book advance for an unknown author may not go beyond $20,000 even at a major New York house. Small and midsize publishers commonly offer advances in the $1,000 to $10,000 range.

It’s not unheard-of for an unknown author to land a six-figure book deal, but the advance is typically divided into three or four installments. Even $100,000, portioned out over two years or more, isn’t much to live on—especially after your agent takes their standard 15 percent cut and you pay income tax on what’s left. Furthermore, because it’s an advance on royalties, you won’t receive more money until you earn back that advance through sales. Conventional wisdom says that 70 to 80 percent of authors do not earn out their advance.9 However, this doesn’t mean the book failed or that the author failed; publishers regularly pay advances they don’t expect to earn out. A book can remain profitable, for the publisher at least, regardless of whether the advance earns out.

To determine whether to publish your book—and the size of your advance—publishers first decide whether the book is an appropriate fit for them; if it is, then they’ll run the numbers. In a widely shared excerpt from his memoir, My Mistake, publishing industry veteran Daniel Menaker describes his first experience trying to acquire a book at Random House. His boss told him, “Well, do a P-and-L for it and we’ll see.”10

“P-and-L,” or P&L, as mentioned earlier, stands for “profit and loss.” It’s a publisher’s basic tool for deciding whether a book makes financial sense to publish. It’s a mixture of the predictable (such as manufacturing costs) and the unpredictable (namely, sales). Nearly every publisher uses a proprietary P&L that it doesn’t disclose. When I worked as an acquisitions editor, it was my responsibility to put together the P&L for every title I proposed and to make sure it would hit the target profit margin before wasting the pub board’s time with a proposal. The “pub board” was a weekly assemblage of key players in editorial, sales, and marketing who gave the green light to contract authors and titles. When I started negotiating author contracts, my marching orders were to ensure that the author advance didn’t go beyond what the P&L indicated would be earned out through sales of the first print run. This isn’t the case at every publisher, but I worked for a fiscally conservative house. You often hear about bestsellers subsidizing other titles a publisher produces, and this is true; such books, if they continue selling over time, drive growth and provide an important financial cushion for smaller publishers. Publishers typically look at each title as part of a larger “season”: each season is a strategic mix of titles expected to produce strong earnings and “quieter” books that carry more risk.

The industry has changed dramatically since I saw my first P&L. For starters, more than half of book sales now happen online, but the underlying math remains the same. No author will be offered a look at their own book’s P&L, but understanding how a book deal comes together can help you appreciate what financial pressures publishers are under and why an advance might seem low to an author but high to a publisher.

Estimating a Book’s Sales (and Thus the Author Advance)

It is nearly impossible to separate discussion of an author’s advance from sales projections. In fact, you should be able to make an educated guess as to how many books the publisher thinks it will sell based on your advance—with one caveat, to be explained in a moment.

As mentioned, the author’s advance is an advance against royalties. As books sell, authors earn a percentage of the price for each copy sold (a royalty). That may sound like paying back a loan, but authors do not have to return or repay the advance. So the advance represents a financial risk on the part of the publisher. When publishers pay advances that they know or expect won’t earn out, one could view this as publishers effectively paying a higher royalty rate than what’s stated in the contract. The dark side of this practice, however, is that some publishers pay larger advances because they refuse to increase royalty rates, particularly on e-books—which may hurt authors’ earning potential over the long term.

Publishers’ projected sales for a book are based on several criteria: past sales of books by the author (or comparable authors, for a debut title); recent performance of the book’s genre/category for the publisher; and subsidiary rights deals (such as foreign rights and sales) or the potential for such. There is one wild card that affects this calculation: irrational enthusiasm. Building buzz and excitement about your book is part of your agent’s job. If an agent sells a book at auction, for example, it forces publishers to compete against one another, which may push the price much higher than a P&L would indicate is appropriate. As you might guess, agents like running auctions if they believe they have a hot or desirable property on their hands. If a publisher overpays, that means more money up front for both agent and author, and it may help ensure the publisher’s commitment to marketing and promoting the book in order to recoup the investment.

Midsize and large publishers have an in-house sales team that secures advance orders from retailers, libraries, and distributors, as well as in-store placement and merchandising for books. The challenge for most authors seeking publication is to bring a project to publishers’ attention that merits this physical retail sales push. Most major publishers need to anticipate sales in the thousands of copies, on a national level, to make it worth their time and investment. At pub board meetings, the sales and marketing team may commit to specific sales figures by channel—Barnes & Noble, Amazon, libraries, special sales, discount stores, and so on. These numbers are often based on sales of a comparable title in the publisher’s list or a competitor’s list. As you might imagine, sales projections reflect the optimism and enthusiasm of the sales and marketing staff for your book. They may also reflect the acquisitions editor’s ability to pitch your book effectively to their colleagues—we’ll address this issue at length in chapter 13.

The lucky author who secures a publishing deal will soon discover their book is just one among thousands of titles released every year. Most books sit spine-out in a row on a bookshelf, rather than on display; others never get stocked in physical stores. Unless a book quickly establishes a track record of success, it is at risk of being returned or pulped (literally reduced to pulp, the fate of many unsold books) to make room for the next season of titles—book publishing has allowed returns from bookstores, for any reason, since the Great Depression of the 1930s. According to an executive from Ingram, the biggest book distributor in the world, only 5 percent of books returned to the publisher are ever recirculated back into the market.11

Once an author has at least one book published, they have a sales track record that can be found and researched by anyone in the publishing industry with a subscription to Circana BookScan. BookScan collects sales data on print books in the United States across many types of retailers, on a title-by-title basis. It also shows sales data patterns for specific authors, categories, genres, regions, and types of retailers. If your first book is a dud and doesn’t sell well, that may depress enthusiasm for your next book—and not just at the publishing house, but at bookstores and other retailers who place orders prior to publication. This is why it can be difficult for an author with a poor sales record to get another book deal—the publisher is at a disadvantage from the outset when trying to pitch your book and must provide reasons why your new book will perform better.

BookScan is often criticized for not being a terribly accurate source for book sales, especially because of its focus on print, although it does track digital sales as well. Some industry observers say that BookScan accounts for roughly 70 percent of a book’s print sales, but a lot depends on whether it is the type of book largely bought through retailers. Some books, as discussed earlier, sell directly to consumers, or they’re often read via subscription services like Kindle Unlimited or Scribd. Or they may sell primarily to libraries. BookScan captures none of that activity.

Big picture, though, the book publishing industry has always been notorious for not knowing how many copies a book has sold at any particular moment—or ever revealing that information to the public. One reason is the specter of returns. Even if a publisher sells and ships out five thousand copies to bookstores, it could see a number of those copies come back in six months or a year (or more) as a result of returns.

Author Royalty Rates

An author’s royalty rates vary based on book format (hardcover, paperback, audio, e-book) as well as the sales channel or method of distribution. Most book deals include escalators: when specific sales thresholds are reached, the royalty rate goes up. For example, royalties for a trade paperback sold in a bookstore might look like this:

• 1–5,000 copies sold: 8.0%

• 5,001–10,000: 10.0%

• 10,001–20,000: 12.5%

• 20,001 and higher: 15.0%

Hardcover royalties typically start at 10 percent, paperback royalties at 8 percent, and mass-market (an inexpensive and small format) even lower than that—but as always, much depends on the publisher and type of book. Children’s publishers often pay lower royalty rates, and children’s picture book authors typically divide the royalty with the illustrator.

When evaluating royalty rates, it’s important to know whether they’re based on the list (retail) price of the book or on net receipts. For example, a $20 hardcover with a 10 percent royalty based on list price will pay the author $2 per copy sold. But if that royalty is based on net receipts—the net amount the publisher receives—the payment will be much less. If that same $20 book sells at 50 percent of list (which is common), the net royalty would be $1 per copy sold. Agents typically expect and want royalties based on list, but smaller publishers often pay based on net. There is no “right” basis on which to pay royalties, but a publisher that pays on net needs to be trusted in how it’s calculating that net figure, and the contract should explain how it’s calculated.

E-book royalty rates at most traditional publishers have been “stuck” at 25 percent of net for years, to the frustration of both agents and authors. Agents would like to see e-book royalties paid on list price as print royalties are, but publishers have resisted because e-books—like digital audiobooks—do not carry a consistent list price, unlike print (the reasons for which are too complex to get into here).

Table 1 contains a sample royalty breakdown for a book across three formats. The publisher’s revenue indicated in table 2 is merely an industry average; your particular rate will depend on many factors and can be negotiated. Publishers themselves negotiate specific discounts with each account or retailer. I’ve applied a generic 50 percent here, since many channels receive somewhere around a 50 percent discount.

Table 1 Example of Author Royalty Payments

Hardcover

Paperback

E-book

Retail price

$30.00

$18.00

$14.00

Publisher’s revenue (net receipts)

$15.00

$9.00

$9.80

Author royalty rate

10% of retail

8% of retail

25% of net

Author royalty per copy

$3.00

$1.44

$2.45

Table 2 Example of Publisher Profit per Copy Sold

Hardcover

Paperback

E-book

Retail price

$30.00

$18.00

$14.00

Average cut to wholesaler or distributor

−$15.00

−$9.00

−$4.20

Author royalty

−$3.00

−$1.44

−$2.45

Manufacturing cost

−$4.00

−$2.50

—

Distribution/freight cost

−$1.00

−$1.00

—

Cost of returns

−$1.00

−$0.50

—

Profit per title (before overhead, staffing, marketing costs)

$6.00

$3.56

$7.35

Parting Thoughts

There’s not a whole lot of money to be made in book publishing, for either the author or the publisher. John Steinbeck famously said, “The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.”12 Furthermore, to achieve decent sales as a book author, almost no one can expect to “just write” and leave the marketing and promotion to the publisher. In fact, it’s hard to find a successful author in history who didn’t market, promote, or innovate to sustain their writing career. During the Renaissance, Erasmus organized a network of agents across Europe to actively distribute his works and collect his rewards.13 Around the turn of the twentieth century, Mark Twain’s most successful work was sold by traveling salesmen going door to door—at a time when this form of marketing was considered extremely impolite.14 And Charles Dickens from the Victorian era of the 1800s is legendary not only for his writing but also for how he released his work in multiple formats, modified his stories based on audience feedback, and masterfully used the serial to garner attention and publicity.

If you’re committed to pursuing a career primarily focused on commercial book publication, then you’ll be faced with the challenge of staying competitive, current, and discoverable in a shifting digital landscape; of finding ways to engage with your readers; and of developing strong partnerships to help you market and promote your work. A publisher may or may not assist you with these challenges; the best publisher helps you produce better work and ensures more sales over the long term. Sometimes an agent fulfills this role alongside or instead of the publisher. The wrong publisher will leave you feeling as if your career has been derailed and wishing you hadn’t signed a contract. Regardless of how you view publishers’ strengths and weaknesses, they remain the best path to seeing your book sold nationwide in print form—for now. Their partnership can be invaluable, when a true partnership can be found, even when some aspects of the relationship can be disappointing or frustrating.

Exercise: Run Your Own P&L

Imagine you’re a newly minted editor at a New York publishing house, and you want to acquire a debut novel by an author who does not yet have a sales track record. The novel is a work of literary fiction, and at your publishing house, such works sell, on average, 2,000 hardcovers at $25 and 600 e-books at $12. Your marching orders are to acquire books that have at least a 20 percent profit margin. Run the numbers using the P&L spreadsheet found at the companion website for this book (https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/). Can you make a financial case for your book? How might you argue that the book will sell more than the average release?

12 : The Challenges of Literary Publishing

Literary publishers—whether of books, journals, or other media—are lauded as being almost wholly concerned with artistic excellence. The biggest commercial publishers seek excellence as well, but they must consider whether a given project will earn back its investment in the marketplace. Literary publishers might be run as nonprofits, survive because of university support, or support their artistic mission by applying for grants or seeking donations; some use a combination of these strategies. A handful of lucky organizations, like the Poetry Foundation, which publishes Poetry magazine, have enjoyed very generous benefactors. McSweeney’s, a literary publishing stalwart since 1998, became a nonprofit organization in 2014 to remain sustainable. Other stars of literary publishing, such as Graywolf Press and most university presses, are also run as nonprofits.

But literary publishing doesn’t have to mean nonprofit publishing. In the nineteenth century, two of the most venerated literary publications in history, Harper’s Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, began as commercial enterprises within years of each other and built their reputations on publishing the most excellent writing for an upper-class, educated audience. Their contributors read like a Who’s Who of the time: Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and many others. These publications were sustainable at first because of the growth of literacy and the middle class, lack of competition, and tremendous reader interest in short fiction. But in the twenty-first century, each took a different path to survive: the Atlantic became a digital media enterprise; Harper’s became a nonprofit.

The audience for high-quality literature has always been small. Authors’ and publishers’ complaints about the lack of audience for serious literature date back to at least the eighteenth century, when ghost stories sold better than formal poetry.1 More recently, Hamilton Nolan wrote, “The audience for quality prestige content is small, even smaller than the actual output of quality prestige content, which itself is smaller than most media outlets like to imagine.”2 Although Nolan was speaking specifically about journalism, the same applies to all “prestige content” produced primarily for an upper-class, educated audience. And what constitutes “prestige” has changed over time. Short stories, venerated by those who value literature today, once served as light entertainment and were published heavily in magazines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of those early pieces have more in common with today’s soap opera storylines or romance novels than with an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. After TV became the primary vehicle of both entertainment and advertising, short fiction became less read and less profitable; a great deal of it transformed into what’s considered “literary fiction” by the mid-twentieth century, although there remains strong tradition of publishing short fiction in the science fiction and fantasy community in particular.3

The greatest challenge facing literary publishers is that the audience they imagine for themselves has barely progressed beyond the audience captured by those first literature-focused magazines like Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly. As John William Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman observe, Harper’s was fortunate to have a loyal and diverse audience: “Some were poor scholars, some farmers with the advantage of an education, some rich and cultured people, but the one thing they all held in common was a passionate interest in culture, not only for themselves but for their children.”4 But it is next to impossible to publish for that audience today. The digital age has brought fragmentation of audiences and markets. Broad, general-interest publishers that have been around for decades, or even a century or more, struggle to stay afloat in the new environment, and literary publishers are not spared this challenge.

At a 2014 Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference panel, Morgan Entrekin, president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, a well-respected and independent literary publisher, identified two primary challenges facing literary publishing going forward: distribution and discoverability. Entrekin argued that publishing needs diversity in distribution channels, largely because opportunities for books to be discovered by readers are disappearing and those that remain rely on a few big companies, such as Amazon, Apple, and Google.5 He’s right that it’s largely Silicon Valley companies and the tech industry that have been shaping book distribution and discoverability. But there’s not really a distribution problem here at all. Anyone, anywhere, can get their hands on any nearly any title if they’re willing to make a purchase through an online retailer. That leaves the issue of discoverability, where the problem isn’t so much that readers have a hard time discovering new things to read as that publishers have a hard time making their works visible to the right readers or even knowing who those readers are in the first place.

One of the traditional advantages a publisher has offered an author is getting their book distributed to every possible bookstore or retailer. But now that physical retail is far less important to an author’s discoverability, what purpose does a publisher serve? For literary publishing in particular, the imprimatur of a house remains important. It’s not enough to simply publish; literary authors must be published by a credible someone to attract the “right” types of reviews, awards, and attention. One calculates the status and prestige attained (rather than money), which is not to levy judgment against such calculations but to openly express the game that is being played. Gaining acceptance from certain types of editors and publishers can be translated into future earnings, in the form of grants, professorships, speaking engagements, and other revenue-generating opportunities.

In this sense, reputable and well-known literary presses might be in a better position to serve authors’ needs than commercial publishers. Without the imminent pressure for profits, they can play the long game, be happier with small or “quiet” books, and keep publishing an author over many years. But it does require that literary publishers cultivate a persona or brand, or appear to stand for something beyond just “good literature.” The Paris Review is perhaps one of the most remarkable examples in the literary community. Travis Kurowski observed, in his essay “In Exile and Against Criticism: The Paris Review and the Branding of Contemporary Literature”:

The editors saw that, in order for any readers in America or abroad to notice it during a time both color television and the hydrogen bomb came to fruition, when advertising had begun its stronghold on culture, they had to work hard to develop interest and trust in the magazine through the magazine’s content, image, and overall concept. . . . For the majority of literary magazine editors, the content itself was supposed to be significant enough. And for the early Paris Review, the content of the magazine was still primary, but to get that content into the minds and hands of readers they had to do various things to make the magazine a marketable venue . . . [and] make new and experimental literature a part of the culture.6

A successful literary brand isn’t a sign of pandering; rather, it evokes and emphasizes the why, or what the publisher stands for. Branding has become critical given that we live in a time where (1) sources of quality reading bombard us daily, even if we limit ourselves to what is free, and (2) we’re seeking authenticity and meaning in the organizations and businesses we deal with. More than that even, as consumers—and that includes consumers of books—we increasingly care about the values of those we buy from or follow. This attention to values benefits small and literary publishers of all kinds, and it puts big companies—Amazon and Penguin Random House alike—at a disadvantage.

But without a compelling framework and context for what is published, literary publishers can feel virtually indistinguishable from one another, with no criteria guiding the selection of work aside from artistic excellence. Many submission guidelines and editors talk about seeking “quality” work, but what does that really mean—to the staff and the publisher’s supporters, the readers, or the community at large? Literary journals especially can be guilty of making work available but not known.

Fortunately, the digital era has made it easier to succeed by finding and targeting that specific readership who cares. Through digital marketing and distribution, it is possible to identify and directly reach a potential audience, without special distribution, a large advertising budget, or even physical shelf space. But doing so requires a publisher that knows its intended readership and can express how it’s different from other publishers. Even once this is known, it takes time to develop an ongoing connection with readers, and it’s a different game than the one played by the commercial publishers of New York. In 2009 Richard Nash theorized:

Basically, the best-selling five hundred books each year will likely be published like Little, Brown publishes James Patterson, on a TV production model; or like Scholastic did Harry Potter and Doubleday Dan Brown, on a big Hollywood blockbuster model. The rest will be published by niche social publishing communities.7

Parting Thoughts

Literary publishers produce niche work, and thus they are poised to become leaders of the community of readers and writers who have matching missions and belief systems. Literary publishers can add value and credibility to niche communities not only through the act of publishing but also through forms of leadership and support that go beyond print and extend into events, services, grants, fellowships, reading groups, and other features. Coffee House Press is one example of a literary publisher that reconsidered its activities to encompass more than just releasing new books. Its former publisher Chris Fischbach wrote:

We think of our role as catalyst and connector, driving various kinds of cultural and community engagement. Sometimes that takes a solid and sellable form, and sometimes it’s performative, electronic, participatory, or even culinary. This is the kind of publishing we’re interested in, and what we think literature, and publishing, needs more of.8

Building community is primarily about intimate knowledge of and respect for that community, combined with creativity and imagination in serving it. Publishers that survive, whether they focus on traditional print or digital media, must be indispensable to the communities they serve. Although at one time a publisher might have been indispensable by communicating high-quality ideas and stories by remarkable authors, a publisher who does that today—and nothing more—can be seen as merely adding to the burden we all now face. There are too many wonderful things to read and too few signposts as to what’s worth our time. Thus, the literary publisher needs to be a beacon, a strong signal amid all the noise, and organize ideas, content, and stories within an identifiable and useful context. Otherwise, many of us will turn away because we simply can’t find the time to understand or discover the meaning or the quality of what’s presented to us.

Exercise: Find a Nonprofit Publisher’s Form 990

Some literary publishers operate as nonprofits, and every US nonprofit has to file with the Internal Revenue Service a Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, which includes information on how the organization raises and uses its funds. This form is open to public inspection, so you can find and view it. Look up the 990 for a literary publisher and study how much of its operational budget comes from book sales versus other forms of revenue, such as fundraising and government grants. (You can use a site like Guide Star to find this information, or try Googling the publisher name + 990.) Graywolf Press is a good one to start out with if you’re not sure which literary publishers are also nonprofits.

13 : Determining Your Category or Genre

The first step on the path to publication is understanding how to categorize your work. Determining your category or genre will help set, or moderate, your expectations of your work’s sales potential, plus it will help you submit it to the right agent or publisher. You might also discover that what you’re writing is most likely to be self-published—for example, some subgenres consist almost entirely of self-published work, especially in romance.

Fiction: Commercial versus Literary

Fiction publishing can be broadly divided into two areas: commercial fiction and literary fiction. Commercial fiction encompasses well-known genres such as romance; mystery, suspense, crime, and thrillers; and science fiction and fantasy. Sometimes people use the terms commercial fiction and genre fiction interchangeably. What defines commercial fiction depends on whom you ask, but most people agree that it focuses on delivering a compelling story—the priority is to keep readers turning the page. There’s a clear hero or set of heroes, and probably a villain or other characters who get in the hero’s way. There’s a strong narrative arc: rising tension that culminates in a thrilling climax, with a satisfying or definitive ending.

Literary fiction is generally concerned with language, expression, and style as much as story. Some observers regard it as more complex, artful, and nuanced than commercial fiction, meant to challenge readers rather than provide entertainment. The underlying and insulting subtext can be that commercial fiction is for simpletons who probably don’t even notice bad writing. That’s a stereotype to be aware of, and one at which commercial writers take offense. Just as commercial fiction doesn’t have a monopoly on good storytelling or compelling narratives, literary fiction doesn’t have a monopoly on “good” writing. Still, those who write and read literary fiction tend to care greatly about the aesthetics of the writing. Literary novelists may be less inclined to satisfy readers than to discomfort them, and hope their work will be analyzed for its many layers of meaning. Commercial novelists’ key goal may be to give readers an escape; commercial fiction is the home of the “beach read” or the novel you pick up in the airport bookstore to enjoy on a long plane ride.1

As the very name indicates, commercial fiction is work that’s positioned to make money. Literary fiction is notorious for selling few copies and not making much of a profit, but it can gain a large readership, especially if the author is a household name or receives national recognition, as in the case of best-selling authors like Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen, or Marlon James.

If you feel like your work falls somewhere in between commercial and literary fiction, then you might be writing what’s known as upmarket fiction. This is an industry term and not one recognized by readers; you won’t find a bookstore shelf devoted to “upmarket fiction.” But it’s helpful to know about it if you plan to approach agents and publishers. Upmarket fiction offers a strong, propulsive plot like commercial or genre fiction, with high-quality writing that remains accessible to readers. Upmarket fiction often provokes discussion of real-world issues that resonate with readers today; such books are popular with book clubs, especially celebrity book clubs. They have enough substance to fuel conversation and often disagreement. Authors in this category include Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Such categorization can be subjective and sometimes controversial. Some observers argue that work by men is more likely to be considered “literary,” while women get downgraded into another category, like “women’s fiction.” (The term women’s fiction, increasingly disfavored, is used to describe novels by women, read predominantly by women, that deal with so-called women’s issues.) Dan Sinykin, a professor and author of Big Fiction, believes that there’s no longer such a thing as “literary fiction.”2 No doubt many literary publishers and authors would disagree.

Short-story collections are usually categorized as literary fiction, as are most novellas—unless they’re clearly written in a specific genre, such as a collection of science fiction stories. When pitched a short-story collection from an unknown writer, most agents or commercial publishers will immediately ask if a novel is available instead. Short-story collections tend to be published by university and nonprofit presses in the literary community. Most are based outside New York and offer little money, but there can be prestige and opportunities with well-recognized presses.

As for poets: You’ll find the commercial market even less receptive to poetry collections than short stories—unless you’re a social media celebrity who has built an audience already. (For example, Andrews McMeel is one of the biggest publishers of Instapoets, poets who started out on the social media platform Instagram.) Still, as with short stories, there are literary publishers and university presses devoted to publishing poetry. Even if you interest one, don’t expect to earn much money or see your book widely available in stores.

Nonfiction: Narrative and Prescriptive

Nonfiction makes up the majority of published work in the United States, perhaps as much as 70 percent. There are dozens and dozens of nonfiction categories, but for our purposes it’s useful to consider the landscape in terms of narrative nonfiction and prescriptive nonfiction.

People read prescriptive nonfiction for the benefit it provides. They typically want to improve or change their lives in some way: better health or greater wealth, more love or more happiness. Such books consist of instructions, principles, formulas or “secrets”—alongside inspiration and encouragement. They’re typically written by authorities or experts and sold on the basis of the author’s platform. You don’t have to be a highly skilled writer to produce a best-selling prescriptive nonfiction book; rather, the book has to deliver on the benefit promised to readers. Some of the most popular prescriptive nonfiction categories are business, self-help and self-improvement, health, and cooking. (This book is prescriptive.)

Narrative nonfiction tells a true story but also uses some elements of fiction, such as well-crafted scenes, character development, and forward-moving action. Books by Mary Roach and Lauren Hillenbrand are classic narrative nonfiction. Memoirs fall into this broad category, as do biographies and autobiographies. Unlike prescriptive nonfiction, for which the information conveyed is paramount and the writing usually straightforward, narrative nonfiction demands an author with some experience or skill as a writer to produce a memoir, history, or other fact-based work that’s meant to entertain through storytelling as much as to inform. Most successful narrative nonfiction work involves considerable research and plenty of interviews, possibly travel. Note that narrative nonfiction is sometimes called creative nonfiction—a term most often used within academic settings and literary publishing communities, and which may refer to short, essay-length works as well as book-length works.

The Challenge of Memoir

Many people new to writing will attempt a memoir as their first meaningful project. This choice sets up a significant challenge: the writer usually hasn’t developed sufficient skills to tell the story in a compelling manner, and—complicating matters—memoir is one of those categories where great writing doesn’t necessarily seal the deal. The writer must have some fresh angle that sets their book apart from similar stories, along with a tight character arc reflecting a change in themself by the end. It requires significant objectivity and distance to do well, and if you’re writing about rather recent events, or there is no clear “ending” yet, it will be difficult to pull off in a way that appeals to commercial publishers.

Most memoirs have a central issue or theme that the narrator must grapple with and learn from, like “growing up in a small town” or “overcoming addiction.” But to sell, there will need to be some twist on that theme that provokes curiosity or attracts media attention. For example: in This Is Not My Beautiful Life, Victoria Fedden tells about becoming a new mother (common) while her parents are being sent to prison (twist). Or Tara Westover in Educated leaves home to attend college far away (common) but has no formal education and was homeschooled in isolation (twist). Notice how these stories zero in on a particular period in the writer’s life. Don’t expect to sell a memoir that begins during your childhood and covers every aspect of your life until the present day. That’s not actually a memoir so much as an autobiography. A memoir tells the story of a specific time—a span of months or a few years—or it focuses on a single facet of your identity or experience over a longer period. Trying to tell your entire life story is a giveaway that you don’t have a focused enough narrative.

Writers may gravitate toward “hybrid memoir,” sometimes because they’ve heard it might be easier to sell. Hybrid memoir ultimately refers to anything that combines memoir, research, and material that’s not directly tied to your personal narrative. If it’s your first time writing a book, it can be challenging to develop a cohesive story while inserting meaningful research or insights without slowing the pace or losing the reader. However, Adriana Barton, author of Wired for Music, has usefully expressed why the hybrid approach was the right solution for her project: “From the start, I knew my personal story didn’t have enough drama to sustain a narrative arc. I was never a child prodigy, nor did I quit classical music only to later catapult to fame as a rockstar. So, I decided a progression of science topics should be the backbone of the book.”3 Still, it was not easy to pull off and required many rounds of revision. Even in hybrid memoir, most authors need to determine what takes priority, or find that “backbone” Barton mentions. Either your own story acts as the backbone, or the research or advice does. Additional examples of hybrid memoir include The Year of the Horses by Courtney Maum and My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland. Books by well-known personalities or celebrities often take hybrid approaches as well.

If you commit to hybrid memoir, when it’s time to pitch, you may be better off positioning it either as memoir or in the specific nonfiction category that it relates to, rather than labeling it “hybrid memoir.” That’s because there is no agent or publisher that avidly seeks “hybrid memoir,” nor does the publishing industry recognize it as a formal category. And neither do readers. That said, nearly every agent and publisher knows what you mean if you call your book a “hybrid memoir.” Sometimes you might hear people call it “researched memoir,” “reported memoir,” or “memoir plus.”

Essay Collections, Anthologies, and Humor

File all of these under “difficult to get published,” similar to short-story and poetry collections. Few publishing goals are more difficult to achieve than selling a book-length work as an essayist, humorist, or satirist without first establishing a track record of publishing shorter work. Consider Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay and The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison: both writers had years of experience before their collections were published. It’s best to focus on small presses to land a book deal for a collection, and the same goes for anthologies with multiple contributors.

Children’s Books

Children’s publishing is considered by some observers to be its own distinct industry, with various sectors that focus on educational textbooks that successfully meet school curriculum guidelines, as well as companies that focus on multimedia entertainment for children, of which books constitute just one product area.

For creative writers, three specific categories offer the most opportunity: picture books, middle-grade books, and young adult (YA) books. These categories all relate to what we would consider leisure reading for children, or reading that happens outside school requirements. Writers have considerable leeway in how the stories are told and what vocabulary is used in such books. If you intend instead to write children’s books that will be used as school texts, then you need to study the specific requirements and guidelines available from educational publishers. Either way, the age of the reader is always critical when pitching children’s work, since the work should address issues that would be most appropriate for the child’s age and also fit their reading level.

A picture book is meant for younger children, typically prereaders or beginning readers. It features pictures on every page and tells its story through both the text and the pictures. The traditional picture book is thirty-two to forty pages and has no more than a thousand words. The publisher typically chooses the illustrator; author and illustrator split the royalties.

Middle-grade books are for young readers, ages eight to twelve. Such books might include light or heavy illustrations, but the story is told mainly through text. A longtime classic of this category is Judy Blume’s Fudge series. Middle-grade books can also take the form of a graphic novel, as in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, where author Jeff Kinney is both author and illustrator. If you’ve heard of “chapter books,” those are for a slightly younger audience, usually have larger type and lots of illustrations, and make a point of not being intimidating. An example is the Captain Underpants series.

The YA category has experienced significant growth since 2010. In 2004, adult fiction comprised 32 percent of all books sold in the United States. By 2014 it had dropped to 23 percent, partly as a result of gains in the young adult market.4 More adults than youth are reading YA fiction; if you’re an adult who’s read the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Twilight series, then you’re part of this trend. YA fiction exists across all genres and subgenres; the unifying element is that the protagonist is a teenager, with parents in the distant background, if they’re around at all. Usually issues of identity are at the heart of the narrative.

Those who plan to primarily write for children should consider a membership in the Society of Children’s Writers and Book Illustrators, which offers education and information targeted to the special needs of the children’s market. A well-known and longtime expert in children’s fiction is editor Harold Underdown, who runs an educational website for writers (https://underdown.org). Another helpful resource is the Good Story Company (https://www.goodstorycompany.com), founded by former literary agent and editor Mary Kole.

Illustrated Books

The big question for any illustrated book: who’s responsible for creating, sourcing, or paying for the illustrations? For graphic novels and memoirs, usually the author is also the illustrator or will need to find a partner who can do the illustrations before approaching an agent or publisher. For books where photography or artwork are a critical component of the book’s success—such as a step-by-step book or an art/photography book—some publishers may assist or collaborate with the author to produce the required illustrations, or otherwise provide a budget for them. Book illustrations are always subject to the publisher’s approval, as they constitute part of the manuscript. Whether the publisher plans to assist in the illustration process or not, the author should be able to demonstrate their vision, with example art/illustrations, in a book proposal. (The proposal for illustrated books should include a section on how the illustrations will be sourced and whether the publisher’s support will be required to acquire or complete the illustrations.) When illustrations are not critical to the book’s success, the publisher makes a judgment call on how to much to invest and whom to hire, and may consult with the author.

If you plan to use existing photos, artwork, diagrams, or illustrations that you did not create, you’ll need to identify the rights holder for each image and then request permission to use their work in your book. The responsibility always falls to the author, not the publisher, to research such permissions and then request and pay for permissions. Do not assume images you’ve found online are free for you to use or don’t require permission. Those images are likely protected under copyright, and it’s your responsibility to find out who owns that copyright. Chapter 38 delves further into permissions.

Parting Thoughts

If you consider your work so unique that it can’t be categorized, that will cause you endless headaches when trying to market and promote, whether to agents, publishers, or readers. Publishers need to be able to talk about your book to readers and booksellers using recognized industry categories, and they will use comparable authors or titles to effectively market it. If your work is truly beyond categorization, then you’ll have to approach publishers that expressly accept that type of work (hint: there aren’t many) or focus on literary publishers that welcome work that pushes against traditional expectations.

Exercise: Research How Retailers, Reviewers, and Readers Categorize Books

It’s time to explore not just your category or genre but also your possible subcategories or subgenres, and check your assumptions about what you’re writing. Identify one well-known author or title that you consider part of your category or genre. Look up the title on Amazon and see how it’s been categorized. (You’ll find this information under the “Product Details” section, under “Best Sellers Rank.”) Write down those categories. Then examine the book on Goodreads. How are readers categorizing it? What lists has it been included in? Write those down, too. Check WorldCat (https://search.worldcat.org), a repository of library data. What library subjects have been applied to the book?

You should now have a variety of overlapping subcategories or subgenres, which you can investigate even further through web searches. For example, in Google, if you search for “paranormal women’s fiction,” the search results page will include a grid of book covers along the top or further down the page. They will likely look like they belong to the same family. On that same Google search, switch to the News tab. Look for book roundups or editorial coverage of your genre. What discoveries lie there? The better you understand the various permutations and expressions of your category or genre in today’s market, the better prepared you will be to talk to agents or editors and pitch your work knowledgeably.

14 : Understanding and Working with Literary Agents

Within the more than five-hundred-year history of book publishing, literary agents are a recent phenomenon: they started appearing in late nineteenth-century Britain. The publishing landscape was growing in both size and complexity, so writers had greater need of a representative to navigate the market, protect their interests, and negotiate more lucrative contracts.

Publishers weren’t initially pleased with this development. William Heinemann, who founded one of the oldest publishers still operating in the United Kingdom, wrote in 1893, “This is the age of the middleman. He is generally a parasite. He always flourishes. I have been forced to give him some little attention lately in my particular business. In it, he calls himself the literary agent.”1 Soon enough, these so-called parasites became valuable to both the publisher and the author. While agents served as authors’ representatives, placing their clients’ work at the best possible publishing houses, they also became talent scouts and a trusted filter for publishers. The biggest publishers stopped accepting unagented work, and the gatekeeping responsibility passed to the agents.2

Then, as now, agents might be former editors, or they might be lawyers—or neither. There isn’t a formal industry credential for literary agents; anybody can call themself one. Similar to editors, they have their own subjective tastes and opinions, and they may specialize in certain categories of work.

Whether you need an agent depends on several factors. Probably the most important is whether you want your work considered by the biggest New York publishing houses, which rarely consider material unless it’s sent by an agent. But there are other benefits. Today, as was the case 140 years ago, agents know the market better than authors do. They have relationships with specific editors across dozens of publishing imprints. They’re experts in what’s selling and how to pitch your work to the right place at the right time. They bring many years of experience, along with a network of contacts—and, one hopes, a reputation for spotting talent. They’re trusted by publishers to bring valuable projects to the table. When an agent represents you, you’re getting the benefit of their insider knowledge and contacts.

The advantages don’t stop there. Once they’ve negotiated the best deal for you, the agent should remain closely involved as your book progresses to publication, running interference during any disagreements you might have with your editor or publisher. If there’s ever a contractual dispute, your agent is the one who will handle it; if there’s a problem with payment, your agent should be the first to spot it. Most authors appreciate how an agent allows them to focus more on writing, confident that the agent will take care of business with the publisher and raise red flags if they see something amiss.

The very best agents take an interest in their clients’ long-term careers. Rather than selling one book and losing interest, they’ll want to speak with you about your plans for future books and consider the best strategy for each. If you must part ways with a publisher, your agent will be an important partner in making that happen with as little grief and damage as possible. The agent alternates between roles: coach (pushing you to get your work done), therapist (helping you cope with rejection or poor reviews), cheerleader (celebrating every win), and sharp-nosed accountant (ensuring that you get every dime that’s due). Some agents might become active in spreading the word about your books. The best agent for you is someone who understands and believes in your work and is committed to looking out for your long-term interests. You should trust your agent implicitly; they serve as a fiduciary.

Before we discuss how to find agents and publishers in chapter 15, you should first understand the standard business practices of a traditional literary agent, what their legal responsibility is, and what commitment you’re making when you choose to be represented by one.

First, agents earn money from you only when they sell your work. The most common commission is 15 percent of everything the author receives. That means 15 percent of your advance, 15 percent of any royalties you earn, and 15 percent of other earnings that come from selling rights to your work. This naturally gives them incentive to find the best opportunities for selling your work and to negotiate better deals. However, if you ask any agent whether money is the most important factor in choosing a publisher, every single one will say no. Agent Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency has said she can’t get the best editor for the project if the process is driven by who can pay the biggest advance. “If money mattered in that much of a way, I wouldn’t be in publishing. The financial component is important, but not as important as getting the right shepherd for your project.”3 One reason agents are so valuable is precisely because of their knowledge of who will be a good shepherd for your book in particular.

It’s best to avoid any agent who charges up-front fees to consider your work, because this is how publishing scams operate. Whereas some agents offer legitimate editing or consulting services on the side, none of them should mandate that you pay them for editing or consulting in exchange for representation. In fact, the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) says in its Canon of Ethics that if a writer pays an agent for editorial services, that payment must be refunded if the writer ends up being represented by that agent for the same project.4 While it is common for agents to say they’ll consider representing your work if you revise it according to their specifications (known as a “revise and resubmit” request), it is not usual for them to do this work themselves and charge you for it, or to send you to a specific person they approve for help. In the latter case, the agent may receive a kickback for referring you, which is considered unethical.

In years past, agents traditionally worked on handshake agreements with their authors, but now they more often formalize the relationship in writing. The author-agent contract spells out how long the representation lasts, how it can be renewed or terminated, the agent’s commission, and how disputes will be resolved. Although the agent has the right to be your exclusive agent of record, your relationship should give you the freedom to represent yourself or market your own work when desirable. In other words, if and when you negotiate a deal for your own work without the agent’s assistance, the agent shouldn’t earn a commission on it.

But for any and all works that the agent sells and negotiates a contract for, they are entitled to earn a commission for as long as that contract remains in effect. In fact, the publishing contract you sign with a book publisher will include what’s known as an “agency clause”—which is written and provided by the literary agent. This clause binds the agent to the book deal as the agent of record. Typically, the agent receives all payments from the publisher, deducts their percentage cut, and distributes the rest to you, the author, until the contract terminates. But it is possible to request that the publisher divide the payments, meaning you will be paid directly by the publisher and not through the agent. Even if you break up with your agent, they will continue to receive a 15 percent commission while the publishing agreement remains in effect.

Your agent oversees and double-checks your royalty statements from the publisher. If either of you suspect the publisher isn’t being accurate or honest in its financial reporting, it will be your agent who oversees the auditing process. If you suspect your agent of any funny business or improper accounting, then you do have recourse through the Association of American Literary Agents, assuming your agent is a member. If they are not, then the Authors Guild is also known for investigating questionable business practices by both agents and publishers.

How to Evaluate Agents

When an agent offers you representation, you should receive an email, and likely a phone call, to discuss your project and any questions you have before committing. Don’t feel pressured to agree to the offer of representation immediately—it’s OK to (respectfully) play hard to get. If your manuscript is under active consideration by other agents, you should say so and ask for sufficient time to see if the other agents are also interested. If the agent requires you to sign a contract, ask for a copy; you’ll need time to review it.

If you find yourself in the lucky position of being courted by two or more agents, then your phone conversations may be the determining factor in which agent you ultimately choose. You’re looking for good chemistry and, as mentioned earlier, trust is paramount. The conversation should leave you feeling energized or enthusiastic about the relationship. If it leaves you feeling cold and unsure, pay attention to those feelings. Slow down and consider whether the agent is really a good fit for you because rarely does that doubt disappear. Often, it only increases over time, especially if communication is infrequent or difficult. But also consider the following three criteria.

First, examine each prospective agent’s track record of sales, or their client list and the publishers they have recently sold to. (You should be able to find this information on their website, but ask directly, if needed. You can also search Publishers Marketplace, mentioned in chapter 15.) Are the publishers they sell to the types of publishers you consider appropriate for your work? Ensure that the agent has success in representing the type of work you’re trying to sell. If they don’t have the experience or connections you would expect, then ask something like, “Have you sold this type of work before? Do you have specific editors in mind who would be a good fit for this?” Publishing tends to be driven by relationships and reputation, and if this agent is trying to break into new business territory with your book, you should know that prior to committing to them. It’s also helpful to check out their social media presence if they have one. What do they share and post about? Do they look supportive of their clients’ efforts? Would you feel happy being associated with this agent or agency?

If you’re planning to write in multiple categories or genres, let the agent know up front if they don’t proactively explore this idea with you. It’s possible that you may need a different agent to sell another book in a different category (especially when moving from the adult market to the children’s market, or vice versa), and it’s best to discuss this possibility with your current prospective agent on how to handle it. They may partner with a colleague at their agency or refer you to another agent they think would be a good fit, decreasing the burden on you to query cold.

Sometimes it’s easier to get represented by a new agent who is trying to build a roster of clients, someone who may not have a lot of sales under their belt. If an agent’s track record is still developing, take a look at their previous experience in publishing for relevant work. For example, were they formerly an acquisitions editor at a publishing house? What’s the experience and reputation of the agency they’re associated with now? If they’re working at a solid agency with an identifiable track record, or have a long history in the publishing world, these are good signs.

The second criterion to look for is industry professionalism. This can be tough for a beginner to gauge, but the agent should be treating you in a way that inspires confidence. They should get back to you in a timely manner and communicate clearly. Their business operations shouldn’t be cloaked in secrecy, and they should treat you as an equal. If you feel you’re being treated shabbily, others might feel the same way—and that includes editors to whom they submit your work.

However, some writers can be unreasonable in their expectations. You can’t call your agent at any hour and expect to have a lengthy discussion, or demand daily contact, or ask for near-instant responses to your emails, even if they represent you. When you have an initial conversation, though, ask about how they prefer to communicate and what you can expect as far as response times are concerned. You can be frank and say you’ve heard agents aren’t always the best at responding to emails, and you want to develop appropriate expectations of the relationship.

The third criterion you’re looking for is enthusiasm. Do you get the feeling that the agent genuinely believes in you and your work? While agents are certainly interested in a sale, they’re also interested in projects that excite them and clients they are proud to represent. Although it’s not possible to quantify “enthusiasm,” think of it this way: your agent represents your interests to the publisher throughout the life of your book’s publication and helps resolve conflicts. Does this agent feel like they would be your best champion? Or like you’re working together as a team? Having an agent you don’t really trust or respect is often worse than having no agent at all.

One thing you shouldn’t worry about too much is the size of the agency, which doesn’t necessarily correlate with the size of the deals it negotiates. Some reputable agencies consist of only one or two principals, with perhaps a few associates—you might call these “boutique” agencies. Midsize and large agencies may have many agents on board, as well as specialized staff, such as a contracts manager or a foreign rights specialist. Finally, there are mega-agencies, like Endeavor or Creative Artists Agency, that have far greater scope than just literary talent—they also deal with actors, singers, and other performers.

What Happens after You’ve Signed with an Agent

Once you’ve secured an agent, that doesn’t mean your work will be sent out to publishers immediately. Agents’ practices vary widely in this regard: some will help you further refine your manuscript or book proposal, some will ask you for revisions, and others might rework your submissions package to increase its chances of success. Only when the agent is satisfied with the materials and the overall presentation will they start contacting editors. If the agent submits your materials without the slightest edit, nor with any personalization from them, then unfortunately the agent may not be offering a high standard of care or professionalism.

You’ve probably heard that publishers spend less time on editing than they once did, sometimes shifting pressure to agents to fulfill the role of nurturing editor. While you will find some agents who are very hands-on editorially, this isn’t true of all agents, and they aren’t supposed to take the place of the editor at the publishing house. If you want to know if your agent is a hands-on type, look closely at their website, read any interviews they’ve done, or simply ask directly if they make an offer of representation. There isn’t really a right or wrong level of editorial involvement, but agents who are new to the business may be more inclined to put in substantial editorial work. That’s because early on, while they’re still establishing themselves, they’re probably not attracting top-level projects that are ready to go. If you’re seeking an agent who will take an active hand, it can be smart to target these “hungry” agents who may have more time to spend with you.

Before the agent sends out your work, they’ll probably discuss their pitch strategy with you—typically targeted submissions to editors they know, or sometimes an auction. Auctions might take place when the agent believes they have a desirable property. They might establish a floor price—the minimum for which they will sell the book—and then make submissions to potential editors, giving a deadline for offers. If one publisher’s bid is topped by another’s, the first publisher is given the opportunity to top the competitor’s offer, but there are many styles of auctions. (Almost all auctions allow the author to choose someone other than the highest bidder—money doesn’t always win.) Obviously, this process hinges on one factor: the book must be one that the industry believes will be a big seller. Nothing is more embarrassing for an agent than holding an auction and finding no bidders.

Sometimes an agent may give a preferred editor a first look at an author’s work in the hopes that this editor will make a preempt—that is, an offer conditioned on the agent immediately taking the project off the market. If the publisher and author are a good match for each other, and the offer is good enough, then a preempt can be a satisfying deal for everyone. Preempts often happen when an editor loves the project and doesn’t want to compete with other publishers for it. If the preempt is declined, the agent and author then take their chances with the usual submissions process or an auction. However the process plays out, an agent can never force you to accept a deal or work with a publisher you’re uncomfortable with.

When the Agent Can’t Sell Your Work

Having an agent doesn’t guarantee a book deal, and despite their best efforts, the agent may not receive any offers. Agents are ethically obligated to share with their clients what editors or publishers they’ve contacted and been rejected by. You can also ask for the rejection letters, though your agent does not have to provide you with the specific contact information of editors and publishers.

If and when you reach a dead end, the agent should have a full debriefing with you about why the book couldn’t find a home, based on their knowledge of the market and the type of rejections received. Is the market saturated? Are publishers demanding authors with bigger platforms? Have the publishers cut back on the number of titles they’re signing? Was there something amiss editorially? Perhaps there’s a way to revise your book or its concept to make it more marketable, although you shouldn’t expect that your agent will undertake a revision process with you. Sometimes, it’s better for agents to cut their losses if they can’t be confident of a sale worth their time. However, if the agent is genuinely enthusiastic about representing you, they’ll likely encourage you to start or finish another, more marketable manuscript.

If you feel your agent is failing you, you might not find it easy to secure a new agent. Having had representation in the past won’t in itself help you attract another agent. However, if terminating the relationship with your agent seems your best option, and it might be, then look at the author-agent contract you signed. What are the rules? Some contracts stipulate that you have to give the agent at least a year to find a home for your work. Others allow you to terminate the relationship at will, with at least thirty days’ notice. If you do part ways with an agent before they sell your work, make sure you get a list of all the publishers they’ve submitted to. That’s the first thing your new agent will want to know. If your first agent exhausted every possible outlet, it’s not really possible for another agent to approach them a second time. Once a rejection, always a rejection. Even if you reconceptualize the book or dramatically revise the manuscript, most editors will be unwilling to take a second look at a project they’ve already considered and declined. They would be doing an agent a major favor to reconsider, and most of the time, the answer would still be no.

Another option is to begin submitting your work, with your agent’s blessing, to smaller publishers they didn’t pursue because such places didn’t represent enough of a financial opportunity. If you receive an offer from a small press, your agent could still negotiate the contract and take their 15 percent (if you didn’t sever the relationship), but it’s also possible to handle it on your own, with assistance. The Authors Guild offers its members free contract review, an invaluable service worth the cost of membership. Alternatively, you can sometimes find an agent or literary lawyer to work on an hourly basis to negotiate the contract for you.

Parting Thoughts

Every agent is different. I say this all the time, agents say it all the time, and it’s become such a cliché that we all glide over it as if authors instantly understand the implications of this statement. Aside from differences in their tastes and their submission guidelines or response policies, agents also have varied standards and business models and even distinct ethics—notwithstanding the AALA Canon of Ethics, which is mainly focused on financial matters. All agents are entrepreneurs on some level, and they decide the best way to operate their business. All are flawed human beings, yet they are treated as gods by writers, with the power to make or break careers. I don’t deny that some agents do wield significant power, but when writers act as supplicants, it leads to the ubiquitous sentiment I hear in this industry: “I really want to hear from my agent, but I’m afraid of annoying them and getting dropped and ending my career.” I know it’s hard to believe, but your career does not depend on agents, even if it is aided by them.

Exercise: Learn to Regard Agents as Flawed Humans

Read author Jillian Medoff’s essay on the Literary Hub website about why she finally broke up with her agent of thirteen years: “Dollars, Cents, and Being Left with the Bill.”5 Consider what you want from an agent-author partnership. How will you know it’s working for you? There is no right or wrong answer. Read or subscribe—for several months or longer—to one or two agent newsletters or blogs, where they offer insights into what their work life is like and what their own frustrations are with the publishing industry. A couple active ones as of this writing: Kate McKean’s Agents & Books and Anna Sproul-Latimer’s How to Glow in the Dark.

15 : Researching Agents and Publishers

Once you’re confident about your category or genre of work (as discussed in chapter 13) and you understand what literary agents do (chapter 14), you’re ready to begin researching agents or publishers to approach, sometimes called “markets” for your work. When conducting this research, you need to answer three key questions:

1. Is this agent or publisher actively considering new work?

2. Do I think this agent or publisher is a good fit?

3. What materials are required for consideration?

Some writers wonder whether they can hire out this work—to identify the right markets, put together their materials, and track responses. Although a handful of services can undertake this process for you, I’m not a fan of them. First, I don’t think they care about your work as much as you do. If it were me, I’d want to know that sufficient time and attention went into selecting the right agents and editors, who will be critical business partners. But there’s a second, also significant, reason I recommend doing the work yourself: it represents a marvelous learning opportunity. This work increases your familiarity with the business side of writing and publishing, which in turn leads you to make better decisions for your career.

You should focus on researching and submitting your work to agents if you believe your work has some commercial potential or is a good fit for a major New York publisher because those publishers rarely accept unagented work. The same is true of some midsize publishers and prestigious independent publishers. You might also want to research competitions, especially for literary work, since it’s not uncommon for short-story collections, poetry, or essays to be published by university presses as part of a prize package. (See chapter 34 for more about competitions.)

I recommend taking a methodical approach to this research process to give your work the best possible chance. Here’s the big-picture overview:

• Begin with online databases that keep tabs on thousands of agents and publishers. Develop a broad hit list that includes every potential market you might approach.

• Next, dig deeper into each potential agent or publisher by doing online research. You’re looking for any information that might help you understand what submissions they want to see from writers.

• Then start to categorize the agents or publishers according to fit: “my dream,” “good fit,” “maybe.”

You’ll be gathering lots of information, so use your favorite note-taking tool or software. I like Notion. Other writers use spreadsheets. What’s important is that you log the information so that you can easily find it later and refer to it during the query writing and proposal process. You should also track your submissions status, logging who has responded and who hasn’t.

If you have any interest in having an agent, do not pitch your book simultaneously to agents and publishers. Agents prefer to start with a blank slate and be the first to introduce the project to the market. If you collect lots of rejections from publishers and then later enlist an agent’s help, the agent faces a difficult challenge: to turn a no into a yes. Don’t make their job harder than it needs to be. You can always approach publishers on your own (at least those who accept unagented work) if you fail to interest an agent.

If you have a relationship with an editor who has specifically requested to see your work, then it’s OK to submit it without an agent. When and if the editor makes an offer, and you’d like to have an agent, you can ask the editor to refer you to agents they commonly work with. (It’s really OK to ask—they are happy to help.) Or you can seek out an agent through the usual query process and let them know you already have an editor interested. An interested agent may want to strategize with you on whether to fish around for competing offers.

Major Databases for Researching Agents and Publishers

Some of the following resources are free. Others require you to pay a subscription fee. As you might expect, the fee-based services typically offer higher-quality information, and your research process would likely be incomplete without investing in at least one of them. (See the appendix for links to these sites.)

• Publishers Marketplace. The best place to research literary agents; many agents have member pages with helpful information. A paid subscription is required; they offer monthly and annual subscriptions as well as day passes.

• QueryTracker. Lots of agent listings and a handful of publisher listings. The basic information is free, but the valuable information requires you to subscribe. Paying gets you detailed community information about agent response times, what they respond favorably to, rejection letters they’ve sent, and other helpful insights.

• Duotrope. An exceptionally useful database if you’re shopping around poetry, short stories, essays, or literary novels. It includes agents, publishers, and competitions. A paid subscription is required, but some writing programs have an institutional subscription.

One of the longest-running online databases, Writer’s Market, is no longer available online, but the print edition is still updated and released from time to time. Another print guide is Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. Obviously print guides go out of date quickly and must be supplemented with online research.

Whether online or in print, listings include information such as the mission statement or publishing philosophy of an agent or house; what types of work are accepted; what submission materials to send and when; and specific tips from the editors or agents being listed. Publishers may also indicate how many titles they publish per year and how much they pay.

Publishers Marketplace, though expensive, can be particularly insightful since it gives you access to book deals that have been made recently (and going back to 2000). For each book deal listed in its database, you’ll find the following information:

• The author and title of the book, along with a one-sentence description

• The agent who represented the book

• The editor and publisher who bought the book

You can search the deals database based on your own book’s category or genre and then narrow your search further by using keywords if needed. While it’s far from a complete listing of publishing deals, Publishers Marketplace offers sharp insight into who’s buying what, and what agents are actively selling. That said, when you run your search, be careful how far back you go. Although it can be instructive to see the history of sales in a category, the industry changes so much over time that only more recent years will be relevant for your research.

Going Beyond Database Research

Once you’re armed with an exhaustive list of potential agents or publishers, undertake a more in-depth investigation of each. First, visit their websites, where you’ll typically find the most up-to-date information, including whether they’re open for submissions.

For literary agencies, read the descriptions of all member agents and determine which one is the best match. Usually you should only approach one agent per agency, but check their guidelines to be sure. If an agency offers tips for writers, obviously you should note anything you’ll want to remember when you put together your submissions package. Some agents have active blogs or newsletters, which can offer tips. Look for any comment on the types of queries they’re receiving (particularly within the last year), what they’ve recently sold, and what projects they want to see more of.

Publisher websites can be conservative in their guidance for potential authors. In fact, you often have to hunt for information related to submissions. If you can’t find anything explicitly labeled “Submissions,” check the small type at the top and bottom of the home page for About Us, Contact Us, or Site Map. If all else fails, Google the publisher’s name along with “submission guidelines”—that usually turns up something. You may not be able to find the names of specific editors, but don’t worry. It’s fine to query a publisher with “Dear Editor.” If they do want to be known and queried by name, they will put that on their site for you to find, with guidelines for querying.

While you’re at the publisher’s site, study their latest releases. Find out how many titles the publisher handles, the types of authors it attracts, and on what topics it publishes. Study any formal series or imprints that specifically apply to your work. For instance, Sourcebooks, a publisher in Chicago, has an imprint specifically devoted to young adult books, called Sourcebooks Fire. Harlequin, a romance publisher and itself a division of HarperCollins, has more than a dozen imprints. Most imprints have specific guidelines and market considerations that are distinct from one another even if they’re housed under the same publisher.1

After studying the publisher’s website, it’s time to move on to social media, where agents and editors may have revealing conversations with authors and other industry insiders. Studying these communications not only provides insights into the submissions process but also helps you ascertain fit. Is this someone you want to do business with? Do you like their demeanor? What gets them enthusiastic? You’ll find that some publishing professionals offer advice for writers and invite questions during specific chat windows. These are good opportunities to ask that market-trend question you’ve been pondering that maybe only they can answer. (Keep it brief and not personal to increase the chances of a response.)

For years now, agents and editors have been sharing what they’d like to see in their submissions pile by using the hashtag #mswl, which stands for “manuscript wish list.” The website MS WishList (https://mswishlist.com) is a simple, searchable site that aggregates these conversations in real time. But this is an unofficial site. The people who originated #mswl can be found at the name-trademarked site Manuscript Wish List (https://manuscriptwishlist.com), which offers a searchable database of its own.

As a final step in your online research, run a Google search. Put the name of the specific agent or publisher in quotation marks, and see what you get. If you get a lot of results, it can be helpful to add the word interview, submissions or query. You could also use words connected to your book’s category, genre, or theme.

Once you’ve collected all the information you can find on your target markets, start to prioritize your list. Any agent or publisher who is a weak candidate should not be approached—“Hail Mary” queries waste your time. For better candidates, you might further research what conferences or events they attend. Could there be an opportunity to pitch or meet in person?

If you have any doubts about the quality of an agent or publisher on your list, Google their name and add the word scam. You’re probably not the first person to wonder, and that search will help you find the message boards where people discuss their experiences with agents and publishers.

Asking a Friend for an Agent or Publisher Referral

You can try asking your published author friends for a referral to their agent or publisher. The danger is that your friend might not believe your book is all that good or they might have to read it to know. If they were to knowingly send their agent or publisher a mediocre manuscript, they would hurt their ability to refer other deserving writers. So it can be a delicate situation. Many authors have dozens of friends making the same request, and it can be hard to avoid an awkward situation for both of you. If you do make a request, make it easy for the person to decline.

Evaluating Publishers without the Benefit of an Agent

If you submit to publishers without an agent, you’ll have to evaluate the qualities of publishers yourself and look for signs they will be a good business partner and likely to produce a successful book.

One of the advantages of having a publisher is that they take on financial risk; the author does not. Traditional publishers also offer market credibility, industry relationships, and a meaningful network that helps make the book visible in the marketplace. Assuming you’re motivated to seek out a publisher because of these qualities, then be on the lookout for the following.

• Digital-only publishers or imprints. As the name indicates, these publishers publish your book digitally. That means e-book only, print-on-demand only, digital audio only, or some combination thereof, with a focus on online retail sales. Print on demand (POD) is a technology that allows publishers to print their books one at a time, as they are ordered. Your book is unlikely to be stocked on physical store shelves. Digital-only publishers carry less financial risk—assuming no print run, no warehousing, no inventory—and can involve less commitment to the book or author. If physical bookstore and library placement is important to you, you might be disappointed by such a publisher.

On the bright side, digital-only publishers may ask for a time-limited publishing agreement, one that expires after some years, rather than a contract with no set end date. Whereas digital-only publishers may offer little or no advance, the royalty rate is typically more generous: 50 percent royalty is not uncommon for e-book sales. These types of deals are more likely to come from small and new presses, but they might also be offered by digital-only imprints at big publishers.

• No distributor. Some small presses, especially newer ones, may not have a distributor to sell and place their print books into bookstores or other retail outlets. So the end result is a book that’s only available to purchase through online retail and maybe direct from the publisher, assuming they sell direct. Such presses may use IngramSpark, a form of print-on-demand distribution that self-publishing authors use. Publishers should clearly state on their website where their books are available or how they can be ordered, but if you’re not sure, ask. A considerable number of small and independent presses are distributed by the big corporate houses or by Ingram’s full-service distribution services (which is different from IngramSpark).

• Author must buy copies. The contract may stipulate that the author must buy a certain number of books, which is a backdoor method for the publisher to cover its costs. Some authors may not mind this and in fact want to buy a large number of copies. However, a traditional contract should offer the author some number of free copies (which can be negotiated upward in many cases), as well as an author discount that’s comparable to the discount a retailer would receive, around 40 to 50 percent off the retail price. Sometimes this discount can be negotiated even higher.

More broadly, ask whether you want to be part of the family the publisher is building. What reputation does it have? Do you trust it to provide good editors, marketers, and publicists for your work? What’s the publisher’s editing process like? Will you be assigned an editor? Some small presses will take exactly what you give them and publish it, without any copyediting or proofreading. Even if you like the idea of your manuscript remaining pristine, this approach shows lack of engagement and care. Few manuscripts are ready to publish without some editorial work.

Ask the publisher about its most common marketing and promotion activities. Does it send out advance review copies? Submit the book to specific media outlets for coverage? Drum up early bookseller support? Strategize on social media campaigns? Find out the bare minimum they commit to, and if it amounts to little more than making the title available for sale, rethink whether you want to publish with that house.

Since publishers may not be all that forthcoming or specific about how they market and promote, you’ll likely have to do some research yourself by studying recent titles that have been on the market for six to twelve months. Do they have reviews? Did they get any media attention? Check the author’s website for news and events and publisher involvement. You can also get a good feel for the sophistication of publishers’ overall marketing and promotion by simply studying their online presence and how they present themselves and their titles.

If possible, speak to recent authors who’ve published a book with them within the last year. This can be the best litmus test of all. Are the authors pleased with the publisher’s communication and level of involvement? How much value did the publisher add to the process? Will the authors stay with this publisher for their next book?

Parting Thoughts

One of the biggest mistakes writers make: rushing to submit their work to agents and publishers. In 99 percent of cases, there’s no reason to rush. And rushing leads to submitting work that’s rejected because it’s not ready. But how do you know when it’s “ready”? Does it require hiring a professional editor? Does it mean a manuscript without grammatical errors?

The simplest definition of “your best work” is that you can see no further way to improve the project, within reason. Agents or editors won’t act as your coach or fix-it person on a manuscript or book idea that has problems. They rarely have time to help and also have countless projects to choose from that are ready to go.

However, no agent or publisher expects you to hire a freelance editor before submitting your work, and I don’t recommend hiring a freelance editor just because your journey to find an editor or agent doesn’t go well. Only hire one if you’re willing to invest money in yourself, in your writing career, as a way of better understanding your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Working directly with a talented freelance editor, especially someone who understands the commercial demands of your genre, can help you avoid years of wandering in the dark, wondering how to improve your work. But just because you’re told what the problems are doesn’t necessarily mean they can be fixed in your manuscript, or that the book can be made salable. In many cases, you’ll end up writing another, different book, armed with your new knowledge.

If you do consider hiring a freelance editor, then look for someone who specializes in developmental editing, content editing, or big-picture manuscript assessments. In other words: you want deep, substantive editing or feedback that can help produce remarkable revision. Avoid line editors, copy editors, or wordsmiths who tinker at the edges and produce only surface-level change. Such changes might be easier to accept, but it’s the developmental editor who will have a meaningful effect on your growth and chances at publication. (Chapter 32 provides a more extensive discussion of the types of freelance editors.)

Exercise: Identify the Agent and Publisher of Your Comparable Titles

One of the oldest recommended methods of finding the right agent or publisher is to look at the books you’ve read that are similar to your own. Who is the publisher? Who is the agent? Just about every author thanks both their agent and their editor in the acknowledgments section of their book. Start making a habit of keeping this information in a spreadsheet. If you don’t have a copy of the book any longer, you can often use the Look Inside feature at Amazon to search for and scan the acknowledgments page. Alternatively, visit the author’s website or social media accounts. They will often mention who their agent is.

If you don’t know your comparable titles yet, jump to the exercise in chapter 16.

16 : Writing Strong Queries

As you research agents and publishers, you’ll discover that almost no one accepts a full manuscript on first contact. Instead, you’ll be asked to send a query letter and maybe a sample of your work. In book publishing, the query functions as a sales letter that persuades an editor or agent to request and read your manuscript or proposal.

At its heart, the query is about seduction. In fact, it’s so much about charming persuasion that you should be able to write the query without having written a single word of the manuscript. For some writers, the query represents an unfamiliar way of thinking about their book: as a product to be positioned and sold in the market. We’ll tackle novel and memoir (narrative) queries first, then nonfiction. I’ll be referring to agents throughout, but the same principles apply when approaching publishers.

Novel and Memoir Queries

I consider the query as having these five elements:

1. Personalization, where you customize the letter for the recipient (optional)

2. What you’re offering: your book’s tentative title, anticipated word count, and genre/category

3. The story description (the meat of the query)

4. Comparable titles (often required)

5. Bio note

Personalization

Many years ago, I consistently counseled writers to include a personalizing note in the opening of their query. That’s because it can potentially set your letter apart from the hundreds of submissions out there. The majority of writers do little research before submitting their work, and will send their materials to anyone they can find. Agents, of course, can easily spot these blanket submissions and appreciate writers who are more thoughtful and intentional in their approach.

For better or for worse, advice to personalize has become widespread and almost overly emphasized, to the extent that query letter personalization can look and feel meaningless. Saying at the top of the query “I found you in Publishers Marketplace” rarely makes a difference to the agent. But there is an opportunity to show you’ve done your homework and personalize your letter meaningfully. If you’ve studied what type of books the agent represents, you can compare your work to that of an existing client. If you’ve read interviews that mention the agent’s interest in what you write, you can cite that as a specific reason for approaching them. Even better, if you’ve heard the agent speak or met them at a conference, you can reference that. It’s not that you want to appear chummy, but you do want to appear informed and deliberate.

Unless the agent is adamant in their guidelines that you personalize the query, you won’t be rejected for not adding this element—and in some cases, you might find it hard to personalize the letter if the agent is very private or offline. Bare minimum: address a specific agent, by name (not just “Dear Agent”) and, if appropriate, demonstrate some knowledge of the types of work they deal in, based on your research. One sentence is sufficient.

What You’re Offering

This is where you state the book title, word count, and the genre—even though all of this might be subject to revision. Sometimes these simple details unwittingly signal some inherent problems. If your query reveals a novel that runs 250,000 words, that can lead to a rejection by itself, since the average debut novel or memoir is around 80,000 words and rarely exceeds 120,000 words. Hopefully you’ve become attuned to any such market problems long before query stage. If you decide to proceed anyway, be direct and up front about these issues (without apologizing for them), so that you don’t look uninformed about the challenges.

Some writers worry whether they’re correctly identifying the category or genre in which they are writing. For example, maybe you’re not exactly sure if an agent would consider your work “literary.” Fortunately, you can avoid applying a genre label if you have confidence in your comparable titles or authors, which will do the signaling for you. It’s also OK to be a little vague, especially if you do have those solid comparable titles. For example, you might say you’re writing “mainstream fiction” or “commercial fiction,” which is a catchall for just about any kind of fiction that doesn’t fall into a specific genre like romance or mystery. Agents and editors tend to be forgiving here—you’re not expected to be an industry expert. However, one specific you don’t want to waffle on: whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. You can’t be writing both. Memoir is nonfiction, even if it involves creative license and even if it incorporates poetry or other writings. Autofiction, a form of fictionalized autobiography, is fiction.

The Story Description

The worst mistakes occur here. Writers tend to cram in too much detail about the story or focus on the wrong detail. For many books, all we need is the story premise. The premise consists of the protagonist(s) and the challenge they face. We need a fairly equal balance of character and plot—enough to connect with the character and enough to be interested in the problem that will drive the story from beginning to end. (In the case of memoir, you are the main character.) Avoid anything that might sound or feel like a book report, or like an accounting of the plot twists and turns.

Consider the following formulas for a starting point:

• What does your character want, why do they want it, and what keeps them from getting it? Even if you have an ensemble cast, the story must start with someone, or there might be one character more important than the rest. When it doubt, err on the side of the most prominent figure(s) in your first pages.

• State your character’s name, give a brief description, describe the conflict they face, and convey the choices they have to make.

The story description should be roughly one hundred to three hundred words. Some descriptions are one or two longer paragraphs, or you might have several short paragraphs. I suggest including a paragraph break when introducing a turning point or new character—especially a new POV (point of view) character, if there’s more than one. However, the query can only hold so many characters before it gets confusing or runs long. Usually you’ll include the protagonist(s), the romantic interest or best friend, and the antagonist. If you’re trying to meaningfully introduce and describe more than three or four characters, you’re on the wrong track. If you detail minor plot points or characters that don’t affect the protagonist’s key choices or the story’s outcome, cut them.

Here’s a story description from a query for a historical novel based on the actual search for Presbyter John during the Middle Ages, by Dean Cycon:1

It’s the year 1200. Since succeeding to the papacy two years ago, Pope Innocent III has been agitating for a new crusade, one that will finally conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem. But European monarchs ignore his call, too involved in squabbling among themselves.

So the pope turns to two of his trusted men with a mission: to seek out the powerful Presbyter John, an unknown king in the Far East, who has promised to put his vast armies in service to the pope’s crusade. But it requires traveling through the treacherous political, religious, and mercantile terrain of medieval Europe.

One of the emissaries is Mauro, an older monk who uses logic and reason to deepen his faith. The other man is Nicolo, a young Genoese merchant striving to improve his family’s fortune and his own place in the world. Nicolo is supposed to lead and guide the mission, but he carries secret orders from a corrupt cardinal.

This description already has enough information for an agent to know whether they’re interested in reading the manuscript, or at least the opening pages. You could include another brief paragraph about the relationship between the two emissaries, but we can surmise already that this journey will lead to conflict and betrayal. The other important quality here—important for historical fiction and many types of science fiction and fantasy—is that it sets the stage of the world we’re entering. Most of us likely don’t know what was happening in the year 1200 or why it might be interesting. This query concisely tells us the history in a way that’s directly relevant to the characters’ journey and conflict.

Typically queries don’t reveal the story ending; that’s saved for the synopsis if the agent requests it. But there might be good reason to reveal the ending or some other plot twist if it’s what makes your work special or marketable. For memoir especially, it’s not uncommon to give away some sense of how the story ends, but that doesn’t mean you have to give away all the specifics. Former literary agent and editor Mary Kole advises, “If you indeed have some show-stopping plot twists [in your book], I want to know about them as soon as possible. True surprise is one of the most desirable emotions that you can make your readers feel.”2 But remember: we don’t want to get into a mechanical description of the plot at query stage, and if you lose the agent, it’s hard to recover. So be judicious about what twists truly deserve to be revealed up front.

Here’s an example of a story description from a memoir query, which helped author Denise Massar secure an agent:3

“You’ll find your own birth mom,” our lawyer said. “That’s just how it’s done now.”

We advertised ourselves across the country as hopeful adoptive parents, fielding and vetting birth moms by phone. The first to contact us—there would be eight in all—had been raped by two different men. Ashamed and depressed, she’d spent her pregnancy drinking and doing coke. Did we want to adopt her baby, she asked?

Tara, a birth mom from Vegas who saw our ad on Craigslist, asked: “How do you know you’ll love your adopted baby as much as you love your biological kids?” I told her I just knew.

But honest honest? I wasn’t sure.

We tried posting our flyer at women’s shelters. One director was enthusiastic; they specialized in housing victims of human trafficking. Would we have a problem adopting a baby born of prostitution? I didn’t think I would, but what about my husband?

On New Year’s Day, 2014, a twenty-six-year-old woman we’d never met chose us from her hospital bed. We flew to Sacramento knowing nothing other than a baby was waiting for us. A nurse pulled us aside: Did we know that our birth mom, Destiny (her real name), had tested positive for meth? We did not. But before I was a Girl-Scout-leading, minivan-driving, O.C. mom, I’d been a twenty-six-year-old meth-head, too. Destiny and I were a match made in heaven.

Notice two important qualities here: the writer’s voice comes through in this description and gives us a strong idea of what she’s like and how the memoir will read. (Definitely write a memoir query in first person.) And we’re already in the story itself, right in the action with her. The writer isn’t talking about broad themes or giving us her backstory, which tends to create distance and take us away from the compelling events in the memoir.

Be aware that pitching memoir is full of unseen traps because of the many problematic premises for memoir. For example, if you started journaling as a means of therapy and now you want to turn that effort into a memoir, it’s probably best not to reveal that in a query. Agents see a lot of memoirs born out of therapy, and most are unfortunately not ready for the market. There are also countless memoirs driven primarily by one’s experience of tragedy, loss, addiction, and failure, and these stories too often focus on the internal experience of the writer processing the trauma, with little in the way of external, forward-moving action. The query often betrays this lack of action when no other characters are mentioned aside from the narrator; the query might focus entirely on recovery from past experiences rather than narrative tension or the narrator making choices that involve other people or carry meaningful stakes for the future.4

Comparable Titles

Agents often ask you to include comparable titles or authors when you query. This is where you draw comparisons between your work and another recently published book or author. What counts as recent? Most agents are look for something published within the last several years. Anything that was released more than five years ago is best avoided unless it’s used in combination with other, more recent comparable titles.

When writers struggle to come up with comparable titles, it’s usually for one of two reasons: they’re not all that well-read in their genre or they’re looking for too similar of a title. If I were writing a memoir about spending a career in publishing while living in the Midwest, and I looked for a comparable title that’s exactly the same, I wouldn’t find any. But I could certainly find memoirs by people who spent their careers in publishing, and that’s similar enough. If my memoir tackled issues that are irrelevant to my job in publishing—for example, if it were really about life in the Midwest—then I’d look for memoirs focused on the Midwest.

A good rule of thumb for picking a comparable title: Does your book belong next to this book on a reader’s shelf? In a library display? In a bookstore? Is the author someone you could be matched with at a book festival panel? Could you be in conversation with them in a meaningful way? Would your ideal reader be a fan of your comparable title or author? That’s what you’re shooting for, because the whole purpose of comparable titles is for the publisher’s marketing and sales team to be able to talk to booksellers and librarians about how to position your book to readers. Comparing yourself to a current New York Times best-selling author can come across as arrogant or too easy, and it’s often unhelpful to the agent; it’s better to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of where your book falls on the literary spectrum, and to show that you’re well-read enough to understand the landscape you’re entering.

Finally, it’s OK to use recent TV, movies, and other elements of pop culture as part of your comparable title discussion, as long as you’re still mentioning at least one or two books. Maybe your novel has the tone or style of a recent and popular Netflix show. By all means, mention it. In fact, if you browse #mswl, you’ll often find that agents and publishers will use all kinds of pop culture references when putting their story preferences out into the world.

Bio Note

The good news: no one expects a debut novelist to have a stunning and accomplished biographical synopsis, known as a bio note. The goal here is to give the agent some idea of who you are and where you’re coming from in about fifty to one hundred words. The best things to mention, if you have them, are relevant publication credits—either fiction or nonfiction published for a general readership. If you’re unpublished, there’s no need to state that. Mention any writing degrees, memberships in major professional writing organizations, or well-known awards or grants you’ve won. Such credits signal your seriousness and intention to develop a professional career as a writer. But avoid cataloging every single thing you’ve done in your writing life. If you’re unsure whether to include something, skip it.

If you have a career outside writing that informs your work (e.g., you’re a former lawyer writing legal thrillers), mention it. That said, even if there’s not a direct connection to the work, agents are often curious about what professional background you bring to your writing. You are allowed—encouraged!—to be a multifaceted person. Anything charming or unusual is often helpful, whether related to occupations, hobbies, or pets. It helps put a human face on the work.

Just about every agent will search for you online if they have interest, and they’ll likely find your website or social media accounts whether you mention them in the query or not. If you’re proud of your online presence, or very active, you might mention it in the query. But it doesn’t say anything about your ability to write a great story, and for novelists especially, the art and craft of story come first.

For memoirists, there is often an expectation that you’ve published some articles, essays, or op-eds related to your memoir, or that you’re involved or known in some way in the community most relevant to your memoir’s topic. For example, Tia Levings, author of A Well-Trained Wife, was well established by the time of her memoir’s release as someone who regularly speaks and comments on Christian fundamentalism based on her own experiences.

You don’t read much advice about how to close a query letter—perhaps because there’s not much to it, right? You say thanks and sign your name. But you want to make sure you leave a good impression. Resist the temptation to editorialize in the closing, or at any point in the letter. Don’t proclaim how much the agent will love the work, or how exciting it is, or how it’s destined to be a bestseller if only someone will give it a chance. Thank the agent, but don’t carry on unnecessarily, be cloyingly subservient, or beg. You don’t have to state that you are simultaneously querying, as everyone assumes this already. In a handful of cases, the submission guidelines may ask for you to disclose this and if so, always follow the guidelines.

Nonfiction Queries

Nonfiction queries more or less have the same five elements as novels and memoir, but there is tremendous variation in nonfiction queries, because nonfiction spans vastly different types of work. What you prioritize depends on whether you’re writing prescriptive nonfiction (such as business, self-help, and health) or narrative nonfiction.

For prescriptive nonfiction (or benefit-oriented nonfiction), rather than offer a story description, you sell agents on what your book is about and why there’s a need in the market for it. You also have to describe your platform: why you’re the best person to write the book and in a strong position to promote it. Before querying, you should have a book proposal written and polished (see chapter 17); your query letter will end up being a condensed version of the book proposal’s overview—the summary that discusses the most important and salable qualities of your book. And yes, it’s OK if your query and proposal include the same or similar language. No need to reinvent the wheel.

With prescriptive nonfiction, you’re often entering a crowded field, so you need to discuss how and why your book is needed in addition to everything else in the market. Consider the following questions:

• What research or resources does your book include that can be found nowhere else?

• What proven systems, methods, secrets, or lessons do you share?

• How will readers benefit from your book? How will their lives change for the better?

• What special features or unique perspective does your book offer?

• How does your book fill a gap in available offerings?

Unless you have platform muscle, it’s unlikely that the biggest publishers or agents will be interested in your prescriptive nonfiction book. Platform equates to visibility, or the ability to sell books. You should have visibility among the specific readership you expect to buy your book. And it’s not enough to say you have visibility—you have to be able to point to it and quantify it. (That is why part 2, on platform development, precedes part 3, on book publishing, in this book.) You can demonstrate visibility by pointing to the size of your online following (blog, newsletter, podcast, social media, etc.); describing your publication track record; showing coverage in the media; listing positions of authority (that relate to your book); detailing where you’ve spoken; and mentioning who’s vouched for your credibility.

For narrative nonfiction, writing quality and storytelling usually take primary consideration, and your description may adhere more closely to the formula for a novel or memoir. But the publisher must also be able to envision the audience for the story, so you need to show how the topic is timely, relevant, or otherwise of interest to readers right now. It’s instructive to look at the rejections Rebecca Skloot collected for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, now an award-winning book. Skloot had trouble persuading editors that her story was marketable to a wide audience. Here’s what a couple of those rejection letters said:

• “I’m sorry to say that I’m not entirely confident that the approach taken here to tell us the story is the kind of treatment which will reach the broad nonfiction readership that we’re looking for.”

• “She’s a graceful writer with a real talent for presenting scientific material in a lucid and very human way. That said, though, I have to admit I can’t quite imagine how a book on this chapter in science might reach more than a very limited audience. To me, the real heart of the story is somehow too short-lived to create a strong sense of narrative tension, and its repercussions, I think, may not spark the interest of a wide enough readership for [our] list.”5

Chapter 17 is about making a business case for your nonfiction book that can overcome such objections.

Putting It All Together and Sending It Out

The first paragraph of your query should lead with your strongest selling point. Some strong ways to start:

• If an existing client or author has vouched for or referred you to the agent or editor, that’s your lead.

• If you met the agent or editor at a conference, and especially if your material was requested, put that information right up front.

• Some authors do best to lead with their credentials or prestigious awards. This is especially true for previously published authors, or those with MFA degrees from well-known programs.

If none of these apply to you, begin your query with personalization and what you’re offering. These two things can be combined in the opening paragraph. Or, you can jump right in with your story description, especially if you have high confidence in it, and leave the housekeeping or personalization for later in the query. As far as polite terms of address, it’s best to open formally, such as “Dear John Smith.” (You do not have to use honorifics, and leaving them out avoids misgendering.) If an agent writes back using your first name and signs with their first name, you’re welcome to match their informality in your response.

Checking for Problems

Once you have a working draft of your query, it’s time to check for a few red flags.

• If your fiction or memoir query runs longer than 350 to 400 words, you’ve said too much. You probably need to simplify and trim back your story description or your bio note. Nonfiction queries may merit 500 to 600 words, but only because you need the space to describe your platform, readership, or special qualities of the book. Look for any place you’ve commented on the themes or messages in your work. Messages are secondary, and belaboring them in the query may indicate that your work is preachy or condescending to the reader.

• Avoid directly commenting on the quality of your work. Your query should show, not tell, what a good writer you are.

• Avoid long explanations of what has inspired the work. It may be OK to reference this briefly, but agents rarely care about your inspiration and can have jaded responses to it.

• When pitching a novel and some memoir, you don’t have to talk about trends in the market or the book’s readership. Some writers get confused on this point because nonfiction queries (especially nonmemoir) must delve into marketing and readership issues. But for fiction writers especially, your genre speaks to that. For example, romance readers read romance, and it’s a well-defined audience known by the publisher.

I have full-length query examples at the companion site to this book (https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/), along with links to others who provide examples as well.

If you are emailing the query directly to the agent rather than using an online submittal form, copy and paste it from your word processing document into the email message as plain text, block format, without any colors, unusual fonts, or images. Make sure it can be read with minimal scrolling. Don’t include your mailing address, special headers, or contact information at the beginning of the email—that’s wasted time and space. Start right in with the greeting.

Once your query is final, I recommend sending it out in several rounds. If you’ve “graded” your markets into best fit, good fit, and OK fit, create an initial round that includes a few of each and send out your materials. See what the response is like. If you get immediate and enthusiastic responses, you may want to go ahead and send out more to your best fit and good fit markets, to see if you can generate competing interest. If you’re getting no responses or form responses, reevaluate your query and see if you can improve it. If you’ve been sending the synopsis or first five pages along with the query, you may need to consider whether any red flags might be hidden there. After a month, if you don’t have any meaningful responses, send out another round of submissions, until you exhaust all markets on your list—or until you receive feedback that suggests you should revisit your submissions materials or the book itself.

When you receive positive responses, they will tend to be something like, “Yes, send the first three chapters,” or “Yes, send the full manuscript.” If someone asks for an exclusive, that means they want to be the only one considering the project, and you must promise not to send the work to anyone else during the exclusivity period. I would only grant an exclusive if it’s for a very short period, maybe two weeks to consider a full proposal or manuscript. When you do receive a manuscript or proposal request, ask specifically when you should expect to hear back, and then follow up within one week of that date. If an agent drags their feet or doesn’t respond after requesting your manuscript, it probably means they don’t think they can sell it and that no one else is likely interested either. When agents find a hot property, they tend to jump on it right away and not take weeks or months to get back to you.

Email replies from agents can be short. Don’t use a positive response as an opportunity to launch into a lengthy reply talking more about yourself and your work. That’s better saved for a phone call if the agent makes an offer of representation.

If you don’t hear back at all after an initial query letter, you can try following up about two to four weeks after the response time stated in the submission guidelines. If no response time is given, wait one or two months and follow up using the same method as before. Include another copy of the query in that follow-up. If you still don’t hear back after one follow-up attempt, it’s best to assume rejection and move on.

The Dreaded Synopsis

Probably the single most despised document that novelists (and some memoirists) are asked to prepare is the synopsis. The synopsis conveys your book’s entire narrative arc. It shows what happens and who changes, and it has to reveal the ending. Don’t confuse the synopsis with sales copy, or the kind of material that might appear on your back cover. You’re not writing a punchy marketing piece that builds excitement in potential readers. Rather, you’re writing for industry people. A synopsis will reveal whether there are significant problems, of any kind, in your story. If it turns out the whole book is a dream, or it’s an act of god that saves the day, an agent may skip reading the manuscript altogether. A synopsis has an uncanny way of highlighting plot flaws, serious gaps in character motivation, or sweeping failures of story structure—as well as just a ho-hum story. At my websites, I have provided detailed guidance on how to write a synopsis (https://janefriedman.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis/), along with an example (https://businessofwriting.org/synopsis-example-novel/).

Parting Thoughts

If you write your query or synopsis and start to get a bad feeling—a feeling that your story has serious flaws—pause the submissions process and consider whether you need to revise. It bears repeating from earlier: problems with your manuscript won’t get resolved by the agent or the publisher. Instead you’ll get rejected. Since you only get one chance to pitch each work, make sure you resolve any problems that surface during the query and synopsis writing stage, before you submit anything to an agent or publisher.

Exercise: Compile an Exhaustive List of Comparable Authors

Every author, no matter how they publish, needs to research comparable authors. Comparable authors offer valuable information about the most likely agents or publishers for your work, the kind of marketing and promotion that might work for you, and what success looks like in your category or genre. In almost all book marketing and publicity, you need to know your comparable authors and titles to place effective ads, to pitch your book to bookstores and libraries, and to talk knowledgeably with others about how your work fits in the market. Here are some tips for doing this research:

• Start by looking at your own bookshelf. Whose works do you read? If you’re not reading anything by authors in your category or genre, now is the time to start.

• Try visiting a library or bookstore. Visit the shelf where you believe your book would best fit and see what’s there. Don’t cheat by going online. You want to see what books and titles have managed to secure valuable space in a physical environment, plus you don’t want Amazon algorithms affecting what you see. Strike up a conversation with the librarian or bookseller about the shelf or category you’re studying, and ask them what authors or titles have been in demand or any changes they’ve seen in the past few years. If you’re uncertain about where your book belongs in a store or library, the bookseller or librarian might help you gain clarity on your category or genre.

• Through your local library, see if you can access EBSCO NoveList. This is helpful for identifying books with similar themes, styles, and characters. It’s a great place to put in older titles and find more recent ones.

• Ask other writers like you—those in your writing classes or groups—what they’re reading. If you have beta readers or others who offer feedback on your work, ask them if they can think of anyone comparable to you.

• Look for “best of” lists in your category or genre. Google works well here if your search is specific enough. It’s particularly helpful to look for debuts in your category in the last few years.

The more comparable authors, the better. Most writers don’t study their competition closely or frequently enough. Rather than fearing what you’ll find, or getting discouraged by someone else’s success, it’s more likely you’ll find paths forward you did not consider. You learn about the industry, and gain more confidence and awareness of your work’s place in it, when you study your comparable authors.

17 : Nonfiction Book Proposals

Making a Business Case

When pitching a nonfiction book, the most important document you’ll prepare for an agent or publisher is a book proposal. At its heart, a book proposal explains why your book will sell. Rather than writing the manuscript first, as you would with a novel, you instead write a proposal to attract a publisher, who will contract and pay you in advance to write the book.

Book proposals can be complex documents. They can take weeks or months to prepare if properly developed, and it’s not uncommon for them to reach fifty pages or more. But it can be worth the effort if your book project requires intensive research, a significant time commitment, or financing. The advance provided by the publisher might make the difference in whether you’re able to tackle the project. Plus, there are advantages to drafting a proposal early in the process. It requires that you research comparable or competitive titles, which will provide insight into how your book needs to be positioned to compete in the market. You don’t want to spend a year on writing and researching only to discover later that another book has covered the same territory. Plus when it comes time to market and promote, the proposal essentially serves as a road map for how you’ll do that successfully, assuming you’ve done a thorough job in preparing it.

If you’re writing memoir, a book proposal may not be required if you have a full manuscript; the editor’s decision might be driven by the writing and story alone, as it would with a novel. And on rare occasions, you might be able to skip writing the proposal for other types of nonfiction, too, if the manuscript is ready. However, never assume that having a full manuscript negates the need for a proposal if the submission guidelines ask for one. On the flip side, if you’re an unpublished writer without proven journalistic or storytelling skills, agents and publishers may want to review a complete manuscript, or a big chunk of it, if it’s narrative driven. That provides reassurance that you can successfully execute whatever vision is expressed in the proposal.

How Much Does Author Platform Matter?

Whereas novelists can sell a book without any platform at all, nonfiction books are rejected all the time because the author lacks a platform. Naturally, prospective authors always want to know how big their platform must be to secure a book deal. This is an unanswerable question because every publisher is different, every book is different, and every author is different. Still, as a rule, for your nonfiction book to secure a New York publishing deal, we’re talking about visibility to tens of thousands of readers, whether through your own means or through relationships or positions that provide reach.

A sizable platform is typically required in categories such as business, health, cooking, self-help, lifestyle, and parenting. Readers may not trust your advice without recognizable credentials or some familiarity with your name, plus the publisher relies on the author’s visibility to drive sales in nonfiction. However, with smaller publishers, your platform will have less effect on consideration. For example, a university press will be more concerned with the quality of your scholarship or ideas than the quality of your platform. A niche publisher, like Lost Art Press—which specializes in books for woodworkers—already reaches its target readership through its own direct-to-consumer channels and has a brand that reliably sells books regardless of the author’s platform. Still, for most nonfiction, agents and publishers like to see an established track record of publication or success related to the book’s topic.

For memoirists, the issue of platform is most confusing, with conflicting guidance from agents and publishers. In an ideal world, memoir would be considered on the merits of the manuscript or storytelling—and that is indeed still the case for a wide range of agents and publishers. However, it’s also the case that the majority of memoir deals go to celebrities, politicians, journalists, media personalities, CEOs, influencers, and all sorts of public figures who are regularly in the news or can reliably command attention. Such people have a built-in platform and—by virtue of who they are and the lives they’ve lived—attract easy book deals. Publishers don’t have to work that hard to get attention for such authors.

That’s why a common rejection for memoir by the “average” person is that they don’t have sufficient platform. Such a rejection might be entirely honest and genuine. The publisher knows that it won’t be supporting the book all that much, or it can’t see a path to gaining market traction for the book—and also sees that the author probably can’t, either, because they lack platform. The platform rejection is also commonly given when the manuscript or story is simply not all that interesting. It’s easier to reject by saying “no platform” than “not a good enough story.”

When agents and publishers ask for a book proposal for memoir—even if the full manuscript is available—they are likely betraying their bias for a memoirist with a platform. They’re looking for evidence that media attention can be secured, that the author has relationships that will help sell the book, and that there’s avid, ongoing interest in the author or the topic of the memoir, or both. If you’re a memoirist without much of a platform, the proposal inevitably puts you at a disadvantage and may emphasize your weaknesses. When possible, pitch memoir to those who will consider it primarily on artistic merit and have little or no interest in the proposal—unless, of course, you have a strong platform.

The Big-Picture Questions Answered by the Proposal

There is no single right way to write or structure a book proposal, just as there is no one right way to write a book. Proposals vary in length, content, approach, and presentation. However, all book proposals need to answer three strategic business questions:

1. So what? Why should your book exist? What sets it apart from others like it? Why is this book needed now, and why will readers spend twenty dollars or more to buy it? A proposal demonstrates evidence of need in the market for your work.

2. Who cares? Who is the target readership for your book? Where are these readers found and what do they care about? Defining the readership in a meaningful way will convince you, an agent, and a publisher that there is an obvious way to identify and reach these readers. Knowing your audience well and having direct and specific ways to reach them gives you a much better chance of success—both in writing the book and in marketing it. Do not pitch a book expecting that the publisher will find the readership for you. In most cases, it’s the other way around. You bring your audience and your platform to the publisher.

3. Who are you? What are your credentials for writing the book? How visible are you to the readership for it? Your career or life trajectory should have strong indicators that you’re on a path that leads to writing and publishing this particular book. It should look like an obvious and natural next step, rather than a project that no one could have ever predicted and that no one has asked for.

To be persuasive, you want not only a well-written proposal but also a market-informed proposal. That means demonstrating a deep knowledge of the community that is concerned with your book’s topic, as well as related media and publications. You should already be aware of other authors or influencers trusted by your audience and how you compare alongside them. The book proposal isn’t meant to convince an agent or publisher that people buy books, or that your topic is really quite important, or even that your writing is great. It’s meant to show that you have identified something missing, something urgent, something meaningful for your community—typically because of your own deep commitment to and experience of it—and to argue how your book will serve or make a difference to that specific group.

Conducting Market Research

Your first step in putting together a strong proposal is researching the market for your book. Visit bookstores and go to the shelf where you would expect your book to appear. What’s there? Study the books closely and take notes. Record titles, authors, and publishers, but also pay attention to price, length, and format. Read the back-cover copy: How are the books being positioned? Whom do they seem to be targeting? What promises are being made to the reader? Study the authors’ credentials. How is each author visible in the market? How do they reach readers? Take note of forewords, introductions, blurbs, or reviews by important people—you may need similar endorsements to establish your credibility.

If you can’t visit a bookstore and can only research online, avoid relying on Amazon alone. What ranks well there isn’t necessarily a complete picture of whom you’re competing against. Combine an Amazon search with searches on Google, Reddit, Goodreads, and roundups put together by bookstores and libraries. Even tools like ChatGPT can be useful in this regard if you can start out with one strong comparable title or author. Ask it to come up with more and research each suggestion further.

This initial search will probably give you a dozen or more titles that are at least comparable to, if not directly competitive with, your book. If you’ve come up with absolutely nothing that’s comparable, that’s not a good thing. It may mean your idea is too weird to have a market, or maybe the market for it is primarily driven by self-published authors. Either way, finding no competitive titles—or just a handful of titles—may rule out pitching your book to agents and large commercial publishers, unless you have another way to demonstrate a market for it.

Next, look for publications, websites, and media offerings that are connected to your book idea. Run online searches for keywords and phrases that relate to your book. Where, other than books, does your target audience go for information on the topic? Determine how easy it is to find online information and whether that information is trustworthy. Is the information free, or do you have to pay for it? How well known are the authors or organizations behind the information? If you’re savvy about your subject, you’re probably already familiar with these outlets—and you may even be involved with them. Your goal is to understand how your target audience fulfills its needs for entertainment, education, or resources. Think about how these outlets and resources could play a role in your marketing and outreach plan.

Study the authors, experts, and influencers you found as you researched competing titles and complementary media. Dig deeper into the platform and reach of these people. Determine how you can set yourself apart and look for hints for developing your own platform to appeal to a publisher. Ultimately, even though these authors or influencers might be competitors, they might also become collaborators and be included in a marketing plan.

At the start of this process, you may not know exactly whom your book is for; these research steps should strengthen your understanding. If not, go back and look for clues in the language being used in the marketing material, the book’s design aesthetic, and how the book is packaged.

It’s a big red flag in your proposal if you say that your book is for “everyone” or a “general readership.” Successful books and media, even those with broad appeal, are geared toward a specific, primary audience. Maybe your book could interest everyone, but there’s a specific someone that will be the first to enthusiastically buy it. Who are they, and how and where can you reach them? The more you know about your primary readership, the better you’ll be able to build a proposal that speaks to that first crucial question: Who cares? Plus, a deep understanding of your audience leads to a better book.

Being thorough and thoughtful in this research will help you eliminate the most common problems in book proposals: no clearly defined audience, often combined with a concept that lacks freshness or specificity. Your proposal has to show why your book won’t be like a million others. To help you research the market, I’ve created book proposal worksheets to guide you through the process (https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/).

Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal

Once you’ve completed your market research, you’re ready to tackle the proposal. Most proposals include the following key sections. We’ll discuss each of these in depth—not in the order of their presentation, but in an order that you’ll find them easiest to write. I’ve created a book proposal template for you that includes these sections, with appropriate formatting and reminders of what to do (https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/).

Competitive or Comparable Title Analysis

This section analyzes comparable books that your audience has read or bought. You don’t want to skimp or rush here—editors can tell when you haven’t done your homework. So gather your research and determine which titles are the most important to discuss in your proposal. It’s best to limit yourself to books published within the last few years. The goal is to pinpoint how your book fits into the current landscape of available titles purchased by your ideal reader, and how it might be in conversation with existing works. The goal isn’t to show how your book is “better” or best of all but rather how it indicates an existing readership and thus future sales for your work. The majority of proposals discuss around five to ten books, or you might be OK discussing just a few titles if your book is for a quite specialized audience. (If so, you might be looking for a small press or university press, not an agent.)

For each entry in your analysis, begin by listing the title, subtitle, author, publisher, year of publication, page count, price, format, and International Standard Book Number (ISBN). You can leave out things like Amazon ranking, star rating, and reviews, as well as sales numbers. There’s no reasonable way for authors to find out sales information anyway, and the agent or editor can look it up for themself if they need it. I don’t think it’s worth worrying about how well a book sold before deciding to include it in your competitive title section. However, it’s a red flag if you discover that most competing books are self-published, if comparable books are very old, if recent books are from small publishers, or if authors in the category don’t have agents. In these cases, you might have a difficult time getting an agent, or self-publishing might be your most suitable path.

For each title, briefly summarize the book and make it clear why you’re including it as a comparable title. Typically you’ll focus on the shared appeal to your readership and how it points to the market or need for your book. If needed, differentiate your title and show how or why there’s space in the market for your book. Each title summary usually runs one hundred to two hundred words.

Once you’ve described all of the titles in your list, go back to the beginning and write an introduction (about one hundred to three hundred words) that summarizes your book’s position in the market in relation to the group. A typical analysis will be a few double-spaced pages, possibly longer.

About the Author

It can be helpful to begin with a bio you already use on your website or elsewhere, but don’t just copy and paste it into the proposal and consider the job done. Instead, tailor this section for the book idea you’re proposing. Show how your expertise and experience relate to the target readership for the book and how you’ve come to know this readership. If this is a weak area for you, look for other strengths that might give you credibility with readers—such as connections to experts or authorities in the field, a solid online following, or previous success in marketing yourself and your work. The best kind of bio section makes the agent or publisher excited to be a part of bringing your book to market. The worst thing you can do is paste in a résumé or curriculum vitae (CV) and expect someone to pick out what’s important or relevant to your book. Instead, focus on telling your story in a way that positions you as an author on an inevitable path to success. However, if a résumé or CV is specifically requested in the submission guidelines, as it may be for a university press, you should include one—in addition to, not in place of, your carefully tailored bio.

Target Readership or Target Market

Some nonfiction authors are writing the book of their heart, writing to satisfy themselves, and haven’t given much thought to the audience for their work. If this describes you, then you’ll have to turn your focus outward for the proposal. You can’t describe your readers as people who commonly buy books—publishers already know that. They want to know specifically the people your book targets within that known audience of book buyers.

It can be tempting to make broad statements about who your audience is to make your book sound salable. For instance, let’s say you’re writing a book that shows readers how to become effective activists or community organizers in their city. You might say the audience is “anyone who wants to make a difference”—or for activists. But this broad description is unhelpful and obvious. Dig deeper and describe more specifically the interests and characteristics of your potential reader. Consider whose life might be changed by your book and would evangelize for it. That’s your target audience, your ideal reader. Perhaps your community organizing book is primarily for twentysomething female activists who live in urban areas and have likely marched in at least one protest. Now we’re starting to go somewhere specific and useful—this is a group of people we can envision and find for marketing purposes. Although your book may end up having broader appeal, be disciplined in your initial assessment.

Your target audience analysis will be more powerful if you can cite news accounts, trend articles, or research that comments on the problem your book addresses or the audience you’re trying to reach. Features published by journalistic outlets, as well as reports from government and nonprofit agencies, can help back up your claims. Again, be careful to avoid generic statements and meaningless statistics. The number of search results for certain keywords, for instance, tells us nothing about the audience who will buy your book. Instead, try to craft statements like this one, for a cookbook: “There is growing evidence that amateur chefs want to cook more sophisticated dinners at home—such as the continued success of online meal kit delivery services. As the market was heating up in the mid-2010s, Big Business Publication said of the market leader, ‘It’s not grocery delivery but a cooking company.’”

A typical target audience analysis will be two to four double-spaced pages. You know you’re finished when it’s clear what’s at stake for the target readership and how they can be found and marketed to, whether that’s online or in person.

The Target Market Problem for Memoirists

Everything I’ve discussed about the target market section can be helpful for a memoirist, yet this piece can be challenging to write for a memoir book proposal. It can end up looking obvious, trite, or like a terrible reach. For instance, when writing memoirs about adoption, authors inevitably end up discussing adoption statistics. Or if they have been abused, or have overcome cancer, or take care of aging parents, then inevitably here come the statistics about people who are in the same situation.

This litany of statistics is unconvincing for two reasons. First, just because there are lots of other people like you doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a market for your book. In fact, it could hurt your chances if there are hundreds or thousands of stories just like yours either already on the market or being shopped around: that makes it more difficult for yours to stand out. Why do we need yet another story of beating cancer or addiction? Yes, it sounds terribly insensitive, but this is the question agents and publishers ask when they receive thousands of such pitches every year.

Second, the market of readers who avidly buy memoirs aren’t necessarily buying them to read about people like themselves. They’re often reading to experience a life they will never lead or to acquire a better understanding of people or voices they don’t typically hear from.

If sensational stories (landing a plane in the Hudson) or celebrity stories readily sell because of the author’s notoriety or platform, then “average person” memoirs sell because the lens or voice is spellbinding and absolutely captivating. But it’s not convincing to say, “My target audience is people who love captivating stories.” If you can say the same thing about any other memoir, it’s not worth putting in your proposal. For the same reason, it is utterly unconvincing to exclaim that your story will sell because it’s “universal” or “unique.” Any story told by a human being will have both unique and universal qualities.

Consider the best-selling memoir Educated by Tara Westover. Here’s the premise, in a nutshell: Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was prevented from attending school until the age of seventeen. When one of her brothers got into college, she decided to try it herself—and eventually attended Harvard and Cambridge. What if Westover tried to sell her book by arguing any of the following?

• My book will appeal to others who were denied an education at a young age.

• My book will appeal to people who believe in the importance of education.

• My book will appeal to others who grew up with survivalist parents.

• My book will appeal to others who took a great risk to attend school.

• My book will appeal to others who grew up in Idaho.

None of those arguments makes much sense; we want to read Westover’s book because of our fascination with her unusual upbringing. It raises all kinds of questions about how she was able to cope or assimilate once she entered the classroom and how she was able to succeed. By reading her book, what we consider normal is rendered strange—her singular lens on the world promises to be compelling, and we expect that it will bring us a new understanding of ourselves. There’s no need to plead that the story is unique, and there’s no need to plead that the story is universal. The premise speaks for itself—it raises questions that we’re driven to answer by reading the book.

So what to do? If you must include a target market section in your proposal, I’d recommend that you rely on comparable titles and authors. I rarely refer to them as “competitive” titles with memoir, as the existence of someone else’s life story rarely precludes interest in another. This is the same strategy that novelists use when pitching their work. Instead of trying to define or describe the market for your upmarket crime novel (which is well established and not in question), you instead point to the authors whose books yours would sit next to on the shelf and how you fit within the current landscape.

Marketing Plan

This is where you spell out what you can do to market and promote your book to readers. Don’t discuss what you hope to do, only what you can and will do, without publisher assistance, given your existing resources and platform. It’s not helpful to say, “I plan to build a website,” or “I plan to launch a podcast,” or that you hope to get support from so-and-so famous author whom you’ve never met. Also, saying that you’re “willing” to do something if asked (e.g., “I’m willing to appear on TV”) is not a marketing plan, as it implies you’ll be waiting around to be invited to market and promote your book. Instead, be confident, firm, and direct about the marketing and promotion efforts you can proactively undertake. Make it concrete and attach numbers where appropriate (e.g., you’ll market to your email newsletter list of one thousand subscribers). The secret to a strong marketing plan isn’t necessarily the quantity of ideas you present, but how well you deploy the network or advantages you have. Show that your ideas are not just pie in the sky but can be connected to tangible resources or action steps.

The marketing plan can run anywhere from two to six double-spaced pages, sometimes more, and directly reflects the strength of your author platform. I think of the marketing plan as having four key components, although you wouldn’t necessarily list these sections explicitly in the plan:

• Owned media and social media. How and when do you reach readers directly through channels you control (or sort of control, in the case of social media)? How many do you reach? These channels include your website, blog, email newsletter, podcasts, social media, and anything else that brings you into contact with readers or influencers. Rather than just mentioning you have these assets, or listing numbers, discuss how they can be used to support the launch of your book. Maybe your newsletter has been offering behind-the-scenes accounts of your book’s research and you’ll be able to run a strong preorder campaign to those readers. Or perhaps for years you’ve run an annual thirty-day challenge tied to your book’s topic on social media. (Part 2 of this book describes how to develop these assets, both before you begin pitching your work and as you develop your career.)

• Relationships and professional network. Show how you can tap your personal and professional connections for support. Some authors might agree to offer an endorsement of your book. Editors you’ve worked with in the past, or anyone in the media, can be helpful to mention. Do you have relationships with bookstore owners, librarians, reviewers? Do you have a relationship with any influencers who reach your target audience? Mention any special contacts or organizational and business relationships that can be tapped to gain coverage or visibility for the book. For example, if you’re a former employee of Google, and you’re writing a book that would interest the company, would they invite you to speak as part of their Talks at Google program?

• Events, teaching, and speaking. Prescriptive nonfiction authors are often teachers and speakers who run classes and workshops or attend conferences that serve their target audience. Mention any speaking or teaching history and what you’ve committed to in the future.

• Media and community outreach (earned media). In a nutshell, this is publicity: free editorial coverage for you or your work. While you might be tempted to go for the obvious big hitters, like the New York Times Book Review or the New Yorker, focus on outlets your publisher doesn’t already know about. Your most valuable contribution here will be in knowing about the local, regional, and community opportunities that aren’t on their radar or are too small for them to spend time on. But they won’t be too small for you. It’s these small outlets that can get the ball rolling.

Some marketing strategies shouldn’t be discussed, even if you know they’re frequently used. Anything related to book giveaways, discounting or price promotions, or advertising may not be within your control. Don’t base your marketing plan on initiatives your publisher would need to invest in or suggest things that could interfere with normal operations with their business partners.

Overview

This is the opening section of your proposal, a compelling summary of your business case. Think of it as an executive summary for the entire document. Because it’s the hardest to write, I recommend saving it for last. Typically one to four double-spaced pages, the overview effectively and holistically answers the three questions: So what? Who cares? and Who are you? The most compelling and juicy details from your proposal should appear in the overview. Some agents and editors recommend that you envision the overview as your book’s back cover copy, which should speak directly to readers trying to decide whether or not to purchase your book. That’s a good way to start.

For memoir, I recommend looking for a pivotal scene or moment from the memoir that will be irresistible to people who’ve never heard of you. Think of it as your “killer cocktail” anecdote: what reliably gets people asking you for more? Lead off with that, about three hundred to four hundred words, and then pull back into a larger, market-oriented discussion of the work: why people care about this issue or topic today and who you’re in conversation with as far as comparable authors or media.

Other Book Proposal Elements

If you’re hitting the average length for most sections, you’ll have around fifteen to twenty double-spaced pages once you’ve completed the aforementioned sections. At the end of your proposal, include a table of contents or a chapter outline for the book, followed by one or two sample chapters.

A chapter outline works best for narrative books, while a table of contents could be appropriate for information-heavy books with a lot of sections. But I recommend writing a synopsis for memoir, as you would for a novel, as it tends to be more efficient and advantageous in delivering a compelling story line. If you write a chapter outline: for each chapter, offer a brief summary of the idea, argument, or story presented in each chapter, about one hundred to three hundred words. However, some agents and publishers prefer an extensive chapter outline when there isn’t a completed manuscript, and you may be asked for something much longer.

If you want to include both a chapter outline and a table of contents in the proposal, that’s acceptable. Just show how your idea or story plays out from beginning to end, and convey the scope of the book. If there are special features or sidebars—or any kind of unique presentation of content—make sure that’s included. Any book element that might be used as a selling point to readers should be clearly described.

As for the sample chapters, they have to prove that you can deliver on your book’s promise, whether that’s high-quality information or storytelling or both. If the content or writing doesn’t measure up to the promise made in the proposal, you won’t get a deal. Your best strategy is to include one of the meatiest chapters of the book as your sample. Don’t slap together a lightweight chapter that might be easier to write but that doesn’t showcase your best material. However, memoirists are the exception. Rather than choose a chapter you think is “best,” include the first twenty-five pages or three chapters (or whatever the guidelines say). Editors need to see that the story starts strong.

Before the chapter outline, include a brief statement that conveys the anticipated length of the book (or the actual length if it’s finished) and how much time you will need to finish it. Typically, authors are given six to twelve months to complete the book after signing a contract. If you need to conduct any special research, or have any considerations that would affect your ability to complete the project—such as travel costs or the ability to gain access to interview subjects—mention them. This section is usually titled “Manuscript Delivery and Specifications.” It’s usually not appropriate to discuss what format the publisher should use—such as paperback versus hardcover—or pricing. The publisher decides these matters.

For books that require photography or illustrations, you’ll need to include a section that explains how the art will be sourced, obtained, or commissioned—and if you need publisher support in any way. Discuss costs or permissions issues involved with obtaining the art. If you intend to create or source the art yourself, include samples in the proposal so the editor can review the quality and appropriateness for book publication.

If you want to include additional materials in the proposal, agents and editors are generally accepting of anything that contributes to the case for your book’s publication. One of the more popular additions is a foreword, introduction, or advance praise from influential people or successful authors. If you might lack sufficient authority on your own, this feature can be a useful way to bolster the book’s credibility. You might well wonder how to obtain such materials from important people prior to securing a book deal. The short answer: you ask very nicely. Typically you only ask people with whom you have a strong connection. It’s difficult, even impossible, to get endorsements from a completely cold contact.

You’ll need to come up with a tentative title and subtitle. For prescriptive nonfiction pitches in particular, it’s best to be clear, direct, and benefit-oriented with titles, rather than vague or overly clever. If you absolutely can’t resist getting creative with the main title, then make the subtitle clear and direct to eliminate any confusion as to the book’s topic. Although it’s true that the publisher will likely change your title, take time to create something that draws attention and identifies the book’s audience and purpose. (To see how the entire book proposal comes together, you can find full-length examples at https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/.)

Parting Thoughts

The secret to selling popular nonfiction to agents and publishers, according to editor and former agent Eric Nelson: put forth an idea that helps flip a switch for people—that makes a bold and outstanding claim, backed up by experience and evidence, that makes a hard problem far simpler. He describes such books this way: “Look at the most popular science articles. Look at the most popular music biographies. See what’s going viral for baseball fans or climbing the bestseller list by historians. You’ll almost always find someone saying, ‘Most people think X is the case, but the reality is, the exact opposite is true.’ You don’t need to find a new idea if your current one isn’t spreading. You need to find a new version of your idea. Be the first person on your topic to say: many of you won’t agree, but we need to stop doing this one thing. Don’t be the writer adding to an existing strategy or body of knowledge. Be the writer turning a piece of it upside down.”1

Exercise: Look at the Covers of Competitive Titles

While conducting your competitive title research, assemble all the cover images in a single document, small enough that you can see at least five or six covers together, next to each other. Study the overall aesthetic as well as the title, subtitle, size of the author name and its placement, and any other marketing signals. What specific readership is the book appealing to? How do the books make different marketing appeals? Are they targeting the same or different readerships? How will your book fit into the mix yet also distinguish itself?

18 : Working Effectively with Your Publisher

For first-time authors, receiving and signing a book contract can be one of the most exhilarating events of their lives. It can also be one of the most terrifying when they realize how much they don’t know about the publishing process. Although variations do exist among publishers in how they approach editorial, design, production, and sales and marketing aspects, this chapter presents an overview of what you can expect once your book has been accepted and contracted.

The first order of business is writing and revision. You’ll be assigned an editor responsible for reviewing your work and providing feedback. Sometimes this editor is the same person who bought your book. Other times, the acquiring editor hands you off to another editor for development. Either way, your editor serves as your champion for the book inside the publishing house. Treat this relationship as one of the most important elements in the success of your book—because it is. For deep insights into editors’ roles, I recommend Peter Ginna’s What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing.

Depending on the publisher and type of book, you may be asked to submit partial drafts on the way to the final deadline, to ensure that you’re making sufficient progress on the manuscript. And even if you have a completed manuscript when you sign the contract, you’ll almost always receive revision guidance. When you submit your manuscript for review, it may take several months for you to receive any feedback. Try to be patient. You’ll be eager to hear what the editor thinks, but that editor is likely juggling dozens of other authors and projects at various stages of development. When you submit your work, ask when you might expect to hear back so you’re not left wondering about the timeline. If you’re concerned about how long it’s taking, ask your agent for guidance, if you have one. Often the contract specifies how much time the publisher has to review and respond, as well as how much time the author has to revise after receiving feedback.

Writers new to the business sometimes consider an editor’s requests for revision a personal affront, but the editor is only trying to produce the best possible manuscript for the intended readership. In fact, most see themselves as the advocate for the reader. Editors know what works for the market, and they are eager to help you achieve your best effort—they wouldn’t have contracted your book otherwise. Good author-editor relationships are clear and communicative; you deserve to know why an editor is asking for certain revisions and to receive guidance on how to revise to the publisher’s satisfaction. You should have plenty of room to negotiate on some requests, and say no to specific revisions or suggestions that you don’t agree with. Good editors don’t force authors to revise in a way that makes them lose confidence in the integrity of the work. During difficulties or misunderstandings, don’t overlook the editor’s essential goodwill toward the project. In worst-case scenarios, your agent might step in to handle any disagreements that threaten to jeopardize the contract or publication date. Only as a last resort would a book be canceled if you and the editor or publisher have irreconcilable differences. (Who gets to keep the advance in that case? Your contract should say.)

Whatever deadlines you’re given, respect them. Publishers try to build in a cushion—authors are notorious for missing their deadlines!—but don’t assume there is one. If you think you’ll miss a deadline, inform your editor as far in advance as possible, and propose a new deadline. The more transparently you communicate, the more understanding your editor is likely to be. The worst thing you can do is let a deadline pass in complete silence or avoid contact with your editor. Be proactive and professional, and work with your editor to ensure that the delay doesn’t have an adverse impact on your book. Sometimes a deadline is critical if your book is to release on the right date for marketing and promotion opportunities. You don’t want to miss an opportunity that could lead to greater sales because you didn’t take a deadline seriously. Manuscript deadlines are included in your contract, too, and publishers may have the right to terminate and ask for the advance back if you fail to deliver your work on time.

About nine to twelve months before your book’s release date, or sometimes as soon as your contract is signed, the publisher will begin a formal titling process. Your contract may give you the opportunity to consult on this process, but the publisher almost always has the final say on the title. About six to twelve months before your book releases, after the title is finalized, the cover and interior design process will begin. As with the title, when a publisher accepts a book, it almost always reserves the right to determine the package and overall design. Publishers work with designers and marketers who typically have a deep understanding of the market, but if you believe that the cover design, title, or package conveys the wrong idea or feel for what you’ve written, raise your concerns with your agent or editor. Be as specific as possible about how or why the title or design misses the mark for the intended readership, rather than emphasizing personal dislikes. It might be helpful to offer alternate ideas and suggestions for the title and subtitle—and maybe even the cover—but it’s best to avoid acting as a backseat driver if you’re not a designer by profession. Publishers also tend to react better when you describe the effect you want to achieve or how you want to appeal to the reader, rather than explicitly telling them how to achieve that effect.

How Publishers Sell and Market Books

The sad reality in book publishing is that few titles are adequately marketed and promoted because publishers don’t have sufficient resources—money, time, or staff—to invest in all the titles they release. Also, whereas publishers will likely target bookstores, libraries, and retailer accounts to make your work as visible as possible, the opportunities related to those channels tend to be limited and competitive. The end result is that publishers sometimes rely largely on hope that a book will find its audience—by simply being in stock at stores and talked about in the media or by important people. Publishers rarely release books with certainty about reader demand; rather, they seek to generate demand. (Whether this makes good business sense is another discussion.)

You may have heard horror stories about authors whose books are “orphaned” during the publishing process—that is, their editor leaves the publisher. Some books never seem to recover their momentum and receive lackluster support from sales and marketing because no one inside the publishing house is invested in their success. Let’s hope you don’t find yourself in that position because there’s not much of a cure; it illustrates the critical role of the editor in ensuring that your work gets the sales and marketing attention it deserves. Your editor is responsible for distributing early versions of your work to the in-house sales and marketing staff to drum up enthusiasm and support. The editor will also pitch your work during a season sales meeting and make suggestions for how the book can be best positioned in the market. Important decisions are often made while you are still writing or revising the book.

Publishers put most of their muscle behind authors or books they’re betting will sell big—sometimes called the A-list. They’ll also better support a book if it receives an encouraging response or commitment from the bookstore or library community, book influencers, or book clubs. Unfortunately, this scenario leaves behind the majority of authors. You need to find out early in the process whether your book will receive the bare minimum support so that you can plan appropriately. Doing so requires proactively asking your editor about sales and marketing plans, not in a confrontational way but in a collaborative spirit. It’s not so much “What are you doing for me?” but “I’m excited about marketing and promoting to libraries [or insert priority here] and am building a plan for outreach. Would your team take a look at my plan?” The unfortunate tendency of publishers is to keep authors in the dark about what’s happening, sometimes to avoid uncomfortable conversations because they don’t have anything planned. If you’re one of the lucky authors who has received a six-figure advance, you might receive more tangible support because the publisher has a significant investment at risk. But even then, don’t assume. The number-one complaint from authors, by far, is that the publisher didn’t do all the things they expected to help market and sell the book.

One of your first marketing and promotion tasks will be completion of an author questionnaire. (For an example of an author questionnaire, see https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/.) The publisher sends you a document that asks about every facet of your network and platform: names and contact information for important relationships or professional connections, information about your local and regional media, and much more. Be thorough in completing this form. The more the publisher knows about your resources and potential opportunities, the more it can tangibly support your book. Publishers prefer to build on existing assets, which makes sense—no one wants to start cold.

If your publisher is serious about your book gaining traction, it will produce advance reading copies, or ARCs (also known as galleys), about four to six months before your book releases, in print or digital form. ARCs are sent to trade review outlets such as Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal. These publications are read by booksellers and librarians to help them decide what to order. ARCs are also sent to the booksellers and librarians themselves, plus media outlets and influencers of all kinds, to solicit additional reviews and generate early word of mouth. Some publishers use the NetGalley website to support distribution of the ARC and will advertise ARC availability to reviewers and industry people.

Roughly four to six months before your book is released, once your book has a relatively final cover and title, the publisher’s sales process will begin. This process tends to coincide with the release of the publisher’s seasonal catalog. Ask your editor for a copy of this catalog or look for it online at the publisher’s website. Turn to the page that lists your title. How is it positioned? If it has a full-page listing near the beginning, that indicates A-list treatment and support. If it’s buried, not so much. What does the catalog say about the publisher’s marketing plan for your book? If you’ve been communicating well with your editor or publisher, nothing you see in the catalog will come as a surprise.

The biggest publishers send out their own sales representatives to call on key accounts, which include chain and independent bookstores, wholesalers, distributors, and specialty retailers. They will suggest order quantities based on sales of comparable titles, as well as the enthusiasm and support coming from inside the publishing house. (Remember: it’s your editor’s job to stoke this support, and one hopes they have done so effectively.) Because major publishers release hundreds of titles per year, not a lot of time can be spent on each one. A-list titles tend to get the most attention, and the salesperson will emphasize those titles over the others. By the end of the sales meeting, there’s usually a rough indication or informal agreement as to how many copies the account will take, but this isn’t a sure thing until the order actually comes through.

By the time the sales call is made, the publisher may have already determined and budgeted for the most important marketing initiatives for each book. Advance praise should be secured, large-scale print advertising campaigns may be on the calendar, and forthcoming media commitments—such as an excerpt set to run in a magazine or online outlet—could be touted as a reason to commit to a strong sales number. This is why it’s so important that you communicate what you’ll be doing to support your book many months before its release. If your efforts are to contribute significantly to the prepublication sales push, the publisher should have that in its plan before making sales calls.

When publishers spend money on advertising, their goals shift depending on the stage of the book’s release. Prior to launch, advertising focuses on driving awareness around reading the book (such ads would be targeted to booksellers, influencers, and others with access to the advance review copy). When the book goes on sale, advertising is meant to amplify media attention the book receives and to reach the audience they know will be most interested. After that, they might focus on conversion advertising: Facebook or Amazon-type ads to reach a wide audience and to make as many sales as possible.

At any stage, if a book manages to catch a wave of attention (win an award, score a major review, get an influencer mention, etc.), that could lead to more marketing spend than planned. In fact, that’s baked into the publisher’s plan: they’ll spend only so much and then wait to see how the market responds. If the response is minimal, the publisher will put investment into another title that’s making waves already.

There are a few good signs that your publisher is extra invested in your book. You may be invited to appear with the publisher at an industry event, such as the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute or a regional chapter conference. Such an invitation means you’re considered worthy of personally meeting booksellers, librarians, and others who have the power to handsell or place your book in prominent display positions. And there’s a chance you’ll be invited to the publisher’s offices to talk to the sales and marketing team personally to help build a better relationship, support, and understanding for your work.

How to Be a Proactive Marketing Partner

As a general rule, publishers start working directly with authors on marketing and publicity about four to seven months prior to the publication date. However, some titles may need a longer runway to succeed—as long as eighteen to twenty-four months, which would mean that planning begins around the time the book is contracted. This is most common when an author is high-profile or has an incredible number of opportunities that the publisher might be able to exploit. Whatever the case, authors should be up front with the agent or publisher about any media experiences or relationships that could affect planning.

As early as possible, for yourself, develop a marketing plan that you can execute on your own (a process to be discussed in chapter 19). Tell the publisher what you will be doing, and identify areas where the publisher could be of assistance to you. Publishers are much more likely to be helpful if you proactively show them your plan and ask for what you want—as opposed to calling up and demanding to know what they’ll be doing to support your book.

If you have an early start—let’s say you sign a contract two years before the book is due to be released—then you’re in an even better position. You can begin to establish your online presence (see part 2) and develop meaningful relationships with your target readership as well as influencers who recommend books. This is considered “organic” marketing, or platform building—whereby an author builds community and figures out far in advance what platforms to use and how and where they want to show up. That takes time to do authentically so that when you ask that same community to preorder or buy your book, they care and they’re invested. The publisher’s sales and marketing machinery is not well designed for this kind of marketing, and it falls almost entirely on the author now to initiate and sustain it.

The average book starts appearing on the market eight to nine months ahead of publication, typically when it becomes available for preorder. This is when certain aspects of the book become final (e.g., title, cover, format, and price—which are part of the book’s metadata).1 Most publishers don’t want an author specifically promoting the book until readers can preorder the book, so that’s an important milestone—publishers are typically interested in generating as many preorders as possible. The more preorders that accrue, the more copies the publisher gets onto the market, and the more visible that book becomes in terms of retail. This time, during the lead-in to your publication date, is the time to ask all your favors of your literary or influencer friends—or anyone in a position to support your work. Do everything you can to build preorders. The earlier this happens in the process, the more it positively affects the publisher’s campaign and the book’s distribution.

Around the time sales calls begin—about four to six months before release, possibly earlier—you’ll be introduced to the publicist who’ll be working on your book. This person will likely schedule a phone call with you to talk about the game plan or otherwise send you information on what their process looks like, what media outlets they’ll be pitching or targeting, and how to direct your own requests or needs for assistance. Unfortunately, publicists at most publishers are stretched to the limit. They might do a great job with the time they have, but they probably won’t have time for an in-depth approach. This is why authors often consider hiring outside help, but it doesn’t mean you should hire or have to hire. We’ll discuss the considerations further in chapter 19.

Parting Thoughts

Very few books succeed without any marketing and publicity—somehow, the book needs to gain visibility among potential readers. Most publishers rely heavily on retailers, booksellers, and librarians, as well as the serendipitous word of mouth that may occur among reviewers or other influential figures. Once your book releases, most of that work is already finished. Much of the media coverage you’ll receive will have been seeded weeks or months earlier. If nothing happens to help the book gain sales momentum in its first three months or so, the publisher will turn its attention to the next season of books. But it’s not until their book’s release date that some authors have this horrifying realization: that some of the critical elements of their book’s success played out many months before the book reached the market. If the book doesn’t sell in sufficient quantities in its first six months on the shelf, it will be returned and not restocked, to make way for next season’s titles.

How Much Does an Average Book Sell?

This seems like a question that ought to be answerable, but the publishing industry has various ways of measuring sales. Are we talking about all books published in a year—which includes more than a million titles? Are we talking about traditional publishers only, of which there are thousands? Just the corporate publishers? Print and digital sales, or just print? Are we counting books read or borrowed through libraries? What about subscription services like Kindle Unlimited or Scribd?

The quickest way to depress most authors is to share Circana BookScan sales averages—arguably the best gauge of how traditionally published books sell to your average reader. BookScan tracks US print book sales through retailers, including brick-and-mortar independent bookstores, big-box stores like Walmart and Costco, Amazon, Bookshop, and many others. It also tracks e-book and digital audiobook sales but relies on publisher-supplied data for that.

During the Department of Justice (DOJ) v. Penguin Random House (PRH) antitrust trial in 2022 (discussed in chapter 11), a couple of statistics were mentioned during testimony and widely shared: that 90 percent of published books sell fewer than two thousand units, and that of fifty-eight thousand trade titles published per year, half sell fewer than twelve units. That second one, the most jaw-dropping, spread far and wide on social media. It raised a lot of questions and disbelief: how could any industry survive with that kind of failure?

One of BookScan’s analysts, Kristen McLean, commented on the matter extensively because of speculation over whether the numbers were verifiable.a She said that, according to BookScan data, 14.7 percent of books published by the top ten US publishers sold fewer than twelve copies in 2022. That’s not “half,” as claimed in DOJ v. PRH, but it’s not nothing, either. McLean wrote, “I think the real story is that roughly 66 percent of those books from the top 10 publishers sold less than 1,000 copies over 52 weeks.” McLean admitted that this is a misleading figure because it doesn’t include all sales, but she added [emphasis hers], “It does represent the general reality of the economics of the publishing market. In general, most of the revenue that keeps publishers in business comes from the very narrow band of publishing successes in the top 8–10 percent of new books, along with the 70 percent of overall sales that come from backlist (older) books in the current market.” For authors who want to see their books succeed in bookstores and prominent retail outlets, all these figures are sobering.

For those focused on the frank financial realities of the publishing business, a defensible statistic is that 98 percent of new titles sell fewer than five thousand print copies—a statistic directly from BookScan that is used by many professionals and was cited in the New York Times in 2021.b

a. McLean quoted in Lincoln Michel, “No, Most Books Don’t Sell Only a Dozen Copies,” Counter Craft, September 4, 2022, https://countercraft.substack.com/p/no-most-books-dont-sell-only-a-dozen/comments.

b. Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris, “What Snoop Dogg’s Success Says about the Book Industry,” New York Times, updated April 28, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html.

If your launch ends up being a disappointment, and it was a hardcover release, there is still hope. It may find new life as a paperback, with a second shot at bestseller lists and editorial coverage. Or if your book scores a major award or media attention after its release, that may give the publisher a way to resell or repitch the book to accounts, to argue for a bigger buy. It’s rare, but it happens. However, to avoid disappointment in the first place, start with the assumption that your publisher will do nothing but act as a packager and distributor for your book and that you’ll need to take responsibility for the marketing.

Exercise: Dive into Edelweiss

Edelweiss is a tool used predominantly by bookstores, as well as reviewers and other industry insiders, to help them keep tabs on new and upcoming titles from publishers. Publishers are responsible for uploading data about their titles, including comparable titles and key selling points. Anyone can create an account at Edelweiss to access this information, including you. Go and create and account (https://www.edelweiss.plus), and click on “Catalogs.” Select one publisher that you know and explore its current or upcoming season title by title. Click on “Content” to see how the publisher is positioning each book, which includes the marketing plan and key selling points for the book. Can you tell the difference between a boilerplate marketing plan and one that’s been customized for the title? Can you tell the difference between a title that is getting a lot of publisher support and one getting only minimal publisher support?

For an example of a boilerplate marketing plan, see the following article on my website (scroll down the page to the section titled “What a cookie-cutter marketing plan looks like”): https://janefriedman.com/questions-to-ask-your-publisher-before-you-sign-the-contract/.

19 : Marketing and Promoting Your Books

In the wake of the 2022 Department of Justice versus Penguin Random House trial (discussed in chapter 11), some authors were annoyed—even angry—at book publishing executives who claimed they had no control over what books became bestsellers and could not take credit for them. It was like taking credit for the weather, the CEO of Simon & Schuster said.1

Is it true that the publishing business is like a big game of roulette? One author, Andrew DeYoung, insightfully wrote, “The two most inaccurate things you can say about success or failure in publishing are ‘It’s guaranteed if you just do these three things’ and ‘It’s all random so don’t even try.’ The truth is far more annoying: ‘Doing these things can increase your chances of success, which given the amount of content out there will still never be especially high.’”2

This is why it’s difficult for publishers to market books and for me to offer universal guidance on how to market your work. A plan that works for one book or author doesn’t necessarily work for others, and book marketing can rarely be automated. In the end, though, all successful books need readers to tell their friends, family, and the larger world, in person or online: You must read this book! This is “word of mouth,” whether it happens in real life or online, that publishers consider essential to book sales.

During the mid-2010s, online retail became the biggest channel for book sales in the US, changing how books get discovered. The large majority of books sold online are through Amazon, of course, but there are other important players, such as Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and big-box retailers like Target and Walmart, not to mention digital subscription services like Kindle Unlimited. That has led publishers to invest more in direct-to-consumer marketing. Be careful when you encounter advice from authors who established their careers before the domination of online retail (or before the advent of e-books and digital audio): their brands and readership developed when sales dynamics were different. Anyone starting a career now has a new and often changing set of considerations in play.

Understand the Big Picture before Focusing on Specifics

If your publisher has little or nothing planned to market your book, you’ll need to build your own campaign, alert them to what you’re doing, and hope they’ll jump in with support. It’s not desirable, but it is possible—good book promotion requires time and energy (and stubbornness) more than it does money. It might also help to invest in a publicist or marketing consultant. In fact, it’s not unusual for authors to invest a good portion of their advance in hiring professional help for the book launch. (More on this later.) If you commit to putting in a strong effort from the beginning, by the time your second, third, or fourth book comes out, you should have a solid base of readers developed from your previous efforts. This base will make things dramatically easier with each and every launch.

Most book launches include both marketing and publicity:

• Marketing typically refers to efforts that require you to pay money, such as running an advertising campaign. Your publisher’s marketing team may invest in advertising and online promotions (including giveaways), in-store merchandising and promotions, influencer marketing, book club marketing, email marketing, swag, and so on. Normally these investments are made by the publisher to generate preorders and word of mouth prior to launch.

• Publicity refers to media attention and editorial coverage that’s not paid for. You’ve probably heard the cliché “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” You can decide for yourself whether that’s true, but if you or your book receives media coverage, you don’t have control over the story or message, as you do with marketing efforts. Sometimes publicity can be a happy accident, but more often than not, it requires having a good pitch and connections with the media. The publicity team at your publisher should help in this regard. If events or tours are planned (in person or virtual), it’s typically publicists who assist with them.

A thoughtful campaign seeks to identify, locate, and communicate with the right audience to make them aware of your book. If you’re focused and clear about your target audience, you have a better chance of reaching a wider, national market. It helps to know which authors are your friendly competition, or those who already reach the audience you want to reach. Even though your book is unique, for marketing purposes you want it to be like other books. Therefore, one way to prepare for marketing your book—which is probably part of your routine anyway—is to avidly read in your genre. When you find books you like, talk about those books and authors on social media, and seek to build a friendly and supportive relationship, even if from afar. Ultimately, you’ll want to seek opportunities to collaborate with them. Successful book launches involve your community; you don’t want to launch all by yourself or feel isolated when doing it.

Additionally, always be maintaining a list of publications or media outlets where you want your book reviewed or mentioned, and then start cultivating relationships with the people related to them. Not sure what these outlets are? Look to your comparable authors or titles. Where have they been featured? Follow the breadcrumb trail. Identify businesses, groups, and organizations that would be most interested in your book. As you write and revise your work, jot down any ideas about ancillary materials, products, or events that would complement the work. Consider competitions or giveaways that would be interesting to the target readership and whom you might partner with on such initiatives.

The biggest mistake that authors make, by far, is focusing on tactics rather than first setting a strategy. Tactics might include posting on social media, writing guest posts, or planning a podcast tour. Strategy might include reaching as many readers of [comparable author] as possible; getting noticed by as many business leaders as possible in your region; becoming a recognizable name in the [genre] community. Each of these strategies could have endless tactics associated with it, either online or offline, either part of your existing skillset or something you’ve never tried. A good marketing campaign starts with a strategy and then prioritizes tactics to execute in carrying out that strategy.

What makes for a good strategy? Whatever makes you happy—really! What outcome would deliver satisfaction or value for you or your career? What do you want to accomplish with the book aside from sales? It is totally acceptable to say that your strategy is to increase prestige and be accepted by such-and-such elite groups. Or to make your enemies jealous. Or to spark contentious debate with a certain community. Being honest with yourself will lead to marketing activities you are more likely to follow through on and be enthusiastic about.

Hiring Outside Help for Your Book Launch

There’s no shortage of services that promise authors they can secure media coverage, reviews, and better sales. For the unschooled, however, it’s hard to know whom to hire, how much to invest, and what will in fact make a difference. So let’s look at the pitfalls and who often regrets paying for assistance.

If you want to see each invested dollar come back to you in the form of book sales, do not hire. It’s rarely possible to say “effort A led to outcome B,” especially if book sales gain momentum from word of mouth. Plus authors rarely have access to up-to-date sales figures from their publisher or other metrics. You can’t always figure out how or why someone decided to visit Amazon or their local bookstore to buy your book. And anyone who’s wondering whether they can hire someone who will work on commission—for a percentage of book sales—the answer is a resounding no. If that’s the only way you can justify hiring marketing and publicity help, you should not hire.

“I just want to sell books” might be your initial motivation for hiring help, but you should be hiring professionals for their long experience and ability to cut through the noise and focus on what’s most likely to work for you. They can discuss the pros and cons of your strategy (if you have one), suggest tactics you may not have considered, and then manage everything that needs to happen. Some of the tasks they perform you could handle yourself, but they can often do them better, more efficiently, or more knowledgeably. Their professional finesse may create a better impression and more sales over the long term, and leave you time to focus on other high-value activities. They can also help you avoid problematic tactics or point you toward useful tools they’ve discovered.

Only hire if you can consider your investment in marketing or public relations (PR) an investment in your long-term career as an author—something that will benefit all your future books and even lead to paying work. Publicity helps people recognize who you are in a world of media saturation; it elevates you above the noise. Sales or publicity hits may happen in the first days or months of the campaign, but no one knows when your visibility will pop—effects can trickle out over years and years.

I’ve heard countless stories from disappointed authors who worked with a book publicist and didn’t get what they wanted out of the investment. That often happens because of misaligned goals or objectives, or even a misunderstanding of what a book publicist can accomplish. To complicate matters, authors get very focused on things they know and understand, regardless of their effectiveness—like being on a popular radio or TV show, or running an ad in the New York Times—which don’t always lead to the sales they might expect.

It’s common for authors to seek a publicist or marketing help after a book has already launched and not done well. Panicked authors belatedly realize they should’ve developed a plan months earlier, and they end up on social media blasting self-promotional pleas: “Buy my book!” Try to avoid that panic. Your audience will grow as you write and produce many pieces over the course of your career, and your social media efforts should focus on conversation and community. No matter what type of author you are, the hard truth is that the work of marketing and publicity never really ends—it’s ongoing for as long as you seek a writing life that pays.

If You Decide to Hire Marketing and Promotion Help

Traditional publishers concentrate their publicity around a book’s launch date, within a three-month or six-month window, which fits with the bookstore retail model. Publishers are focused on selling as many copies as possible right after the book goes on sale both to spur increased orders and to avoid returns. This publicity works for the publisher, not you, and while you may have all kinds of great ideas, they’ll give their goals priority over yours. If you decide to hire a freelancer to augment the work of the in-house team, you’ll need to coordinate their efforts so they’re not reaching out to the same people.

Make a list, in writing, of the outcomes you hope to achieve. Share this with each person you interview and ask for a proposal and pricing. As you consider whom to hire, research their other clients or campaigns they’ve worked on. Have they been able to achieve the kind of outcomes you’re looking for? Talk to past clients if at all possible.

Here are the most common areas where authors hire outside marketers and publicists; cost varies based on experience. Brief consultations or assistance may cost hundreds of dollars, but plan to spend well into the thousands for ongoing help.

• Traditional publicity or PR campaigns. This is what most authors envision when they consider hiring help: someone who will launch a large-scale media publicity campaign that lasts months to support a book launch. Such a campaign could involve helping plan or manage book events, crafting social media strategies and assets, pitching media outlets for coverage, finding media partnerships, and approaching influencers. If you’re looking for this kind of comprehensive campaign, most publicists need to be hired and involved as early in the process as possible—often a year before the publication date, even if their work doesn’t officially begin in earnest until several months before release. This is the most expensive type of help as well: you typically pay a monthly retainer for several months and end up paying in the low five figures for a full-length campaign. But it can be the most unquantifiable in terms of its effect on book sales. Most publicists or PR firms won’t take your money unless they think they can deliver some results, or they have some faith or confidence in the book. (If a publicist agrees to a campaign without knowing much or anything about your book, that’s a red flag.)

• Focused and finite marketing or promotion support. For authors with smaller budgets, or who want to focus on a very specific opportunity, you can often find professionals who specialize in whatever you’re interested in. If you want to go on podcast tour in the business leadership space, or you want to put together a regional tour of libraries or bookstores, or you want to target media outlets in the Chicago area—there’s probably someone who is experienced in just that and has contacts to help speed progress. Marketers and publicists can also help you produce media kits, press releases, website copy, and other materials that you’ll use again and again.

• Advertising assistance. If you want to invest in an advertising campaign, you can hire people or firms to assist you. But make sure you have clear, specific goals in advertising. For example, advertising to boost visibility with bookstores prior to your book’s release is a very different goal than advertising to reach the fans of Colleen Hoover. Know what your publisher is doing before you advertise on your own. They may have specific suggestions about where they would advertise or how they’d invest if they had the extra funds.

• Social media assistance. There are countless social media consultants, managers, and assistants out there. But they will be mostly useless unless you already have some established presence on social media. It’s often a waste of your money to hire someone to establish your social media accounts and begin posting for you. First of all, it’s unlikely you can pay them to do that forever, and as soon as they stop, then what will you do? Second, social media’s best and most meaningful benefits depend on you showing up and building relationships—a hired hand can’t realistically make friends for you. However, it can be helpful to hire an experienced social media consultant (ideally one who knows the author and publisher landscape) to devise an effective campaign prerelease and postrelease that will engage your existing community and attract new people as well. And if you’re an established author who can’t keep up with all the reader communication or invitations and requests for your time, that’s the best reason to hire help—when success is overwhelming you.

Securing Reviews

Reviews are one of the key ways books gain traction and attention in the market. These are the most common categories of review:

• Trade reviews. Trade review publications are read by booksellers, librarians, and others in the book industry (as opposed to consumers). Two of the best known are Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Such publications primarily provide prepublication reviews of traditionally published books. A prepublication review appears several months before a book’s publication date; bookstores and libraries use such reviews to help decide what to order for their customers or patrons.

The publisher is responsible for securing trade reviews and will send advance review copies four to six months ahead of publication. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of books receive trade reviews. Those that receive starred reviews—given to especially outstanding new releases—receive more attention and orders. Celebrate if you get one and be sure to mention the starred review on your website, media materials, and any promotional copy.

• Professional reviews in mainstream publications. Reviewers for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, literary journals, and other mainstream publications are flooded with books for potential review. As with trade reviews, the publisher is typically responsible for sending an advance copy for consideration, early enough that the review can appear close to the book’s release date. Publishers typically ask authors if there are smaller outlets, particularly local or regional publications, or niche websites or blogs, that would be likely to offer a review or coverage if contacted. If the publisher is unable to invest the time or energy to approach smaller outlets, the author should do so, usually with digital copies to avoid expense. BookFunnel is a popular service for authors who want to send digital review copies securely.

• Fee-based professional reviews. Because of the increased demand for professional reviews, especially for self-published work, you can now find publications that offer paid reviews. They may have some reach and visibility to industry insiders, or they may be reader oriented, or a mix of both. Examples include Publishers Weekly BookLife reviews, Blue Ink Review, and Kirkus Indie reviews. Paying for professional book reviews can be a controversial topic among self-published authors. It’s not widely known even within the author community that paid book reviews exist, and even less is known about their value. Most professional self-published authors never pay for such reviews. That said, if your outreach plan involves approaching independent bookstores and libraries to consider your book, then having a positive review from a source they know can help you overcome an initial hurdle or two.

• Reader (nonprofessional) reviews. The best way to sell more books on Amazon, or through online retail, is to generate as many reader reviews as possible. Authors tend to be more interested in professional reviews because of the prestige associated with them, but one professional review does not make up for a lack of reader reviews or a low rating. Like it or not, purchasing behavior online is generally driven by quantity of reviews, assuming no prior exposure to the author. Plus online retailer algorithms are more likely to surface well-reviewed books higher in search results. Thus, publishers urge authors to drum up as many reader reviews as possible following release.

• Goodreads. Goodreads is the biggest online community focused on reading, sharing, and reviewing books. But this one comes with a caveat. Goodreads is owned by Amazon, which has done very little to moderate the site or even improve it, despite its having more than 100 million users. Unfortunately, Goodreads can be used to attack or punish authors, for any reason, through the practice of leaving one-star reviews; there’s nothing to stop someone from reviewing or rating a book they haven’t read. Goodreads doesn’t always intervene to prevent such behavior, to the frustration of authors and publishers alike. Until Amazon decides change is necessary, we’re all stuck with what we have. A sound strategy is to claim and fill out your author profile completely, but don’t read reviews of your book. If you can’t help yourself and do read the reviews, never respond to those reviews—even if a reader has gotten something wrong. You’ve been warned.

Influencer Marketing

In tandem with the rise of social media is the rise of the online influencer: the person who has a significant following and ability to sell simply by posting to their social account. Sometimes these mentions are “organic” (not paid for), and sometimes they are sponsored (paid for); by law, influencers must disclose when they have been paid to talk about or write about something. An online influencer is just a new form of celebrity, and celebrity has always sold books. For many years, it was Oprah’s Book Club that was the golden ticket, but influencers these days may be people you’ve never heard of. Your publisher likely knows who they are, however, and is probably paying some number of influencers to discuss specific books. There is disagreement, however, about whether this works. The ideal is to have someone promote your book because it’s a sincere and heartfelt recommendation. Even that typically requires someone—whether you or the publisher—to get the book on the influencer’s radar. Known book influencers tend to receive as many review copies and solicitations as big reviewers do.

Advertising

Most publishers do not expect authors to pull out their wallets and run their own advertising campaign, not least because authors rarely have knowledge of how to advertise effectively. Before you consider any investment in advertising your book, ask your publisher for guidance and opportunities it recommends.

Here is a brief summary of the advertising outlets you might hear about or consider:

• Trade advertising. This includes ads in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness (a newsletter for booksellers), NetGalley, industry book fair materials, and so on. These ads primarily reach booksellers, librarians, and reviewers. Publishers are most likely to pay for these ads.

• Amazon advertising. You can purchase ad space in multiple places in the Amazon universe via its Amazon Ads program, but most ads appear right next to comparable books. Amazon ads are very popular with self-published authors because these ads occur right at the point of sale and target people who are potentially most interested and likely to purchase. They’re also affordable when compared with more traditional advertising options; a decent campaign can be run for as little as five or ten dollars per day. Amazon ads are comparable to other digital, click-based advertising, such as Facebook ads. You participate in an automated auction process where you must place a bid for your ad to appear in connection to a specific author, title, or audience; if your bid wins, your ad is shown.

• Facebook advertising. Despite changes in online privacy over the years, which have made things more challenging for effective digital advertising, Facebook remains an important marketing vehicle for publishers and authors alike. One reason it’s so powerful is its ability to create “look-alike” audiences for ads: it finds new customers based on existing customers you already reach. For example, you can upload your email newsletter list to Facebook to create a look-alike audience, or if you have a decent Facebook business page with a good number of likes or followers, it can create a look-alike audience from that. (Note that Facebook is owned by Meta, and advertising options could include Meta’s other platforms as well, e.g., Instagram.)

• BookBub. BookBub is a deals newsletter sent via email to millions of readers every day, customized for each reader based on their category or genre interests. BookBub readers seek cheap e-books, so usually publishers and authors only advertise on BookBub when they’re running an e-book discount of some kind. There are two types of BookBub ads available: the Featured Deal, which requires you to apply for consideration and be selected, and pay-per-click ads that appear at the bottom of BookBub emails. Featured Deal emails typically cost thousands of dollars and are competitive, with few spots available, and are typically bought up by traditional publishers willing to offer a deep discount. The other ads work similarly to Amazon Ads and Facebook ads and can be targeted in a variety of ways.

Many other advertising opportunities exist out there. If you’re tempted to invest in advertising, focus narrowly and try low-cost experiments to see what works. Consider email newsletters with small circulations that go to your target audience, genre-specific book blogs or podcasts, and local or regional outlets for affordable options to test on your own.

Giveaways and Discounts

Giveaways can work if done strategically. The best-known venues for giveaways—especially for traditional publishers—are Goodreads and NetGalley, but publishers also do giveaways on social media and in partnership with influencers or major publications. Publishers commonly use the power of the giveaway prior to release date, but after release, they’re more likely to offer deep discounts (typically e-books priced from $0.99 to $2.99). That discounting rarely happens until well after the release date, usually six to twelve months after. For self-publishing authors, e-book giveaways are the classic marketing tool to build a readership, especially giving away the first book in a series. See chapter 21 for guidance.

Events

While you still find New York Times best-selling authors doing tours for their new releases, the days of the traditional author tour are over. Still, events can play an important role in marketing, mainly because they help create a footprint. When you visit any city, it’s not just about the books sold but the people you speak with—about making connections and building a network that will persist long afterward. Touring also makes it much easier to get local and regional media coverage, which can boost sales even if event turnout is low.

Bookstores aren’t always the best place for events, at least if the author wants good turnout. Many authors and publicists—and even bookstores themselves—have caught on and now plan events in alternative venues, such as bars or clubs. They may even sell tickets to author lunches held at restaurants, where the ticket price includes a copy of the book. Such events feel more social, and they avoid the lower perceived value and less compelling nature of the reading-signing format.

Another strategy is to tie an event to some kind of holiday or celebration. Romance writers, for example, will often collaborate on Valentine’s Day themed events; horror authors will do the same around Halloween. Nonfiction authors should pay attention to the seasonality of their topic when possible: the topic of health and wellness often does well when people are thinking about New Year’s resolutions; money and finance issues are top of mind in the weeks leading up to the US tax filing deadline. Try to avoid scheduling or planning an author event that’s just you, behind a table, waiting for people to ask you about your book. It’s not likely to be a good time.

Bringing authors together for events generally leads to better turnout and a stronger pitch for media coverage. In fact, a common bookstore event these days pairs a local or established author in conversation with an author with a new book releasing. Another option gaining in popularity: large-scale, genre-driven conventions. Comicons can be a productive place for science fiction and fantasy authors in particular to exhibit, although to be productive, authors need to learn the art of the handsell and not just wait behind the table to be approached. Romance authors often band together for their own reader festivals and conventions; one of the most well known is RARE, or Romance Author & Reader Events, which changes location every year and always sells out. To learn more about such events, search for local or regional conventions near you. Or you can search the listings at Beventi (http://beventi.co), a service that helps authors sell books at festivals and conventions. Just be aware that once you factor in travel costs, exhibition fees, and other expenses, you may not be making a profit. But the community networking and readership exposure can be profitable over the long term.

Because of the expense of in-person events or touring, some authors organize virtual book launches or participate in virtual book festivals with other authors. Such events can sell books, but to see a direct effect on sales, you have to encourage sales in some specific way, usually by providing a discount code or other incentive for attendees to make a purchase within a limited time frame during or after the event.

Independent Bookstores

Independent bookstores can play a role in turning a book into a bestseller through the power of handselling—that is, where staff members make personal recommendations to their customers and get behind a book in a focused way; they might put a book on prominent display because they believe it deserves to be read. That kind of support is more likely when an author has built a relationship with their local or regional independent bookseller over many years prior to their own book’s release—by being a loyal customer and involved community member.

Some authors go out of their way to support their independent bookstore as part of their book launch or overall marketing campaign. For example, they might “adopt” an indie bookstore to be their fulfillment center for anyone who wants a signed copy. When authors do that, it gives the bookstore something to offer that their competitors can’t. And that means the bookstore is likely to mention you on its Facebook page, or email their customers about it, or otherwise help the book generate more buzz.

Usually independent stores have extremely limited shelf space and can only stock books by authors they know are in demand by their customers. A self-published author seeking placement for their first book can rarely demonstrate such demand, and might have to focus on online sales. That said, some stores can be very supportive of local authors, and may have programs specifically for either local authors or self-published authors. Do your research before you approach a local bookseller and don’t assume your book is entitled to shelf space without a good business case for it. The same is true for traditionally published authors.

Getting Traditional Media Attention

All well-known outlets, whether print or online, are very selective and bombarded with pitches every day. However, with time and persistence, authors can secure publicity even without their publisher (or publicist) making the call. Doing so requires developing multiple high-quality pitches that fit the style, tone, and needs of the media outlets to which the authors are pitching their work. And doing that well takes considerable research. Once you start pitching, you’ll hear mostly no (or silence). The people who succeed are those who aren’t deterred, keep refining their pitch, and stay alert for opportunities to pitch again.

The most important thing to remember: nobody cares that you wrote a book. So don’t lead your pitch with the book. Lead with the hook or the story and why it’s of interest to the media outlet’s readership. If you’re pitching via email, the subject line is critical. Put the hook in the subject line, and keep your pitch short, a few paragraphs at most, or fewer than five hundred words. Make it easy and quick for someone to say yes and don’t load the letter down with multiple pitches, ideas, or questions for the recipient. For inexperienced authors or those without name recognition, your own backyard is a good place to start—local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations. Chapter 24 covers how to pitch in detail.

Some authors are skilled at finding news pegs for their book, but if you’re not, then that’s something a publicist is skilled at. Also, a publicist’s job is to stay on top of news and current events and seek opportunities to pitch your book in connection with those events. Some writers subscribe to Source of Sources (https://sourceofsources.com) and similar services to receive email alerts of journalists seeking experts or authors they can quote on specific topics. This can be a good way to keep your book visible in the media, especially for nonfiction authors.

Social Media

If you decide to sign up for social media strictly to market and promote your book, especially during the month of launch, don’t bother. You have already failed. Social media works best when you’re already a known and valued member of the community. Whereas success in using social media to market and promote your book can be tied to the size of your following, what’s much more important is how consistently you’ve been engaging people over time, and that there is, in fact, engagement—not a string of self-promotional messages that everyone has ignored.

Let’s assume you have been engaging on social media for a meaningful length of time and do have relationships in place. To effectively use social media as part of a book launch, avoid scattered calls to preorder and vague mentions of the book. Instead, consistently drip-feed information about the upcoming book through the months or years prior to release. If planned early enough, there can even be requests for input from the community (almost like a focus group), with free content sharing and behind-the-scenes content. Identify a core message everyone can get behind and make that the driving force. Then when the preorder message finally arrives, your community will already be invested and aware. Everything hinges on how well you can integrate the book messaging into the spirit of what you usually post. If you switch to an uncomfortable, smarmy marketer voice when talking about the book, it’s not going to work. It has to be in your own writer voice, or however you normally behave.

An ideal to strive for? A year-round marketing campaign. It’s less labor-intensive than you think. Start with the basics. When there is new activity happening around your book, talk about it. This activity could be a new review, a new piece of media coverage, the launch of an international edition, an award, or a shout-out from a high-profile social account. If you can get your community really excited about your work, they will talk about it and share it themselves. That’s how social media sells books.

The Power of TikTok

Starting in 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishers started noticing a spike in sales for older books—books not being actively promoted—that they couldn’t explain. Soon, it became clear: the books were being recommended by avid and often young readers on TikTok. In 2021, BookScan found that BookTok—the book-loving community of people on the app—was responsible for 31 percent of overall fiction growth in the industry.a

BookTok is full of readers’ emotional, visceral reactions to books: plot twists that make you angry enough to throw the book across the room, or endings that make you bawl your eyes out. Big publishers are now making BookTok part of their standard marketing game plan and codifying their approaches internally and in their advice to authors.

However, that doesn’t mean authors must be on TikTok. Like any other social media, if you have the time and want to invest in it for the long haul, by all means try it. Genres that have been most affected by the BookTok phenomenon include contemporary romance (think: Colleen Hoover) and young adult fiction, but just about every interest area imaginable can be found on TikTok, including all categories of nonfiction.

If you’re new to TikTok, the first step is to start an account and start scrolling through the feed. Engage with bookish content, authors who are comparable to you, and other videos that match what you write and read, so the algorithm can figure out what you like and don’t like on a bookish basis. As you get settled in, pay attention to what’s trending and post about what people are talking about. With TikTok in particular, it’s important to stay on top of trends, videos, and sounds. Even if you don’t post, just observing the trends can be beneficial for your overall marketing and promotion efforts. While TikTok’s ownership, or how it is operated, may change in the future because of government concerns about privacy, it’s not likely to lose its influence anytime soon on pop culture, and that includes books.

a. Kristen McLean and Brenna Connor, “Now in Entertainment: #BookTok’s Impact on U.S. Books,” NPD Group, April 8, 2022, podcast, MP3 audio, 14:44, https://youtu.be/0y8z0N6vf4w?si=pPqCXc2Fq3PFKHkK&t=195.

Blogging, Podcasting, and Email Newsletters

Even if you don’t have a blog, podcast, or newsletter to support your book launch, you can benefit from the fact that other people have them and “borrow” their audience. Consider pitching yourself as a guest or contributor, look for question-and-answer opportunities, or otherwise try to get featured by those who reach your target audience. It also helps to be an active participant or commenter on blogs or newsletters where your readers hang out. However, it’s a small number of outlets that actually have real visibility, and the influential ones can be just as picky as traditional media outlets in terms of what or whom they feature. If you pursue coverage, make sure the audience is a good fit for you and your book so you won’t invest too much time for too little return.

Parting Thoughts

For years, one of the biggest values publishers offered authors was the means to get their books into stores. Bookstore placement serves a marketing function, particularly when a book is on display. The more visible a book is, the better the chances a reader will stumble upon it. If more stores feature a book, or give it prominent placement, sales are nearly guaranteed to increase.

However, more than 60 percent of books today are sold through online retail, making brick-and-mortar bookstore placement less important and also more challenging—shelf space has shrunk dramatically since the heyday of Barnes & Noble in the mid-aughts. Search algorithms and discount deals and promotions, whether through Amazon, BookBub, or some other service, now play an increasingly important role in how readers discover books and decide what to read next. As of today, some best-selling authors are better equipped to reach their readers directly than through their traditional publisher. Madeline McIntosh, the former CEO of Penguin Random House, wrote in 2024, “We publishers work harder than ever to impact sales. We’ve invested and innovated. We’ve embraced digital and been driven by data. But despite these efforts, we’ve lost the power to uniquely influence the consumer. . . . In the old market, degrees of success came down to what the publisher did or didn’t do. In the new market, it’s about the author. What they put on the page, and how they break through the noise to capture reader attention: that’s what makes the difference.”3

So where does this leave you? If you build a network of readers you can reach directly, either online or offline, and they trust you, they will come when your book releases. Don’t underestimate the difference your relationships can make. If you make connections, when it’s time for your launch or event, you’ll see a real and meaningful effect. While you might not be able to keep up with every changing nuance in digital marketing, and you won’t be able to control what your publisher does to support your book, you’ll always benefit from building your own reach to readership.

Exercise: Learn How Publishers Market and Promote to Booksellers

Subscribe to Shelf Awareness (for book trade professionals), a free weekday email newsletter focused on serving booksellers, and read about what books are receiving attention and coverage and why (https://shelf-awareness.com). Just as important, notice the books being advertised in the newsletter; those placements are paid for by publishers, typically during a book’s preorder or launch window. Study how books get advertised to booksellers and others inside the business, and what appears to motivate bookstores to stock titles. Do the same for BookBub newsletters (http://bookbub.com) for the categories and genres you’re interested in—these placements will often come long after the book launch and they’ll be speaking the language of readers, not booksellers.

20 : Self-Publishing

Valid Path, Different Business Model

Until the late 1990s, only one viable option existed for 99 percent of authors seeking publication: to gain acceptance from a traditional publisher. While it’s popular to say that authors have been self-publishing since the time of Walt Whitman (and earlier), the chances of gaining visibility without a publisher’s support were slim until distribution and formats began to shift in the digital era. The predominance of online retail and e-book sales for adult fiction in particular have made it possible for authors to effectively compete against the biggest publishers.

Especially in the United States and United Kingdom, an outspoken class of successful self-published authors now promotes the advantages of indie authorship. Given how common it is for authors to feel unsupported, even abandoned, by their publishers, the freedom, control, and potential earnings offered by self-publishing are real and potent. It’s a proven and preferred path for some genre novelists and those who already have some publishing experience. However, it remains challenging for literary fiction authors and some children’s authors to gain acceptance and critical acknowledgment through self-publishing alone. Regardless, self-publishing represents a viable path forward for most commercial authors. And these days, more authors have found ways to traditionally publish and self-publish at the same time to advance their careers, including best-selling authors Colleen Hoover and Brandon Sanderson. Whether self-publishing is right for you will depend on your goals, your strengths and abilities as a writer, and the qualities of your work.

A Brief History of Self-Publishing

For most of publishing’s history, if an author wanted to self-publish, they had to pay thousands of dollars to a so-called vanity press or otherwise study up on how to establish their own publishing company. That all changed with the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology in the 1990s, which allows books to be printed one at a time in a cost-effective way. Publishing services arose that focused on providing low-cost self-publishing packages based on POD printing. Without print runs, inventory, and warehousing, the only expense left was editing, designing, and laying out the book. Outfits like iUniverse, Xlibris, and AuthorHouse offered a range of affordable packages to help authors get their books into print, though most such books never reached a bookstore shelf and sold a few dozen copies at best.

While the numbers of self-published books skyrocketed at the beginning of the twenty-first century, that was only a drop in the bucket compared with what happened next. First, Amazon not only became the leading retailer of both print books and e-books but also started offering easy self-publishing services that authors could use for free, today known as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Ingram Content Group also began to offer services to authors at a nominal cost (via IngramSpark), giving self-published titles the advantage of its distribution muscle around the globe. Second, e-books took off as a format for popular fiction, especially romance and erotica. While it’s impossible to know for sure since Amazon doesn’t release figures, today’s industry estimates put self-published e-book sales at about 30 percent of the overall market. That’s averaged across all genres and categories. If you were to narrow it only to adult fiction, the percentage would be higher.1

Bottom line: anyone can make their book available for sale, in print or e-book format, at the most important retailers, without significant up-front costs, aside from producing the book files (cover and interior). Every time a self-published book is sold—either print or digital—the retailer takes a cut (30 percent to 40 percent is common), and delivers the rest of the money to the author, typically on a monthly basis.

One cannot overstate the role Amazon has played in all of this. It’s now possible for authors, as well as small presses, to publish books on an even footing with the biggest houses because they have equal access to distribution at Amazon, the number-one retailer of books in English. It’s estimated that across all formats—print, e-book, and audio—more than 60 percent of book sales in the United States today are through Amazon. Looking solely at e-books, Amazon is believed to account for 70 to 80 percent of all US sales.2 Appearing on an Amazon bestseller list or gaining better visibility on its site can lead to a sales boost that doesn’t happen in quite the same way through physical distribution or bookstore placement. Amazon is one of the most visited websites in the world. Publishers’ marketing and sales strength pales in comparison; most of them have limited consumer data, while Amazon has data on millions of book buyers.

The launch of the Kindle in 2007 changed the face of book retailing forever, not only affecting how books get sold and at what price but also encouraging authors to self-publish and upload their work for sale in just a few clicks—while earning much higher royalties than in traditional publishing deals. The number of self-published titles grew from about half a million in 2011 to nearly 2.3 million in 2021.3 Yet even these incredible numbers miss much of the self-publishing activity out there. They only account for books that have ISBNs, or International Standard Book Numbers. Many self-publishers choose to publish through Amazon or other outlets without one.

Should You Self-Publish?

A significant stigma once surrounded self-published books and their authors. In the mid-aughts, I spoke at the Chicago chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), where I offered a workshop on how to self-publish. Three people attended, and two of them were already self-published. It was by far the worst-attended session I’ve ever run at a major writing event because self-publishing was not a well-regarded path to success. Rather, it was seen to as some kind of author failing or eccentricity. Authors also struggled to qualify for professional membership in organizations like the RWA if they self-published. That’s no longer the case.

Even though it’s become straightforward and even attractive to self-publish, always evaluate your goals before doing so. Self-publishing might be appropriate for some projects but not others, so this evaluation should be made for each and every book. Here are the key questions to consider:

• Do you expect or want to see your book physically stocked in bookstores nationwide? It’s next to impossible for a new, self-published author to achieve on-shelf placement at brick-and-mortar stores in the early days of their career. You may be able to get your book stocked locally or regionally, especially if you have the right connections or are a well-known person in your community. But for the most part, self-published books sell primarily through online retail. That’s not a meaningful drawback any longer, at least if your first priority is sales. But many authors seek, or dream of, traditional bookstore validation and exposure, whether it sells books or not.

• Do you want your book to have a chance at the New York Times bestseller list? If so, you’ll probably need a traditional publisher’s muscle behind you, along with print sales through bookstores. That said, self-published authors are not uncommon on Amazon bestseller lists.

• Do you seek major or national media attention for the book? Self-published authors, at least those who are unknown, struggle to secure major media attention. (Traditionally published authors struggle as well—just not as terrifically hard.) It’s difficult to score traditional book reviews or media coverage, or even hire a traditional publicist. New indie authors find it exceptionally frustrating how much they’re ignored by traditional media. Traditional publishers have a much easier time getting those doors to open.

• Does your book appeal to a specific audience that you can (or already) reach on your own? It makes little sense to partner with a traditional publisher if you can reach the audience easily and comprehensively on your own—whether through your own business, online presence, speaking engagements, or anything else that brings you in touch with your readership. If you’re looking for a book to increase your readership in some way—or to help you pivot—then a publisher can be useful in setting the stage, helping secure traditional media, or extending distribution in a way that supports those goals. For example, best-selling indie author CJ Lyons partnered with Sourcebooks when she started a new young adult series, since it was a departure from her previous work that focused on adults.

• What are the qualities of the market you are targeting? Some genres or categories of work are ideal for self-publishing efforts because the audience is already primed to consume things digitally and to discover their next read through online channels. Romance and erotica are key examples. But in other markets, you may find it difficult to gain traction because either they haven’t moved predominantly to digital consumption, or the traditional publishers still perform a valued gatekeeping role. Literary fiction is one such market: you’ll find it hard to gain acceptance within a certain community unless your work has been editorially selected, plus the literary audience still prefers print. Children’s books, especially books for young readers, constitute another area where it’s challenging to gain visibility and acceptance without a traditional publisher. Educators, librarians, and others who are in a position to introduce books to children still use trade publications, reviews, and other traditional methods to guide their selections.

• Are you writing a series? One way that self-publishing authors build a readership is through writing and publishing a series. It makes it far easier to market and promote your work when you establish a fan base that’s actively waiting for the next installment. Some self-publishing experts even advise waiting to publish until you have three books ready to go—all in a series—so that readers can go on a binge. Having several books available also makes it easier to offer deep discounts or make the first book in series free, to bring in new readers and sell them on the next one.

• Are you prolific? If you hook readers with a series, they’ll be waiting for you to publish the next one, and the next, and the next. Successful professional indie authors release multiple titles per year; that’s one of the reasons they can make a living just writing. There’s even a popular community of self-publishing authors called 20booksto50k, which posits that once you hit twenty published books, that equates to a living of $50,000 per year. Self-publishing authors tend not to be precious or perfectionists about their work. They focus on writing and publishing the next book and repeating that process as efficiently as possible.

• How much of an entrepreneur are you? Becoming a self-published author means you are fully responsible for your book’s success. If you’re a first-time author, you may have little knowledge of what a professionally published book looks like. You may not understand the editing or design process, or how sales and distribution work. As a self-published author you can hire whomever you want to assist you, but some authors struggle to find the help they want, need, and can afford. If you want the support of a team, or an editor who serves as a creative partner, you’ll have to find those people on your own and pay them well enough to stick with you.

Some authors have always dreamed of working with a traditional publisher, and nothing other than that experience will satisfy them. The catch-22, however, is that once you experience what traditional publishing has to offer, you may end up disappointed by it. Or maybe not. Authors’ experiences vary so widely, even within the same publishing house, that it is difficult to generalize.

• Do you have some level of proficiency and comfort with technology? Self-publishing authors run what is ultimately an online business. Because most sales happen through online retail, you need to become familiar with how books get marketed and promoted in online environments, plus be willing to experiment with new digital tools and tactics to gain visibility and readers. If you’re tech averse, your self-publishing efforts are more likely to meet a quick end.

• Finally, are you comfortable with the business model? A self-publishing author is working under a different business model than a traditionally published author, as shown in table 3.

Table 3 Traditional versus Self-Publishing Author Earnings

Traditional Publishing

Self-Publishing

E-books make up 25%–30% of sales (average across all categories).

E-book sales dominate all fiction categories (but not nonfiction).

The publisher’s advance may be the only income the author receives for book sales. (The advance does not earn out.)

Most earnings come from sales and digital subscription reading (e.g., Kindle Unlimited) through Amazon.

Additional earnings may come from subrights and licensing deals, as well as paid speaking and teaching.

Authors may sell directly to readers or use patronage models for extra earnings.

Before You Decide to Self-Publish

One of the worst possible reasons to self-publish is the belief that it will help you score a traditional publishing deal for your book. Such efforts rarely succeed. Even though there is no longer a stigma associated with self-publishing (at least outside the MFA/university community), agents and publishers will be uninterested in your self-published work unless it’s been massively successful. The Martian by Andy Weir fits this description: it was self-published, spread like wildfire in e-book format, and was then picked up by a traditional publisher. But such cases are far from typical. We know about them because they’re outliers.

That said, self-publishing will not hurt your chances at traditional publishing on some future project. It’s so common these days for authors to self-publish that it would be unreasonable for an agent or publisher to hold it against you on an unpublished work. But one caveat: Don’t self-publish a series unless you’re committed to self-publishing the entire series. A traditional publisher will almost never pick up book two in a series when the first book is self-published. (Or, they’ll acquire both books, not just one.)

I often see writers self-publishing because they lack patience with the querying and submissions process. Or they want the instant gratification of seeing their work on the market. But if you have any interest whatsoever in traditional publishing, exhaust all your agent and publisher options first. Get thoroughly rejected (as much as that may hurt), and then self-publish. It’s very hard to go in the other direction successfully.

Perhaps the best argument offered in support of self-publishing—at least within the self-publishing community itself—is that you will earn a lot more money than you would with a traditional publisher. That may be true. It’s possible to sell far fewer copies as a self-published author and still earn more than a traditional deal would pay you. But it’s also possible to sell more copies as a self-published author and not earn as much as you would with a publisher’s advance and royalties. It all depends on the book and the type of deal or contract you’re offered.

Parting Thoughts

In the end, the success rate is not that different for self-publishing and traditional publishing. A few authors end up as best-selling superstars. Some do very well. And the majority do not make a living from it. Self-published authors may find that marketing and promoting their book is much tougher than they imagined. Self-publishing careers typically take years—and four or five books—to produce earnings that are meaningful. Are you committed to producing more work, and marketing that work, month after month and year after year?

As I’ve continually stated, each author is different, and each book is different. If you know your target market and have a clear set of goals for your book, you should be able to figure out the right publishing strategy for you.

Exercise: Study E-book Bestsellers on Amazon

Visit the Amazon Kindle Store, where you can find a list of best-selling e-books on the platform; you should be able to browse the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free. To easily locate these lists, conduct an internet search for something like “Amazon Kindle bestsellers top 100 paid.” You’re looking for a page titled “Amazon Best Sellers: Best Kindle Store” or similar.

If you browse the free list, you’ll find many successful self-published titles, where authors are making their e-book free to boost visibility and sales. Take note of what genres you find (romance is likely to be prominent), and dig further into one or two authors who look interesting to you. How long have they been publishing books? How many books have they published? Are most of their books part of a series, or are they stand-alone titles? Are their titles exclusive to Amazon for the e-book format?

21 : Marketing and Promoting Self-Published Books

Self-published authors rarely approach book marketing in the same way as a traditional publisher or author. The playbook has to shift, for two big reasons. First, it’s unlikely a self-published book will find shelf space in bookstores or libraries, and it makes little sense to engage in a full-length prepublication marketing campaign to influence industry people. Self-published authors rarely invest in print runs, don’t have sales teams to call on major accounts, and lack distribution and retail relationships inside the industry. The most economical and sensible way for self-published authors to sell is to send readers to online retailers where there’s parity in availability, presentation, and overall experience. (And online retail is how most people buy books these days anyway.)

Second, to be competitive, new self-publishing authors often focus on cheaply priced e-books and giveaways to entice readers into taking a chance on an author they don’t know. Because traditional publishers typically price their e-books three to five times higher than self-publishing authors, this differential has allowed independent authors to steal away market share on the digital side of the market from traditional publishers. During the 2022 Department of Justice trial against Penguin Random House (PRH), submitted evidence showed that PRH lost a shocking amount of genre fiction sales between 2011 and 2019.1 These sales didn’t just disappear from the market, though; what that decline represents is the shifting of such sales toward the self-publishing market.

As time goes on, self-publishing authors experience fewer and fewer disadvantages when it comes to book marketing and promotion. The time-honored ways to generate word of mouth for books—bookstore signings, traditional media coverage, and critical reviews—don’t work like they used to. The rising tide of digital media and social media along with the influence of Amazon have fundamentally changed the rules on book marketing, and successful self-publishing authors have become nimble and efficient at working these systems. They largely ignore gatekeepers and tastemakers for books and focus on reaching readers directly.

Finally, the practice of the book launch itself may be outdated. In traditional publishing, the first few months of sales can make or break a book in terms of its placement in stores or further publisher investment. There’s only so much time and space available. Meanwhile, self-publishing authors don’t have to worry about a time frame for a book to do well; they can continue to write and publish until something hits, or even go back and improve and republish titles that didn’t perform well the first time—especially once they gain better knowledge of the market.

As you gain skills as a self-published author, you’ll notice that the indie community tends to be more experimental, innovative, and collaborative in figuring out how to make their books visible to new readers. Novelists in particular are known for joining together on bundles and box sets of their works and then marketing to their combined audiences in tandem. Everyone potentially reaches a fresh readership they didn’t have before.

Start with a Strong Product Foundation

Traditional publishers often have one key advantage over indie authors: they have decades of experience in packaging and positioning books. They’ve been able to test and evaluate cover designs, formats, pricing, and marketing descriptions across thousands of titles. An author, however, has limited data to inform their decisions and—if they’re to do a good job—must research the market to understand how to best package and position their book. This research requires knowing one’s category, genre, or subgenre and identifying one’s comparable authors or titles.

Since Amazon is the most important retailer for self-published authors, and the e-book format is where most sales happen, it’s necessary to research what’s performing well on Kindle, unless you know already that your readers go elsewhere. Even so, useful market information can be gleaned from Amazon because of the sheer volume of material sold there, no matter where you sell or market. For a shortcut, consider investing in a genre-based report from K-lytics (https://k-lytics.com), which regularly analyzes on a genre-by-genre basis what’s performing well on Amazon Kindle. It breaks down key tropes, marketing descriptions, cover design trends, and much more—basically serving up the prevalent formula for success in each genre and how competitive of a market you’ll be entering. Successful self-publishing authors don’t break the mold; instead, they align with readers’ expectations. Here are the key areas you’ll focus on:

• Cover design. As with traditionally published books, the cover is your most important marketing tool. Yes, people literally do judge a book by its cover: readers decide in a moment if your book looks like one they would enjoy. If not, they’ll move on to something that does fit their expectation of what they like to read. The cover is where investing in a professional design can have an immediate, positive effect on sales. Some years ago, a self-publishing team decided to repackage and relaunch an early series with new, professional cover designs that better fit their genre, and it doubled and tripled their sales.2 So it is not a good idea to design your own covers unless you’re in fact a graphic designer by profession. Even then, book cover design has special considerations; study the market, always.

• Book description. This is the marketing copy that appears wherever your book is sold. It may be very similar or identical to the back cover copy, but online it typically runs longer or affords you more space to describe the book. There are common formulas you’ll find here on a genre-by-genre basis. In the romance genre, for example, book descriptions may be written in the point of view of the hero, almost like you’ve begun reading the book itself. For prescriptive nonfiction, the description typically starts by identifying the problem or challenge faced by the reader, followed by how the book resolves that problem. K-lytics is again very useful here, as it collects these marketing descriptions for current best-selling titles in one place, making it easy to spot the conventions and formulas.

• Categories and keywords. To help your book surface in search results or be seen in its proper category, you must select and apply appropriate categories and keywords; this is part of the book’s metadata (see chapter 18 for the full definition).

The first step is to choose the right categories for your book, and there are hundreds available. Publishing categories at Amazon and other retailers are typically derived from (or identical to) industry Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) codes developed by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). BISAC codes are agreed upon categories of books used by booksellers, librarians, and all sorts of organizations and business. Here’s an example: Fiction / Fantasy / Military. This code indicates a fantasy novel with a militaristic storyline. You can find a full list of categories at the BISG website (https://www.bisg.org), which evaluates and updates the categories every year. Every category or genre has certain expectations surrounding it—for example, romances have a happy ending—so the category you choose should be a good fit to avoid misdirecting readers. If you’re struggling to find the right category, identify several authors whose books are similar to yours, and check what categories they are in. Amazon also provides considerable guidance for those using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

The second step is to use the best keywords or keyword phrases to describe your work. A keyword phrase should be associated with the characters, themes, or ideas in your book. But here’s the tricky part: you want to use keyword phrases that readers actually use to search for books. The language you would use may not be the language of your reader. K-lytics reports collect and analyze keywords being used by readers to search, so you don’t have to take a wild guess. Publisher Rocket is another paid service that helps with keywords. But you can likely figure it out on your own with a little effort by using Amazon. Go to its website and pay special attention to the auto-complete feature of their search bar (limiting the search to the Books category in the menu). Amazon will attempt to guess what you’re searching for and surface the most popular searches first, which can provide helpful clues as to what terms readers use. For example, trying typing in “fantasy” and see what is auto-suggested. For more finely tuned results, type in “fantasy a” to trigger a range of auto-suggestions from the fantasy category that begin with a, such as fantasy audiobooks, fantasy art, fantasy adventure, and so on. (You might go all the way to “fantasy z” to find D. R. Craven’s Kindle novel Zippo nestled among an assortment of ornate Zippo lighters for sale.)

As with categories, it’s useful to check your comparable authors and titles to figure out what keywords are prevalent in your genre. Usually the keywords or keyword phrases will be used in the book’s description or referred to in the customer reviews. In almost all cases, more specificity is good, and more vague or generalized terms won’t help. For example, “family relationships” could pertain to many stories, but “father-daughter relationships” is specific and better. Also keep an eye out for common story tropes, which may be mentioned in the book’s subtitle or marketing description. For romance, this includes things like “enemies to lovers,” “small town,” and “second chance.” Amazon might even have specific categories for popular tropes.

Once you settle on the categories and keywords that make the most sense, you’ll use these when you upload and publish your book to Amazon and other retailers or distributors. You should also use the keywords in your book description that customers read. However, your copy should be reader-friendly and appealing to read, not a repetitive string of keyword phrases.

• Pricing. If you check Amazon’s e-book bestseller lists in particular, you’ll see that indie novelists charge very little for their work, usually between $2.99 and $6.99, sometimes less. Some observers argue that this devalues the work, while others say that it’s appropriate for an e-book from an unknown author. Whatever your perspective, just understand that, if you’re an unknown novelist, your competition will probably be priced low to encourage readers to take a chance. Typically, the more well known or trusted you are, the more you can charge.

There’s another layer of complication to all this. Amazon pays 70 percent of the list price to authors who price their e-books between $2.99 and $9.99. The percentage plummets to 35 percent for anyone who prices outside this range. This is why novelists may toggle their price between $0.99 and something higher. Authors maximize volume and visibility at the low price point (and attempt to get on bestseller lists), but then switch to a price of $2.99 or more to maximize profits.

You’ll notice I keep mentioning this variable pricing as a strategy for novelists. That’s because nonfiction authors should price according to the competition and what the market can bear. Sometimes prices are just as high for digital editions as print editions in nonfiction categories.

• Customer reviews. Like it or not, humans base purchasing decisions on what the crowd thinks. If you don’t have any reviews on your book, or just a handful, a reader may not purchase because they lack confidence in the quality or appeal of your work. A book with hundreds of reviews or a high average rating (or both) will encourage readers to take a chance. Building up customer reviews for a self-published book is the same process as for a traditionally published book: you have to ask people repeatedly to leave reviews. But self-publishing authors sometimes have an advantage because doing giveaways and price promotions will typically increase your number of reviews, as will participating in Kindle Unlimited—which brings us to one of the major decision points for every self-published author.

Deciding Whether to Go Exclusive with Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

When you upload your e-book to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for sale, you’ll be asked if you want to enroll in KDP Select. KDP Select requires that you sell your e-book exclusively through Amazon for ninety days, a period which automatically renews until you proactively opt out. If you believe your readers primarily buy e-books from other retailers, then you probably don’t want to anger them by only selling your e-book through Amazon. But if you have no readers yet, then building an audience on Amazon before branching out to other venues could be a reasonable strategy.

Why would you grant Amazon exclusivity like that? For two reasons. First, if you commit, they’ll give you five giveaway days out of the ninety you’re enrolled. Giveaways are one of the best ways to boost sales and visibility of your book, and it’s impossible to offer a giveaway on Amazon unless you’re enrolled in KDP Select. Second, if you commit, your book will become available in Kindle Unlimited (KU), the Amazon e-book subscription service. You get paid by the page when people read your book in KU, although the pay fluctuates every month and is determined after the fact by Amazon. Authors can expect about a dollar or two in earnings if someone reads their entire book in KU, depending on length.

Established authors who have numerous titles might rotate content through KDP Select because they can get a decent number of new readers from the program. Newer authors with limited readership sometimes have nothing to lose by granting Amazon exclusivity while they use KU to build their audience and gather reviews. But it’s fair to ask whether people who use KU to read all they want for free can be counted on to buy work outside the program. They’d have to be a devoted fan of your work, and even then you must have a way of reaching them yourself, without using Amazon. We’ll come back to the topic of giveaways later.

Distributing and Selling Your Book Widely

In the indie community, there’s often conflict between two groups of authors, which represent two prevailing strategies in the self-publishing market: those exclusive to Amazon and those who “go wide.” Going wide means you distribute and market your work wherever and however you can, and you don’t focus on selling and marketing through Amazon. While it seems like going wide ought to be the default for any author, Amazon makes it very attractive to remain exclusive with it for e-book sales, especially because of additional income earned through KU. But it’s risky to be dependent on one retailer for most or all of your sales. What happens when that retailer changes the rules, dampens your visibility, reduces royalties, or encourages you to advertise on their platform to maintain sales? All these things have happened over the years to authors who rely on the Amazon ecosystem to sell—which also includes Audible for digital audiobooks.

Going wide typically means using IngramSpark in addition to Amazon KDP for your print book distribution (or using distributor Draft2Digital, which in turn distributes via IngramSpark). Both companies print your book using print-on-demand (POD) technology, whereby the book is printed only once it’s ordered and paid for by a customer. I recommend that authors use Amazon KDP to distribute their print books strictly to Amazon (do not choose their expanded distribution) and then use IngramSpark to distribute print books to the universe outside Amazon (brick-and-mortar bookstores of all kinds, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Walmart, and anywhere else books are sold, as well as libraries). This approach will maximize your reach and profits from each book sale. It does require buying your own International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) from a company known as Bowker (https://www.myidentifiers.com). You cannot use an Amazon-provided ISBN with any book you want to distribute via IngramSpark, and vice versa.

If you want to encourage bookstores to order and stock your book (even though that will be highly unlikely at the start): Make sure you set your book discount through IngramSpark at 55 percent, and make the books returnable. Even though doing so will reduce your profit and also risk returns of your book, these are the industry-standard terms expected by bookstores. If you decide to only use IngramSpark for print book distribution, realize that IngramSpark still sells books to Amazon, and it is essentially pocketing your profits in doing so. Even if you abhor Amazon, it is not logical to forgo use of Amazon KDP for print distribution when your books will end up being sold on Amazon anyway, whether you like it or not. You’ll significantly hurt your earnings by not dealing with Amazon directly.

Both services allow you to purchase print copies of your book at unit cost plus shipping. For an average black-and-white paperback, you’re looking at a unit cost of three to five dollars. There’s nothing to stop you from ordering fifty or one hundred copies at a time if you want to sell books direct to readers, at events, or on consignment. IngramSpark, in fact, offers a handy tool for you to sell direct to readers using a single link or QR code, which is very useful for all kinds of sales scenarios.

For wide e-book distribution, avoid using IngramSpark, even it is offered. That’s because IngramSpark pays less favorably than other e-book distributors and retailers. Either deal with e-book retailers directly (the big ones are Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble), or use the e-book distributor Draft2Digital, which reaches all those retailers and many more. Draft2Digital doesn’t charge you up front but takes a 10 percent cut of your e-book sales.

For authors who invest in their own print run—which means printing off hundreds or thousands of books at a time—you’ll need to apply for Amazon Advantage (https://advantage.amazon.com) to distribute and sell your print book through Amazon. It costs $99 per year, and you must give Amazon a 55 percent discount off your list price. To secure distribution beyond Amazon, you’d have to find a traditional book distributor who can help you, and that’s an enormous challenge unless you’re a bestseller with name recognition. Your best shot would be using IngramSpark’s POD distribution and hoping that your tremendous sales success attracts their eye and they offer you traditional distribution service. That is exceedingly rare, however.

Another popular option for indie authors with an established reader base is to sell their book directly to readers in any and all formats, often bundled together at a discounted price. This direct-to-reader approach requires a fairly tech-savvy author who is willing to get into the intricacies of e-commerce, setting up a website to sell direct, using tools like Shopify (to help create an online storefront with shopping cart), while also dealing with the tax and customer service implications of selling products directly. Indie author Joanna Penn’s podcast and blog constitute a good resource to consult for those interested in this path.

How Much Should You Give Away Your Work?

Book giveaways don’t work as well as they used to: there’s increased competition, and it’s tougher to gain visibility through Amazon using a giveaway strategy. The algorithms favor books that are bought rather than given away. But if your free days land you at the top of Amazon’s free bestseller list, that exposure might be worth it in terms of increased sales for the days following a free promotion, not to mention the number of readers who now have your book. This could lead to more reviews and increased reads or sales.

Some people think that giveaways train readers to expect things for free and cultivate the wrong type of reader for your career. I don’t find it useful to discuss giveaways in the abstract because unless we can tie it to a particular strategy for a particular author at a particular time, it’s impossible to evaluate it properly. If the giveaway leads to paying fans down the road, it’s smart. If the giveaway leads to no further action, then it should be reconsidered. One giveaway doesn’t necessarily lead to an expectation that all of an author’s books will be free. When we get a free cheese cube at the grocery store, we don’t expect to carry away the whole cheese without paying. We might expect promotional pricing for buying immediately or buying early, and fair pricing in general, but not free books forever. Online news sites often have to give away something for free—several free articles every month—to gain subscribers. A hard and unforgiving paywall makes it challenging to attract attention.

For self-publishing authors, the giveaway is one of the more powerful tools in your arsenal because it’s a way to get attention when you have nothing else going for you. There might be no demand for your work yet. Even traditional publishers will do giveaways of an older title by an author about to release a new book. It acts as a gateway drug. You can see this strategy at work on streaming services all the time: you might be able to watch one season or early seasons for free, but to get the latest season, you have to pay.

But indie authors may run into trouble if they have only one or two books to sell, and nothing else to offer readers. Even worse, they might not establish any means to contact the reader in the future, whether via email newsletter or social media. So there is no funnel or path for readers to follow. It is a dead-end road. The potential fan finishes the book, and then . . . you lose them. Maybe they’ll find your next book, if and when it comes, or maybe not. The final catch is that your work has to have quality that matches the expectations of your audience. If it doesn’t, no amount of giveaways will help you.

So giveaways can be an effective part of a larger marketing strategy. Just don’t use them without considering your marketing funnel, discussed in chapter 27. If you have fans who value your work, they aren’t seeking everything for free—and in fact, once you have a fan base, they’ll be looking for premium books, premium experiences, and exclusive access, not free books.

Parting Thoughts

Most self-publishing authors discover that writing and releasing a new work is one of the best and most reliable marketing tools for boosting sales of previous books. (The same is true in traditional publishing.) This phenomenon can be so pronounced that successful authors have counseled beginners to all but stop marketing efforts and instead focus on producing new work. It amounts to the most boring advice possible, but the truth is seldom glamorous. While you may want to find readers for the book you already have instead of writing a new one, the painful reality is that if you’re a self-publishing author who only ever writes one book, your chances of commercial success are very low. You’re likely to get lost in the noise.

Even though a self-publishing author may begin the game at some disadvantage, any author who directly reaches their readers has a chance at outperforming a traditional publisher, at least when it comes to online sales. Authors who track and analyze their efforts, and make adjustments over time based on results, will have more direct access, control, and insight into their readership, keywords and all. That’s something publishers sometimes can’t deliver, whether they want to or not.

Exercise: Research Successful Self-Published Authors

Continue the exercise from chapter 20, and research the self-publishing authors who are currently doing well. Examine their author website (if they have one) and see what their online presence is like. Do they have an email newsletter? Do they have a social media presence, and if so, what is their social media activity like? Can you find evidence of e-book giveaways? Do they sell direct to readers? Look for clues as to how they market and promote their books and whether they focus solely on Amazon.

22 : Hybrid Publishing and Other Paid-for Publishing Options

During the 2010s, alongside the growth of self-publishing, there was also considerable growth in paid publishing services and “hybrid” publishers as alternatives to traditional publishing deals. Hybrid publishers in particular market themselves as offering authors more rights or control over their work, touting how they bring together the “best of both worlds” of traditional publishing and self-publishing. They also claim that they are more selective than straightforward paid publishing services and that they vet every project. While costs vary dramatically, a very basic paid publishing service will cost somewhere in the four figures; hybrids tend to charge more, usually in the low five figures, assuming the author invests in a print run and meaningful marketing support.

In 2022, two UK writers’ organizations released an investigation into paid publishing services, which have never had the best reputation to begin with.1 The pejorative term for such companies is vanity publisher, although that description has fallen out of favor. Still, the stigma associated with self-publishing is partly rooted in the long history of vanity publishers (which have existed since the 1800s) and their questionable and sometimes unethical practice of charging authors significant sums to publish and print books they know will not sell. The UK investigation found, in a surprising turn, that hybrid publishers were the more predatory companies, because they charge authors up front and take rights or a share of profits. The report was not as concerned with publishing service arrangements where the author pays up front, earns 100 percent of net profits, and retains all rights. The report concludes that a hybrid deal is “the worst option a writer can take” and that they “do not result in enough sales or exposure to justify the payment by the author.”

Leaders in the hybrid publishing space immediately objected to this characterization, but the overriding problem in the market is that so many paid publishing services call themselves “hybrid” merely to look more attractive to authors, which then gives them the ability to charge more because of the perceived desirability of a hybrid—that semblance of being “selected,” just as a traditional publisher selects its authors. Hybrid has become in many ways a marketing term rather than a reliable way to tell what kind of publishing service you’re buying. Every author must remember this when considering such services because—unfortunately—the hybrid publishers themselves have been very successful in making writers think “hybrid” is better for them because they believe it’s more prestigious than self-publishing. Some hybrids are indeed selective and provide superior service and support, yet one thing is for sure: it is not a superior path to self-publishing nor can it guarantee better outcomes than standard paid services. It is one choice among many.

So What Is a Hybrid Publisher?

Hybrid publishers vary in their strengths and value proposition, which makes them challenging to define or evaluate, but here are some rough categories you’ll find in the market.

• Editorially curated. This is the most common type of hybrid publisher, which will claim editorial selectivity; certain editorial standards must be met to work with the publisher. As a result of their reputation in the market, a hybrid publisher might help a book get stocked in bookstores, libraries, and other traditional venues. This assistance almost always requires that the author invest in a print run. An example of this type of hybrid publisher is She Writes Press.

• Crowdfunding driven. A handful of publishers require that the author raise a certain amount of money from their readers and patrons before they are granted a deal, which then closely adheres to a traditional publishing process. An example is Unbound in the UK.

• Traditional publishers running hybrid arms. Some traditional publishers may have standard operations where authors earn advances and royalties but also have a separate division or imprint where they charge authors to publish. An example is Koehler Books. Small presses especially may be using paid publishing services to prop up their business and also to position themselves as progressive.

Evaluating Hybrid Publishers

Given the rampant abuse of the hybrid label in the market, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) maintains hybrid publishing criteria, which are sometimes updated and revised. Their goal: to help the industry create professional standards around hybrid publishing. This is a good and helpful effort, but companies are not required to follow these criteria, and no one is policing it. It’s rather a set of best practices, and anyone can still call themself a hybrid. So how do you tell if you’re just being sold a bill of goods by a hybrid publisher? Here’s what to consider:

• A good hybrid will consider the market potential of your work and its ability to succeed. Its representatives will be honest and frank with you about sales potential. If they appear to take anyone and everyone, promise you lots of success, or flatter you to the skies, then you’re better off evaluating the best paid publishing service to use. Don’t kid yourself about leveling up to a hybrid. (So-called hybrids aren’t averse to playing to your ego to get your business.) Keep in mind that inability to pay prevents most people from using a hybrid publisher in the first place—that is by far the biggest filter or vetting mechanism.

• A great hybrid offers the potential of specialized or hard to get distribution, where it can get books physically placed on shelves in stores. It might not be able to promise this, but if it’s actively placing books at brick-and-mortar retail outlets—and it has a catalog of titles for marketing purposes—that’s a good sign. Any self-publishing author can easily get distribution to online retail, via Amazon and Ingram (distribution fees are zero or little for online retail), so the more the hybrid invests in marketing and distributing print editions, the more it might be offering something you may not be able to accomplish yourself.

From a business perspective—to increase one’s chance of earning back the investment—it’s almost always better to seek out a paid publishing service that offers 100 percent net sales, whether it calls itself a hybrid or not. But some educated and savvy authors still choose a hybrid publisher, give up rights, and earn as little as 20 percent or 25 percent royalty on each sale. Why? Possibly for one or more of the following reasons:

• The people who are leaders in hybrid publishing have done a tremendous public relations job in establishing hybrids as a respectable and even innovative publishing path. Traditionally published authors who have been dropped by their publishers may feel unprepared or be unwilling to self-publish. Even literary agents sometimes approach hybrids when they’ve been unable to secure a traditional contract. A recognized hybrid publisher can provide visibility and legitimacy in the industry, thereby helping an author maintain status and reputation. And some authors want to replicate as closely as possible their traditional publishing experience and carry on with bookstore- and industry-focused marketing. That’s hard to do on your own without traditional distribution and sales channels, which hybrids can offer.

• Authors who have never before published—or don’t want to go traditional or have failed to go traditional—may like the idea of a hybrid publisher for the same reasons stated in the previous bullet point. Celebrities or influencers as well as nonfiction authors who have well-established careers are especially likely to seek a traditional publishing look and feel. (It’s not by accident that the most successful hybrids are typically run by people who used to work at traditional publishing houses.) Authors may want to invest in a print run so they can sell in the back of the room, give away books to clients, or focus on traditional bookstore marketing.

• Nonfiction authors tend to earn their money not from book sales but from consulting, speaking, and education, so their investment in a hybrid publisher is an investment in raising their profile and looking more authoritative. Whether they would do just as well working with a self-publishing service, retaining all rights, and keeping 100 percent net is the right question to ask.

Where to Find a List of “Good” Hybrid Publishers

I am regularly asked for a list of reputable or high-quality hybrid publishers. In my response, I try to emphasize that the “hybrid” designation is not a shortcut to a high-quality deal or a better outcome. No one is policing the hybrid label, and the moniker has been readily adopted by those who are mostly interested in taking authors’ money. As the UK report says, we’re not talking about one or two rogue companies spoiling it for everyone. The rogues dominate. While IBPA’s hybrid criteria can be useful, their work has not made things easier. It has instead hardened public perception that hybrids are desirable if you can just find a good one. Writers would be better served by letting go of this idea that hybrid is somehow more advantageous than the alternatives.

Unfortunately, there is no definitive list of reputable hybrids, and even a hybrid that does good work today can end up doing bad work tomorrow. These companies don’t remain static; ownership changes, they cut costs, they may employ numerous freelancers of varying quality and skill levels. It’s a highly variable experience, just as traditional publishing is highly variable.

If you are considering a hybrid or any paid publishing service, it’s imperative that you comparison shop. Get quotes from at least three companies and make sure to find at least one or two that pay 100 percent net. (The Alliance of Independent Authors has a helpful directory.2) Talk to authors who have recently used the service and ask about costs. Don’t spend money you can’t afford to lose. Do the math.

Evaluating Paid Publishing Services

A paid publishing services provider sells you a package of services that may include editorial, design, and production help, and it likely handles distribution, marketing, and sales as part of that package. How much of the company’s help you actually need is the biggest challenge you’ll face when deciding what type of service package to buy. Most authors require editorial and design help, as well as assistance with marketing copy (such as back cover copy or book descriptions). Assistance with distribution, advertising, publicity or promotion, and digital media may be overpriced and unneeded.

Generally, these services best suit authors who have little or no familiarity with publishing and probably have only one book they want to publish. Paid publishing is also suited for people who have more money than time to figure out the publishing process.

You can quickly separate the wheat from the chaff by asking: Is this company charging significant fees for simply distributing the book (e.g., making your book available for sale through Amazon), or is this company charging fees based on how many print books you buy? If either is true, you’re firmly in the realm of old-school “vanity” publishers that are generally considered less author-friendly than the new generation of service companies. When paying service fees up front, you should see tangible value provided in the form of e-book production, book design, editorial help, ongoing administration and title management, and so on. Always remember that distributing and making your book available for sale costs little or nothing—for you or them. That is by far the easiest part of the process and something you can handle yourself once you have book files in hand.

Some service providers outsource all editing and proofreading to freelancers, and they pay those freelancers a lower rate than what they charge you, so that they’re acting as an intermediary and earning a profit on the transaction. The dead giveaway for this practice is when you are charged a per-word rate for editing. For example, suppose the service says you’ll be charged five cents per word for line editing. This is not what the freelancer is earning. That’s why you can often get better-quality freelance help at the same price by skipping the intermediary and hiring someone directly. Furthermore, service companies may not put you in touch with any of the freelance editors who work on your book. So you’ll never know the name, experience level, or background of the person working on your book, which can erode confidence, to say the least. In such a case, you’re not building a relationship with your editor; you’re participating in a transaction with the service provider.

Some publishing services, to help justify their package costs, will help you create an online shop, book landing page, or author profile, or some combination of these features, on their own website, especially if they sell print editions or e-books directly to readers from that site. Don’t be fooled into placing much value on any of these extras. Unless the service has an impressive track record in online bookselling (and, as of this writing, none do), then these pages aren’t likely to sell any more books for you than you would ordinarily. Professional indie authors send people to buy books either from Amazon or from other well-known retailers, and in rare cases, from their own author website. The only online author profiles that carry significance are those hosted by Amazon (at Amazon Author Central) and Goodreads; you create those for free, on your own.

No publishing service package can guarantee specific sales results or a certain level of success. However, some services will make you feel as though your book will fail if you don’t invest in a marketing and promotion package. Marketing and selling a book is probably the hardest part of self-publishing, but you can’t make that challenge go away by writing a check to a service company. Be extremely wary when service providers seem to appeal to your ego or make it sound like you or your book will appear in lights. It is not easy to get attention for a book, no matter how much you’re willing to pay. If you want help with marketing and promotion, it’s best to hire your own help directly and not rely on the service provider.

Parting Thoughts

Authors can be more susceptible to predatory practices if they don’t understand how and where books get sold, or if they believe they’ll earn back their investment in sales, which rarely happens. Authors are notorious for overestimating their sales potential! Even authors who are fully educated and realistic, and choose a paid publishing service that’s considered reputable, can end up unhappy with the results. Frequent complaints are that the books don’t get real editing and costs aren’t clear at the outset. It is common for authors to rethink their choice, pull their titles, and independently self-publish. (I hear no shortage of complaints about traditional publishers, too, about everything from lack of editing to lack of marketing support.)

Recognized hybrids will emphasize their traditional brick-and-mortar distribution and sales, along with their reputation inside the publishing industry. However, authors tend to place far too much value on these qualities. There are some cases where investing in a print run and focusing on independent bookstores is a smart move, and a hybrid can be invaluable when publishing complicated, full-color illustrated books. But to really benefit from the distribution and branding of a hybrid requires not just paying the hybrid but also paying for publicity, which can easily be more expensive than printing the book. It’s difficult to repeat such an investment over multiple books. Self-publishing is a sustainable path over the entirety of an author career, but unless you’re wealthy, paying a company (hybrid or not) to publish your books cannot be repeated for every title you publish.

Exercise: Do the Math on a Hybrid Publishing Deal

Let’s pretend you’re preparing to buy a package of services from a hybrid publishing company. They’re asking you to pay $8,500 to publish your book, plus another $6,000 to do a print run of 2,000 copies. Calculate how many copies you would have to sell to recoup your investment under the following circumstances.

• $20.00 print book and $9.99 e-book

• 25 percent list price royalty ($5.00) on print copies

• 50 percent net royalty ($3.50) on e-book sales

• Assume 50 percent print sales and 50 percent e-book sales—but it’s interesting to vary these percentages and see how the math plays out when your sales are e-book heavy, which is typically the case for genre fiction.

As you review these figures, also calculate what you would earn as a self-publishing author at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing rates. For example, on a $20.00 print book, you would earn at least $5.00 per copy, probably several dollars more, depending on unit cost (determined by your book’s length and trim size, and if you include color). For a $9.99 e-book, you’d earn roughly $7.00 per copy.

See the endnotes for an answer on how many copies you’d have to sell to recoup the investment.3

Part Four

Publishing Short Work

When I first started working in the publishing industry, it was feasible for writers to build a full-time freelance writing career working for newspapers and consumer magazines. One might begin by writing short articles for smaller or local publications and then level up over time to the big glossies on the newsstand. Today, that path has all but vanished. The advertising and subscriber money that once flowed generously into such publications has transitioned to internet-era companies. Some of the money is in the hands of big tech companies like Google and Facebook, while some advertising needs have been fulfilled by marketplaces like Indeed, eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist. A handful of media outlets have managed to keep a portion for themselves, but most have suffered years of layoffs and downsizing, and some have disappeared completely.

Although writers may struggle to earn a full-time living by publishing short work—except for the writer willing to take on corporate gigs, like writing for retailers’ custom magazines or business-to-business publications—countless opportunities remain to publish, get paid, and expand one’s career in general-interest magazines and journals. But it’s more important than ever to be strategic and thoughtful when pursuing such credits, to ensure that these projects make a difference to your career goals or bank account. Nowadays, some writers strike off on their own and write and publish independently as part of the new creator economy, covered in part 5. The most successful typically combine earnings from traditional outlets with their own entrepreneurial ventures, capitalizing on their efforts from one side to attract more earnings for the other.

23 : The Business of Magazines and Digital Media

The book publishing industry looks staid and reliable when compared with the volatility in the news and magazine media industries. Aside from declining ad revenue, newsstand sales dropped from $6.8 billion in revenue in 2006 to about $1 billion in 2022 and appear destined to dwindle even further in the years ahead.1 Most publications today must exist beyond print to survive, meaning they need other revenue lines such as events, online education, merchandising, licensing, or contests. And they need to reach readers wherever they are, through websites, apps, podcasts, YouTube, and social media.

The most successful digital media operations today are often still based in legacy media brands. The New York Times now has more digital subscriber revenue than print, with profit growing from its online puzzles and recipes. Or consider digital media giant Dotdash, which acquired Meredith, one of the biggest magazine conglomerates in the US in 2021, mainly for the power of its brands and consumer data, not its print products. (In fact, Dotdash quickly shut down several major print magazines not long after the Meredith deal closed, including industry stalwarts such as Entertainment Weekly and InStyle.) Most newspapers and magazines have, for more than a hundred years, served two customers: the reader and the advertiser. That business model, which could offer low prices to the reader because of high advertising volume, is now up in the air. No one is quite sure what will take its place; for now, every publication is figuring out its own bespoke business model.

New and well-funded publications that might have once launched as print magazines are now digital-native efforts that appear mostly as newsletters or blogs, and they’re supported by a combination of subscription revenue, investors or patrons, sponsors, and click-based ads. For example, Airmail, a digital weekly newsletter, was founded in 2018 by Graydon Carter, former editor of Vanity Fair, with investment from a private equity firm. At the time of this writing, it’s not yet profitable, but it intends to survive on subscription revenue, advertising, and merchandise sales.

Publications that focus on original reporting are most vulnerable. High-quality journalism is expensive to source, expensive to edit and fact-check, and expensive to find a devoted readership for. Even the New Yorker is said to have operated at a loss for many years, although its figures have never been made public and it’s now said to be profitable.2 Harper’s Magazine transitioned from a for-profit enterprise to a nonprofit one in the 1970s to protect its uncertain future.3 And the Atlantic was considered to be a lost cause in the mid-aughts, until it refocused its efforts on digital media and posted its first profitable year in 2010 after a long period of multimillion-dollar losses.4 However, its existence remains at risk. Cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, are periodically announced.5

In the mid-aughts, as digital media became central to every publishing company, the word content took center stage. There were proclamations such as “content is king,” and new professional positions emerged in the field of content strategy, including chief content officers. The more business-oriented and consumer-facing the publisher, the more likely you’ll hear the word content used instead of writing. This change has been unsettling for the writers, who rarely want to be seen as “content creators,” which to them sounds about as desirable as “widget makers.”

But here’s the reason content is preferred: it’s a broader, more inclusive term that includes writing, visuals, infographics, audio, video, and user-generated material. Printed prose is a specific type of content, and most publishers—recognizing that what they do is about much more than writing—are ready to adapt to whatever form of media is preferred by their audience. “Content” can be reshaped, reconfigured, and reimagined for many different people, places, and purposes.

Digitally Native Efforts

Print publications have overhead, staffing, and workflows that have been defined by print revenue, and their expertise and instincts sometimes still lean toward preserving print and a print business model. New media companies start with a clean slate and nothing to preserve—which doesn’t, however, mean they start with a sustainable business model.

When compared with print, the most striking quality of digital-only publishing is that there is little barrier to entry and low overhead cost. Anyone, anywhere, at any time, can launch an online publication that costs little aside from their time and energy, and can distribute it largely in the same way as established publications. This is at once a blessing and a curse. It allows for publications to exist that would’ve never been possible before, and it allows for dramatic failure as people with little to no experience try to gain attention or revenue for their efforts.

If we judge a publication on its success as a business, then more online publications have failed than succeeded. One of the earliest and best known of them, Salon, has yet to turn a profit, as of this writing, and remains alive because of continued investment.6 Countless other online publications have ceased and disappeared, even though they had loyal followings. Why is it so hard to keep an online publication alive when it’s never been easier to get started—and when the digital world makes it possible to build a niche audience? Aside from the fact that new publishing enterprises throughout history have often failed, regardless of medium, the following are the most discussed factors:

• A traditional ad-driven model generally requires significant traffic. Only with a high number of visitors can a general-interest publication attract sufficient advertising revenue to cover the cost of producing that content. Some online publications have succeeded at least for a time with this model. One of the best known is the Huffington Post, and another is BuzzFeed, although both of these publications have questionable futures. It’s easy to end up in a race to the bottom, creating headlines that entice people to click on low-quality content (clickbait), or aggregating content from other sources to increase the number of articles published—and thus traffic. There’s also continual demand for “hot takes”—that is, to be among the first to produce a reaction to breaking news. The hotter, the better for traffic, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself to high quality, but that’s not the point. Complicating matters is the popularity of ad blockers, which make it harder to earn advertising revenue because they erase about a third of the traffic.7 (A website visitor who doesn’t see ads doesn’t count when a publication adds up the total number of ad impressions for an advertiser.)

Unfortunately, overall traffic to media sites is expected to decline in the future. Social media companies like Meta prefer to keep eyeballs on their properties and not link out, which has dramatically reduced publishers’ traffic.8 And some analysts expect media site traffic to decline because of the rise of generative AI and how search engines will produce answers without requiring visits to media sites.9

• If an online publication seeks ad dollars, then some content usually has to be free. When two of the earliest online publications—Salon and Slate—faltered in their efforts to sustain themselves through advertising alone, they transitioned to a paid-subscription model. Traffic plummeted, advertising declined, and the subscription revenue wasn’t enough to make up for the advertising revenue lost. Both sites eventually abandoned their paywalls and made most content freely available again. Once a readership has been developed based on free content, it is difficult to reverse course and make that same content pay-only. One successful example is the New York Times, but even it uses a “leaky paywall” that allows readers a certain number of free articles per month. If the transition from free to pay is to succeed, the content has to be unique, in demand, and hard to replicate. Otherwise, most readers will simply find another source that remains free.

One popular alternative to a paywall for publications is to offer premium access or content to those who pay to become “members.” Benefits might include first-look opportunities at new stories, direct engagement with the publication staff, access to a members-only area, and ability to comment. Such models, instead of developing a punitive paywall, offer a “positive” paywall that rewards loyalty.

For years, media observers have suggested a micropayment system as the solution: virtuous readers could devote a set dollar amount each month to the publications they read online, and then the pool would be divided among the sites visited. So far these systems have not been widely adopted and appear to be driven by wishful thinking. It’s hard to change established behavior, and people mostly act in their own self-interest, not in the interest of sustaining someone else’s business.

• Online ads aren’t always effective. Online advertising can be measured, targeted, and modified, in an instant, based on a variety of factors. But the value of many online ads can be exceedingly low. In a digital world with millions of potential ad placements, the low-quality advertising inventory is practically infinite. Furthermore, online advertising money is largely not captured by stand-alone publications; it’s been vacuumed up by Google, Meta, and Amazon. Much of online advertising is also driven by large and automated ad networks, turning everything into a numbers game that primarily the largest publications or media corporations can effectively play.

The good news: niche, local, and other specialized publications are more likely to secure sponsorships that aren’t based on site traffic or ad performance but rather a desire for the sponsor (or advertiser) to be in front of a specific community or seen as supportive of a particular publication. One media analyst, Brian Morrissey, made the following prediction in January 2024: “You could argue what’s happening now is just the final phase of a decline set in motion with the advent of the commercial internet. Maybe it was just a matter of when, not if. What will emerge the day after will be a different industry, leaner and diminished, often serving as a front operation to other businesses. More legacy brands will be sent off to the SEO [search engine optimization] glue factory. The middle of the market will be eviscerated. The brands that remain will be more tightly focused, in good and bad ways, and often operate thanks to subsidies from related business lines.”10

Ultimately, writing and publishing is not an easily scalable business. Scalable means that as the audience grows, the business becomes more profitable without added expense. Publishing can be difficult to scale because producing high-quality content consumes considerable resources, and investing in more content always means more cost, but not necessarily more readers or more revenue. Many start-ups have gone into publishing thinking they could “revolutionize” the industry, only to fail within a few years with little to show for their efforts. Or even if revolution wasn’t on their mind, they didn’t remain sustainable, even with significant readership. BuzzFeed News and Gawker are key examples.

It’s not impossible to make digital publishing pay; it’s that deciding you’ll figure out the business model at some later date can doom the venture from the start. The goal shouldn’t be to secure the largest readership but to reach a readership that supports the business model envisioned. Here are some examples:

• The Information is a premium subscriber publication, online-only, that offers high-quality journalism and analysis on the tech industry. It’s considered an essential read for tech insiders due to the value and relevance of the information, which is unmatched by competitors.

• Oldster is a digital magazine run on Substack, started by writer Sari Botton, with much content available at no charge. It has tens of thousands of subscribers, and while many do not pay, enough do so that it provides Botton with meaningful income—and the ability to pay contributors.

• Purchased by the New York Times in 2016, Wirecutter is a review site that is the digital-age cousin of Consumer Reports. It helps people cut through the noise and confusion of purchasing decisions—especially for high-ticket electronics—and delivers what it believes to be the absolute best purchasing option, with an in-depth report on why. The publication makes money from affiliate marketing and also helps drive subscription revenue for the Times.

When I interviewed longtime magazine industry insider Bo Sacks in 2014, he discussed how survival of the fittest is the rule both in print and online. Regardless of medium, the success rate has always been low in publishing, he said: “If you do not have excellence, you will not survive in print. There’s plenty of indifferent writing on the web—it’s free entry, and it doesn’t matter. But quality will out there, too. Really well-written, well-thought-out editorial will be the revenue stream. You must have such worthiness that people give you money when they don’t have to, since they can get entertained elsewhere for free.”11

Parting Thoughts

For one hundred years, high-quality content—especially journalism—has appeared mostly in print newspapers, magazines, and journals, so it’s easy for some writers, especially older writers, to equate the decline of these industries with the decline of journalism. But the survival of high-quality writing or journalism is not tied to the future of the newspaper or magazine business, or print. Those are delivery and distribution mechanisms, they are services to readers, and they have become less useful to us in the digital era.

The challenge is that we know how to monetize a print newspaper or magazine—and it’s easier to charge for their perceived value. We’re still figuring out how to best monetize digital forms. But amid this challenge, I’d argue we’re not seeing less high-quality journalism today, we’re seeing more, because there are fewer distribution barriers and lower start-up costs. I’d also ask whether we really think the system preinternet was producing high-quality journalism or we merely prefer “the devil we know.” By the mid-twentieth century, media were operated by handful of conglomerates with significant control over the mass media of radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines, a system that was hard for outside voices to access. To be sure, these major media conglomerates are being disrupted by another set of powerhouses (Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta), but the latter provide distribution and publishing opportunities to those who have traditionally had to work outside the mainstream media.

Exercise: Study What Brands Have the Biggest or Fastest-Growing Readership

Visit the Alliance for Audited Media (https://auditedmedia.com) and look for its quarterly report of top magazine media brands, usually published on its blog. Who’s on the list? Look at size and what publications are showing growth. If you belong to a library or university system, you may have free access to the Alliance’s Media Intelligence Center, which has audited circulation figures of newspapers and magazines. Look up your favorite publication and view its circulation numbers for the last five or ten years. Alternatively, October and November are a great time to visit a newsstand. Magazines must publish their circulation figures at least once per year, and the circulation statement typically appears in the December issue or last issue of the year.

24 : Freelance Writing and Learning to Pitch

Whereas an emerging writer might’ve gotten their start freelancing for print magazines many years ago, that’s not the case today. Pitching one’s writing to print publications has become the exception, not the rule. Most writers start by pitching their work to digital-only outlets or the digital arm of print outlets, which pay less than print and sometimes nothing at all. That leads some writers to question whether it’s possible to make a living as a freelancer these days. Simon Owens, who has decades of experience as a freelancer and reports on the media industry, commented in 2023, “I do think it’s entirely possible to make a living as a freelance writer, but you have to be willing to take on work for brands. If you insist on writing only for traditional media outlets, then yes, you will probably have a hard time generating a living wage.”1

By “brands,” he’s referring to freelancers who write for businesses that largely need content marketing—content for websites, blogs, and social media, to produce research-driven white papers and other materials that promote the business’s interests. This chapter will focus on freelancing for media outlets and how to pitch to them, although many of the same principles apply when securing corporate writing gigs. The pitching part will be of particular interest to writers who might not care about freelancing so much but want to publish short pieces to support their books and other efforts we’ll discuss in part 5.

To attempt freelancing with little more than a college degree is likely to end in disappointment—or a very long start-up phase. Most people fresh out of college have not only a limited skill set but also limited knowledge of the market and limited connections. To build your business, you need to offer something the market wants or will pay for and to be visible or known to the people who pay for it. New writers may still be exploring what skills they want to develop, or they may have an unrealistic idea of the value of their work. You can’t build a freelance career based on selling poetry, short stories, and personal essays to literary journals and magazines. A freelance career as discussed here means being self-employed and pursuing all types of writing and editing work.

Regardless of your experience level, each freelance career requires a bit of kindling, something to get a client base established or a steady stream of gigs that provides reliable monthly income. Here are the factors that most commonly come into play:

• Mentors. An ambitious writer with one or two mentors willing to make introductions can quickly gain momentum, assuming that the writer’s work is marketable and they can produce work with a degree of spark and professionalism that invites further assignments. One might call this networking, but networking is different from having a person who is invested in seeing you succeed. Students whose only mentors may be full-time writing teachers should look for additional opportunities within their community that would bring them into contact with writers who freelance, if not companies who use freelancers. Mentors should ideally be ten to twenty (or more) years ahead of you, actively trying to pull you up the ladder by making introductions or recommending your work.

• Networking. A freelancer’s first clients often come from previous employers or an existing network. You tap the connections you already have and build from there. Each job you successfully complete or each client you satisfy creates word of mouth. Each new editor you meet holds the seeds of new relationships with other editors. Former colleagues who believe in your work refer new opportunities your way. This is networking at its heart.

There are ways to nurture your network—for instance, through literary citizenship, discussed in chapter 5. And there are ways to undercut it. You should stay in touch with important connections beyond just the times you perform work or ask for work. Be helpful and generous in connecting others. Avoid being that person who speaks ill of their clients or other freelancers. Build a reputation as being professional and easy to work with. If you can, commit to a weekly networking practice: invite a new person to coffee or lunch (and offer to pay), or attend a networking event with the goal of building at least one new professional relationship. Don’t meet only people who could give you work. Meet other writers, marketing people, tech entrepreneurs, and nonprofit folks. Allow network serendipity to work its magic.

Research industry events or conferences where you can meet people important to your freelance life. Invest in attending key events every year; go to see people and to be seen. Showing up where the opportunities are concentrated can be especially critical for those trying to build a freelance career outside major cities.

• Visibility. Visibility is about being seen continually and consistently by the people who are in a position to give you work. This is why some publications try to sell writers on “exposure.” If you write for free for a publication that has millions of readers and reaches influential people, then your name is being put in front of people who could contact you about paying work. But there are numerous ways to become visible to your intended audience aside from writing for free. Consider a podcast, a highly visible volunteer position, a regular teaching gig, a reading or event series you organize, a witty social media account.

However, visibility, early in your career, means saying yes to just about every opportunity that comes your way, even if it’s free labor. You may have to help people and organizations in ways that don’t benefit your bottom line to strengthen your network and create testimonials for your work. But you don’t have to say yes forever. If you produce high-quality work, word will spread, and you can start turning down the less desirable opportunities.

• Time. Many experts advise writing or freelancing on the side until it overtakes your full-time work, to reduce your risk and experience a more seamless transition. Not everyone has the luxury of time, but if you do, then take small steps to build the aforementioned assets, not to mention your portfolio. You’ll gain confidence and resources needed for freelancing—or you may realize that it isn’t actually the dream you thought it was. If you’re already freelancing on the side, list these gigs religiously in a spreadsheet. How did these opportunities come to you? How much did you earn? How much time did you spend on the work in relation to what you earned? It’s important to see and track where the work comes from as well as the profitability of the work.

Decisions You’ll Face as a Freelancer

While you might aspire to a specific type of work, assume and plan from the outset that you’ll accept many types of gigs as you build toward more desirable opportunities. Here are a few of the business decisions you’ll face early on:

• Generalist versus specialist. One of the old debates in freelance circles is between generalists and specialists. Generalists are people who write and edit a wide range of material; they don’t target any one market but play the entire field as much as possible. Specialists, on the other hand, go deep into a particular subject or field. Before the internet, it was easier to be a generalist because of the many and varied paying, general-interest publications accepting pitches. Today, it benefits freelancers to specialize if they expect to earn a living. Once your name becomes known and associated with a particular type of work, it will be easier to attract assignments. And once you can legitimately claim the title of expert, you can command higher rates. You’ll also have a much stronger foundation for launching an entrepreneurial effort, like a paid newsletter.

• Consumer versus business and trade outlets. Consumer publications are those read by a general audience, found in bookstores and grocery checkout lines. They are perceived as more prestigious for a writer’s career, but with fierce competition to break in, getting work accepted usually takes patience and a knack for pitching. Business and trade outlets, while low-profile and unknown to the general public, usually pay better and provide more reliable income. There’s nothing to say you can’t play both sides of the field, but a freelancer who needs to prioritize earnings should make frequent use of online resources such as StudyHall (https://studyhall.xyz) and Who Pays Writers (whopayswriters.com) to learn about paying opportunities.

• Service versus journalism. There tends to be a divide between writers who focus on service, how-to, or culture and lifestyle content, and those who focus on original news and reporting. Outlets may carry both types of content, but you can tell which way a publication leans by simply looking at its headlines or featured articles. On its cover, the New Yorker will inevitably feature in-depth reporting on a current event and profiles of important people in society. Good Housekeeping, on the other hand, features stories on how readers can better organize their garage or get dinner on the table in twenty minutes on a weeknight. Writers tend to put a higher value on reporting and journalism, while how-to or service content (including this book) can be seen as a lesser form of writing. However, service content has a long and proud history and plays an important a role in influencing culture. It’s also easier to get started writing service pieces, and it typically requires less time, though it usually pays the same as reporting.

• Corporate writing and content marketing. Freelancers have to decide whether they’re willing to accept corporate-related writing opportunities alongside traditional gigs—that “brand” writing that Owens referred to earlier. Many writers do both but rarely talk about the corporate writing they do (which usually doesn’t include their byline).

• Participation in freelance marketplaces. A new freelancer willing to work for little payment can try entering the market at the low end, pitching for projects at Upwork, Fiverr, and other freelance marketplaces, where the per-word or per-project rate is extremely low. Some writers argue it’s better to avoid these race-to-the-bottom marketplaces, and possibly these low-paying gigs will vanish because generative AI can get the job done adequately and more cheaply.

It can help to invest in membership (and educational opportunities) with freelance associations such as the Editorial Freelancers Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and other groups that provide member perks and private job boards. Also seek out freelance marketplaces focused on just writers and editors, which usually attract better-quality projects than broad, general-interest freelance sites such as Upwork. For example, Freelance Writing Jobs (https://freelancewritinggigs.com) is a long-running website that rounds up freelance gigs every weekday. Many of the jobs posted there are entry-level and good when you’re just starting out.

Common Types of Articles or Short-Form Content

While every publication has its quirks, across the business you’ll find consistent types of pieces that get assigned and come with certain expectations from editors.

• Feature articles. These are the most visible and important part of a magazine’s content, usually mentioned on the cover; the “feature package” refers to the collection of features a magazine offers in a particular issue, which may be built around a theme. For instance, the New Yorker does an annual feature package focused on food. Features may be written by full-time staff writers or freelancers, or even by the editors, and usually offer the best pay rates and visibility.

• Departments and columns. These two categories include recurring pieces written by a mix of staffers and freelancers. By studying a publication carefully across two or three issues—or the span of a few weeks online—you can get a sense of what material is written by editors and what’s regularly assigned to freelancers. One of the most successful online columns of all time is an advice column published by the Rumpus, “Dear Sugar,” written by Cheryl Strayed.

• Interviews and profiles. Interviews may run question-and-answer (Q&A) style—with editing for length and clarity—or as profiles, which require a narrative structure to retain reader interest. Q&As work well with people who are well known, or where readers ostensibly prefer unfiltered, direct answers. Profiles may work better for lesser-known people and for figures where there’s as much of a story to be uncovered or told through the people who surround them. Both are staples of all print and online publications.

• Roundups. A perennial favorite, roundups may be annual features and, if successful, can attract significant advertising. Every city magazine does roundups of the best restaurants of the year. A niche publication will often do a roundup of notable people of the year, such as the annual debut poets roundup in Poets & Writers. Annual roundups tend to be written and curated by the magazine’s staff.

• Service pieces. A service piece offers information that promises to improve the reader’s life: to invest money more wisely, to improve relations with a partner, to fix health problems. While it may sound straightforward, the challenge is to offer advice that’s both fresh and written in a style and voice that appeal to the target audience. A service piece on spicing up a romantic relationship that works for Cosmopolitan will not work for the readers of AARP Magazine. Service pieces can be written by experts or by journalists who conduct sufficient research.

• Reporting. A reported piece requires interviews and research, usually out in the field. Magazines like the New Yorker or the Atlantic will expect key interviews and research to be conducted in person. Other magazines—especially those that are service oriented—may be OK with research conducted from home, phone interviews, and possibly email interviews, depending on the topic. Because reporting is expensive, you won’t find many online-only publications focused on hard-core reporting, except for the very largest and best funded, such as ProPublica.

• Essays and criticism. This can be a hard area to define, but it typically involves a writer researching and writing about a topic on which they have some expertise or authority. The piece may not involve original reporting, but it still offers insight, analysis, and—if successful—a new way of understanding an issue. The writer may also argue a position. A classic example is “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which appeared in the Atlantic. Essays and criticism are an affordable way for online publications to feature serious content that may not require expensive reporting.

• Opinion and commentary. These pieces focus on current events and trends, including book, movie, and TV criticism and reviews, as well as news opinion and commentary.

• Personal essay. This is one of the most difficult pieces to get paid for because such writing can be found in abundance, and everyone has a story to tell. Most publications have a recurring department that features personal essays of a specific length; it’s always best to read a half dozen or more before pitching your own, to understand the taste of the editors. Today, the New York Times’ “Modern Love” column is among the most popular and sought-after venues for placing a personal essay. Online publications tend to feature lots of personal essays because they’re cheap to source, edit, and produce. In recent years, as more writers have written about intensely personal topics, such as sexual abuse and mental health, critics have suggested that writers are allowing themselves to be exploited by publications interested mainly in sensational headlines that attract lots of traffic.

If you’ve encountered even the smallest bit of advice about freelance writing, you’ve probably heard how important it is to study a publication before you submit your work. The audience for each is distinct, with shared experiences, backgrounds, and belief systems implied by the voice and positioning of each piece. That makes it easier to pitch your work to a publication you avidly read, but a writer who’s a quick study can pick up on the personality of any publication by studying a recent issue or a week’s worth of online articles—as well as reviewing the media kit. (The media kit is essentially a fancy brief prepared to help potential advertisers or sponsors understand the readership they’ll be reaching. Google the publication’s name plus the phrase “media kit” to find it.) You can also use resources like Study Hall to learn more about markets to pitch and what they’re looking for.

If you remember nothing else about freelance writing, remember this: Readerships are not interchangeable, which means publications’ content is not interchangeable. If a publication’s content is not distinctive and customized for its core demographic, it will not stay in business long.

The Art of Pitching

Learning how to pitch yourself and your work is a function of the following variables:

• Understanding the needs of the publication you’re targeting

• Having something desirable or being someone desirable (or faking either)

• Approaching at the right time

• Reflecting confidence (or charm)

• Being lucky

The biggest pitching mistake by far is wasting someone’s time, and there are many ways to do so, such as sending inappropriate or overly detailed material, or approaching the wrong person. The best safeguard against wasting someone’s time is doing your homework and truly understanding—to the best of your ability—the person you’re approaching. If you can show that you’ve done your homework, your target may be more inclined to consider you thoughtful and respectful. Even if an initial pitch fails, a positive first impression will work to your benefit in any future interaction.

The shrewdest freelancers look for opportunities—whether at conferences, at bookstore readings, or online—that offer more insight about potential targets than might be available through official channels. (The best opportunities offer a chance to ask questions.) Observant writers take note of the personalities and preferences of people they meet, so they can make their pitches more effective—even if a pitch happens years down the road. Few things impress me more as an editor than a personalized note that expresses specific knowledge about where I’ve been and what I do. But it’s not common. Most people who approach editors do little homework but expect big gains. It’s not an endearing quality.

Some people can get away with little to no knowledge of their target because they have something to offer that is highly desirable in the marketplace. How do you know if what you have is desirable? You can stay in touch with the publishing zeitgeist by simply being well-read in your area and aware of what’s regularly getting published at the places that interest you. What articles are people talking about on social media? What’s most popular at the sites you visit? Immersion in what’s getting published gives you a feel for whether you’re with the trends or against them.

Timing is mostly out of your control; it works on both a macro and a micro level. Macro level: something about your writing or topic is currently out of fashion. Micro level: a publication just accepted something that’s too similar to your proposed work. The micro example is an issue of luck. And the macro example is unfortunate but not a deal breaker.

Even when everything else is in place, writers have to learn to pitch in a way that’s relaxed but confident. Some writers labor over their pitch, or experience sky-high anxiety, but that’s not something you want the pitch to convey—unless it comes off as charming. Unfortunately, I don’t find most writers to be intrinsically charming when it comes to pitching. Part of the problem is that writers lack exposure to a wide variety of pitches or submissions; without having read a great many good and bad ones, it’s hard to know where you’re at on the spectrum of detail, voice, and persuasion. One solution is to find an environment where you are exposed to pitches, such as working for a magazine or journal; it’s by far the best training to improve your own. But the solution for most writers is simply to pitch a lot. You get better the more that you do it, as with so many things.

The Science of Pitching

First, recognize that certain types of material rarely or never get pitched for publication. Personal essays as well as short pieces (fewer than one thousand words) might be submitted on spec, as are short stories and poetry, assuming they are accepted at all. On spec means “on speculation”: you submit the full piece for consideration. For example, Bon Appetit occasionally features first-person essays about food and cooking; these are submitted strictly on spec if you’re new to writing for Bon Appetit, and you may not even get a response unless the magazine is interested.

Professional journalists are accustomed to pitching their ideas and working on assignment. This process entails sending a brief query or pitch letter to the publication’s editor that essentially sells the piece before it is written. If the editor likes the pitch, they’ll send a contract or letter of agreement that outlines the terms, deadline, and payment; payment is typically made only when the piece is accepted for publication or after it is published.

In addition to studying a publication before pitching your idea, find its submission guidelines. They should detail what sections of the publication are open to freelancers, state the average pay rate and standard terms, and perhaps offer advice for a successful pitch. Some even list the biggest mistakes writers make when pitching, so pay attention. Assuming you have no personal invitation to pitch from an editor, follow the guidelines and never assume you’re an exception to any stated rules.

The difficulty is that every editor and publication looks for something different in a pitch, and you may not figure out what that is unless you gather some intelligence. Whenever possible, speak to other freelancers who have written for the publication, search out interviews with the editors themselves (or go hear them speak at an event), and study any editorial calendars the publication makes available. An editorial calendar outlines upcoming feature packages or special issues, which can help you time your pitch more appropriately and for a specific month. Monthly print magazines work far in advance of their publication dates; you’ll need to think four to six months out.

A typical pitch shouldn’t be longer than a several hundred words, although a complex piece that requires funding may merit more. Experienced freelance writers know that high-quality pitching is a time-consuming practice, and a lot of their time and energy is devoted to the search for interesting people, ideas, and stories that can be successfully pitched.

Here’s what to do to create a successful pitch:

• Speak the same language as the publication. Some writers begin their pitch in the same way they might lead into their story, which demonstrates how well they understand the style and voice of the publication—and therefore the readership.

• Hook the reader quickly. If you can’t deliver the hook in twenty-five words or less, then you may not have an appealing pitch. Reading the kicker, subtitle, and dozens or hundreds of headlines can help train you in the art of the hook.

• Show the legwork or research you’ve already done. For example, if you’ve already secured or conducted interviews, use the most compelling details to your benefit. If you’ve done no legwork and have never published on the subject matter, the editor may not have confidence in your ability to pull off the article.

• Demonstrate your credentials as a writer or authority on the topic. If the publication has never worked with you before, describe your experience and point to work published elsewhere. If you have no previously published work, you may be asked to submit on spec.

• Describe any expenses you need covered, especially if the submission guidelines require it. Some publications pay for writers’ expenses, and a pitch should outline your expectations if it affects your ability to accept the assignment.

A Good Essay Pitch

Catherine Baab-Muguira sent the following pitch letter to Slate, an online general-interest magazine, in 2022. Her pitch was accepted and the article appeared shortly thereafter.a

Subject line: Pitch: I just sold my starter home. Now I understand how millennials get priced out.

Dear [editor name],

Hey there, and good afternoon. My name is Catherine Baab-Muguira, and I last wrote for Slate in 2018 (“The $500 allowance that saved my marriage”). More recently, I’ve contributed to the Wall Street Journal, and published my first book, Poe for Your Problems, which came out from Hachette last September.

Getting in touch now with an idea that I think could be right up your alley. Here’s the gist.

I just sold my starter home. And now I understand exactly how millennials get priced out of the housing market.

My husband and I recently sold our modest starter home in Richmond, Virginia. And I do mean modest—at 1,500 square feet, in a so-so neighborhood, it’s cute but nothing special.

Back in 2015, we paid $181,500, because that was a thing you could do in Richmond then. House prices were rising off the recession lows, but they remained affordable. Flash forward to March of 2022, and our house commanded $331,000, an increase of 82% in just seven years.

That’s not the worst of it for home buyers, however. Our house went on the market on a Friday morning, and by Sunday we had 15 offers, mostly from 30-somethings, all of them complete with begging letters and tear-jerking photos of bidders’ children. We even received a video message from someone’s lender, pitching the couple and endlessly repeating their first names in an apparent effort to forge some emotional connection. Hostage negotiators use the same tactic.

Every serious bidder waived inspection and offered to make up any appraisal gap in cash. This is where the bidding grew seriously intense, and where you could actually see how millennials get priced out of the housing market. Coming up with a down payment is hard enough. Coming up with $100,000 in additional cash—which is what sealed the deal for the winning bidder—is an impossible ask for most anyone. Another couple offered a $50,000 gap and lost out.

As a millennial myself, I find this heartbreaking, but such is the market for starter homes now even in unexciting second-tier cities. Would you be interested in a personal essay about this? I could see Slate readers really sinking their teeth into it.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and all best,

Cat

a. Catherine Baab-Muguira, “I Just Made a Killing on a Starter Home I Bought for Cheap: I Didn’t Expect to Feel Like This,” Slate, June 12, 2022, https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/06/real-estate-market-starter-homes-millennial-buyers.html.

Hook Examples

The following examples represent hooks for published articles, or the kind of sentence (or sentences) you could use in a pitch. Some of these examples are derived from the published article’s subtitle or have been used as a “kicker”—a promotional line that’s used as part of the article preview. (This preview might appear on a publication cover, in search results, in databases, and so on.) Notice that hooks are often quite different from titles; they entice and persuade someone to read further.

• Is EMDR—a therapy most often used to treat trauma—a psychotherapeutic breakthrough, pseudoscience, or a little bit of both?a

• Americans are plagued by bad medical billing that forces them to pay more out of pocket than they should. But it’s possible to fight back.b

• Categorizing people by generation is lazy and harmful and needs to end if we want to make lasting change as a society.c

• Increasingly, libraries no longer own the books that they lend; corporations do. That means higher costs for libraries and less access for patrons.d

• Bessel van der Kolk’s once controversial theory of trauma has become the dominant way we make sense of our lives.e

a. Meg Bernhard, “The Enigmatic Method,” Virginia Quarterly Review 99, no. 1–2 (Spring/Summer 2023).

b. Melinda Wenner Moyer, “How to Dispute Surprise Medical Bills,” New York Times, June 30, 2022, D7.

c. James Chappel, “End the Generation Wars,” New Republic, November 15, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164374/end-generation-wars.

d. Daniel A. Gross, “The Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-Books,” New Yorker, September 2, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/an-app-called-libby-and-the-surprisingly-big-business-of-library-e-books.

e. Danielle Carr, “Tell Me Why It Hurts,” New York magazine, July 31, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trauma-bessel-van-der-kolk-the-body-keeps-the-score-profile.html.

A pitch is the editor’s first look at the writer—can this person write and express themself effectively? If the pitch is well done, it increases the chance that even if the story’s rejected, the editor will invite the writer to pitch again, or send feedback on how to revise the story idea to make it work for the publication. Rejections are far more common than acceptances, even for experienced writers, especially before they’ve established working relationships with an editor or publication. Here are some of the most common reasons for rejection:

• Your angle is too narrow (or broad). A publication can be a bit like Goldilocks—you need to offer it an idea that’s “just right”: specific enough to distinguish your article from others that cover the same subject matter, but not so unique that the editor doesn’t think it merits an entire article.

• The publication ran something too similar, too recently (or has it on assignment already). This reason is common, and there’s nothing you can do about it. A lot of pitching is about timing. Your intuition and timing improve as you gain experience.

• You don’t have the writing or reporting experience. This can be something of a Catch-22 when you’re just starting out. How do you collect experience or clips when you’re inexperienced? Lots of ways: submit on spec; write very short pieces; write for local or regional publications that may be willing to take a chance on you to build your portfolio.

• Your idea is too boring, too clichéd, too overdone, or some combination of these. Usually this is a result of your not reading the target publication carefully enough to realize that your idea isn’t worthwhile or a good fit.

Once you have successfully pitched and published a few pieces, there’s a good chance you can shift to a more organic and informal process for pitching and discussing ideas—such as having a phone conversation with the editor or sending a pitch with several ideas outlined. (Never do this if you don’t have an established relationship.) If you become especially trusted and valuable, the editor may even contact you with assignment ideas.

Parting Thoughts

I find it useful to remember the famous line from the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Writers tend to get increasingly lucky the more work they produce (preparation) and the more work they submit (opportunity). Too many writers throw in the towel after a few rejections, believing that’s the final verdict on their work, giving up just before a potential win. That’s why resilience in the face of rejection and disappointment is perhaps the biggest key to success in pitching. You can’t let “no” stop your progress. A single no is rarely meaningful.

It’s also helpful if you believe yourself to be a lucky person. Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, studied groups of people who strongly identified themselves as either lucky or unlucky. He found that one’s own belief or mindset creates one’s luck. The so-called unlucky people restricted what they were looking for and missed chance opportunities, whereas the lucky people remained more relaxed and open, more likely to see the opportunities that sprang up in front of them.2

Exercise: Research Pay Rates for Publications Large and Small

Visit the website Who Pays Writers (whopayswriters.com) and search for publications you actively read. What is their reported pay rate? Then scroll down the list of publications and click on some of the titles you don’t know, especially those that sound like trade or niche outlets. What do they pay? Any surprises? Compare print outlets and online-only outlets in terms of pay.

25 : Publishing in Literary Journals

First things first: It is impossible to make a living from publishing short literary work in literary journals and magazines—even the high-paying or prestigious ones. Such pursuits must be supplemented by other sources of revenue, such as teaching, grant or prize money, freelance editing, or a day job. The most common business reason to seek publication in literary journals is to build a track record of publication that can lead to other milestones and paying opportunities. It could even attract an agent and book deal, as it did for Yiyun Li, whose first stories appeared in the New Yorker and the Paris Review.

Placing work in a publication that regularly has pieces selected for anthologies or awards also increases your chances of making that credit really count, and of your writing being seen by more people. That prompts the question of which journals are the “important” ones. Several writers, including Clifford Garstang and John Fox, tabulate and post rankings of literary journals based on the number of their pieces that receive accolades, such as the Pushcart Prize. Although the results are highly variable, they can point you in the right direction.1

My first pieces were published in an undergraduate literary journal, as well as in a journal edited and published by one of my writing professors. Early wins, even if not in a well-known journal, build confidence and give you something to put in your cover or query letters to other publications. As your career advances, you may submit cold less often and secure new publishing credits based on relationships.

When I became editor of a university-based literary journal while still in college, it was the first paid editing job I’d held. What I found most astonishing was the volume of submissions we received, as a virtually unknown publication, from all types of writers around the world, both skilled and beginner. I began to realize that the slush pile is accurately named: it is a shapeless mass of submissions often lacking distinction. Thus I learned what it means when editors say they’re looking for “fresh” or surprising writing.

The slush pile can hardly be avoided if you wish to build a reputation as a short-story writer or poet, since literary journals and magazines are the most likely and appropriate outlet for such work. Creative nonfiction writers and essayists have a bit more flexibility: it’s possible to make a name for oneself by focusing on other types of publications. The world of digital media especially is driven by nonfiction, and hardly at all by fiction and poetry, although there are exceptions in genre fiction and fan fiction.

Agents rarely pitch and sell short work unless it’s for existing clients who are also book authors, or for very high-profile clients (think: US poet laureate or award-winning writer). That’s because payment for short work is low and sometimes nonexistent. So publishing short work is a process that working writers must undertake for themselves.

Publishing in Print Literary Journals

Publishing short stories, poetry, and personal essays is much more straightforward than pitching book projects or articles. You’re not selling your work so much as submitting it for consideration—it has to be read (a few sentences, anyway) before an editor can know if they want to publish it.

Whereas you’re likely to send a query or pitch letter to book publishers, literary agents, magazines, or online outlets—and hope for a contract—you typically send a cover letter to literary journals along with the manuscript. The cover letter literally “covers” the work and introduces you; it mainly consists of a biographical statement. You should include the following:

• Past publication credits (if these are numerous, be selective; mention those that would carry the most significance to the staff of the publication you’re submitting to)

• Awards, fellowships, or grants received—the more recognizable, the better

• Any writing degrees or credentials

Mainly, the cover letter gives the publication a sense of where you’re at in your career. If your track record looks intriguing or impressive, it may favorably influence editors or staff readers to slow down and consider your work more carefully. It can also do the opposite, if you portray yourself as a type of writer the publication avoids. It’s easy to figure out a publication’s “type”: look at the last few issues and read the biographical notes of the writers it has published. Do you feel like you fit in?

If you’re unpublished, there’s no reason to belabor that status in your cover letter, but what do you say if you have absolutely zero writing experience or credentials? You’ll have to exercise your creative writing muscles, but your letter will likely remain brief regardless. You can mention specific pieces or contributors you’ve enjoyed in the journal (it’s always best to peruse some recent issues before submitting), and maybe discuss what influences your writing—but don’t get carried away. It’s better to keep your cover letter to a few brief sentences than to write paragraphs of material that may turn off the editors or get yourself in trouble, unless you’re particularly charming. The good news is that because you’re sending the work along with the query, readers may only glance at the cover letter before turning to the submission itself.

Almost every publication has specific submission guidelines you should follow when submitting work. They cover the rules and etiquette for sending unsolicited work (that is, work that the publication did not ask you to send). The guidelines will tell you the following:

• What categories of work are accepted (poetry, short fiction, essays, reviews, etc.)

• What length of work is accepted (minimum and maximum word counts)

• How many pieces will be accepted as part of a single submission

• When it’s possible to submit (some journals read submissions only a few months of the year)

• If they accept paper submissions or electronic submissions

• If and when there is a reading or submissions fee

• Where to send your submission

• How long it takes them to respond (or if they’ll respond at all if they don’t accept your work)

In addition to stipulating what the publication will consider, the guidelines may spell out what you should put in the cover letter, as well as what kind of work they’re most eagerly seeking. For example, Ecotone states in its guidelines, “We are particularly interested in place-based work by people and from perspectives historically underrepresented in literary publishing and in place-based contexts: writers and artists who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, people with disabilities, people who are gender-nonconforming and LGBTQIA+, women, people with low access to wealth, people from rural places, and others.”2 Some magazines run themed issues, and submissions must conform to that theme to be considered.

Most literary publications demand that writers send only unpublished work for consideration, which sometimes leads to confusion. Does your work remain unpublished if it has appeared on your blog or website? What if it appeared briefly on your blog but was then taken down? What if you posted portions of the work on Facebook? What if it appeared in a private online community or forum? Generally, literary journals consider your work published even if you self-published it or put it on your website (or social media account) for a short time. It is generally considered unpublished if it was shared in a private forum or community for critique purposes and not meant for reading by the general public.

In the past, it was common for journals to prohibit simultaneous submission—that is, submission of the same work to multiple publications at the same time. However, because of very long response times (and because writers began to ignore the prohibition, which is hard to enforce), simultaneous submissions are now generally accepted. Still, it’s polite and expected that you’ll mention it in your cover letter if you’re making a simultaneous submission.

There is an important protocol to follow when making simultaneous submissions. If your piece is accepted for publication at journal A while it’s still being considered by journals B and C, then you should send a respectful notification to B and C that says you’re withdrawing the work. If you submitted your work using the popular online service Submittable (described in the next section), then it takes only a click or two to withdraw your submission. If you don’t withdraw your submission and you’re then contacted with a second offer of publication, you’ll be in an awkward position, and the second journal’s editors are likely to remember your name for a long time—and not in a good way. If the second offer of publication is more attractive, for any reason, but you’ve already accepted the first offer (and especially if you’ve signed a contract), it is considered unethical to withdraw the work from the first publication that accepted it unless you have a valid reason, such as an editing disagreement or a contractual disagreement.

Reading Fees

When I began my publishing career, there was one ethical guideline that reputable journals, magazines, publishers, and agents all agreed on: no reading fee, ever. Writers should never be charged for the opportunity to submit their work, nor should publications make a profit off writers hoping to get their work published. This was a rule of thumb I repeated often at conferences and workshops. It helped writers avoid scams and target their efforts to the most reputable outlets.

In 2010 a company entered the literary publishing scene that has forever changed that rule: Submittable. Submittable has two standout benefits: (1) it allows publications to streamline and automate their submissions review process, and (2) it gives writers a single portal through which they can submit to many publications at once, track what’s been submitted, and see the status of those submissions at a glance.

This efficiency and frictionless submissions process has come at a cost: submissions can be made with little effort by the writer, which increases the volume of submissions journals receive. Publications pay to use Submittable based on that volume of submissions: fees start in the hundreds of dollars per year and go up into the thousands very quickly. Publications generally have to pass along this cost to writers using the service.

Writers often feel ill-used by reading fees, but when reading fees are instituted, they sometimes will equate to what a writer would pay for postage and handling—several dollars—which helps the publication cover the cost to use Submittable and possibly to pay staff or readers to go through the increased number of submissions the publication is receiving. Keep in mind that Submittable takes a percentage of these fees, in addition to charging journals to use its service—that, after all, is its business model. Still, this is an issue that continues to generate controversy and debate, with few remedies or solutions for either side.3 If submission fees pose a financial burden for you as a writer, run a search for literary journals that charge no submission fees; you’ll always find roundups of opportunities. Sometimes literary journals will also drop their fees at certain times of year or make special allowances. Read their guidelines closely.

Increasing Your Chances of Acceptance

The number-one way to increase your success rate with literary journals is to be purposeful in how you submit, and make sure you’re submitting only the most appropriate work. Although it may not be feasible to read multiple issues of each journal before submitting, you should become familiar with the publication. At the very least, study its website, look at recent contributors, and look for interviews with the editors. If you can get your hands on a couple of recent issues through a library or newsstand—or by buying digital issues from the website—not only do you increase your knowledge of what kind of work is being accepted and published, but you’re supporting the literary community in doing so.

If you have an opportunity to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference, then reserve at least a half day (or more) to walk through the AWP Bookfair, where you can look at hundreds of publications firsthand, talk with editors, and immediately get a sense of which publications are a good fit for you. It also helps editors put a face with a name when they see your submission come through. You may even be personally invited to submit if you hit it off with the staff. (That said, I recommend that you do not walk through the AWP Bookfair asking editors why they rejected your work. No editor wants to have that conversation with you.)

You can also supercharge your writerly intelligence by becoming a volunteer, reader, or editor at any type of publication where you’re exposed to the slush pile. By reading a high volume of submissions yourself, you’ll begin to notice patterns in the work that’s submitted: how writers tend to start off stories in the same way (making them boring and easy to skip over); what styles and voices have become tired, clichéd, or overdone; what it means to write work that’s “surprising,” “unique,” or “interesting.” Those descriptive words are vague and clichés in themselves, but once you’ve tunneled through a stack of submissions at a journal, you begin to understand the recurring problems that pervade writing—particularly work by writers who haven’t yet found their voice or uncovered stories really worth telling.

While it’s more common in book publishing, some writers of short work look for an “in” at a publication—such as a recommendation or referral by a contributor—in hopes of receiving priority consideration from the editors (rather than, say, the interns, editorial assistants, or other readers who may go through unsolicited submissions first). This sort of “in” won’t necessarily improve your success rate. And in asking for such a favor, you may be putting the contributor in an awkward position—not just with you but with the editor. This scenario also raises the question of how you should submit your work if you do have an “in” with the staff. Unless you’re directly invited to submit your work to an editor, or you’ve been previously published by the journal, it’s typically best to use the normal channels of submission (and follow the guidelines) rather than consider yourself the exception and go straight to your contact. Mention your connection or referral in your cover letter—that’s usually the best way to help your work get priority. If you try to bypass the standard process, you may be told to go ahead and use it anyway—meaning that rather than gaining an advantage, you’ve wasted the editor’s time.

You’re Accepted! Now What?

Just about every publication will have some editing suggestions, even if they are minor copyediting changes, that require your review and approval prior to publication. If you’re asked to make a significant revision, then you have a decision to make. Do you think the editor’s suggestions will improve the work? Do they make sense to you? It’s best to sit on suggestions for at least a day or two before making a decision or sending a response—unless your response is undeniably positive and you feel happy about making the changes. Most editors consider this process a series of compromises or negotiations. You may not be expected to agree with all the changes, but you may be asked to send your reasoning or justification for not revising certain areas. If you hit a major roadblock during the editorial process, and you see no way to productively revise in a way you’re comfortable with, then you may have to withdraw your submission. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual to end up in a cycle of confusing revision suggestions, especially if a lower-level editor loves your work but a higher-level editor wants changes made.

At some point prior to publication, you’ll be sent a contract or letter of agreement that stipulates payment, rights, and other terms. Read it carefully and make sure you understand it. (See chapter 37 for a breakdown of common contract language.) Typically, a print journal will demand rights to be the first to publish your work in print and also to make it part of its digital edition, if one exists. Thereafter, rights should revert to you, although the publication may reserve the right to reprint your work, anthologize it, or make the work indefinitely available on its website. Payment for short stories, poems, and essays are typically in the hundreds of dollars, or you may be paid only in copies of the journal.

Parting Thoughts

Well-known literary journals and publishers aren’t shy about publicizing an acceptance rate of 1 percent or less. Scarcity is the assumed rule; many submissions must be rejected, and only a few can be accepted. Yet, except for a few elite publications, literary journals (and many literary books as well) reach a couple thousand people at best. So why bother? A literary journal’s influence and prestige are presumed to outpace its actual reach, and thus it can retain its relevance to the writing community as well as the broader culture. Gaining entry into this club can still mean something—it’s a respected rite of passage for emerging writers who want to be taken seriously by a particular literary community.

Still, important questions have been raised about this model in the current publishing environment—an environment with an overabundance of content, increased competition from digital media, and many high-quality reading options. Before the days of the internet, something published in a literary journal would be amplified and would reach more people than it might through self-publishing. That’s not the case today, and publishing work on social media or online—whether inside or outside the literary community—often can be done more quickly and with more perceptible impact than gaining acceptance in a print literary journal. Take the example of Ashley C. Ford, whom I first met while she was a Ball State University creative writing student. Her first pieces appeared in well-known online publications—such as PANK and the Rumpus—and she later became a staff writer at BuzzFeed. She now works as a full-time freelancer, hosts a podcast, and has a best-selling memoir. She didn’t spend years trying to break through into literary journals to launch her career.

Still, there’s an overriding bias in the literary community in favor of print-based publication, even though it demands waiting for years, receiving little or no pay, and being seen by few readers. Entrepreneurial-minded writers should direct their efforts widely: consider print but also publish, experiment, and distribute through digital media to build a readership directly. And when you do score a literary journal credit, remember it’s typically incumbent on you to spread the word about your publication success. Link to it on social media if possible, add the credits to the bio, and open as many doors as possible with it.

Exercise: Explore Current Trends in the Literary Journal Community

A great resource for learning about the literary journal community is Becky Tuch’s Lit Mag News (https://litmagnews.substack.com). There you’ll find curated lists of journals to submit work to, editor interviews, a reading club, and other helpful features. When you visit the site, browse the “most popular” section. What topics are generating the most visits or conversation?

Part Five

How to Make a Living as a Writer

For many decades now, books and magazines have been the primary vehicle for writers to share knowledge, tell stories, and (in their wildest dreams) become immortal. To some extent, they still are. People still value long-form reading and the experience of deep immersion in a book, and they still enjoy receiving a favorite magazine in the mailbox. But the number of readers who avidly consume books has always been a minority of the total population, about one in five in the United States, according to the Codex Group.1 And magazine circulation numbers are a fraction of what they used to be.2 As much as my own career has revolved around the reading, editing, writing, and publishing of books and periodicals, they have limitations, especially if you want to earn a living wage.

With more than three million titles published per year, according to Bowker, books are dramatically overproduced in the hopes of generating profit or launching a career.3 Very few reach the level of shaping culture or influencing ideas. It is possible to thrill at a beautifully written book that fundamentally shifts how we see ourselves and the world, and at the same time acknowledge that not everything we have to write and share can best achieve its aims in that package—not in a world dominated by other media. This is why I try to help writers think beyond the book. Prioritize the story or message you wish to share rather than the container where it should go. There has been so much aspirational focus on writing and publishing a book without consideration of the many other ways we can write, publish, and share ideas in the digital age.

The same applies to conventional publication in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals. It’s easy to slip into nostalgia for the days when F. Scott Fitzgerald could earn decent money by writing short stories for the Saturday Evening Post, or the decades when a wide array of print publications supported the careers of so many freelance writers, including fiction writers and even some poets. Short stories and poetry remain beautiful and appreciated art forms, but if you’re hoping for editors to pay meaningfully for such work, you’ll need a time machine to make it happen. Even rates for high-quality journalism and commentary have not budged in decades. If the best publications paid writers one or two dollars per word in early aughts, they pay the same amount (or less) now, if those publications still exist at all.

Part 5 covers topics now often associated with (for better or for worse) the “creator economy,” wherein writers publish on their own, directly for readers, sometimes through popular platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Substack, and others. Especially these days, writers can’t and shouldn’t rely on publishers or publications for a full-time living; the most financially secure writer is the one who can directly reach their audience and find ways to make that reach pay off over time.

This is a double-edged sword, however. You’ll be competing for attention against some of the best writers, speakers, and thinkers of our age, who lecture through YouTube and TikTok, report through apps and newsletters, and offer professionally produced podcasts. We live in a time of universal authorship, where anyone can easily publish for public consumption. Everyone has powerful tools to distribute their work—we discussed the foundational aspects in part 2—and it requires little technical expertise or investment to do so. The decision isn’t so much will you or can you publish, but how will you publish in a way that’s effective and serves your goals? And will you do it on your own or in partnership with others?

Every publishing decision you make as a writer should be made with this bigger picture in mind.

26 : Building a Business Model

Writers sometimes equate being paid for words with being a “real” writer, but this is a product of the writer’s ego—and writerly myths at work—and has no relevance when we talk about how to make a living. Usually direct payments for your writing will not be enough to live on early in your career. The more experienced you become, and the bigger your platform, the more it becomes possible to support yourself through writing, if it’s what you desire.

Your business model will involve a mix of sources: money from publishers, money from sponsors or advertisers, money from government or wealthy patrons (e.g., grants or fellowships), and money from readers. Obviously there is significant overlap in these areas: if you secure a book deal with a publisher, they’ll pay you, but your earnings and opportunities over the long term will be affected by the number of readers you have. Or you may receive grant or prize money for a traditionally published book on which you also receive royalties. Agile artists can make the more profitable areas of their work support the less profitable, just as happens at publishing houses.

Some writers choose to supplement their writing income through part-time work or day jobs that may or may not be related to writing, as they increase their visibility and demand for their words. Some focus on the most highly paying writing-related opportunities—copywriting or corporate writing—as they build an audience and seek opportunities for creative writing. The danger always is that this “shadow career”—a term from Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro—will overtake the career you originally intended to pursue because it offers more payment, easy success, or less resistance than your higher-risk creative endeavors.

You’ll need some self-awareness, vision, and also experience to know which moneymaking methods are best suited to you. I highly recommend reading artist Jessica Abel’s website (https://jessicaabel.com), where she writes about how to identify your unique business model and lose the “starving artist” mindset that can get in the way of making money. Sometimes the biggest barrier to a successful business is buying into prevailing cultural attitudes that say, “That’s not how an artist/writer earns a living,” or insist that you can’t mix business concerns with art. This sort of attitude only serves to inhibit imaginative thinking. Successful writers across history have bucked the trends and economic models of their time and sustained their art in ways that worked uniquely for them. You can do the same, as you weigh your strengths, your available time, and what you’re willing to compromise or sacrifice.

Fortunately, if you get things wrong as you start out, it’s not hard to course correct. In fact, I encourage you to think in terms of small bets or small experiments; there’s no need for a full-fledged, perfectly conceived business plan to test whether anyone might be interested in advertising in your email newsletter. Simply ask the next time you send one. When something works out well, and especially if you enjoy it, double down on it or grow it. But don’t make it so complex in the beginning that you can’t even achieve liftoff. At any point, if something doesn’t feel right, quit doing it. You are under no obligation to start or continue something that’s not worth the time, money, or energy.

Whatever your choices, realize that you can’t shift this burden onto someone else—not your agent, not your publisher, not a hired marketer—because your business model concerns the entirety of your career, which one hopes will span decades. Only you can lead the way, with knowledge and intention of what you wish to achieve and what you can sustain. While there’s no reason not to seek business counsel from agents, publishers, and others who play a role in your career, remember that you must take the initiative on activities that don’t have an immediate payoff but are important for future success.

The most common way to earn a living today, regardless of industry, is through an hourly or salaried position. This is the “time for money” business model; it is transactional and where most people start their careers. As you gain skill and reputation in your field, the most natural next step is to start your own service business. For writers, this might mean editing, coaching, teaching, or providing services to clients. The most advanced form of entrepreneurship—which requires considerable skill and experience—is selling products, whether physical or digital. That includes books. The writing and publishing industry is incredibly perverse in that it asks early-career authors to sustain themselves on an activity that is by far the most difficult in any profession: the sale of a new product that nobody knows about. Given how poorly most publishers market and promote books, it’s no wonder that emerging authors fail to sustain themselves on book sales alone. It is asking too much, too soon.

As your career progresses, it helps to think of your earnings in terms of three overlapping areas of activity, as discussed in chapter 1:

1. What fulfills your creative or artistic goals? Or what writing would be ideal to earn a living on?

2. What earns you money?

3. What increases your readership?

In the beginning, the writing or other work you do for money (like a day job) will take up the largest part of the canvas. As feasible, you wedge in the other things, and that might involve sacrifice. Time you might ordinarily spend sleeping, relaxing, or doing something with family is put into your writing that still earns little (or nothing) or into activities that build readership. Such activities include attending events, engaging in literary citizenship, posting on social media, blogging or using Substack, and so on—all these help you, in the long run, earn a living on writing you want to do and sometimes earn you money in their own right. Building your full-time business as a writer is a process of minimizing the work you do only for money as you expand the other areas.

Enter the Creator Economy

People in the media or tech industries frequently talk about the “creator economy,” but it’s not as avidly discussed in writing communities, where many individuals see themselves as, well, writers, and not “creators.”

A creator today is someone who works predominantly online and seeks ways to build an audience and monetize their work. The figure of the online-driven creator is not new (it describes much of my work since 2008), but Silicon Valley’s attention to supporting the creator is new. In the early internet days, a creator might have been a blogger, podcaster, or vlogger who created and distributed free content through emerging platforms. To monetize such activity often required going outside the platform because the platform didn’t offer any direct means to charge for content. As social media took off and began to reveal the power and reach of popular creators, some of whom became influencers (and started earning money via brand sponsorships), the biggest platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook started offering incentives and monetary rewards for creators who add value to the platform and capture attention.

The phrase “content creator” isn’t a phrase that many writers feel great about, as it implies that their work is a commodity. It might make you feel demoted to the level of dancing monkey, or someone who can be replaced on a whim. Journalist Kyle Chayka has argued that a creator has “none of the glamour of [an] artist, nor the appeal of other terms for people who make things.”1 Yet Chayka himself has been an avid participant in the creator economy, through use of NFTs (i.e., nonfungible tokens—certificates of ownership of a unique digital item recorded in a blockchain) and Patreon, to fund some of his work, so he seems to have overcome his own qualms about status and prestige. As discussed in part 4, it helps to understand that corporate types (and even some creators) like the word content because it indicates fluidity and the potential for unlimited manifestations, which means more earnings potential. A story that starts as an online serialization, for example, could be packaged and sold as a print book or audiobook, illustrated and published as a graphic novel, and then adapted into a TV show, movie, or some other experience.

Whatever your opinion of these terms and tendencies, there is opportunity here for even the most anticapitalist writers—especially those critical of corporate publishing, who seek independence and flexibility—to publish how they want and whatever they want. In an introduction to herself, literary writer Monica Byrne writes on her Patreon account, “I have been making a full-time salary on Patreon since 2016. I use this salary for groceries, rent, transportation, and healthcare. I’ll continue to do so for as long as I can, so that, instead of depending on exploitative corporations for my basic needs, I depend on a community of individuals who value creative freedom.”2

Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, is well known for a theory called “1,000 True Fans.”3 He postulates that the ability of any person to directly connect with a thousand people who buy anything they produce amounts to a sustainable living. This idea continues to be debated. Whether you believe it takes a thousand or a hundred thousand fans, Kelly is making an argument about the power of creative individuals to earn a living by appealing directly to those who most value what they do. Every person now has the tools to directly reach an audience. The trade-off involved? You become an online person (sometimes a very online person) who engages with the public and produces work regularly to satisfy readers. Yet some writers have been successful in making few, if any, promises to their reader-patrons, emphasizing that their creative output can’t be dictated in advance.

Six-figure success is typically concentrated in a small handful of top creators, making the creator economy not so different from traditional arts and entertainment sectors. There are no formulas, guarantees, or predictable timelines for “making it.” And, a necessary warning: the business realities of being a creator can quickly overtake the artistic ambitions you started out with when you get instant feedback on what sort of content earns you money and what doesn’t. You become market responsive, sometimes to your own horror and detriment.

Fortunately, writers don’t have to become full-time creators in the creator economy to enjoy the benefits of it. In fact, it might be better to see many of the efforts described here as platform-building activities, as outlined in part 2. Every writer should have a website for platform purposes; at some point, that website might lead to earnings because it attracts people who become readers or hire you for a service. (I once wrote a popular post on writing query letters with no desire but to help educate writers; soon, people wanted to hire me to edit their query.) Every writer should invest in a free newsletter to stay in touch with readers; at some point, you might find that people want to advertise in it because of whom you reach. So, aspects of your platform can lead to earnings eventually or indirectly. Look for the opportunities that fit what you’re already doing and excel at, and see where it goes.

Parting Thoughts

The only rule, if there is one: don’t depend on any single platform or network to be your entire living, especially one that can change the rules on you at any moment. Seek ownership and control when possible, and realize that companies that proclaim to be “writer friendly” or supportive of the arts can take a sizable cut of revenues and subtly or directly manipulate creators into producing what can be monetized. Not to mention these platforms wield tremendous power in who and what gets seen and can take away your audience at any moment.

Exercise: Research How Much Writers Earn

It’s challenging to find information about how writers, or any online creators, earn money (particularly the exact amounts), but you should try looking anyway. I’ve disclosed the composition of my earnings at my website, which shows that book sales are less than 3 percent of my overall income.4 Some bloggers post monthly earnings updates or “transparency reports” that show where their money comes from; try searching and see what you find. On Patreon, artists and creators can allow visitors to see how much they collect in pledges per month, which is insightful, especially when compared with the number of people pledging. A handful of self-publishing authors, like Joanna Penn, publish annual earnings reports, as a means of author education. During a moment in 2020, many authors shared information about their book advances as part of a grassroots campaign called #PublishingPaidMe, created by writer L. L. McKinney. As of this writing, you can still find and review the spreadsheet.5

27 : Finding Your Readership and Building a Funnel

The first step for any successful entrepreneur or new business is to know whom you’re trying to reach (or know your customer), but this notion is often left unexplored and unknown by writers and even publishers, who may not think of themselves as entrepreneurs or businesspeople. If you’re starting a newsletter hoping to build an audience for humorous essays, it’s not enough to say it’s for people who enjoy humor. What kind of humor? Dark and mean humor? Political humor? David Sedaris–style humor? Humor is one of the most subjective types of writing, and what’s humorous to one demographic can be offensive to another.

Being specific and disciplined about audience is not only a virtue, but it also makes your marketing and promotion far easier and less maddening. You want a well-defined audience that’s within reason for you to reach, and unless you’re a mass-market consumer product with an advertising budget to match, you can’t reach everyone. The other benefit to focusing on just the right audience is that you’ll get better feedback, better reviews, and better word of mouth; the wrong readership will leave terrible reviews and tell others to avoid you.

At my first publishing job, while still an intern, I was asked to research specific communities of hobbyists. Everyone else was so busy producing new content that they didn’t have time to study the market. So I developed two in-depth reports: one looked at the comics industry, and the other focused on a popular trend at the time, rubber stamp art. This was before the internet could be used as a primary research method, so I pursued a variety of other sources:

• Print publications. One of the most useful ways to understand an audience is to read what they read. In their magazines, newsletters, and books, the hobbyists’ challenges and concerns clearly came through, and I could pick out the voices of those who were important to the field. The advertisements were often as helpful as the content.

• Retail environments. I visited small comics stores and rubber stamp stores, as well as large retailers such as Walmart and Michaels. The indie stores were invaluable because clubs and organizations met there, and the proprietors were usually experts in understanding their audience.

• Websites and online communities. Though few and far between at the time, these were as useful as print publications in showing the size and impact of a particular interest area. Today, this is one of the richest resources for understanding your audience; you can explore niche communities at Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and nearly every other place where people gather online.

• Real-life events. At regional conferences and chapter meetings, I talked one-on-one with members of the target audience, asking questions and developing a clearer picture of what they cared about.

While the average fiction writer might not conduct this level of market research to understand their readership—after all, they probably belong to their target audience—it doesn’t hurt to step back, analyze the key qualities of your work, and think through who it most appeals to. Spending a lot of time in bookstores and libraries, or attending book festivals, or talking with others about recent novels should be part of a novelist’s regular activities. This is why agents and publishers are so interested in hearing from you on comparable titles—not only does it help them understand your target readership, it helps them understand whether you know your target readership and already have facility in speaking the reader’s language.

Today, the wealth of online information and social signals that surround us means you have countless ways to develop a portrait of your audience: to see where they hang out, what types of media they consume, where they shop, whom they follow. To better understand your readers and how to reach them, here are some starting points:

• Come up with at least two or three established writers or creators who produce work similar to your own. Identify some of their fans through comments, reviews, and so on. Find a real name and dig deeper—take a look at their social profiles and website, if they have one, and develop a portrait of someone who could be your “ideal reader.” (This works best if you don’t choose a celebrity or brand-name author.)

• Which newsletters, podcasts, or traditional media outlets have interviewed or reviewed writers similar to you? Do those outlets serve your target audience? What can you learn about the audience from them? What gets people most engaged or enthusiastic? What is the most popular content?

• Where do writers similar to you appear—both in real life and online? What events do they attend? Look at their social media activity: what does it say about who their readership is? As you follow the digital breadcrumbs, a picture will start to emerge of the community the writer is engaging and how you can reach it, too.

• If you consider yourself part of the target audience you’re trying to reach, study your own habits and how you discover new work. Is it by reading mainstream publications? Through social media? From a literary newsletter? From podcasts? (Be careful, though, of assuming your habits are everyone’s habits. Just because you hate receiving email newsletters or listening to podcasts doesn’t mean others do.)

• Try using the online marketing tool SparkToro (which will likely cost you a modest fee) to look for people, publications, podcasts, and other information related to keyword phrases associated with your work. Or plug in your comparable authors and see what communities they are affiliated with.

As you conduct this research, soak in the language and concerns of the audience or community. Thoughtful marketing requires engaging your audience in a way that will resonate, which means speaking their language. Here are good examples of creators with a well-defined target audience:

• Ted Gioia. A well-established nonfiction author, Ted Gioia started a Substack newsletter in 2021 called The Honest Broker. Best known for his expertise on jazz and culture, Gioia offers timely and consistent commentary on the arts in his newsletter. His mission: to offer reliable guidance to a sophisticated audience seeking smart arts coverage, at time when such coverage is dwindling in traditional outlets.

• Leslye Penelope. In the mid-2010s, Penelope started her career by self-publishing a fantasy series that ultimately won her major national awards, starting with one from the Black caucus of the American Library Association. Today, she produces multiple series and mixes both traditional publishing and self-publishing—but a few things have remained constant: her works have fantastical elements, and she continues to be popular with librarians and library users. On her website (https://lpenelope.com), she shares ten things about herself, including that she has a tattoo that quotes The Matrix—plus another tattoo with a quote from Octavia Butler’s journal—and that her favorite childhood movie was The Neverending Story. She runs two podcasts, one called “My Imaginary Friends” and the other “Ink and Magic.” Just glancing at her online presence gives you a strong idea of who enjoys her work and whom she’s appealing to. It’s a remarkable work of author branding because she tells you clearly, in words and in imagery, what she stands for.1

• Paco de Leon. De Leon runs a bookkeeping agency, and since 2016, she has freely shared what she knows about money and finances through a podcast and a newsletter. She focuses on those who feel ignored by conventional guidance on finances and are navigating inequitable systems—including creative people who have an uncomfortable relationship with money. Her book is Finance for the People: Getting a Grip on Your Finances, published by Penguin Life in February 2022.

The Marketing Funnel and Lead Generation

Once you know who is in your target audience and how and where you can likely reach them, that’s half the battle. The other half is delivering stuff they enjoy (and that you enjoy creating, let’s hope) and ensuring that you’ve developed a funnel around it. In the film Glengarry Glen Ross, in a scene made famous by Alec Baldwin’s performance, a group of underperforming salesmen is lectured on how to become “closers.” On the chalkboard—next to “Always Be Closing”—is written the following:

A—Attention

I—Interest

D—Decision (or Desire)

A—Action

This is a sales funnel. Most writers don’t like to think of themselves as salespeople, yet anytime we’re active on social media, or doing something to market and promote our work, we’re attracting attention or building interest and desire. Taking action (to spend money or time) becomes more likely once people have heard of you. While it sounds obvious, it bears stating: a prior relationship makes a sale more likely. This is one of the reasons social media is so valuable—it’s a relationship builder and develops familiarity and trust.

At the top of the funnel (the widest part) is where you find the largest number of potential customers or leads, people who have been “qualified” in some way, but it’s also where you find the weakest relationships. For writers, this category might describe a large number of your social media followers, or someone who has read one of your articles for free but hasn’t purchased a book or paid for a subscription. As you move down the funnel, the number of people decreases (some lose interest or lack commitment) until there’s just a handful who take action—usually, that action involves making a purchase. Getting people to act almost always requires a specific “call to action,” which writers sometimes feel uncomfortable issuing because it puts them in the role of salesperson. Sometimes a call to action may be a sales-driven message—“Please support my Kickstarter!”—whereas other times it’s an offer of something for free. As soon as you do that, you’re starting to develop a content strategy, a topic we’ll return to later in this section.

There are entire professions focused on improving the effectiveness of such funnels, particularly for improving conversion rates. Conversion refers to the percentage of people who ultimately take a specific, desired action. Most conversion rates are very low—in the single digits. But improving a conversion rate by even a tiny amount can mean a lot more earnings. When you’re working online, it’s almost always possible to measure the effectiveness of each effort. For example: Did my posts on such-and-such social media network affect my email newsletter sign-ups? Did my podcast episode on X lead to more paying clients? Did this discount or free offer that I mentioned in my newsletter affect book sales? And so on. By paying attention to what moves the needle, you can improve your efforts next time.

Here’s an example of one of my funnels:

Attention. A writer searches online for how to get a book published and finds my blog post on the topic.

Interest. The writer reads the post and perhaps a few related posts at my site.

Desire. The writer sees my book referenced, with a starred review from Library Journal, and desires further guidance.

Action. The writer makes a purchase on Amazon.

In this particular funnel, I use free content (my blog posts) to attract attention through search engine results—to reach people who search online for answers to questions about publishing. Here’s another funnel:

Attention. Based on a friend’s recommendation, someone subscribes to my free email newsletter for writers.

Interest. They learn from the newsletter that I’m offering a class on social media.

Desire. On my website, they read testimonials from past students that motivate them to fill a gap in their skill set.

Action. They register for the class at my site.

In this funnel, I again use free content (an email newsletter) to attract attention, which this time requires having someone’s email address. This is a highly qualified type of lead, more so than a social media contact. This person is sufficiently interested in hearing from me that they’ve given me their email address. My conversion rate on email is much higher than my conversion rate on social media. (In Glengarry Glen Ross, the low-performing salesmen are denied the high-quality “Glengarry leads” because those are reserved for “closers,” or the more talented salespeople.)

What about funnels for writers of fiction, poetry, or narrative writing? The same principles apply. Suppose you’re a poet with a newly published collection of love poems:

Attention. A potential reader notices people in the literary community sharing an article you wrote.

Interest. They click and read your article about the history of love poetry at a literary website; your bio mentions your newsletter focused on the history of poetry.

Desire. The potential reader checks out your newsletter and sees that it’s read and recommended by other poets they like (because you have their testimonials on your sign-up page). The reader decides to follow you and get to know you better, enjoying what you write.

Action. The reader subscribes and later becomes a patron when you make your next appeal for support.

Here’s a funnel for a novelist (who may or may not have a new novel out):

Attention. A potential reader hears about a great podcast that you host, which focuses on conversations with underrepresented graphic novelists.

Interest. They listen to a recent episode focused on a graphic novelist they already know and like, and then they decide to subscribe.

Desire. They look forward to each new episode and don’t want the podcast to end.

Action. They support your crowdfunding campaign to produce the next season of your podcast. (Or maybe they work at a publishing house, and they decide their employer needs to become a sponsor of your podcast!)

Many writers wonder how they can get more people to sign up for their newsletter, or get more patrons, but have spent no time or effort considering how to get people’s attention in the first place. Free content is the number-one way to attract attention, especially online. It is the currency of the web—it’s what gets shared, talked about, and acted on. Content includes not only writing (articles and blog posts) but also anything else that can be liked, shared, or engaged with, such as social media posts, images, podcasts, videos, and SlideShare material. My earlier funnel examples show content strategy in action.

Content strategy—as a way to gain visibility and market yourself—is not about giving away your stuff for free. Rather, it’s an approach to creating and distributing work so that it reaches and develops a paying readership. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a blog was considered the linchpin of any content strategy. Blogs have fallen out of favor, but content that’s available for free online still remains the focal point of many strategies. Content strategies are most effective when they mix free and paid content. For example, one common rule of thumb for paid newsletter writers is to make their best and most popular content available for free and to put the serious, nitty-gritty content behind the paywall—for the most devoted and serious readers. A good example: Casey Newton’s Platformer. Podcasters might make all episodes free, but people have to pay to access transcripts, special resources, or other perks that are kept behind a paywall or in a separate publication.

Some of this activity falls squarely under platform building (described in part 2) and may not be intended to earn income in and of itself. By engaging in this activity, you’re strongly associating yourself with a specific thing in a specific community; you are building, in effect, a brand for yourself, or an expectation of what you offer and deliver. But any time you gather an enthusiastic audience, there’s potential for income. Literary agent Sarah Nicolas started a weekly newsletter during the COVID-19 pandemic to help people keep track of virtual events for writers (https://sarahnicolas.substack.com); it was so popular that she kept it going and now has sponsors that pay for placement.

Writing for “Exposure” and Lead Generation

Writing for “exposure” is just another way of talking about lead generation—except that working for exposure has a bad reputation across the creative professions. In the writing community in particular, it’s seen as exploitative and devaluing of the cultural work writers do. But everything depends on context. Writing for free is not intrinsically bad, and neither is writing for exposure. Demonizing every instance of “writing for exposure” does a disservice to writers whose best and most ready tool for establishing their careers may be, in fact, writing for free. If such activity leads to paying work (if it is successful lead generation), then it’s a smart move. If it leads to insufficient career opportunities, then it should be abandoned.

Even established writers may write for exposure, typically to support book promotion. Writers in demand may be able to score twice: they can get paid for their writing and use it to promote a new book. At other times, though, a well-known writer may work for less than usual, or for free, to reach a new audience or further some larger goal.

To be clear, this discussion isn’t meant to excuse editors or publishers who seek high-quality writing for free; the truth is, most publications get exactly what they pay for. There is a very wide spectrum of legitimate publishing practice, and whereas writers may choose not to work with publications that don’t pay—so as not to encourage that model—as long as writing supply outpaces demand, the practice will continue. I don’t believe the value of writing is approaching zero, or that it’s meant to be distributed for free or as a gift. However, some writing does indeed have a market value of zero; the reason may be general, because there’s more supply than demand, or because neither readers nor publishers are willing to pay for the particular product. Writers can avoid frustration by not trying to sell something of low perceived value in the marketplace, especially if their name holds no weight. In such instances, it can make more sense to employ patronage (grants, fellowships, crowdfunding) for support.

Successful lead generation requires writing and sharing things emblematic of you and your work that have the potential to reach a large or influential audience. I like to call such things “cheese cubes”—a tasty sample of what you’re capable of producing.2 The people who become most invested will want the premium cheese basket: the highest-value offering you have, customized just for them. Publishing expert Richard Nash often talks of how each writer has a “demand curve.” At one end of the curve, you offer something for free to the largest possible audience; at the other end, you provide something that’s expensive to a small number of individuals.3 Writers need to envision their entire demand curve, and all the potential price points for the work they do, not just the part of the curve that’s most obvious (the book sale, the freelance article fee). What could you charge $0.99 for, and how many people would show up at that price? What could you charge $4.99 for? What could you charge $1,000.00 for? This exploratory thinking gets you outside of the conventional ways writers have earned a living and into territory that will more likely benefit how you need and want to work to earn a livelihood.

The bottom line: it’s smart for writers to make some amount of content available for free—whether through their own platform, social media, or publications—as part of a strategy of continually generating leads. These lead generation activities won’t work well, however, without due diligence on other aspects of your platform. For example, lack of an author website can prevent leads from contacting you, while cryptic social media profiles that don’t even use your real name can hamper your efforts.

The Quantifiable Things You’ll Want to Know

To improve your abilities across the board and know what’s working, track and measure the following when possible.

• How do new people find your work? Aside from simply publishing more material for people to enjoy and share, your sources of new readership will fall into about half a dozen categories, including author website traffic from search engines, social media sharing, email newsletter reach, and referrals from other media or individuals. There’s also word of mouth from countless online communities, in-person events, online classes, and one-on-one sharing. There’s a reason why businesses ask how you heard about them—it helps them focus on what actually works to bring in new people.

• What is your most popular work? Just about every platform imaginable will give you figures about how often something was clicked, read, listened to, and so on. Pay attention to what performs and what sinks. If you’re working with an online publisher, ask it for metrics to help you understand how readers found your piece or how much attention it received.

• What converts well? Some platforms tell you how good a specific effort was at converting into a subscription, sale, or e-commerce transaction. If they don’t, you can always track it yourself by using tracking links or link shorteners to help uncover what’s working. Link shorteners are unique links that you can track indefinitely; they tell you how many times your links are clicked and from where. It’s ideal to get in the habit of using link shorteners with important efforts, even if you aren’t actively measuring your success, to build up a repository of statistics on how well your links perform over time. One of the most popular link-shortening services is Bitly.

Is Social Media Use Mandatory?

The short answer is no. But it will be slower or more challenging to build your business without it, plus you will cut off significant opportunities if you entirely exclude it from your collection of tools. While many people consider social media a marketing and promotion tool, it is just as much a creative writing and publishing tool. Each post shares a tiny bit of a story, message, or perspective. Social media posts can spark or contribute to a larger work, as in the case of Roxane Gay, whose posts on Tumblr about eating healthier and finding a tolerable form of exercise led to a book deal with Harper for Hunger. Because social media work is usually, by default, in the public eye, it’s an excellent form of lead generation. Sharing aspects of your work in public for free can help you gain insight into how your audience thinks and engages with your work, which can inspire more excitement and enthusiasm to pursue a project—and enlighten you as to market demand.

Social media doesn’t have to feel like a drag if you shift your perspective; rather than seeing it as isolated from (if not competing with) your writing work, it can be approached as a creative practice that shares aspects of it, as it takes shape. Austin Kleon, in Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, argues for the benefits of such activity: “If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.” Doing so isn’t necessarily about self-promotion. By using your voice, and using it more often, you find it. “Talk about the things you love,” Kleon urges. “Your voice will follow.”4

Whatever goals you have, meaningful social media activity can draw on the same creativity and imagination that fuels your “serious” work. And if not, it can provide a much-needed break from it. In an interview, I asked Richard Nash how he responds to writers who say, more or less, “I just want to write,” undistracted by what they see as trivial “sharing” activities online. He said, “No one wants to just sit and write! Even [Samuel] Beckett didn’t want to just sit and write—seriously! If Beckett [winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature] can’t abide just sitting down and writing, then any writer can find emotional and cultural stimulation by engaging with society. The two are not mutually exclusive.”5 (For more thoughts on social media and how it functions as part of your career, see chapter 7.)

Parting Thoughts

No matter how much time and energy you spend on providing value or engaging with readers, what you offer at first may fail to attract people willing to pay, or who lose interest. If you’re in a highly competitive space, if you’re new to a community, or if your target audience is challenging to reach online, you may struggle. And some categories of work are notoriously difficult to monetize (e.g., personal essay) unless you have a following because of prior publications or visibility.

For these and other reasons, each writer will be different as to how they best generate leads. Some will pursue writing for free or perhaps start a blog, others will do better with social media, and another group may excel by participating at networking events. The challenge isn’t a lack of opportunities to generate leads but the average writer’s lack of time, patience, or stamina. Some areas, like email newsletters, take months or years to pay off—it’s rarely a quick win—and not all lead generation will be successful, so tolerance for failure is necessary. I would have considered my blogging or social media use a failure had I stopped after the first eighteen months. But I stuck with both because I genuinely enjoyed the activities, and they paid off as essential building blocks to my livelihood as a writer.

As the Zanders discuss in The Art of Possibility, we can fail to see opportunities right in front of us because we’re focused on the shortcomings of the system—maybe we find it exploitative or antithetical to our values.6 But abundance for writers exists out there, if you can frame the situation so that you see yourself as a proactive player on a path to writing success, not someone passively waiting to be discovered.

Exercise: Learn More about Copywriting

Most writers haven’t been taught any copywriting skills in school and don’t even know what copywriting is. Copywriting is anything you write to help market or promote something—or to get someone to take action. Pitching is a form of copywriting, as is (at least in some respects) writing your bio. Copywriting isn’t about convincing everyone to do what you ask, but rather about convincing those who are a great match for what you’re selling. Good copywriting skills benefit you at every level of your career, since great copy is needed for populating your website, filling out grant and fellowship applications, promoting events, and basically selling your services. Browse the posts available for free from Copyblogger—a site devoted to copywriting skills. What headlines catch your eye? What tips might be helpful to you immediately?

28 : Patronage

Crowdfunding and Donations

Regardless of what, how, or where you publish, patronage has become a growing and popular means for authors to sustain their careers. Patronage, in the context of this discussion, is all about direct reader support, whether through a one-time crowdfunding campaign or recurring donations. While readers may receive a direct benefit from supporting you—like your latest book or story, plus other perks—usually there is a strong component of simply wanting to support an artist or creator no matter what is received in exchange. Two of the most well-known platforms for facilitating patronage are Kickstarter (for crowdfunding) and Patreon (for donations).

Successful patronage requires a writer to mobilize an existing community or fan base—it’s unlikely that total strangers will turn out to support your work. So how do you develop such a foundation? Typically, years of effort go into developing visibility, an existing readership, or at least a professional network. In other words, it’s a strategy most appropriate for someone with a decent platform or who can spread the word effectively through people who do have a platform. (Part 2 of this book covers platform development.)

Is Crowdfunding Right for You?

Crowdfunding is best for projects with an easily defined and specific end point; people feel more comfortable supporting projects that have tangible goals. If your project is open-ended in duration, then a recurring donations model might be a better fit.

If you don’t use social media, or if you feel uncomfortable directly asking people for money, then you may not have a successful campaign unless you can enlist other people to do the asking for you. Most crowdfunding campaigns last thirty days, and each and every one of those days needs to be spent spreading the word about your project and asking people for money. It can’t just happen once at the start of the campaign and once at the end. Most donors will need to see your appeal several times before it even registers that you’re asking—and not only that, they will likely also need to be personally approached via email or social media and asked to donate. For some writers, this produces so much psychological distress that it’s not worth the reward.

Your campaign will run more smoothly if the marketing tools you’re using are thoroughly familiar to you, and if you have established networks in place. For example, if you start posting on social media only for the sake of your crowdfunding campaign, or start engaging in activities that are completely out of the ordinary for you, it’s not likely to go well. You’ll burn up a lot of time getting accustomed to the tools, bolstering your skills, or fostering new relationships, and quite possibly the community will resent you for showing up only to ask for money.

If you decide to proceed, one of your first decisions will be what type of crowdfunding campaign you’ll run:

• Win it all or lose it all. This is the classic Kickstarter model: if you reach the dollar goal that you set, you receive the full amount, minus fees (around 8–10 percent). If you don’t reach the goal, you receive nothing.

• Receive what you raise. In this scenario, if you don’t reach your goal, you still receive the amount you raised, but the administrative fees are higher. Indiegogo is one of the biggest players in this space.

So why would anyone choose the “all or nothing” model? Interestingly, studies show that campaigns are more successful under that model—it tends to spur more donations and support, not to mention more commitment from the person running the campaign.

Launching a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

With the classic Kickstarter model, the number-one factor in whether you reach your goal is whether you were smart about setting that goal in the first place. It seems obvious, but many people plug in a “nice to have” or otherwise arbitrary number that isn’t based on a realistic calculation of what they might hope to raise given their current resources or network.

Crowdfunding experts typically recommend that you look at the size of your email list and the number of people you reach via social media to determine how much you’re likely to raise. Depending on your average engagement, you can expect a 5 to 10 percent response rate on an email list with a good open rate, and around a 1 percent response rate on social media. That means if you have a following of one thousand people on social media, you might get ten people to donate over a thirty-day campaign. Those using email service providers should factor in their list’s average open and click rates, which will help you with accurate projections. Plan on a median pledge amount of roughly twenty to twenty-five dollars per person.

Before the crowdfunding campaign even begins, you should have a few benefactors lined up who will make donations within the first day after launch—your mom, your best friends, your mentor—whoever would be most likely to offer enthusiastic seed money to the effort. This starting amount, if pledged immediately, inspires confidence for others who will encounter your appeal. Research shows that campaigns that reach 40 percent of their funding goal within the first day are far more likely to succeed.1 Yet there are many other factors that encourage people to donate, including the description of your project (the marketing copy), a campaign video, rewards for various donation levels, and your ability to persuade influencers to spread the word.

In 2022, author Brandon Sanderson launched a Kickstarter campaign that became the most successful in Kickstarter’s history, earning more than $40 million in a month’s time.2 But Sanderson is no ordinary author; he had already been running his own successful midsize publishing company for years (and also had a previous, successful Kickstarter campaign under his belt). While Sanderson traditionally publishes his work, he also self-publishes and has spent many years interacting with his fans at conventions and online. Ultimately, the four novels that he published first for his Kickstarter supporters were later released by his traditional publisher, giving Sanderson multiple streams of revenue from publishing the same work.

A more typical (and achievable) Kickstarter campaign example can be found from Joanna Penn, an indie novelist and podcaster in the United Kingdom who decided to crowdfund her travel memoir in 2023. Penn had self-published dozens of books at this point in her career and certainly had the money to self-fund new projects, but she used crowdfunding as a means of selling directly to readers and prior to release, which gives her more profit on each sale because no retailer or distributor is taking a cut. Nearly seven hundred people backed the memoir, together pledging more than £25,000 (equivalent to about $31,000).3 That equates to a typical advance from a New York–based commercial publisher for an average (noncelebrity) nonfiction author.

Are Donations Right for You?

If crowdfunding sounds difficult and time-consuming, that’s because it is. And, as indicated earlier, it’s not appropriate for every type of project. Sometimes, it’s better to pursue donations, whether passively (e.g., add a “tip jar” to your site or newsletter) or more actively as part of a formal program, like Patreon.

As a stellar example of a donations-driven operation, Maria Popova of Marginalia sustains herself through a combination of donations and affiliate marketing. At her site and in her newsletter, readers are encouraged to donate on an ongoing monthly basis or to make a one-time donation. And she calls her donors “patrons,” making them feel that they’re supporting an important artistic endeavor or cause, not just paying for content.

Literally anyone can put a “donate” button on their site or newsletter by signing up for a PayPal account or joining Substack. It takes little effort, but just having a button doesn’t mean the donations will start rolling in; most writers must be actively posting or distributing content, as in the case of Popova. You can expect the amount of donations to be strongly tied to your website traffic, newsletter subscriber numbers, or overall visibility online.

A more formal way to go about collecting donations is via Patreon. While it takes a cut of donations (about 10 percent), it’s a useful platform because it can show the cumulative amount of money that’s been donated, which helps persuade others to join the circle of support. To encourage donations, you can offer perks or rewards to donors, similar to what’s done through crowdfunding. A scan of successful Patreon users will quickly generate ideas about what’s attractive: early access to your work, exclusive chats, personalized postcards, signed bookplates, and so on. But don’t assume you have to offer big rewards. Most authors will tell you that the author-patron relationship is rarely a transactional one; your fans may not be all that interested in having “things,” but rather in supporting your work. (Crowdfunding campaigns, on the other hand, can be far more transactional in nature, where you’re on the hook to deliver a project, like a book, by a certain date.) Either way, it’s important to treat your fans well and, when appropriate, give them early or exclusive access not available to anyone else. If you don’t know what your fans will get excited about, ask them. Successful patronage efforts involve open and regular communication between author and reader.

Patreon can hold particular appeal for those who write short fiction, poetry, and literary works that are hard to sell or monetize in the traditional literary journal markets, where such work might earn a couple hundred dollars, if that. As part of a patronage effort, such work can be worth much more. Patreon’s Creator Census indicates that, on average, creators using the platform are making over 40 percent of their income through patrons.4 Science fiction and fantasy author Kameron Hurley started on Patreon in 2015; she has hundreds of paid supporters who collectively pay her more than $2,000 per short story. And some people use Patreon to support their book writing, as in the case of literary novelist Monica Byrne, who has relied on patrons since 2016 to help her create art. But to be successful on Patreon, writers must bring their own patrons. Byrne launched her Patreon effort around the time her first traditionally published novel came out, when publicity attention was high and people were interested in supporting her. Support doesn’t come out of thin air.

Despite the time commitment that platforms like Patreon might demand, the funds you raise can contribute to a quality-of-life difference. While few writers would say it amounts to a full-time living, that’s not to say it’s unachievable. Author N. K. Jemisin famously launched her Patreon specifically to replace her day job salary so she could write more—and she has been successful in doing so, taking advantage of her visibility as a traditionally published and award-winning author.

Parting Thoughts

To avoid potential burnout and clarify one’s purpose, it’s best to consider whether you’re launching an effort that’s more about gathering patron support or entering into a transactional relationship. For a patronage-leaning effort, people will be mostly motivated to pledge money because they wish to support you, your work, or your mission. Whether you provide anything tangible in the exchange is secondary—welcome, but not a determining factor in continued support. This is not permission, however, to take the money and disappear. Patronage requires regular communication, as indicated earlier, even if that communication involves bad news. For example, if you fall ill, have a setback, need to care for loved ones, or simply can’t make progress for any reason, honesty and transparency with your patrons is best. They’re the ones most likely to understand and extend grace, as long as you’re not silent or hiding out for long stretches without explanation.

If your work isn’t commercial in nature, patronage can be a smarter strategy than pursuing traditional publishing avenues because your fans are more likely to offer money where market-oriented publishers will not. Your appeal to patrons, in fact, might be based on the noncommercial nature of your work.

Transactional models, like subscription newsletters, build an expectation in your readers of receiving something regularly in exchange for payment. If you’re focused on providing value or a service, then your relationship with readers becomes increasingly transactional, and people will decide to continue if the value is there. Courtney Maum, for example, offers a Substack newsletter that’s published on a regular schedule, with special opportunities for paid subscribers. Her newsletter is for writers and offers writing and publishing advice; if writers no longer need the advice, they’re not likely to remain subscribed.

There can be considerable overlap between patronage and transactional approaches. Still, knowing which way you lean will help you write the best possible marketing copy and establish the right expectations for your readers—and for yourself.

Exercise: Study Crowdfunding Projects

Publishing projects posted on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and BackerKit are as diverse and varied as writers themselves. Go peruse what’s currently raising funds on any of these platforms. Browse by popularity and see who’s succeeding. Look for clues for why their campaign is successful. Is the author already well-known or published? Does the project target a specific interest community?

29 : Newsletters, Blogging, and Subscriptions

In the late 2010s, Substack—a platform that makes it easy for anyone to start a paid email newsletter—became one of the most buzzed-about start-ups in the media. Its stated purpose: to allow independent creators to generate income directly from readers, on their own terms. Well-known writers, such as Andrew Sullivan, Anne Helen Petersen, and Jami Attenberg, started newsletters on Substack. And so did some small publishers and other businesses.

The attraction of Substack is partly its simplicity and how easy it is to launch a paid newsletter without any special technical skills. It doesn’t require you to have your own website, figure out e-commerce functionality, or cobble together multiple tools. It’s easy to determine what content will be free or stay behind a paywall, and even though it’s ostensibly an email newsletter service, all content ends up available on your own Substack-based website, with a comments section, unless you decide to suppress it. In effect, the platform has blurred the lines between email newsletters and blogs. In fact, Substack might as well be considered blogging with automatic email delivery built right in. No more worrying if your blog posts will be seen on social media, assuming your readers are willing to hand over their email address to automatically receive the posts. In exchange, Substack takes 10 percent of any subscription fees you generate, plus you’ll fork over about 3 percent for payment processing. For free newsletters, Substack charges nothing.

Substack first attracted people deep inside their communities or industries who frequently issue written commentary and opinion. Those who succeed often come to it with a large public presence or access to a large pool of potential subscribers. For example, George Saunders launched a Substack newsletter called Story Club to explore the way short stories work; he has more than 100,000 subscribers. Emma Gannon, a nonfiction author and novelist, has a very popular offering called The Hyphen.

A longtime user of Substack in the literary community is Ann Kjellberg, who was on the editorial staff of the New York Review of Books from 1988 to 2017. Since spring 2018, she’s published Book Post, charging $45 per year or $6 per month. When she launched, she already had a mailing list she’d been working on for a number of years, plus a modest following on social media, so that’s where her first subscribers came from. Today, she says, people usually learn about Book Post through social media or when it’s mentioned by someone in a newsletter or article. But it’s been harder to get subscribers over time, she says: “The game is to get followers who become unpaid subscribers and convince them to pay. It’s still not clear to me the extent to which people pay in a [patronage] spirit—I support you and your project—as opposed to regular readers/consumers.”1

Over time, more and more people have joined Substack because it offers a social media layer called Notes, in tandem with a powerful recommendation system. These features make it far easier to grow a following within the Substack community than if you are starting outside it. But ultimately, running an income-generating Substack newsletter ends up being the same as running any income-generating subscription, whether it takes the form of a newsletter, paywalled website or blog, or premium podcast. Substack is merely a tool; it’s not a business model, and it doesn’t have magical qualities that make it easier to get readers to pay. WordPress websites and blogs can be built to support a subscription or membership business, although it requires more technical know-how to get started. Ghost, a content management system and website builder that’s comparable to both WordPress and Substack, is another solution that’s creator friendly (but not free). More options come onto the market, and leave the market, every year. What’s important for success isn’t so much the tools you choose but how well you’ve thought through the readers you wish to reach (covered in chapter 27) and your ability to provide them with desirable content.

The Principles of Successful Online Writing

Whatever you want to call it—blog, Substack, email newsletter, or something else—online writing will be with us for the foreseeable future. To be successful at generating an income, it should have its own unique reason for being and not be considered “less than” your other writing. Blogs truly written as blogs do not aspire to be books. Newsletters shouldn’t be treated as a backup distribution method for your unpublishable novel or memoir. Avoid using online platforms as a dumping ground for material that was rejected elsewhere; that’s not strategic and is only likely to undercut your efforts.

Online writing is meant for online reading. That means being aware of people’s tendency to skim (and not getting mad about it), using good headlines and subheads, and adding visual and interactive content (comments, images, multimedia, links). A headline or title that works well in print may not work as well in an online environment, where the piece may be seen or distributed out of context. Furthermore, headlines do better when they make use of keywords to help search engines and other platforms accurately identify the nature of the content and surface the article in relevant searches. This is known as search engine optimization, or SEO.

Producing online-first or online-only content outside the boundaries of known and trusted media outlets carries special considerations. First, there can be differences in reader engagement. The reader who clicks on a social media link to visit an unknown destination is often less motivated and has a shorter attention span than the reader of a well-known source. Plus an online visitor may not know much about you, your credentials, or why they should trust you, making them less likely to stick around unless they’re captivated by what you have to say. Except for a loyal follower, an online visitor typically speeds through whatever new thing is in front of them until they see a reason to slow down (and sometimes not even the loyal will slow down). However, if they do slow down, a highly engaged person who finishes your piece is valuable, if you know how to funnel that attention appropriately (as described in chapter 27).

Online writing shouldn’t take place in a vacuum where you pretend you’re the only one writing on a topic. One of the biggest benefits of writing and publishing yourself online is being seen by others and shared by others. And the best way to get their attention is to reference their work and be in dialogue with them. The term community gets emphasized frequently in this space, and for good reason: without some sense of the community you’re engaging with, and acknowledgment of other voices (and that includes your readers and their comments), you might be on an island that no one wants to visit.

Online writing tends to be straightforward for nonfiction writers, less so for novelists. How-to authors have it the easiest of all, especially if they’re teaching workshops or regularly interacting with their target readership. Such people probably know off the top of their heads the questions they’re asked most frequently and the problems that surface again and again for their community. This is invaluable fodder for a blog or newsletter. However, with a little creativity and imagination, fiction writers can have successful blogs and newsletters as well, whether by focusing on literary citizenship activities and curation or by knowing how to entertain their readership with online content that ties into their creative work.

For a strong effort, consider how can you bring your own voice or perspective to a topic, theme, or subject matter without repeating what’s already out there—something that’s easier said than done. It took me eighteen months to find the right angle for myself—to realize I do best when I focus on publishing industry trends and business topics for authors. With a focused angle or a specific audience, it will be easier to attract attention and build a community around common interests or perspectives.

In the beginning, consistency is critical, and some of the foundational and technical aspects of starting an email newsletter specifically were discussed in chapter 7. Especially if you want to see earnings, you must make a commitment to see a payoff. And there are two types of consistency:

1. Frequency. The lower the frequency, the more you may struggle to gain traction because you’ll have fewer opportunities to be discovered, learn what works, improve your skills, and show off your value. Keep in mind the lower your frequency, the higher the quality that each and every effort needs to be. Once you become more established and build up an audience, it’s easier to pull back on frequency for a lot of reasons: you have an archive of content that you hope is always being discovered by someone new, you enjoy significant sharing and visibility with each new piece, and you’ve already gained trust with your readers. High frequency would be daily; emailing this often is rarely necessary or desirable unless your goal is to analyze current events or hot topics. One to three times a week is a good frequency to shoot for when you’re starting out. If you only write and publish monthly, your effort may never gain much momentum, at least as something income generating. It could still be valuable as a platform-building effort, however, as discussed in chapter 7.

2. Subject matter. If you look at a month’s worth of content, it should convey a strong message about what you write about and whom your work is for. A potential reader should be able to tell easily if they will benefit from or enjoy your material on an ongoing basis. Authors can have trouble staying focused and disciplined in this way, often because they get bored or they think readers will get bored. But again, it’s hard to gain traction if you’re switching it up all the time and not consistent.

If you’re interested in online writing but worry about the time commitment, consider creating a multicontributor blog or newsletter, where several authors in the same genre (or targeting similar audiences) band together. That can reduce the burden as well as increase the size of your audience starting out since more people will be marketing and promoting.

Building a Readership

People might have to see you sharing or discussing your online writing for months before they actually read something. This isn’t necessarily through any fault of your own; there’s an incredible amount of noise online, and there are enormous demands on everybody’s attention. But if you make a steady series of impressions over a long period on the same topic, it should start to click: oh, this person is regularly covering this topic. That’s why frequency and consistency are so important.

The more time you spend on online writing, the more value you potentially build for readers and the more readers will find you. Your efforts ought to snowball. Even if it seems like no one is reading, commenting, or sharing, assume they are. Only about 10 percent of your readers (or even fewer) will make themselves known to you or engage, so it takes a while to spot concrete indications of growing activity or interest.

Before you start, identify the key people already active in your area—we might call them influencers, but they should be people you can feasibly build a relationship with. Start reading and sharing their content, or comment in public if possible. Rather than see them as competitors, consider them community members who may become collaborators and supporters of your work. If your work is of high quality and it generates conversation in the community, eventually it’s likely that those key people will recommend you or send you traffic by linking to your posts. So identify the notable players, or the people who you’ll want to build relationships with over time.

Here are a few tactics for building readership and visibility in the early days.

• Create guides on popular topics. If you’re a nonfiction writer, then doing this probably comes naturally: put together a beginner’s guide, a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs), or a tutorial related to your topic or expertise—something people often ask you about. If you’re a novelist, this tactic may require some creative thinking. If your book is strongly regional, create an insider’s guide or travel guide to the region. Or think about other themes in your work that could inspire something fun: a collection of recipes; a character’s favorite books, movies, or music; or research and resources that were essential for completing your work. If you have a strong avocational pursuit (or past profession) that influences your novels, create FAQs or guides for the curious.

• Create a list of favorite reads by category or genre, by mood, or by occasion. Tie into current events or “look-alike” media whenever you can; for example, if you write romance and you know your readers love Bridgerton, create a list of books that fans of the show might enjoy reading.

• Create regular lists or roundups. A popular way to make people aware of your work is to link to others’ work. If you do this in a helpful way, it’s a win for you, for your readers, and for the sites you send traffic to. You can create lists or roundups on any theme or category that interests you enough to remain dedicated, enthusiastic, and consistent for the long haul.

• Run interviews. Believe it or not, it’s rare to come across an informed, thoughtful, and careful interviewer and interview series. (Too many interviews are rote and without surprises, where both sides have “phoned it in.”) Think about themes, hooks, or angles for a series of interviews, bearing in mind that a well-researched, high-quality interview requires an investment of time from all involved. An interview series also offers you an excellent way to build your network and community relationships, which pays off in the long run. One of my favorite interviews of all time was with a site called Drinking Diaries (sadly, no longer online), which was about the intersection of the writing life and booze. No one had ever asked me about the topic before, and it was a refreshing change of pace. (The site later became a collection of essays by the same name; I’m a contributor.)

• Be a guest on other relevant sites. Whenever you guest post or appear on another website or newsletter, it’s an opportunity to have multiple links back to your own site and social media accounts. Contributing and benefiting from a meaningful post means pitching outlets that have bigger readerships than yours and represent a good match for your work. If you’re not the type to write guest posts, then consider proactively offering yourself up to be interviewed as part of others’ interview series. Any time you make an appearance on another site, promote the interview on your own social media accounts and link to it from your own site or newsletter.

• Repurpose. Full-time creators typically repurpose (reuse, revise, or repackage) content in strategic ways to take advantage of birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and other current events. Sometimes the original content can be shared as is; other times, it’s lightly updated. For example, the New Yorker publishes roundups of its own pieces at the end of each calendar year, such as “The Top Twenty-Five New Yorker Stories of 2024” or “Eight Times Science Exceeded Expectations in 2022.” Its staff writers also write blog posts with fresh analyses or updates whenever people or events from their articles show up again in the news cycle.

Increasing Paid Subscriptions or Memberships

Subscriptions or memberships, while well suited to the digital age, are business practices that have been with us for centuries. And the principles of making them work haven’t changed that much over the years. It’s difficult to start by asking people to pay without offering a free sample or trial period of some kind. And today, most creators will publish for free for quite a long time to build up a content archive and free following that will later be monetized. Even the most established creators tend to make at least one offering available for free on a regular basis to help attract new readers. And big, established publications like the New York Times have leaky paywalls that allow some free reading without payment.

What’s the difference between a subscription and membership? Subscriptions tend to be straightforward pay-for-content transactions, where people are interested in obtaining value or benefit from your content. In other words: the content has to be compelling and worth paying for. “Membership” is a more community- and relationship-focused approach, akin to patronage (discussed in chapter 28), that encourages levels of support that go beyond paying for a specific piece of content at a specific price. Membership engenders the notion of joining and supporting a community, a movement, or a philosophy, not just an individual or a publication. Individual writers can be successful with either membership programs or subscription plans. In fact, the lines between being a “member,” a “subscriber,” or a “donor” or “patron” are quite blurry. Sometimes the differences are a question of marketing or positioning. Either way, launching a successful paid program requires an in-depth understanding of your target readership and what kind of benefits these readers would desire and consider meaningful. Common benefits for paying members might include not just access to premium content but also exclusive ability to comment or discuss articles with other members, special access to you (e.g., through monthly Zoom calls), virtual or in-person community gatherings, additional bonus content, and early access to new material.

For writers who can’t seem to get people to pay for their online material: don’t despair. The visibility alone can be valuable for marketing books and services, and it can even attract new gigs or job offers. But even then, it requires patience and consistency over months and years, and it’s not quite the same as writing for paid publication. It may take a long time before you see a meaningful connection between your online writing and your monthly or annual income.

Parting Thoughts

Online writing has long been its own art form, even if it’s not well recognized by literary institutions. Here is Megan Marz on the unfortunate reality for writers whose primary body of work is produced online:

We have trend pieces about platforms used for writing; posts that aggregate other posts; news stories about things people say and do online; novels, poems, and memoirs that would not exist without having germinated on the internet. But the literary qualities of online writing remain mostly invisible to U.S. literary institutions—even as countless people read it—until the moment it becomes a book.

And, of course, much of it never does. For 30 years, writers have been using blogs, social media, and email to do things with words that are difficult or impossible to do inside books. They have immersed us in stories still unfolding, created personas that interact with readers, woven their writing into inboxes and feeds, and used code to write at a distance. The public record of literature in the 21st century is full of gaping holes where these things should be. The missing material is right there on our screens, but it slides past with little formal acknowledgement. While it’s become banal to observe that online life is fully enmeshed with the rest of the world, an imaginary curtain separates online writing from the rest of U.S. literature.2

Marz later sums up writers who try new things online as “always a curiosity, sometimes a trend, never a work of art.”3 One hopes that can and must change, not least because print outlets have been dwindling, and some of the most exciting publications to be launched in recent years are online-only.

Exercise: Explore Successful Newsletters

Visit Substack’s home page and check out its leaderboards. What types of creators or publications are earning significant money? What types of subscription or membership tiers do they have? What’s the ratio of free to paid content? Do you see any relationship between how much content is locked behind a paywall and how big the subscriber base is? Other paid newsletter platforms include Ghost and beehiiv, where you can conduct the same research, although it can be more difficult to identify the publications on each.

30 : Serials and Serializations

In 2021, Substack announced that it was paying an advance to author and entertainment writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg to serialize a book, We Are All Musicians Now, on its platform. Each week a new installment dropped to paid subscribers of his Substack email newsletter. Greenburg told the New York Post that he opted to go the “Substack route” because it offered him more financial “upside,” although the terms of the deal were not disclosed. He said, “All in all, with the advance money being in the same ballpark, I’d rather go to a place where I can be my own boss with a higher upside than try to force it through an old business model that I think is broken.”1

But Greenberg was, in fact, capitalizing on an old business model. Although the New York Post headline claims that Substack sought to “disrupt” book publishing, the article later acknowledges that serialization isn’t new. One need only look at Charles Dickens’s career in the 1800s as a popular example, but even from the beginnings of the internet, writers have serialized and market-tested their work via personal email, blogs, and podcasts; on commercial platforms like Wattpad (for webnovels) and its counterpart Webtoon (for TV and film), Radish, and Tapas, which specialize in serialized storytelling; and through Amazon’s Kindle Vella. Serialized writing and reading via mobile apps is more popular in Asia than in Western nations, but the audience has been growing worldwide. In the US, both the writing and reading demographic for serializations is dominated by young women, many of whom start by reading and writing fan fiction.

Serialization is ultimately another manifestation of free and paid-subscription models, but it is mostly made up of fiction writers and readers. And despite the public relations fanfare surrounding its investments in serializations, Substack has been a dud for writers of both fiction and comics. At the time of this writing, the biggest and most successful platform for reading and writing online, in English, consists of Webtoon and Wattpad (reaching 170 million people2), in addition to fan-fiction sites like FanFiction and Archive of Our Own. For-profit platforms like Webtoon and Wattpad offer a great deal of content for free and then earn money when readers want to access premium content, or if they want to binge-read a series without waiting for the next installment to be released. Some carry advertising, and users can pay to remove the ads. Kindle Vella, Amazon’s own effort to enter the serialization market, launched in 2021 and closed in early 2025. Its failure to gain traction doesn’t suggest that serializations don’t work, only that they didn’t work within Amazon’s environment. (The leaders in the serialization market have little in common with Amazon and vice versa.)

For purists, a serial is a work that the author writes in progress, that releases on a specific schedule or deadline (close to the time when the writing gets done), and that is produced without a preconceived middle or ending. Such serials often involve reader engagement and may incorporate reader feedback that helps the author mold the story along the way. Best-selling science fiction author John Scalzi launched his career on a serial, Old Man’s War. A serial is different from serialized fiction, which is a completed work that is published in segments. However, that doesn’t necessarily preclude authors of serialized fiction (or completed novels, for that matter) from using reader feedback to modify or continue a story. Hugh Howey, known for his blockbuster success in self-publishing his sci-fi novella Wool, received so much reader demand for continuation that he added more segments to the story over a series of months. In other words, he wrote a serial.

“Pure” serials are tough to make money on right away. Many writers produce them for free on platforms like Wattpad and then make money by selling compilations, asking for support from fans through Patreon, or building an audience large enough to catch the attention of an agent or a publisher, as in the case of 50 Shades of Grey, which started out as a fan-fiction serial. This type of slow-build serial business model isn’t typically appealing to writers who can’t wait indefinitely for a payday. But serials or serialized fiction can present an immediate opportunity to profit if an author starts with a platform with monetization built in or is able to gain entry into Wattpad’s paid stories program.

Toronto-based Wattpad started in 2006—before the Kindle and Nook were even available—and as of September 2023 had about ninety million readers and writers.3 Strictly speaking, Wattpad isn’t a platform for serials; it’s a platform for all types of writing. But the predominant creative activity on Wattpad is the work in progress. Its millions of stories are freely accessible to anyone in the world, and its user base has one writer for every nine readers—a writer’s dream. And therein lies part of the reason Wattpad is attractive to certain writers: it offers a real chance to directly reach and develop a readership—even if it means giving away the writing for free—and also be “front-of-mind” with fans because of Wattpad’s ability to ping a devoted readership whenever a new story or installment gets posted. (Most of Wattpad’s readers read on their smartphones.)

And there’s another motivation for writers to use Wattpad: it can be daunting to write a book, but it’s easy to write a chapter. By building an audience and getting feedback right away, a writer may be encouraged to continue and build on their efforts rather than give up when faced with a slump or self-doubt. When you consider the age of writers using Wattpad (most are younger than twenty-five), and also the very positive community that Wattpad has created (there is no Dislike button, and appreciation and positive comments are the rule), one can see why Wattpad might be a preferred path for young writers to learn the craft and get their career footing—especially if it can pay. People who are successful with serializations tend to care deeply about their readers and pay attention to their feedback.

Some authors see value in using serials to build readership for a book very early. Author Jackie Dana, who used Vella, says the platform offered her an opportunity to put out stories as she went, to build an audience and a profile as an author incrementally. And as a writer, publishing her novels in serial form keeps her motivated—there’s power in having readers waiting for the next chapter.4

That brings us to Ream, a company launched in 2023. The value proposition is simple: it’s a subscription platform designed especially for the needs of authors that takes a 10 percent cut of the author’s subscription revenue. Some observers have described it as a melding of Substack and Patreon. Genre fiction authors who already self-publish are the key user base for Ream, as well as authors who’ve had trouble publishing adult-only content through Amazon or elsewhere. For authors who reach readers directly via email newsletter, social media, or some other platform—and are interested in building a direct-to-reader business—the Ream platform can help monetize serializations, books in progress, backlist works, and other offerings. For authors without any audience yet because they are just getting started, a better choice of platform might be Wattpad, where millions of readers visit daily looking for their next favorite story or author.

Parting Thoughts

Some readers like the serials experience, and some readers like books—and the overlap between the two is smaller than you might think. This can be a good thing if authors are able to appeal to both types and get two separate revenue streams going for the same material. Offering a successful serialization is about consistency, quality, and personal branding. Growth can be slow and organic. There is no big-splash book launch. There’s no gathering of blurbs or reviews; there’s no traditional media coverage, no bookstore placement, no library involvement. It’s just you and a readership that values online literature. Serialization is not for everyone, but the authors who find success writing chapter by chapter for an eager audience can worry less about changes in the retail marketplace and the traditional publishing industry.

Exercise: Study Popular Writers on Serialization Platforms

Visit or download the app for one of the major serialization platforms: Wattpad or Webtoon. Look at what stories are featured or popular and who’s writing the stories. Pick one of the popular authors who interests you and dig deeper. Are they active anywhere else—do they have a website, Patreon account, or social media accounts? Do they have books published? Are they self-published or traditionally published? Are they earning money from the serialization or elsewhere?

31 : Advertising, Sponsorships, and Affiliate Marketing

Advertising has been the traditional means of sustaining media operations of all kinds—except for book publishing, which means it’s consistently overlooked as a means of income for writers. But it shouldn’t be. Advertising dollars have been shifting away from traditional channels over to social media, to retail outlets like Amazon, and to influencers or creators who reach a desirable audience. As discussed in chapter 23, much of online advertising has perceived low value because of unlimited supply and bad engagement. Ad-blocking software—which allows readers to prevent ads from appearing in a browser—has further exacerbated the problem. But ads and sponsorships can rarely, if ever, be suppressed if added or delivered organically as part of your newsletter, blog, or podcast. Advertising can contribute some income—or a lot—to a writer who manages to accumulate significant readership, assuming the audience has qualities that are attractive to potential advertisers. And “softer” forms of advertising, such as affiliate marketing, also offer considerable moneymaking potential.

Advertising Categories and Types

The following are the main categories of advertising you’re likely to earn from:

• Google AdSense. This program, which anyone can participate in, grants ad space to Google on your site. The ad space automatically populates each time the site is loaded by a user, based on what Google thinks will interest that user or your audience. It’s possible to disallow certain types of ads and control what the ad space looks like to ensure that it fits with your mission or brand. When visitors click on the ads, Google gets paid by advertisers, and you get paid by Google. Most writers will not earn much or benefit from this program unless they have a high-traffic website.

• Ad networks. Ad networks operate similarly to AdSense but usually specialize in a specific type of advertising client or content. For example, the Litbreaker ad network focuses on the publishing and literary community and claims to reach more than three million book lovers. Many publication sites you probably know and read serve ads from Litbreaker, including the Paris Review, Guernica, the Millions, and the Rumpus. You typically have to apply to be accepted into an ad network and abide by certain terms and conditions.

• Platform-placed ads. If you have a YouTube channel, podcast, or popular social media account, you may be eligible to earn a share of advertising revenue from ads placed next to or within your content. At the time of this writing, YouTube offered creators a 55 percent ad revenue share when allowing ads to run before and during their videos.

• Direct placement. If you have potential advertisers approaching you directly, you essentially become your own ad manager and salesperson, and thus you can strike deals for whatever placement and terms are mutually agreeable. Ads or sponsor placements might appear on your website, newsletter, social media accounts, live streaming events, online classes, virtual conferences, podcasts, in-person events, and so on. Some email newsletter services, like ConvertKit, offer ad networks to help match you with potential advertisers.

Platform-placed ads are often the easiest and first choice for creators seeking ad revenue, and they can train you in the language and customs of the online ad industry. But direct placement is most likely and more desirable for writers, especially in the case of niche or specialized content, where an advertiser specifically wants to reach your audience. The types of advertising you accept are limited only by your imagination and the types of ad vehicles you can create. While the most common forms of advertising run on websites, this type of advertising is known to perform poorly. Typically you’ll find more growth and potential in areas such as email, video, and sponsorship. Some major types of advertising to be aware of are presented in the following three sections.

Website Display Ads

Display ads use images, audio, or video to attract attention. The most common form of display ad may be embedded throughout the content you’re trying to read, or it may appear as a banner (across the top of the site), a pop-up, or a skyscraper (running the length of the site). Because display ads bog down the loading of a website, especially on mobile devices, ad blockers have become a popular method to prevent them from loading or displaying. Ads are paid for based on the number of impressions delivered, or the number of clicks (known as PPC, or pay per click). When the number of impressions goes down, it hurts a website’s ability to attain the numbers required for sustained ad revenue.

Email Advertising

Email newsletters may carry display advertising, text-based advertising, classified-style advertising, or a combination of these types. Rates for advertising in email newsletters can be just as high as, if not higher than, rates for website advertising because email readers tend to be more highly engaged than website visitors. Some publications also offer advertisers the opportunity to purchase a dedicated email blast, wherein the advertiser gets to send an entire email (that it writes and designs) to the publication’s email list. Publications are typically cautious about striking such deals because they predictably lead to high unsubscribe rates from readers who consider such e-blasts to be spam.

Offering classifieds is low-stress way to start accepting ads for your newsletter because they carry low prices, which can be inviting for your existing subscribers. Some of your current subscribers likely have books, services, or classes to promote—or their own email newsletters! Among the first to offer classifieds in her newsletter was journalist Ann Friedman (no relation).1

Video Advertising

Preroll and midroll ads may be inserted in videos and are similar to TV-style advertising. Such ads are usually no longer than five to fifteen seconds, unless the video content is a long segment or show, in which case a standard thirty-second or one-minute spot may be used. Anyone with videos or podcasts available on YouTube can give YouTube permission to place advertisements in their videos automatically, for which you then get a cut of the revenue, but it does require you to have met certain subscriber and watch time thresholds.

Sponsorships

What’s the difference between a sponsorship and an advertisement? On the surface, there can be very little difference, but typically the term sponsorship refers to long-term or ongoing arrangements, rather than one-time placements. Sponsorship value is rarely tied to specific traffic or click rates, and it can be attractive for newsletter writers, vloggers, and podcasters. Readers, too, may prefer the more elite or polished look and feel of a sponsorship placement, especially if sponsor status is granted to one entity at a time, on an exclusive basis.

Sponsorships are also prevalent with nonprofits, such as NPR or PBS, which don’t accept advertisements. (Note: There are tax implications involved that are too complex to get into here. If you’re operating a nonprofit, you’ll need to study up on what qualifies as a sponsorship and what crosses the line into advertisement.)

Publications or individuals who have multiple ad vehicles to offer—such as websites or blogs, apps, email newsletters, active social media accounts, or online events—should develop integrated advertising packages that offer a range of exposure for one price. For an example of how such packages work, study the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, which produces a detailed media kit and package for sponsors and advertisers, particularly related to its annual conference.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement whereby you receive a financial reward (or something of economic value) for referring customers who then make a confirmed purchase or transaction. Amazon has the largest and most popular affiliate program in the world (known as Amazon Associates), and many people and publications make a living based on affiliate marketing fees.

For example, let’s say you run a book recommendations website and are an Amazon affiliate. Whenever you mention a book, you would link to its purchase page at Amazon, using a unique link that helps track any eventual purchases back to you and your affiliate marketing account. Book purchases at Amazon typically earn a 4 percent affiliate payout, while sales of other merchandise may pay up to 10 percent or more. Bookshop, an online retailer of books that benefits independent bookstores, pays a 10 percent fee in the hopes of siphoning off some of Amazon’s affiliate marketers for books.

To most readers, this affiliate relationship is completely invisible—they rarely know they’re clicking an affiliate link. If their purchase price is affected at all, it would be a promotional one—a lower price that the affiliate has special access to. The Federal Trade Commission does stipulate that affiliate marketers using affiliate links have a clear disclosure statement on their site. To see affiliate marketing in action, take a look at Wirecutter, a product recommendation site owned by the New York Times. Nearly every product mentioned uses an affiliate link that takes you to a retailer to buy.

To be a full-time affiliate marketer requires a sizable audience whose members not only visit your site and read your content but trust your recommendations—and follow through with purchases. Reaching that stage can take years of effort, but you can create affiliate marketing accounts at any time, begin using affiliate links even with little or no audience, and let the income stream grow incrementally, especially as you see what methods work. At the very least, you might earn coffee money each month by consistently using affiliate links to books you recommend online, wherever you’re active.

How Many Readers Do You Need to Accept Advertising?

There isn’t some magical number you have to reach before you can accept ads directly. Usually the easiest place to start is with an email newsletter. You should be ready to share your engagement numbers with potential advertisers, though. Do your subscribers actually open, read, and click on your emails? And you should have information about the composition of your list. Mystery lovers? Health-conscious parents? Professors? A list that represents a niche interest and allows an advertiser to reach a highly targeted group of people is valuable even if that list is small. If your list is generic or you don’t have much idea who’s on it—or if it’s full of people who only signed up to get something for free—you might have more list building to do. At the very least, you need enough insight to create a page describing your list and its interests. For an example of a basic but effective informational page, see Josh Spector’s website, For the Interested (https://fortheinterested.com/ads). You can get extra fancy by creating a media kit that showcases your brand more visually and offers in-depth audience demographics. And maybe it should go without saying, but you yourself must be committed to a specific newsletter frequency, with a solid calendar of publication dates, before you accept advertising.

How to Price Your Ads

The easiest pricing method is a flat fee, meaning that advertisers pay a one-time fee for specific ad placement. A common metric for setting that fee is the size of your list, and a broad rule of thumb is between fifteen and fifty dollars per one thousand subscribers for a display ad or sponsor placement in your email newsletter. Some newsletters can charge more because they reach a highly desirable group, enjoy a high open rate, or have some other attractive quality. Newsletters that people pay for can sometimes carry higher rates because the readership is likely more engaged. Classifieds are usually cheaper because they are text only, with several stacked together at the end of the email.

How to Find Advertisers to Start

Look to your own email newsletter subscriber list. Let subscribers know that you’re accepting ads, and then link to a page where they can find out more, contact you, or pay for a placement. This works well for low-priced ads and small lists, especially if you’re offering classifieds. But if you’re looking for high-paying players or brand sponsorships—or just advertisers who don’t yet know you exist—you’ll have to do more legwork and likely have a media kit.

Parting Thoughts

When I first started accepting and running sponsorship placements in my newsletter (and made the announcement that I was doing so), I braced myself. I worried that my readers might think I was “selling out” or somehow downgrading the overall experience. But the reaction was exactly the opposite. My readers were supportive, and some even considered the sponsor placement part of the valuable service I provide. They were more likely to trust someone I was willing to accept as a sponsor. The only downside: I have to vet each sponsor and make sure they’re a good fit, and that I trust them, too. You should do the same.

Exercise: Start Your Own Reference File of Effective and Relevant Advertising

Start paying close attention to the ads or sponsorships that prompt you to slow down, read, click, or take some action, or, alternatively, that turn you off, because those are just as valuable. Where did the ad appear? Was it associated with a publication or person you trust? Start keeping and referring back to ads that are particularly effective, and take notice of advertisers or sponsors you might want to partner with in the future because there’s alignment in interest area or values. This gathered research will come in handy over time if and when you start accepting advertising or sponsorships—or if you decide to create and place some ads of your own!

32 : Freelance Editing

The work of an editor is often misunderstood, underappreciated, and maligned, partly because the roles editors play vary widely, even over the course of a single project and certainly across many types of publications. When working with a writer, an editor might act as coach, critic, champion, and wordsmith. Regardless of their role, a good editor must be respectful of the writer’s voice and intentions, while also pushing the work toward its full potential, whether that’s commercial or artistic potential (or, often, both). An editor who leaves a project better than they found it is invaluable.

A writer who is interested in pursuing work as an editor should first understand the stages of editing and where their skills can be best applied. Peter Ginna’s book What Editors Do is a comprehensive look at the field and highly recommended for those who wish to pursue editing as a full-time career. In this chapter, we’ll consider the basics of pursuing freelance editing work, primarily in the area of book publishing. But first, a caveat: Being a good writer does not automatically make you a good editor; each activity calls on distinct skill sets. As an editor, you have to help writers realize their own aims, not just impose your will. Editors who can’t step back may not be doing their jobs well, will likely run into conflicts with writers, and may eventually quit.

High-Level Editors

Developmental editing, substantive editing, and content editing fall under the broad category of high-level editing. This level of editing inevitably leads to revision, so when you work with a high-level editor, expect to do rewrites! Even if the editor assists in editing the manuscript to fix problems, the writer typically receives an editorial letter along with manuscript notations, with questions and guidance that prompt the writer to revise. In other cases, the editor may offer a more general manuscript assessment, summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of a manuscript. An assessment doesn’t offer page-by-page, granular advice but a broad overview of how to improve the work.

Developmental editors are most commonly used for nonfiction work, especially by traditional book publishers. They focus on a book’s structure and content, and if they work for a publisher, their job is to ensure that the manuscript adheres to the vision set out in the book proposal or what everyone agreed to when the book was contracted. They get involved early, while the writing process is ongoing.

Content and substantive editing has more or less the same purpose as developmental editing—it’s focused on structure and development, for both fiction and nonfiction. However, content editors don’t often work on an author’s manuscript while it’s still being written. Sometimes you’ll hear about “book doctors” in connection with this type of work. A book doctor is someone who performs developmental or content editing on a manuscript, usually on a completed draft. They often have a much stronger hands-on role in rewriting or revising, removing that burden from the writer who has granted the book doctor permission to do whatever needs to be done.

In his essay “Developmental Editing,” Paul McCarthy says, “A successful collaboration allows the author to feel sustained and liberated by knowing that she doesn’t have to bear the burden of creation, development, and refinement alone.”1 A developmental or content editor offers the writer someone to trust and lean on. The editor’s goal is always to produce the best book possible for the reader. They’re concerned with narrative arc or pacing for stories, and missed opportunities. They do their best to suggest solutions to inconsistencies or structural problems, with an eye to improving reception in the market. Writers naturally can be sensitive to feedback that leads to changing the book’s content or structure or eliminating huge swaths of material. If the writer trusts their editor, then they’ll be more likely to listen and accept that the editor may see things more clearly than they can.

To become a highly paid freelance editor typically requires some publishing experience—a combination of years spent at literary journals, magazines, or book publishers. Such editors may work for publishing houses or for writers. If hired by the writer directly, it’s usually because the publisher or agent suggested the need for more help than either of them could provide. Other times, an author knows they need the work done before approaching an agent or publisher, or before self-publishing. Some writers are willing to pay thousands of dollars to work with an editor who has a New York publishing background and a track record of acquiring or producing best-selling authors. The more money that’s on the line, the more the editor will be expected to offer industry-specific feedback and revision that will help the book succeed and compete in its genre. For this reason, most experienced editors specialize in specific categories or genres where they have in-depth knowledge and exposure to what sells. Until you have a proven track record, it may be difficult to secure the best-quality or best-paying clients.

Surface-Level Editors

Line editors, copy editors, and proofreaders mainly focus on sentence- or paragraph-level editing. This work pays less than high-level editing and can be performed successfully by writers with little or no publishing industry experience. What is mainly required is expertise in grammar and punctuation, an eye for detail, and knowledge of style guides.

Line editing focuses on sentence structure, word use, and rhythm. Its goal is to create smooth and streamlined prose. Copyediting is generally more focused on correcting errors in grammar, syntax, and usage. Some copy editors also fact-check and seek out inconsistencies or lapses in logic. Proofreading comes at the very end of the editorial process, after the book has been typeset. At this late stage, the proofreader is looking only for typos, formatting mistakes, and other egregious errors that shouldn’t make it to publication.

Just because you’re a writer who can produce error-free prose—or quickly catch a typo—don’t assume this qualifies you as a surface-level editor. It’s a specialized skill that necessitates some level of training or experience. Some freelance editors’ organizations (mentioned in a subsequent section) offer online education in copyediting, and some universities like the University of Chicago do as well. These courses teach you grammar, etiquette for querying authors, how to apply a publisher’s house style and create a style sheet, and other aspects of the work.

What about Coaching?

Generally, editors get hired to deal with a manuscript and offer feedback on something tangible. The commitment is finite: when the project has been edited and the writer receives feedback, the relationship typically ends unless there’s yet another round of editing after the writer has revised. The work done is primarily external to the writer: it’s focused on producing a better piece of writing.

Coaching often addresses the internal needs of the writer. Coaches can assist with motivation, accountability, and goal setting—like helping the writer finish their book. They might sometimes cross into the role of editor, and then back to coach, if they allow for it. (And, sometimes editors can find themselves in the role of coach because the revision process tends to be a psychological challenge.)

There is as much demand for writing coaches today as for editors. Consider what role suits you better. You can always offer both types of help to writers, but be clear when a writer hires you what help you will or won’t be offering. Coaches who do not want to edit may need to have very strong boundaries, as writers naturally seek editorial feedback from someone they know and trust who is already familiar with the work.

Building an Editing Business

As discussed in chapter 24, knowing the right person, or seeking jobs from former employers, can help provide a starting base of repeat work. There are also associations that can be helpful to join and marketplaces where you can look for jobs. Here are two of the best known:

• Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). This nonprofit, established in 1970 and based in New York City, is largely run by volunteers. It has chapters, events, and educational opportunities for members. One of its most important offerings is an online Job List; only EFA members can see the listings, but any individual can post a job for free (https://www.the-efa.org).

• American Copy Editors Society (ACES). Another New York–based nonprofit, started in 1997, ACES evolved from a community of newspaper copy editors. Similar to the EFA, you’ll find an online job board, events, and educational opportunities (https://copydesk.org).

You can also ask publishing companies to add you to their pool of freelance editors. This typically requires taking a copyediting or proofreading test to prove you know what you’re doing. You may have to dig through a publisher’s website to find contact info or evidence of such a pool, if one is mentioned at all. As always, it helps to know someone or be referred by an existing editor at the company. Sometimes, if they’re short on freelancers, publishers will post open calls for help at the EFA or Publishers Marketplace. Keep a close eye on those job boards, as such opportunities tend to receive quick responses from freelancers.

The dramatic increase in self-publishing activity and self-publishing services has produced a corresponding need for editors. Publishing service companies that advertise in writing magazines may have a high enough volume of business that they actively seek out freelance editors. These gigs typically pay a flat, per-word rate, and you might remain anonymous—meaning you never interact with authors. You can also hang out your shingle at a marketplace for independent authors seeking professional editing help, such as Reedsy, or become a member of Publishers Marketplace and put up a member page. At such sites, you create a profile that describes your services and credentials; authors can search the freelancer profiles for the right fit and contact you with project proposals. Typically, the work you’ll find through these marketplaces will pay a lower hourly rate than you might command elsewhere, but it can help you build a client base. Once you get the ball rolling, it gets easier over time because new work often comes from word of mouth and referrals.

Regardless of the methods you use to find work, it’s essential to have a website that makes clear who you are and the services you provide. (It can be the same site as your writer website; just make sure you point visitors to your editing services clearly in the navigation.) As you gain experience, post testimonials from happy authors or a list of clients you’ve worked with. You may have to ask for specific feedback from your clients to get your initial testimonials, and you shouldn’t be shy about it; make it part of the overall editing process. Most people will avoid hiring an editor who can’t provide evidence of high-quality past work.

Working with Clients

When you apply to be an editor at publishing companies, you may be asked to take and pass an editing test. But when a potential author looks to hire you, what kind of “test” makes sense?

Most writers are understandably anxious about paying someone a large sum of money for work that’s subjective and difficult to evaluate. How freelance editors go about determining whether there’s a good “fit” between editor and author varies widely. In some cases—especially when it comes to higher-level editing—they may work on a sample chapter to help the author understand their approach and what value they offer. As a general rule, the more credentialed and experienced the editor, the less likely they’ll offer to edit a sample for free. And they might not even do it for pay. Such a person may not need work that requires them to offer assurances of fit; they have a sufficient number of clients who trust them based on past experience, reputation, or referral alone. Less experienced editors may offer to work on a small sample, but it’s typically best to charge the author for it—ensuring that they are serious and invested in the process yet offering them an economical way to test the waters.

Whatever process you decide on, it’s necessary to see some part of the manuscript before you agree to take on a job, so that you can understand the extent of the editing that might be required, see whether you’ll be comfortable doing the work, and give an accurate estimate of cost. Some editors charge by the page, by the word, or by the hour. And others are able to charge a flat fee because, with experience, they know exactly how long the job will take them and charge for the value they provide the client. If you charge by the hour, you’ll have to determine how heavy or light the edit will be to offer an accurate quote. Sometimes clients—especially publishers—will advise you that the manuscript requires light, medium, or heavy editing, and offer a higher or lower flat fee (calculated using page or word count) based on their assessment of the editing required.

Parting Thoughts

Whether you’re a writer seeking editing jobs or a writer looking to hire an editor, understand that the current marketplace is overrun by mediocre and poor editors. As mentioned earlier, the growth of self-publishing has increased the number of people entering the editing field. There isn’t any formal accreditation process for freelance editors; anyone can call themself an editor, and many set up shop with little experience and few qualifications. Lots of people, then, can point to published works they’ve edited, but it’s not necessarily of high quality.

So it may take time to distinguish yourself from the crowd. You may end up specializing in a particular type of editing or working with a particular type of client to get your start. Many writers combine some teaching work with editing. They build their client list by offering online or in-person courses and then continue to work one-on-one with students seeking help after the course ends. And that brings us to chapter 33, on teaching.

Exercise: Study How Established Freelancers Attract Clients

Some editors advertise their services in Poets & Writers and Writer’s Digest or in newsletters from those publications. Find ads placed by individual editors and visit their websites. How do they describe and market their services? How do they differentiate themselves from the competition? What do they say about their credentials? What’s the first step for an interested client to get in touch? Sometimes freelance editors will advertise a free online class as a way to attract clients. Can you find and attend one?

33 : Teaching and Online Education

In the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t an unreasonable expectation that graduate with a master of fine arts (MFA) degree in creative writing could, with just a little experience and a modest track record of publication, find a full-time or tenure-track job at a four-year university. According to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Program Director’s Handbook, between 1984 and 2004, the number of programs conferring undergraduate creative writing degrees grew from 10 to 86, while graduate programs increased from 31 to 109.1 It was a very good time to be looking for a job teaching creative writing at the university level.

But by 2015, there were 171 tenure-track creative writing jobs offered in the United States, compared with 3,000 to 4,000 new MFA or PhD graduates.2 Universities are using more part-time and adjunct instructors, and tenure-track jobs aren’t as plentiful as they once were. Adjuncts typically earn between $3,000 and $7,000 per course taught, and benefits may be few. Even if you manage to teach three or four courses per semester, the income rarely approaches the level of tenure-track salaries, especially given the potential lack of benefits.

Because of increased competition for any open position, even part-time and temporary jobs, creative writing programs have increased their requirements to the point that only a few individuals are truly qualified to apply. To land almost any position in a creative writing program now requires a strong track record of publication, teaching experience, and the ability to cover classes in not just one core area of expertise but also a secondary area. Some programs are even beginning to require a PhD to apply. John Warner, an editor at McSweeney’s and longtime contingent faculty member, bluntly stated, “There is no sustainable career path in academia for MFA holders in creative writing.”3

If landing a tenure-track creative writing position is nonetheless your goal, then to be competitive, you’ll need to focus on developing each of these components of your application package:

• Publication of at least one book, with a steady and growing track record of other output

• Teaching experience across multiple genres, at both undergraduate and graduate levels

• A stellar writing sample that will resonate with diverse members of a hiring committee

You should also follow the Academic Jobs Wiki, studying the Creative Writing jobs page for the current year and past years to fully understand the landscape, what jobs are open, and what stage of the hiring process potential employers are at.

When you apply for a position, you’ll often be competing against people who already hold teaching positions, usually as part-time or non-tenure-track staff. Other candidates may include recent graduates and well-established writers with award-winning work. To stand out will require much more than meeting the posted requirements. If this sounds daunting, what’s an MFA grad to do? Depending on your background and experience, there may be other university teaching jobs or staff positions you’re qualified for. Consider these possible opportunities:

• Student publications or student media adviser. Many universities have a full-time administrative staff or faculty member who oversees student media—newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and other publications. Sometimes teaching is part of the job, sometimes not.

• Journalism, electronic media, or communications departments. When I held a tenure-track faculty position, it wasn’t in creative writing but in the electronic media division at the University of Cincinnati. Students there earned a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree to prepare them for jobs in any facet of the media industry—from TV and radio to video game production. My specialty was writing and storytelling across media.

• Marketing and publicity. Every university, and even some colleges within the university, have print and digital publications and marketing outreach that require skilled editors and writers.

Writers who wish to teach should also consider other types of schools and situations where an MFA degree can translate to a teaching or writing-related position, such as high schools, literacy programs, literary centers, and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. While you can start a teaching job search with well-known resources such as the AWP Job List, try casting a wider net by searching for “MFA in creative writing” or “writing teacher” on job aggregation sites such as Indeed.

An Easier Path to Earnings: Teach Classes Online

The COVID-19 pandemic provided at least one standout and ongoing benefit for writers: the explosion and acceptance of all types of online writing classes, workshops, retreats, and other educational offerings. Prior to 2020, taking an online writing class usually meant heading to one of the major writing brands, like Writer’s Digest or Gotham Writers Workshop, where offerings were often related to commercial fiction writing or basic writing instruction. But these days, you can find a plethora of beginner-level and advanced genre offerings from every type of writing organization or nonprofit, literary journal, or literary website, as well as from individual authors.

Online classes typically pay the instructor a flat fee, a percentage of student registration fees, or a combination of both. If the class is scalable—meaning the instructor’s work doesn’t necessarily increase as more students enroll—then the return on investment of time is significant. But for multiple-week courses that involve one-on-one student feedback, class sizes must be kept on the smaller side, as they can involve as great a workload as a university adjunct position, with each new student increasing the instructor’s time commitment.

Some online classes are asynchronous, which means that there are no set class times—the curriculum is available for students to read, study, or view on their own schedule. In such cases, instructors generally offer online office hours—interactive chat times—to answer student questions, but these, too, may be handled asynchronously through message boards.

For those who have never taught online, it’s helpful to get started by teaching with an established organization or business, so you can learn the basic tools and methods used to create a satisfying experience. However, any writer with some teaching experience, once they know a few principles of online teaching, can get started independently if they have an effective way to market their course to prospective students. Today, there are affordable platforms with easy setup—allowing you to seamlessly accept payments and register students—so the technological barriers of even a few years ago are no longer a reason to avoid online teaching. A couple of the most popular platforms for online teaching are Zoom (for synchronous learning) and Teachable (for asynchronous learning).

The Basics of Online Teaching

The primary motivation for adult writers who take online classes is to acquire new skills, complete a project they’ve started, or receive personalized feedback and instruction. People value the motivation and accountability a class can provide, and they also appreciate the immediacy and accessibility of online education in serving their needs. Freedom and flexibility are often critical for adult students—more important than even price. Ultimately, as with all types of education, a course’s success depends greatly on understanding or anticipating the needs of students, knowing how to teach them effectively about the topic at hand, and creating a structure around the material that leads to learning and engagement.

Deciding What to Teach and How

If you’re new to online teaching, I recommend choosing a topic or class you’ve already taught offline multiple times, for which the curriculum is ready to go. It’s also easier enroll students for classes on topics you’re associated with, that you have demonstrated success in, or that you know would interest your community.

After settling on a topic, the first question you’ll be faced with is what length and style of class best suits you. There are a few popular options, including the following:

• Single-session class or limited-commitment class. These are quick classes tackling a specific topic that can be covered well in one to four hours. They may take place over one to two hours in a single, live session; topics requiring more time may be spread over a weekend or a couple evenings. Usually these classes look to enroll as many people as possible, with little or no interaction with the instructor outside class time. Critiquing and workshopping aren’t common with classes like these, but it might be included when enrollment is limited or the pricing is set higher to pay the instructor for the feedback. (This is also a clever way to become known for editing or services; students may hire you after the class for personal help, especially when it’s not part of the class.) Pricing tends to be affordable.

• Long-term-commitment class. These classes are more traditional in style and format, and they may mimic an in-person writing class at a university. They usually meet once a week or more frequently, for at least one month and up to three or four months, and have limited enrollment—eight to twelve students is common. Student critique or workshop classes fall into this category. These classes typically cost hundreds of dollars, even thousands if a big goal is attached to them, such as revising a manuscript.

• Cohort class or group coaching. Some instructors prepare what is essentially a self-study curriculum—a system of lectures, readings, or exercises, or some combination of these—and then run the program at specific times of year, so that students enroll as part of a cohort and move through the curriculum together. Every week (or at regular intervals), the group convenes with the instructor for discussion, feedback, a question-and-answer session, or whatever suits the needs of the class. These classes typically last for a period of weeks or months, and the students all have a shared end goal, such as writing a book proposal or revising a manuscript. The intent is for students to learn as much from one another as from the instructor.

For any online class, always give consideration to how much personalized interaction (critique, live sessions, office hours) will be involved. The more interactive the course, the more you can charge, but obviously the more time you’ll need to commit as an instructor. Even if you don’t offer personalized feedback to students, there are many ways to provide additional value. For example, you can provide a way for students to network with one another, you can give them access to materials you don’t otherwise make available to the public, or you can put them in a private Facebook or Discord group with access to you.

The big secret to a successful class? This may not apply as much to university writing classes, but it definitely affects how successful you are teaching non-degree-seeking adults: focus on super-specific “how,” a principle I learned from online education expert Wes Kao.4 Do not spend a lot of time on the “why” or the “what.” For instance, if you want to teach how to write a compelling opening scene, you need to show how it’s done, on the page—through good and bad examples, through before and after, and through actual rewriting.

Finally, most instructors should limit how much they talk about their own personal experience unless they’ve achieved the kind of success that’s driving interest in the class. Use your personal experience for color and personality, not for core instruction.

Developing Effective Video Lectures

If you choose to deliver video lectures, live or recorded, here are some of the best practices in the online education community:

• Use visuals and interactive features; don’t be a “talking head.” You probably already use PowerPoint, Keynote, or other visual aids as part of your curriculum. If not, I suggest you develop slides. Use summary lists, imagery, graphics, and other visuals to reinforce the points you’re talking about. Images increase student engagement. When teaching live, it’s a good idea to consider using polls, questions that require raising of hands, or other interactive tools to keep students engaged.

• Be prepared to share your slides in PDF form. One of the first things students will ask for is a copy of your lecture. If you’re uncomfortable sharing your slides, prepare a handout with the key ideas, lessons, resources, websites, or tips from your presentation. Having something in writing, like a tip sheet, is very helpful with online courses. Students appreciate not having to search through recordings to find that one minute when you referenced a particular resource.

• Break up your lecture into two- to four-minute segments. It’s less daunting to tackle a video lecture when it’s broken down into small steps or components, ideally with chaptering if it’s a recorded video.

• Whenever possible, build in “next steps” or actions. Students will learn better if they’re given a specific task or action after watching a lecture or series of lectures. Make them put what they’ve learned to work, or get them writing. This may not apply to all types of writing courses, but be creative. When you incorporate action steps into your curriculum, satisfaction will increase, because people feel like they’re accomplishing, creating, or learning something. Progress toward goals is inspiring.

Writing a Description of Your Course

For online courses, the description is critical in getting people to register. Write it in second person (using you, your, yours), speaking directly to the students. The title and subtitle of your course should be as benefit-oriented as possible. Include specifics on what students will learn in the course—a bulleted list works great. Describe who should take the course; this descriptor gives prospective students confidence that your course is a good fit for them.

For long-term commitments, include a week-by-week description of the course schedule or curriculum. For any length of course, include a list of everything the student will receive as part of the course: ten lectures, three critiques, handouts or worksheets, and so on. Offer testimonials or praise from past students, even if they’re traditional students from a university setting. Finally, offer a bio that focuses on your qualifications to teach the course.

A common reason for student disappointment in a class: they have unclear expectations resulting from the course title or description. If your class description promises to cover something but doesn’t, students will notice. Or, if you position the class broadly, to attract as many people as possible, but your class strongly leans toward one type of writer or one genre, some writers will feel neglected and left out. For example, a character development class that emphasizes the need for the protagonist to change might be frustrating for mystery series writers where the detective-protagonist might not change in each book. Consider: Will your class be equally helpful to children’s writers and adult writers? To writers in all genres? Both fiction and memoir? Writers of short and long works? Self-published and traditionally published? Finally, when examples in class aren’t diverse (in terms either of genre or of race and other forms of identity), it will get noticed and called out by students.

Marketing Your Course

If you’re not working with an established organization with an email newsletter or social media following to help market the class, this is the most difficult challenge (as it is with book marketing): how will you spread the word about your course and get people to enroll? The answers are as varied as writers. Most first steps include mentioning the course on social media; writing guest posts at relevant, well-trafficked sites while course enrollment is open; and getting others who know your work to mention or recommend the course to potential students. One popular tactic is to offer a brief, free presentation (such as a single lecture or a one-hour tutorial) to promote course registration. The trick, however, is building awareness for the free offering—which usually requires the same tactics as getting enrollment in the first place. Once you’ve run a few online courses, you’ll have a base of students who are interested in future opportunities to learn with you, and who will spread the word to their friends and writing groups if they had a positive experience.

Parting Thoughts

All instructors have certain eccentricities, and most of us have minor or negligible areas of weakness or insecurity in our material or style. That’s normal. Students generally don’t care and are very accepting, as long as you’re enthusiastic and show you want to help them. Own your presentation style and material, never apologize for it, and don’t undercut yourself in class by saying something like, “I’m not sure if you’re going to like this,” or “I’ve never taught this before, so it may be confusing.” That just puts the idea in students’ heads that there are going to be problems. Respect people’s investment and show that you’re prepared and ready to teach, even if you feel nervous or anxious. Every step of the way, demonstrate that what you’re teaching is important, that you have confidence in the material, and that you have a plan and structure that is purposeful.

Exercise: Study Key Providers of Online Writing Education

Compare the focus and style of online education offerings among organizations like Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, Writing the Other, and Chill Subs. Can you tell what type of student they’re trying to attract based on the course titles and descriptions? How do the instructors’ credentials reflect the priorities and values of the host organization or business?

34 : Contests, Prizes, Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants

If you’re working on projects in which artistic excellence is a top priority—not commercial potential—there are thousands of prizes, fellowships, residencies, and grants you can apply for, including some that offer financial support. As you might expect, competition is fierce for the highest-profile awards (such as National Endowment for the Arts grants), but many others are within reach of new writers. As with so many things in the business of writing and publishing, it behooves you to focus on small and local opportunities first, and use each win as a stepping stone to national recognition. Let’s first review the major types of opportunities:

• Contests or competitions. If you’ve ever flipped through a writers’ magazine, you’ve probably seen a multitude of listings for writing contests, almost all focused on unpublished work. There’s a competition for every conceivable genre and form, from commercial to literary, short to long. Most charge an entry fee. Some competitions are run as for-profit enterprises, while others are nonprofit and use entry fees to cover administration and judging costs.

• Awards and prizes. Published work may be eligible for a range of awards, although you may not be eligible to apply for them. For the most prestigious awards, nominations may be restricted to publishers or guided by a formal process. Most well-known and respected prizes in publishing are nonprofit endeavors.

• Fellowships. While this term is used for many types of awards, it most commonly refers to positions offered by university creative writing programs to post-MFA students or published writers. Fellowships come with a significant stipend—possibly large enough to cover modest living expenses. Fellowships may be months or years long.

• Residencies. Residencies offer writers a specific place where they can spend focused time on their work, often for free. The length of the residency may be anywhere from a few days to a few months. The writer may be expected to interact with the community in some way, by giving readings or running workshops. Residencies can happen literally anywhere: universities, libraries, businesses, resorts—even airports and trains. (Amtrak announced writer residencies in 2014; they’ve since become “social media residencies.”1)

• Grants. A grant is quite simply a gift of money. While an application process is required for nearly every opportunity in the aforementioned categories, a grant application is typically a more formal and extensive document that can be daunting for the average writer to produce. Granting agencies may require a budget plan that outlines the specific funding required, even though the project may only be in the idea stage when the application is due.

Some of these opportunities offer very generous support for artists and writers, but you should never expect to sustain your writing life exclusively through financial awards, fellowships, or residencies. They may be essential for a particular project or provide economic relief over a period of time, but they’re not reliable or dependable income over the long term of a career.

Evaluating and Entering Contests and Competitions

Writers should exercise caution when entering contests. The potential rewards may be very low, and the cost to enter high. Still, contests can play an important role in helping emerging writers get noticed and achieve recognition for work—short stories, poems, essays, and entire books—that might otherwise go unnoticed.

The reason contests can be so tricky is that anyone can start them (and anyone does!), and they can be profit centers for businesses that run them. When I worked for Writer’s Digest, the revenue from competition entry fees approached a million dollars per year. The number of contest entries was a budgeted line item in the revenue forecast, and if the projected number was not achieved on time, the contest deadline was often extended to collect more entries.

There’s nothing inherently wrong or fraudulent about a contest that produces a profit, but the prize should be meaningful enough to justify the entry fee the writer is paying, whether it’s a monetary prize, a publishing contract, or something else. The ego boost from winning a contest is nice, but to make business sense, it should advance your career or make you visible to the right people in the community.

Some writers love contests (and become a bit addicted to them) because they provide external motivation to complete work, plus there’s the anticipation of possibly winning. A win can look good in a query or cover letter and help indicate that your work stands out in a crowd. Whatever your reasons for entering contests, you must adequately research them before you submit your work, even if there is no entry fee. Here are key questions to answer through your research:

• What do the guidelines say, and what’s in the fine print? Reading the guidelines—including the fine print—is boring and tedious, but necessary. Some contests, especially those run by publishing companies and media organizations, claim all kinds of rights to your work, whether you win or not. By entering, you’re agreeing to their terms, which are rarely negotiable after the fact. You may not care about such terms the day you enter the contest, but think about the ramifications down the road, if the work becomes publishable and of value, and a third party holds either exclusive or nonexclusive rights.

• Are the guidelines clear and professional? If the guidelines are confusing, are contradictory, or seem hastily put together, avoid the contest. Sloppiness may carry over into the judging, prize fulfillment, and overall handling of submissions.

• Who are the judges? You want judges whose names you recognize or who are strongly associated with the type of work the contest is for. Be aware, however, that with large contests, entries are first screened by anonymous, low-level judges or staff, who winnow down the initial pool. This isn’t a problem, but don’t expect that the publicized judge will see your work unless you make it to the final round. Some contests that have multiple rounds will inform you of your entry’s progress—or even send you the judge’s comments—but such engagement takes a lot of administrative work and usually means higher entry fees. In other cases, you won’t know how far your entry made it.

• How long has the contest been around? Or, if it’s a new contest, how long has the sponsoring organization or business existed? Do you trust the organization or business to run the contest well?

• How do the entry fees compare with the prizes—or other perks? A high entry fee doesn’t necessarily mean that a contest is suspect. High entry fees may be justified when writers submit a lot of material for consideration, such as a full-length manuscript, or receive specific feedback. Significant monetary prizes, or multiple prizes (for winner plus runners-up), can also justify higher entry fees.

• What has the contest done for past winners? Have they gone on to secure book deals? Are they now accomplished authors? Or is the contest win the only accolade in their bio? The competition’s sponsors bear responsibility for publicizing the winners of the contest and helping them get recognition. Run searches on the contest and see what media outlets report on the results. If you can find no one talking about the contest or its results, that’s not a good sign for the winners.

• Is the prize a publishing contract? It’s common for small presses, university presses, and others that specialize in literary work to run book-length contests that lead to a publishing deal. In such cases, it’s critical to understand what the publishing contract looks like before you enter, assuming that it’s not negotiable if you win the contest. Usually the advance is predetermined, as are royalties. Sometimes it’s possible to have an agent negotiate the finer points, but don’t expect it. Also study the books of past winners and see how they were distributed and publicized. Would you be happy with the same treatment?

Sometimes publications or organizations will subsidize their operations by running regular, entry-fee contests, which may in fact be the primary way for writers to submit their work for consideration. Sometimes that entry fee also gets you a subscription to the publication or an organization membership. The staff reviews your submission within the framework of the contest, and winners receive publication or payment, sometimes both.

The Value of Book Awards and Prizes

Awards for published books can be desirable for more than just the prestige and recognition that comes with winning. Some include cash awards, and the better-known prizes can boost book sales over the long term. In a media landscape where it’s increasingly difficult to get attention for one’s work, prizes can offer a publicity shortcut to authors and publishers (it becomes an easy marketing and public relations angle), but can also benefit readers (prizewinning work is more likely to be worth their while).

Prizes can be roughly divided into two categories: those for which authors can nominate themselves, and those that are open to publishers only. One of the best-known award series, the Pen Center USA awards, allows both authors and publishers to submit work for consideration. But some of the most prestigious awards, such as the National Book Award and National Magazine Awards, only allow entries or nominations from publishers.

Most people understand the value of winning a prize like the National Book Award. But what about prizes you haven’t heard of—or new prizes? What about prizes for self-published work, which often require high entry fees? Judging the value of prizes isn’t so different from judging the value of a competition, as described in the previous section. Always look at the prize announcements and how much marketing and publicity the winners receive. Look at past winners and see how the prize is worked into their marketing copy, book covers, or author websites. Where and how extensively have prize winners been publicized? If the prize is highly valued by a particular community—such as teachers, librarians, professors, or professionals in a specific field—then it may help lead to better book sales and distribution.

Be careful about pursuing a prize (or a contest for unpublished work) that’s operated primarily as a for-profit venture. The business or organization behind it may be playing to authors’ desire for validation and then making money off promotional packages marketed to finalists or winners. If you’re pitched the “opportunity” to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy advertising about your prize or to attend an awards ceremony, it’s probably not a prize you’ll benefit much from winning.

With any prize, contest, or competition, be cautious if it appears to be a new or unknown operation. Entry fees add up quickly, and you can easily spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars trying to win something. You can also end up wasting your time pursuing prizes that don’t matter to anyone in your community. If someone hasn’t heard of the prize, then the burden falls on you to explain its significance if you’re to gain any marketing or career benefit from it. Be sure a contest or a prize will at least potentially open doors for you with the right people, and pursue it with a larger strategy in mind, rather than a validation-seeking one.

Some writers are incredibly astute and closely study what work wins specific contests, looking for bias that may be exhibited by the judges. It is indeed smart to avoid submitting work that doesn’t align with the exhibited taste and proclivities of a contest. Look for an opportunity that will give your work the best chance possible—just as you do when submitting your work for publication.

Applying for Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants

As with publishing credits, it can be useful to start building a track record of success by applying for smaller, less well-known residencies or grants (especially from local, regional, and state funding resources), rather than aiming straight for the top (National Endowment for the Arts).

Grants and other funding opportunities can usually be subdivided into those for emerging artists (those at the beginning of their career), and those for established or distinguished artists. Beyond that, programs may focus on supporting specific artistic projects; providing need-based funds; offering career fellowships; facilitating travel, research, or study; or addressing other aspects of artists’ careers. You can find opportunities listed in the AWP Chronicle and Poets & Writers, as well as by subscribing to Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers (https://fundsforwriters.com).

These opportunities often require a significant time commitment from the writer, both in preparing the application and in accepting the opportunity should it be offered. Sometimes they are life-changing events that require temporary relocation, and thus they shouldn’t be pursued unless you can take time away from traditional employment or family responsibilities. Here are the materials you’ll likely need for an application:

• Work samples. The samples should showcase your best and most relevant work. Some applications require that you submit only new work. It may seem obvious to say so, but it is next to impossible to apply for anything if you are not already producing high-quality work that can be read and evaluated. Still, some writers hold the mistaken belief that they can receive awards based on intent alone. Don’t wait for permission from an external source to get started on a project; committees and others who decide on awards always look at writers’ motivation and dedication as a sign of whether they would be responsible and worthy recipients of resources or funds.

• Letters of recommendation. These letters should come from people very familiar with you and your work, who have been your advocates over many years. Some applications require letters from someone within a specific field or with a specific background relevant to the opportunity. Sometimes you’ll be asked only for a list of references; as with the letters, choose people who know your work well.

• Curriculum vitae (CV) or résumé. It’s smart to set a calendar reminder to update your CV and résumé every three to six months. Adding new publications and other professional activities on a regular basis will help you avoid the painful process of trying to recall or research years’ worth of activity.

Additionally, you may be asked for:

• Project description or proposal. This explanation of your writing project can be straightforward—say, to finish a book manuscript, of which you’re sending a sample. Other times, it may be complex, such as when you’re seeking funding for an artistic collaboration or event.

• Writer’s or artist’s statement. This statement sets out your philosophy or purpose in writing. It can be challenging to write, but fortunately it doesn’t have to be long—usually not more than three hundred words. You can search online for examples and inspiration—but you’ll know yours is close to the mark when nothing in it could be seamlessly inserted into someone else’s statement.

• Statement of need. For opportunities that focus on providing funds or resources to artists in need, you’ll have to provide details about your economic situation.

• Budget. When applying for a grant, especially for a complex project, you may be asked to provide a budget of how the money will be spent. (Yes, you are allowed to budget a stipend, salary, or other income for yourself.) While it can be difficult to draft a budget for something that does not yet exist, express yourself with a level of confidence. Don’t slip into language that makes it sound like you’re desperate. (However, if you are applying for a grant that’s specifically for people in dire economic need, you’re unlikely to be asked for a budget and need not worry about sounding desperate.)

Your application has to express a coherent vision for your artistic project or career. Don’t expect the committee to connect the dots as to your career path and goals; tell a convincing story that shows how the opportunity you’re applying for is the most natural and strategic next step for your progression as an artist.

Parting Thoughts

For more on putting together applications and proposals, I highly recommend Gigi Rosenberg’s book The Artist’s Guide to Grantwriting. Her advice works equally well for fellowship and residency opportunities and for traditional grant proposals. It also helps if you can possibly find past grant proposals that were successful; these are sometimes made available to applicants.

Exercise: Research Grants Near You

Research what grants are available in your city, region, or state, using a search engine to begin. Use the search terms “arts council,” “artist grants,” or “literary grants,” along with your location. What turns up?

Part Six

Business Basics for Writers

One of my biggest business regrets is that I did little or nothing to organize or formalize my business as a writer until the day I desperately needed formality. I was on the verge of buying a home, and as a full-time freelancer, I needed to show financial documentation that I had a stable income. Most of what I needed to supply was fragmented across multiple Excel spreadsheets, paper files, and cloud storage. It was time to make a change.

I was several years into a profitable business by this point, so why hadn’t I done it? It was a combination of factors: not having knowledge or exposure to business structures, believing that my income would always be too inconsequential to bother with such formality, and not taking myself seriously as a businessperson. What I can now say, without hesitation, is that even if you’re earning little to nothing from your writing, you can benefit from creating structures and formality around it. Even if you don’t need to assemble documentation for a mortgage, you will appreciate having consistent, reliable records that offer you a clear picture of your writing business. By taking your work seriously, and seeing it as a venture intended to produce a profit, you’re shifting your mindset from “aspirational writer” to “working writer.”

Start-up businesses often go for years without producing a profit. So do writers—you’re a kind of start-up, too. Don’t feel like you’re “lesser than,” or undercut the professional nature of your achievements, just because the balance sheet isn’t impressive.

In addition to discussion of taxes and business structures, this final part will discuss legal issues that writers often face and contract language you should be familiar with. Especially in the early years of your career, you may be making important, lasting decisions without the guidance of an agent or lawyer. Despite writers being admonished to always read and understand contracts before signing them, the truth is that most don’t because they’re too embarrassed to admit what they don’t know. However, many of the people who send you the contract—namely, editors—don’t understand the language either. Don’t be shy and don’t feel silly or uneducated for not knowing—you’ll save yourself untold grief and regret.

If this section still seems like some future-oriented material that doesn’t apply to you, I encourage you to review it now. Plus you may be more ready than you think.

Note: This information is primarily for writers living and working in the United States. If you live elsewhere, you’ll need to find resources relevant to the laws of your country. The information provided in this book is general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for the advice of tax professionals or attorneys authorized to practice in your jurisdiction.

35 : Tax Basics for Writers

In the United States, if you’re a writer with a day job, you receive a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, from your employer every tax season. Filing your taxes when most or all of your income appears on a W-2 is typically straightforward when using Form 1040, US Individual Income Tax Return. If you’re working as a writer, whether instead of a day job or in addition to your day job, you’ll also need to complete a Schedule C as part of the 1040 tax form to account for income and expenses related to that work. This is often the first major tax responsibility for writers, regardless of your level of income.

You stand to benefit from treating your work as a writer as a business when (1) you start receiving 1099-NEC forms (reporting nonemployee compensation) for your work, (2) you start receiving 1099-K forms from companies like Stripe, Square, PayPal, or other third-party payment processors, as required for those transactions, or (3) you have expenses related to pursuing your writing career that can be deducted from your overall income, regardless of the source of that income. If your expenses surpass your income from writing activity, you are allowed to reduce your overall tax burden, as long as, in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), you treat your writing as a business and not a hobby. At writing conferences, if you’re lucky, there may be a session by a tax professional that delves into the particulars of this tricky distinction; namely, how do you prove or indicate to the IRS that you have serious intent to operate your writing business at a profit—especially if you have a day job? Basically, you have to show evidence that you’re an entrepreneur. That might include building and maintaining an author website, paying for business cards, printing materials to support book sales (e.g., postcards and flyers), buying advertising, hiring consultants or publicists, attending events or conferences, and so on.

To make the case to the IRS (especially if you’re ever audited), always keep receipts, emails, and other records for your writing business in one place, and start tracking your writing expenses and income using accounting software. Wave is a good starting point since it offers a free plan and is easy to use even if you have little or no knowledge of finances and accounting.

You don’t need a formal business entity, such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC, discussed in chapter 16), to convince the IRS that your writing is a business. But you do want to treat your writing activity—the income and expenses—as separate from your personal activities. It helps greatly to have a name for your business as a writer to separate it from anything else you might do, and also to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN), also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, which is like a Social Security number for your business. (EINs are free and easy to obtain from the federal government.) You then use that EIN when you fill out a Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification and Certification—which you’ll be asked to do by nearly any outlet that pays you—and the 1099 forms mentioned earlier will be sent to you and the IRS using that EIN. The EIN helps keep your writing business finances separate from your personal finances. You’ll want to establish separate bank accounts and credit cards for your business, even if the activity is minimal. You’ll be glad you applied this discipline early, and it makes tax time a breeze.

As an individual, you are always required to report income from your writing, no matter how small the amount, using Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship). However, companies are not required to file or send you a 1099 for what they pay you during a calendar year unless the amount exceeds $600. (And sometimes they may not send a 1099 even if it’s above that!) Payment processors like PayPal may or may not send you a 1099-K accounting for any income running through their systems. So you need to keep your own records and not rely solely on 1099s for calculating business income.

Once you start turning a profit on your writing business, you will be required to pay self-employment tax (using Schedule SE) on your profit as well as federal income tax. (To reduce your tax burden and avoid the self-employment tax, see chapter 36 on business formation.) If you’re earning enough, you may be responsible for paying quarterly estimated taxes or else face a penalty—and that’s when it’s definitely time to consult a tax professional for assistance.

What Expenses Can You Deduct?

According to the IRS, business expenses must be both ordinary (commonly accepted in your trade) and necessary (helpful and appropriate for your business). Such expenses for writers may include the following:

• Website hosting, email marketing, and cloud storage

• Internet service

• Writing tools and software, paper, printers and ink

• Database subscription fees for agent and publisher research

• Professional membership dues

• Writing conference registration fees and associated travel costs

• Online classes and educational opportunities

• Business cards and promotional expenses

• Research materials (books, magazines, databases)

• Submissions fees and postage

• Contest fees

• Freelance editors

• Marketing and promotion help

• Business meals

• Health insurance premiums (deductible only from annual profit earned)

Many writers wonder whether they can take a home office deduction. Quite possibly, but this is an area that the IRS tends to scrutinize, so be prepared. To take a home office deduction requires that you have a dedicated space exclusively for your writing business that’s not used for any other purpose. If you normally do your work sitting at the kitchen counter, that won’t work for your home office deduction. But if the spare bedroom has been turned into your writing office, you’re on safer ground. Still, there are limits to what you can deduct, and you can’t deduct more than your business income. It’s best to consult a tax professional for guidance.

Business Licenses

Some cities and counties require you to obtain a business license. Search for “business license” and the city and county where you are located to see if it’s required for your type of business. You may need to pay annual fees, which might be calculated based on your annual income. You can deduct these expenses on Schedule C.

Collecting Sales Tax

If you earn money from selling books, subscriptions, online classes, or digital products directly to consumers, you’ll run into the thorny issue of whether it’s necessary to collect sales tax. Some platforms, like Patreon, take care of collecting and remitting sales tax for you; others, like Substack, do not. Unfortunately, sales tax requirements vary dramatically depending on what state you live in, what product or service you are selling, and even where the purchaser lives. This can be an enormous headache, and if you do need to collect taxes, you’ll also need to secure a state license before you begin selling. (To research tax laws in your state, visit the TaxJar website at https://www.taxjar.com/resources/sales-tax/states.) Fortunately, there are third-party tools to help you collect and remit the right amount of sales tax, but such tools come at a price and might not be worth it unless you’re running a business with hundreds of transactions per year. Perhaps it goes without saying, but if your business has reached this level of success, you should be consulting with a tax professional about proper remittance and whether you can take a deduction for it on your income taxes.

The European Union requires you pay sales tax (known as VAT, or value-added tax) if you sell certain digital goods to EU residents; you may want to avoid selling to EU customers if you’re not prepared to navigate that quagmire.

Example of Schedule C (Form 1040): Profit or Loss from Business

Table 4 is a very simplified example of a Schedule C for a writer who is earning money from freelance writing and online teaching. When you are in the position to file one yourself, be sure to download the current version from the IRS website, along with the instructions for filling it out—which you should check each year, even if you’ve filed a Schedule C before, because the details can change. This section provides a general description.

In part 1, which records income, the “Returns and allowances” line, along with overall “Cost of goods sold (if applicable),” allow you to adjust your income so that you’re not paying taxes on refunds, returns, processing fees, or anything else that involves the cost of doing business. Most writers will not need to worry about cost of goods sold because they’re not selling merchandise or books directly from their home office or directly off their website. (Telling people to buy your book through a retailer does not count as you selling goods: the retailer is the one selling the book, not you.) However, if you are selling print books directly to readers, not only will you have to think about the sales tax implications, you might need to complete part 3 of Schedule C with information about the cost of goods, specifically accounting for your inventory, unless you are exempt from doing so as a small business taxpayer. (Thankfully, you probably will be.)

Table 4 Example of Schedule C for Freelance Writer

Part I: Income

Gross receipts or sales

$30,000

Returns and allowances

($1,000)

Net receipts or sales

$29,000

Cost of goods sold (if applicable)

—

Gross profit

$29,000

Part II: Expenses

Advertising

$500

Office expense

$1,000

Liability insurance

$500

Supplies

$300

Total expenses before business use of the home

$2,300

Part III: Cost of Goods Sold (if applicable)

Part IV: Information on Your Vehicle (if applicable)

Part V: Other Expenses (if applicable)

Part 2 records expenses. (There are more categories on the actual Schedule C than shown in our simplified example.) Under expenses, it is possible to deduct the expense of using your own vehicle for your business—which then requires that you also complete part 4—but most writers will use the simplified method of taking a standard mileage rate, whereby you keep track of your business-related mileage during the year and then multiply your final number of miles by the designated federal rate per mile (which may change from year to year; be sure to read the instructions). As far as “other expenses” in part 5 are concerned, most writers will not have any, but—as with everything—consult a tax professional if you’re not sure.

For travel and meals, you can keep track of your actual expenses and tally them; in most situations, you receive a 50 percent deduction for business meals. Alternatively, for meals you can use the standard meal allowance as set by the government, based on location, to calculate daily meals and incidental expenses. (You should still keep records regardless.)

If you are taking the home office deduction, you will enter it under part 2, after the total for the aforementioned expenses. Although not shown in our example, this deduction can be reported on Schedule C using a simplified calculation method provided there. If your situation is such that this method would not fully capture your expenses, however, then you might opt to complete a separate form to get a larger deduction (Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home).

In our example, assuming no home office deduction, we subtract the $2,300 expenses of part 2 from the $29,000 gross profit of part 1 to reap a net profit of $26,700. Depending on your own net profit or loss on Schedule C, you may need to use Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax, to determine any tax due on your net earnings. Self-employment tax is a combination of your Social Security and Medicare tax, which gets withheld from your paycheck when you work for someone else. If you have a net profit of $400 or more, you’re likely to be required to pay self-employment tax.

Finally, be mindful that when you’re self-employed and expect to owe more than $1,000 in federal taxes for the current year, you should be making quarterly estimated tax payments (due in April, June, and September of the current year and January of the following year) and not waiting until the end of the current year to send a payment. Otherwise, you could be subject to penalties by the IRS.

Parting Thoughts

I have yet to meet any writer enthusiastic about dealing with taxes, but giving it proper attention has the potential to increase your earnings—not least because you’re taking every deduction possible. In my earliest freelancing years, when I decided to hire an accountant to help prepare my Schedule C, he methodically helped me identify all deductions available to me—something I had never researched—which left me without any tax liability. Because writers’ incomes are often so minimal to start, knowing and taking all your deductions can be the easiest way to increase your earnings.

Exercise: Sign Up for Accounting Software

If you don’t currently use accounting software to track your income and expenses, sign up for a free account at Wave (https://www.waveapps.com). Wave is a cloud-based accounting system for small business owners. As a writer, that means you. Even if accounting software seems unnecessary right now, it’s never too early to start good habits. If you’re willing to pay a monthly fee, Wave will allow you to connect your bank accounts and credit cards. If you remain on a free plan, you’ll have to manually import such transactions. Take time to review and reconcile your transactions every month; this will make tax time exceptionally easy and low-stress whether you’re filing on your own or with the help of an accountant.

36 : Business Formation for Writers

Most writers start out by operating as sole proprietorships, where all assets are owned by you, a single individual. Sole proprietorships are a type of pass-through business entity, which means your profits and losses “pass through” onto your individual income tax return. The business itself is not taxed; rather, the income is taxed on the individual level. In the United States, this setup keeps things simple and straightforward at tax time and holds true even if you have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). All income and expenses related to that EIN will be part of your usual income tax return; you do not file a tax return separately for your writing business.

A sole proprietorship is the most common type of business entity for writers. Another favored pass-through business entity that offers some advantages is the Limited Liability Company (LLC). As its name indicates, this type of entity provides limited liability protection in addition to pass-through taxation, which means that your personal assets can be protected from business debts and liabilities. Having an LLC also creates a dividing line between your personal and business finances—a desirable distinction, as discussed in chapter 35. If you want to expand your business or collaborate with others, having an LLC can be helpful for growth. Having an LLC can also be beneficial if you’re entering into numerous contracts and agreements, whether with publishers or clients, since the business is a distinct legal entity. And an LLC is a useful tool for estate planning because it can be transferred to other people if the need arises.

One of the biggest motivating factors to establish an LLC is the option to be taxed as an S corporation, which can reduce your tax obligations—specifically self-employment tax. When an LLC elects S corporation status, profits and losses pass through to LLC members (that’s you); LLCs owned and run by a single member will see profits and losses pass through to their individual tax return as always. But there are two big catches in electing S corporation status. First, the business must file a tax return (totally separate from the individual Form 1040). Second, LLC members—which will likely consist of you alone—will receive a salary and a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, at the end of the year. Alternatively, you might choose to be paid as a subcontractor of your business, in which case your earnings would be entered into your Schedule C on your individual tax return and you’d receive a Form 1099-NEC (for nonemployee compensation) from your business. (Consult a tax professional for guidance on which option makes more sense for you.)

There are many variables as to how advantageous an LLC might be for your situation, not least of which is the state where you live. In some states, it might not make any sense to set up this business structure, so it’s imperative to do your research and visit a small business resource center if possible. As for my situation, in two states (Virginia and Ohio), I was able to establish an LLC as an S corporation with relative ease, minimal cost, and considerable tax savings. If you live in an amenable state, here are the potential benefits:

• As with sole proprietorships, your LLC taxed as an S corporation is a pass-through entity. The business itself does not pay federal income tax; instead, the profit and loss pass through to your individual tax return. This setup avoids double taxation that occurs with other types of corporations.

• You will avoid some self-employment taxes. One of the greatest challenges of being self-employed is the self-employment tax on your entire net earnings. But you can reduce your liability through an LLC S corporation. You’ll pay yourself a reasonable salary, subject to payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), and the remaining business income will be considered a “distribution,” which is not subject to self-employment tax. The critical piece here is that “reasonable” salary. If you pay yourself a salary that’s too low (to avoid taxes), it will catch the attention of the IRS.

• You can set up a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) or a 401(k) plan as an LLC S corporation, with contributions made on a pretax basis.

There are countless services that can help you set up a single-member LLC in your state; in some cases, it’s not difficult to do yourself. It’s typically an online process that requires little beyond your name, address, business name, and method of payment. This isn’t to suggest you can be incredibly breezy about the whole affair, but don’t assume you need a lawyer to set up an LLC if the process in your state is fairly straightforward.

If you want to elect S corporation status for your LLC, it’s wise to have a tax or legal professional prepare and file the paperwork, which can be more complex and delicate. They can also assist you in setting up payroll and payroll taxes if you decide to draw a salary, and meeting the requirements of your state, county, and city. For my LLC S corporation, the payroll and payroll taxes are automated through a popular payroll service known as Gusto. Once it’s set up, it works in the background and updates you if there are any hiccups.

What about Pen Names?

If you choose to write under a pen name (there are as many reasons to do so as there are writers—the choice is yours), then your first step is to research the pen name you have in mind and make sure it’s not already in use. Generally, it’s not legal to use a pen name that would cause confusion with someone who’s well established, whether that’s Stephen King or Tom Hanks.

If you plan to use your real name on contracts, documents, W-9s, bank accounts, and so on, then you may not need to do anything further than claim social media handles or buy a website domain name for your pen name. But if you want to be paid under the pen name, that requires you to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement with your state. (It is also known as “doing business as.”) Keep in mind this doesn’t make the pen name exclusively yours—other people can still use it unless you decide to trademark the name. (Doing so is expensive and requires legal assistance.) If you need to file for copyright, use your pen name and your real name, unless you’re concerned about your identity being revealed; copyright records can be searched by the public. For those seeking total secrecy, you’ll likely need to form corporations or trusts to hold the copyright and contracts. Even then, it is very difficult to keep the source of authorship a secret these days.

Setting Up Your Own Publishing Imprint or Company

If you plan to self-publish your work, you may wonder whether it’s necessary to form a publishing company or some kind of separate business entity. The short answer is no. You can self-publish your work through Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and other distributors/retailers using your Social Security number or EIN. It does not require having an LLC or corporation. However, given everything so far discussed, if you’re serious about the business of publishing, it’s best to establish an LLC.

When you see a self-published book with a publisher name attached, that may or may not be an established business entity. As far as the publishing industry is concerned, the name of the publisher can be anything you want; it doesn’t require registration, approval, or any kind of formality. Authors often first face this question when they acquire or purchase International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), the unique book identification numbers required for retail distribution. ISBNs are sold to publishers, so when you obtain them, you have to indicate a publisher name. Some self-publishing authors just use their own name, some will use an LLC if they already have one, and others will invent something on the spot that sounds good. As for myself, I chose this last option. The publisher name for my self-published books is MBA for Writers. It does not exist anywhere else or as an LLC.

However, experts advise being more thoughtful about this decision. David Wogahn, a self-publishing expert, emphasizes that the publisher name is displayed to the public wherever you sell your book (e.g., on the book description page at Amazon), recorded in book industry databases, listed on your book’s copyright page, and found in a lot of other places you might not expect.1 If your book happens to hit a bestseller list, the publisher name will be listed—whatever name you chose when obtaining the ISBN.

As with pen names, if you want this publisher you’ve created out of thin air to receive payments in its name, you’ll need to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement.

Should You Purchase Business Insurance?

You might want to consider the following two types of business insurance for liability protection and peace of mind:

• Professional liability insurance. This is sometimes known as “errors and omissions” insurance. It’s primarily relevant to writers who also act as editors, consultants, designers, and marketers—or professionals who offer advice and services to others. If clients believe you damaged them in some way or violated a contract, they could have grounds to sue.

• Media liability insurance. This is a specialized type of professional liability insurance. It’s unlikely that any publisher or media outlet you work with will cover you under its own media liability insurance policy, and some of the contracts you sign will put liability for what you write entirely on your shoulders. Especially if you’re conducting investigative journalism, writing about highly sensitive issues, or risking the anger of deep-pocketed individuals or corporations, it’s worth investing in a media liability insurance policy. The first place to look is the Freelancers Union; coverage starts at around twenty-five dollars per month. (Membership in the Freelancers Union is free; it also offers other types of insurance useful to writers, such as long-term disability insurance, and help finding health insurance.)

Parting Thoughts

If you have a small business resource center in your region, take advantage of it. You may uncover important information pertinent to your state, city, or county, as well as free assistance or educational programs. The Authors Guild also occasionally offers free webinars about business structure and LLC setup.2

Exercise: Research LLC Formation in Your State of Residence

If you live in the United States, look up your state’s rules and regulations governing the formation of LLCs, specifically single-member LLCs. Usually this information can be found through your state government’s website. What is the fee for establishing such an LLC? What is the renewal fee? Are there any annual filing requirements?

37 : Contract Language Every Writer Should Know

To negotiate a writing, freelancing, or publishing contract that serves your best interests, you need some familiarity with the legal language of publishing. Yet few writers and agents speak openly about contracts they’ve successfully negotiated or what standard terms look like—and most publishers or outlets don’t make their contracts available for public scrutiny. Short of hiring a literary lawyer, which is impractical for most nonbook contracts, writers can be left muddling through on their own.

This section offers only a brief introduction. A comprehensive guide would require a book of its own. I am not a lawyer, and this chapter does not constitute professional advice, but it should help you spot a rights grab or flag contract language that may do you long-term harm.

The Grant of Rights

The moment you write something, or put ideas into tangible form, it is protected under US copyright law, and you own the copyright.1 “Granting” rights to your work simply means you are licensing or giving permission to a person or a company to publish or adapt your work—for which you own the copyright—under certain circumstances, in certain formats and venues, for a stated amount of time. Almost every contract you sign as a writer will involve a grant of rights, and it’s typically in the very first clause.

Exclusive and nonexclusive are critical words to look for and carefully consider in every contract as it pertains to these rights. Broadly speaking, nonexclusive works in your favor and gives you more flexibility; you are “sharing” the rights with a publisher, and you can share them as well with other people and continue to profit from the work in any way you like. Exclusive means you’re committing the work in some way to a single publisher, at least for the time specified in the contract. That ties up your rights and abilities. Exclusivity, therefore, traditionally comes with better compensation. Some contracts will list exclusive and nonexclusive grants of rights separately, for clarity.

Work-for-hire contracts assign all rights to the material you write, including copyright, to the person or company that is paying you. You lose any ability to reuse or resell that material. The contract may not say “work for hire” but instead say that your work is the “sole and exclusive property” of the publication. It may also slip the phrase “all rights” into a complex sentence with multiple clauses that is hard to unpack. If you sign such a contract or agree to give up all rights to a piece, make sure the compensation is appropriate for the nature of the work because you’ll never be able to earn another dime from it (no royalties!), or even use it in a future collection of your own work, unless you negotiate a contract provision that grants you that permission. In some cases, work-for-hire agreements might pay bonuses or royalties if the work meets certain sales goals, but you might have to ask for such rewards.

Contracts for Short Works (Articles, Short Stories, Poems)

Before the internet, a typical contract for a magazine or journal article in the United States asked for “first North American serial rights.” Essentially, this clause granted the magazine first dibs on publishing your work in print in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Often the writer would also need to promise not to resell that piece, or repurpose it, for a specified time after publication. If the magazine wished to reuse the work (for example, to reprint the piece in a special issue), a reprint fee would have to be paid or negotiated. This is still how many print-based contracts work. Here is a generic example of what this looks like in a typical contract:

Writer hereby grants and assigns to the Publisher exclusive first North American print rights for ninety (90) days after the Publisher’s first publication of the Work. . . . In the event Publisher reprints the Work in any of its products, Publisher shall pay to Writer an additional sum of 10% of the original Compensation for each such reprint.

If you agreed to the language in this example, you would be giving the publisher an exclusive right to the material, in print in North America, for ninety days. If they want to reprint it, they would need to pay you 10 percent of your original rate each time they do so. If they want to publish and distribute it on another continent, they’ll need to negotiate a new contract or clause with you. (Note that this clause says nothing about online or digital rights; with print contracts, those areas are often covered separately, sometimes in a subclause. We’ll get to that in a minute.)

What’s a reasonable period of exclusivity? It depends on the frequency of the publication, as well as the nature of the material. A quarterly publication might reasonably ask for 90 to 180 days of exclusivity, while a weekly should ask for a fraction of that. The longer and more important the piece—and the more the publication has invested in it—the greater the justification it may have to ask for a longer period of exclusivity.

It’s now nearly impossible for a writer to sign a print-based contract without also granting some digital rights to the material. By law, a print publication is allowed to include your work in its digital replicas. Digital replica refers to a version of the print issue in digital form, in which the print presentation remains intact—including advertising, article order, and so on. For example, when the New Yorker released its entire archive of issues going back to 1925 in digital form, it did not need to secure further rights or pay the contributors because it was distributing replicas of the print issues.

Writers have more room to negotiate digital rights when it comes to how their work is made available outside the context of a full issue. “Out of context” in a contract usually means (1) on the publication’s website, whether available for free or to subscribers only, and (2) as part of online database access, such as through libraries. The most favorable scenario for the writer is a nonexclusive arrangement. This arrangement allows the publication to keep your article available as part of its online or digital archive for as long as it wishes, but not to prevent you from reselling or reusing the material elsewhere.

It pays to study up on how the publication markets and promotes its content online. Some writers may value exposure over exclusivity, yet you want to ensure that you’re getting paid appropriately for how your work is used. At the same time, you don’t want to miss out on good marketing and promotion, or word of mouth, because you refused to give the publication any permission to use your work in an online context. Each writer weighs these choices for themself: scarcity may sometimes increase a piece’s value in the long run, but it’s also nice if your parents (or a potential new editor) can read your article online.

Here is a generic example of what an online grant of rights might look like:

The Author agrees to grant to the Publication: (a) nonexclusive worldwide online rights after first publication of the Work; and (b) the perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, and distribute the Work in digital, individually retrievable, form via a website or database associated with the Publication identified above.

Agreeing to this clause allows the publication to keep your work available on its website or other online properties, in individually retrievable form (out of context of the full issue), as long as such sites are associated with the publication. However, it’s a nonexclusive grant, so it also allows you to reuse and resell the work however you wish. Note the word worldwide; with very few exceptions, worldwide online rights must be granted (since most publications make their online media accessible to the world), but this stipulation doesn’t affect the limiting of print rights to North America.

Typically, an online-only contract—in cases where there is no print publication, and especially when you’re being paid little or nothing—will ask for limited exclusivity, typically for a period of weeks or months, and nonexclusive rights thereafter. Online publications that are high-profile and pay well may be in a position to demand longer periods of exclusivity. Either way, many online-only contracts may ask for blanket, nonexclusive rights to reuse or repurpose your material for e-books, digital collections or anthologies, special digital magazine issues, and so on. If the publication would profit off such use, consider using that as a negotiation tool to ask for more money, or see if you can strike such reuse from your contract if you don’t see any benefit to your work being repurposed in that way. At the very least, you should ask to be notified when reuse occurs.

Book Contracts

If you’re offered a deal with a traditional publisher, your contract will probably adhere to one of these three conventions:

• Life of copyright. This describes the typical traditional print book publishing contract. The author grants the publisher rights to publish the work, potentially for the duration of the work’s copyright (life of the author plus seventy years, in the United States) unless specific conditions are met under which rights revert to the author. In reality, few publishers hold onto a work for the life of copyright, and US law does grant authors what’s known as “termination rights” after thirty-five years, but as you might imagine, such situations are complicated. The Authors Alliance is a good resource for learning about your rights in this regard.2

• Fixed term. These contracts grant rights to the publisher for a set time limit (e.g., five years), after which all rights revert to the author. Sometimes fixed-term contracts automatically renew unless the author proactively cancels them.

• Work for hire. As with all work-for-hire agreements, author gives up all rights to the work, including copyright.

None of these contracts is necessarily more favorable than the other; much depends on the work being contracted, the compensation, and the author’s goals. Life-of-copyright contracts should be expected from most traditional publishers. Fixed-term contracts are used more often by e-book or digital-only publishers. Work-for-hire contracts are common with publisher-developed series, book packagers, and ghostwriting projects.

Life-of-copyright contracts typically remain in effect for as long as sales occur. The reversion-of-rights clause should detail specific conditions under which rights can revert to the author, and it may even state the sales figure that must be sustained for the publisher to keep the rights to sell and distribute the work. Here is a generic example of what a life-of-copyright grant of rights looks like:

The Author hereby assigns to the Publisher the exclusive right to publish, reproduce and distribute the Work and derivatives thereof in all languages in any and all forms/media whether now known or hereafter invented and to exercise and grant to third parties any of said rights to the Work, throughout the world, for the full term of copyright available to the Work.

Any good literary agent would tell you that this example is not very favorable to the author, but if the advance and royalties were right, it could be acceptable. Most agents would negotiate for an amended clause that limits the publisher’s claim to the rights enumerated, or at the very least puts a limit on how long the publisher can exploit certain rights—meaning the author can get rights back within a short time frame if the publisher has not sold or made use of them.

For any life-of-copyright contract, it’s essential to review the termination or rights-reversion clauses. You need to ask for specific sales minimums that would automatically trigger reversion of rights, so the publisher can’t sit on your book indefinitely by arguing that a translated edition selling in Micronesia constitutes being “in print,” even if the book isn’t selling a single copy in English.

Most book contracts are far more complicated than article contracts. If you don’t have an agent, consider becoming a member of the Authors Guild, which offers contract review services as well as a free model contract for all authors to consult. Also, literary lawyers can be hired on an hourly basis to assist you; run a search on this term to uncover potential people you can hire.

Noncompete Clauses and Work-for-Hire Agreements

If you sign a noncompete clause while working with an employer, publication, or publisher, you hamper your ability to work with others—or even for yourself. Thus, you should hesitate before signing one. Here’s a typical, very restrictive noncompete clause in a traditional book contract:

While this Agreement is in effect, the Author shall not, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, write, edit, or publish, or cause to be written, edited, or published in any format, any other competing work that is of a similar character on the same subject matter or that is in the judgment of the Publisher likely to interfere with or injure the sale of the Work.

In plain English, this means: while your book remains under contract (which might be decades), you cannot publish any work (book-length or otherwise), in print, digital, or any other form, for any other publisher or publication—or on your own—that would be categorized as similar to your book or that the publisher thinks might hurt the present book’s sales. This type of restriction has serious implications for a writer trying to make a living off their writing. It can create a dependency on this one publisher either to give the writer sufficient work or to grant them leeway to produce their work for others.

It’s most important that you be able to continue making a living in a way that’s fair and reasonable. A publisher of a single book or article shouldn’t prevent you from doing the work you normally do, unless the publisher is contracting you for work that might constitute a new full-time living. If you’re working with an agent, make sure you’re on the same page about your writing and publishing over the long term, so that your contract doesn’t leave you stuck, unable to publish future work, or in a breach-of-contract situation.

Once fairly innocuous, the noncompete clause is becoming a problem for writers who work for established media companies and start-ups, either full-time or on a contract basis. The noncompete clause often goes hand in hand with a work-for-hire agreement, which means that any and all work you produce during your contract or employment automatically becomes the property of your employer. That may include your social media accounts, any creative work you do outside the office, book contracts, and any branding your employer creates that’s associated with your name. New and young writers looking for their first job or big break may not think twice about signing contracts that grab all their intellectual property rights and temporarily prevent them from doing creative work once they sever ties. Even if you have very little negotiating power, try to push back in these ways:

• Reduce the term of the noncompete. Can you reduce it to three or six months? You can make a reasonable argument that you need to be able to make a living when your contract or employment terminates.

• Always define what constitutes a “competitor.” If possible, list the specific names of competitors that you cannot work for or be affiliated with during the term of the clause. Doing so reduces the most immediate threat for your employer or publisher, who is probably worried about you defecting to some particular place that’s known for poaching high-value employees and contributors.

• Spell out specific types of work you are allowed to engage in or keep your rights to. Maybe you’re writing and maintaining a blog on a specific topic that shouldn’t fall under the purview of your employment or contract, or maybe you want the freedom to teach or speak at events without needing to seek permission. Think through all possible scenarios and put in writing what you want the freedom to do. When new opportunities arise, create a paper trail that indicates the company said it was OK for you to engage in those activities and that you own rights (if applicable) to any work created.

In spring 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission announced a ban on noncompetes, whereby existing noncompete agreements would be considered unenforceable.3 This final rule banning noncompetes would apply both to writers in conventional employment and to freelance writers who sign magazine and book contracts. However, this new rule was subsequently challenged in court and may remain in legal limbo for some time.

Parting Thoughts

Whenever you are presented with a contract, assume that everything is negotiable. Don’t be shy about asking what the language means if you don’t understand it clearly, and ask to modify any boilerplate agreement you’re given. The worst that could happen is that the publication or employer says no. Every publisher’s or employer’s contract is built to protect its interests, not yours. Stick up for yourself, and be wary of any editor or manager who tells you, “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that clause. That never happens.” Don’t trust anyone’s reassurance that the contract language doesn’t matter. It’s in the contract for a reason, and it has the potential to affect you, your work, and your earnings potential.

Exercise: Read a Model Book or Freelancer Contract

Look up the Authors Guild model book contract provided for free to everyone at its website.4 Review the guild’s commentary on advance against royalties and royalties. What is the biggest surprise for you in how authors get paid by publishers? If you’re a freelancer, consult the limited use contract template provided by the Freelancers Union, or try out the organization’s step-by-step contract creator.5

38 : Common Legal Issues Writers Face

With more writers than ever working independently, legal issues arise far more frequently as part of everyday business. Having an experienced agent or editor on hand can be of incalculable value, but as with contracts, writers have a responsibility to educate themselves on key issues.

Protecting Your Work

Writers can be particularly concerned about how to prevent their unpublished work from being stolen by unscrupulous people. Years of experience in publishing have shown me that writers can be overly anxious, if not paranoid, about this issue. Many warnings you might run across are unnecessary and counterproductive. My goal in discussing your rights as an unpublished author is to give you information based on the actual likelihood that something bad will happen to you. (Caveat: The following advice is directed toward writers of prose and poetry. Screenwriters or playwrights should consult the Writers Guild of America website for registration information specific to their field.)

First, it is not possible under current US law to copyright or protect an idea, and you’ll inevitably find other writers with ideas similar to your own. Chalk it up to the cultural zeitgeist. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and everything depends on execution. So share your work with trusted mentors or critique partners, send it to publishing professionals for consideration, and talk about aspects of it when you’re networking at conferences. It’s not worth the energy to worry about the small chance an idea will be stolen. In any case, you can’t work professionally as a writer for very long without pitching your ideas to others.

No matter how valuable you think your idea is, do not tell an editor or agent that you can’t disclose the details until they sign a nondisclosure agreement. They will reject you outright for withholding information that would help them decide whether to do business with you. You have to be up front and clear about every aspect of your project. Don’t expect anyone to go out of their way and create a special business agreement with you because you’re nervous about idea theft. Such anxiety is more likely to hurt you in these situations than protect you.

When it comes to protecting your actual writing—including unpublished manuscripts—you do not have to officially register it with the US Copyright Office for it to be protected under the law. Nor do you need to put the copyright symbol anywhere on your work for it to be protected. As US copyright law is currently written, as soon as you express your work in tangible form, it is protected. You will, however, need to register the work if you find infringement and wish to sue. But the frank reality is that no one sees unpublished writing as an untapped gold mine. It’s hard work to profit from a piece of writing, especially writing from an unknown writer. Therefore, the threat of infringement is very low when you’re submitting to already very busy agents and editors. However, if you self-publish your work or otherwise begin selling it publicly, then you should officially register it with the Copyright Office.1

If you find your copyright being infringed in any way, the bad news is that copyright cases can be prohibitively expensive to litigate because they require going to federal court. The process can take months or years while racking up thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees. The good news is that with passage of the CASE Act in late 2020, the US government moved to establish the equivalent of a small-claims court that anyone can use for copyright claims without needing a lawyer. That court is called the Copyright Claims Board (CCB).

The CCB consists of three Copyright Claims Officers who preside over proceedings and are final decision makers on claims. Most of the work is done online; testimony is presented in writing. Although CCB hearings are possible, decisions may be based only on testimony and submitted documents. If the CCB conducts a hearing, it will be done by videoconference; no travel will ever be necessary. The fee to submit a claim is forty dollars; another sixty dollars is charged when or if the case becomes active. Since the process doesn’t require an attorney, the CCB will help claimants understand the law as needed.

However, the CCB process is entirely voluntary. It’s an alternative to federal court, not a replacement. Anyone who is accused of infringement (a “respondent”) can opt out of CCB proceedings, and the case ends there. That’s because the US Constitution guarantees the right to have copyright claims heard in a federal court, with a jury trial, so to have a CCB case heard, the respondent has to waive those rights. If they do not waive those rights, a claimant would then have to go to federal court to pursue the matter further.

To file a claim for copyright infringement with the CCB, you must first register your work with the Copyright Office. You can file a claim with the CCB while registration is pending, but CCB officers cannot issue a final decision until you have a copyright certificate. Other things to know about the CCB:

• You can’t bring a case against someone who resides outside the US unless they have sued you and you’re asserting a counterclaim.

• You can bring a claim against a company like YouTube, but only if you’ve served them with a takedown notice and they have not complied.

• The CCB cannot issue injunctions. An injunction is a special court order that prevents a person from engaging in or continuing certain acts. This is another potential downside to the process.

• If a respondent fails to pay awarded damages, the claimant must go to federal court to get relief.

• The CCB is well suited for straightforward cases without much complexity when damages are unlikely to exceed $30,000.

Permissions

Permissions allow you to quote or excerpt other people’s copyrighted work within your own. Obtaining permissions requires contacting the copyright owner (or their publisher, agent, or estate) and requesting permission to use the work. You may be charged a fee for the use, anywhere from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. But it’s not always necessary to seek permission. Some quotations of copyrighted work are regarded as “fair use” under US copyright law. So how do you know if your use is fair? The most common “rule” you’ll find, if you search online or ask people, is “Ask explicit permission for everything beyond x.” And what is x? Some people say three hundred words. Some say one line. Some say 10 percent of the original work’s word count.

But there is no legal rule stipulating what quantity is OK under fair use. Major legal battles have been fought over this question, but fair use remains one of the grayest areas of copyright law. Any “rule” you find will be based on a general institutional guideline or a person’s experience, as well as their overall comfort level with the risk involved in quoting or excerpting work. Unfortunately, there’s also a risk to asking for permission. Once you do, some publishers or copyright owners will take the opportunity to ask for money or refuse permission, even in cases where the use would actually be considered fair. Either way, it’s important to recognize that crediting a source does not remove the obligation to seek permission. It is expected that you will credit your sources regardless of fair use; otherwise, you are plagiarizing. Pleading ignorance or incompetence about permissions or fair use is not an effective defense if you find yourself in hot water.

While there is no black-and-white rule you can apply to determine fair use, there are principles. And there are, fortunately, a few clear-cut cases in which you do not need to seek permission:

• When simply mentioning the title or author of a work.

• When you are stating unadorned facts. If you copy a list of the fifty states in the United States, you are not infringing on anyone’s copyright. Those are straightforward facts.

• When the work is in the public domain. This isn’t always a simple matter to determine, but any work published more than seventy-five years ago is typically in the public domain. Some works published more recently are also in the public domain. The Copyright Office offers online records to help you determine the copyright status of published works, although its records are by no means comprehensive. You can also pay to have this research done.

• When you are linking to something online. Linking does not require permission.

• When the work is licensed under Creative Commons. Such a license should be prominently declared on the work itself. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization and an overall effort to expand the number of creative works available for others to build on legally and share. (You can learn more at https://creativecommons.org.)

Principles of Fair Use

There are four criteria for determining fair use.2 That sounds tidy, but it’s not. The criteria are vague and open to interpretation. Ultimately, when disagreement arises over what constitutes fair use, it’s up to the courts to make a decision. The four criteria are as follows:

1. The purpose and character of the use (e.g., commercial versus not-for-profit/educational). If the purpose of your work is commercial (to make money), that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily in violation of fair use. But it makes your case less sympathetic if you’re borrowing a lot of someone else’s work to prop up your own commercial venture.

2. The nature of the copyrighted work. Facts cannot be copyrighted. For that reason, more creative or imaginative works generally get the strongest protection.

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion quoted in relation to the entire original work. Again, the law does not specify any percentage or word count. If what you quote is considered the most valuable part of the work, even if it is comparatively brief, you may be violating fair use.

4. The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the quoted work. If your use of the original work reduces the likelihood that people will buy the original work, you can be in violation of fair use. Perhaps you quote the material so extensively or in some other way such that the original source is no longer required. That would be affecting the market for the quoted work. (Don’t confuse this criterion with the purpose of reviews or criticism. If a negative review dissuades people from buying a publication, this is not related to the question of fair use.)

Because song lyrics and poems are generally so short—and because songwriters and music publishers are more formally organized, represented, and at times litigious—it’s dangerous to quote even one line without asking for permission, even if you think the use could be considered fair. However, it’s fine to use song titles, poem titles, artist names, band names, movie titles, and so on. (Titles aren’t protected under US copyright law.)

Some writers wonder whether these fair use guidelines still apply to copyrighted work on websites, blogs, and other online publishing platforms, given the rampant infringement that is typical on the internet. Yes, the law still applies, but attitudes online tend to be more lax, which confuses matters further. When online publishers and writers aggregate, repurpose, or otherwise excerpt copyrighted work (whether it originated online or offline), they typically view such use as “sharing” or “publicity” for the original author rather than as copyright violation, especially if it’s for noncommercial or educational purposes. I’m not talking about wholesale piracy here, but about extensive excerpting or aggregating that would not be considered OK in other contexts. It’s a thorny issue outside the scope of this book.

Finally, generally speaking, you do not need permission to mention branded or well-known products in your stories, whether fictional or not. Your character can smoke Camels, drive a Jeep, and binge on Goetze’s Caramel Creams without any risk—and it’s not necessary to use the copyright or trademark symbol when mentioning them. Your writing is considered a noncommercial context when it comes to such mentions, which relieves you of any legal obligation.

Defamation: Libel and Slander

Writers are at risk of being sued for defamation when they communicate a false statement that harms the reputation of another person, a business, or even a nation. Slander is spoken defamation; libel is defamation in writing.

If what you write is the truth, that’s the best defense of all against defamation. There are other defenses available, but a writer who prefers to stay out of court will at all times seek and write only the truth to the best of their knowledge. Unfortunately, if what you write displeases someone, truthfulness can’t prevent your being sued; it only helps ensure that you win what can easily be an expensive and prolonged legal battle.

Defamation doesn’t apply only to journalists, freelancers, and other nonfiction writers. It affects all writers. If a novel features a character who is recognizably based on a real person, and that person is portrayed negatively, that person can sue the writer for defamation. That’s why fictionalizing a true-to-life story is not a reliable method to avoid lawsuit. Additionally, defamation laws in other countries can be less favorable to writers, meaning you could find yourself sued by someone in another country even if your work wouldn’t be considered defamatory in a US court. Writers can protect themselves through the following measures:

• When writing fiction based on real people or even businesses—if the portrayals might be perceived in a negative light—change identifying characteristics so that they can’t be easily recognized.

• Stick to the facts, and let readers come to their own conclusions about what to think. If writing nonfiction about specific people or companies, relate verifiable details or your experience, avoiding accusations of deviance or criminality. Let the reader decide—follow the old “show, don’t tell” rule.

• Don’t write anything to get even.

• For freelancers, journalists, or others who publish regularly, review your contracts. Does the publication bear any responsibility if a lawsuit were to arise? If not, it’s wise to buy media liability insurance from the Authors Guild, the Freelancers Union, or another organization.

Fortunately, writers are rarely sued, and defamation claims are hard to prove because they require evidence that a reputation has been harmed. Still, the safest strategy is to avoid writing and publishing something that might provoke a lawsuit from someone with the financial resources to fuel a legal battle.

Invasion of Privacy

Here’s where things become complicated. Writing and publishing the truth doesn’t protect you from invasion-of-privacy lawsuits. If you disclose embarrassing or unpleasant facts about an identifiable, private person that aren’t of public interest, then you could be accused of invasion of privacy. However, conduct in public places is not protected.

Invasion of privacy can also apply to public figures and celebrities. For example, you may have heard of the lawsuit former wrestler Hulk Hogan filed against online publisher Gawker, which posted a sex video of Hogan. Gawker argued that Hogan had lost his expectation of privacy by discussing his sex life in public, but Hogan’s lawyers successfully argued that publishing the video was an invasion of his privacy. Another example is Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling’s victory in the UK against paparazzi taking photos of her son; the court ruled that the children of famous parents should be protected from intrusive media attention.

Right of Publicity

You cannot use someone else’s likeness, name, or identifying information for commercial purposes—and it doesn’t matter whether the person is a private or public individual. The law can even apply to using the likeness or name of a dead person. In practical terms, this means you shouldn’t merchandise or sell anything (whether a book, T-shirt, or freelance service) with the likeness of another person without their explicit permission. However, it is perfectly acceptable under the law to write about famous and historical figures if the use is expressive—which includes journalistic and creative writing. It’s also OK to write about people when it’s in the public interest, assuming your work doesn’t constitute defamation or invasion of privacy.

A Note about Generative Artificial Intelligence

In fall 2022, a large language model called ChatGPT was released by a little-known company at the time, OpenAI. ChatGPT is a form of generative artificial intelligence (AI) that creates humanlike text, images, and videos in response to user prompts.

Unbeknownst to publishers, authors, artists, and many others, ChatGPT—and other models that soon followed—had been trained on vast swaths of copyrighted material, including books. This training had been done without the permission of rights holders. A number of lawsuits soon followed against OpenAI, among other companies, that claimed copyright infringement—one was brought by the Authors Guild on behalf of fiction writers, another by the New York Times. These legal battles will take years to sort out; meanwhile, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools continue to be available and to be sold to anyone who wants to use them. Industry observers believe that no matter what happens, the AI genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back in. Even if the courts find in favor of rights holders, companies like OpenAI will not suddenly shut down and disappear. In fact, OpenAI has struck numerous licensing deals with all kinds of media companies that are happy to license their copyrighted material for AI training—for the right price.

Many writers wonder what they can do to protect themselves or their work from being used as training fodder for AI companies. The honest truth is: that ship has already sailed. The question now is how writers, publishers, and others will be compensated for training that takes place. Some have suggested collective licensing agencies, similar to what happens in the music industry.

Despite the original sin of AI training, publishers and authors of all kinds are already actively using and benefiting from this technology in the publishing process. Some of the most common uses as this book went to press: summarizing works (especially scientific and scholarly ones for a lay audience), producing outlines, generating draft back cover copy, brainstorming book title and subtitle ideas, and optimizing book marketing efforts. Translators are using AI to generate first drafts of translated works; some authors have had success using AI as a copyediting and proofreading assistant. Synthetic (AI) voices are being used to narrate audiobooks. AI has already been integrated into major software used by publishers and authors, including Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, and Google Workspace.

Some authors are using AI to help them produce books faster by having generative AI outline, suggest, or write large swaths of material. (One tool popular for this purpose is Sudowrite.) Sometimes this material is edited by a human, but not always, and authors may or may not disclose use of AI in their work. The legal conundrum for such work is that US copyright is reserved for works created by humans, not machines. While an author can receive copyright protection for the selection and arrangement of words generated by AI, they don’t receive full copyright protection for such work. At least that’s been the case so far.

The field of generative AI is evolving rapidly, as are the standards, ethics, and laws surrounding it. For up-to-date information on the topic, visit this book’s resource page online (https://businessofwriting.org/supplemental-resources/).

Parting Thoughts

Some of the situations and issues described in this chapter can be scary. What if you get sued for unintentional plagiarism or infringement, unintentional errors or omissions, or defamation? Worse still, what if the lawsuit is frivolous? If you are actively writing and publishing, and especially if you’re earning a full-time living from your writing, consider investing in media liability insurance, as discussed in chapter 37. For more guidance on legal issues, I highly recommend Law and Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers by literary agent and lawyer Jacqueline D. Lipton.

Exercise: Read Up on Current Copyright Issues and Cases

The blog Writer Beware regularly covers copyright issues of high interest to writers. Visit its archive (https://writerbeware.blog/category/copyright/) and browse recent news and events. One area to specifically explore is its reporting on what infringement cases have been brought before the CCB and how they’ve turned out.

Afterword

In this book, I have endeavored to convey sincerely what writers should know about building a successful career. Yet some things about the writing life can only be learned through experience and by figuring out your own abilities and thresholds. Being open to experimentation and accepting of uncertainty and failure is enormously useful. If that doesn’t describe you, try to fake it until it becomes natural.

For the most part, I have set aside any discussion of the life obligations that inevitably interfere with our best-laid plans. We’re each faced with individual challenges that affect how and when we pursue the writing life. You may have family to provide for, and that must take priority above writing, or need a health care plan that only an employer can provide, or struggle with debt. Sometimes pursuing the writing life in the way you would like, or putting it at the center of your life, seems a tremendous luxury. Whatever your situation, if you’re not making the progress you would hope for, and it’s because life is getting in the way, my best advice is to take the pressure off yourself.

Early in my career, when I began speaking at writing conferences as an editor in the industry, I found it difficult to be among hundreds of writers who would inevitably ask what I was writing. Back then, I didn’t have time to focus on my own work, but as a graduate of a writing program, acknowledging this felt like admitting failure. Once, when I’d made this guilty admission for what felt like the hundredth time, a kind woman took my hand and said, “Why, of course—you can’t write because you’re exhausted.” Finally, someone had given me permission to not be writing. I woke up to the unreasonable expectation I had placed on myself and stopped feeling guilty.

I spent fifteen years as an editor and teacher, mainly not focusing on my own writing, but they were not wasted years. I was building other skills and laying a foundation to earn a living that would support the writing life I now have—with more freedom and time. The struggle now is fear: fear of failure and not measuring up. (Those fears never go away, but one does become more adept at facing them when they appear.) One of the great secrets to building the writing life you want is to pursue a vision that is truly yours, rather than someone else’s expectation weighing on your shoulders, and take what you’re doing now—even if it’s not what you planned—and use that as a stepping stone to the next phase of your career. As has happened with me, you will undoubtedly experience a range of distractions and circuitous paths, but all experience can productively affect and contribute to your work.

Acknowledgments

This book would not exist were it not for the encouragement and proactive efforts of its editor, Mary Laur, who has been a wonderful advocate and sharp reader. And I am indebted to the dedicated team at the University of Chicago Press who have supported my work every step of the way, including Meredith Nini, Tamara Ghattas, Andrea Blatz, Abigail Forney, and Jenny Ringblom.

I can’t imagine doing a book like this without a highly skilled and detail-oriented copy editor working behind me—thank you, Lori Meek Schuldt, for making this a more valuable and trusted resource. I am also grateful to Mia Wheatley for being the first reader of the second edition and patiently finding and identifying misplaced and missing footnotes, as well as Jule Kucera, who helped me on short notice during a personal editing emergency. Also, the fingerprints of Dr. Kelly Figueroa-Ray remain from her extensive research into footnotes for the first edition.

My partner in all things, Mark Griffin, has been unfailingly cheerful as I spent hours engulfed in writing and revising this book on the weekends. Our house remains reasonably clean—and our house plants reasonably alive—because of his care. Most writers can only dream of having someone so understanding.

Finally, I thank my readers over the years who have provided the best education of all in how the business works. I always enjoy hearing from you.

Credits

Portions of this book are adapted from material first posted on my website (https:/janefriedman.com) and released in the Hot Sheet newsletter (https://hotsheetpub.com).

A portion of chapter 11 is adapted from “The Book P&L,” Scratch Magazine, Spring 2014, 51–58. Scratch Magazine is a digital-only publication on the business of writing that I cofounded. It ran for a few years before closing in 2015. A version of this article updated in 2023 appears on my website (https://janefriedman.com/book-pl/).

Portions of chapter 12 are adapted from “The Future Value of a Literary Publisher,” in Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2016); “The Future of the Gatekeepers,” in The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015); and a symposium on the future of literary publishing, in Boulevard, nos. 92–93 (2016).

Chapter 37 is adapted from the “Contracts 101” series in Scratch Magazine, 2013–2014.

Appendix : Resources

These are the resources I find myself mentioning most frequently to writers who ask me for guidance. I’ve tried to feature sites, books, and newsletters that I think will be around for a long time to come, but that can change. Visit this book’s website at https://businessofwriting.org for a resource list that I continually update. I also offer a slightly different set of resources at my author website, which you can find at https://janefriedman.com/resources/.

Finding Places to Publish and Other Opportunities

• Writer’s Market directories. Published since 1920, these thick tomes offer instruction and information on how and where to get your work published. The biggest one is Writer’s Market, which covers paying markets in book publishing and magazine publishing. It is no longer released every year; up-to-date information about each market should be obtained online.

• Duotrope (https://duotrope.com). Launched in 2009, this subscription-based service offers thousands of market listings for books, short stories, essays, poetry, and more. It includes book publishers, literary agents, contests, and other opportunities.

• Chill Subs (https://www.chillsubs.com). This site launched in 2022 offers a free searchable database of literary magazine markets. Its team also provides advice and guidance on how and where to get published, as well as online classes.

• Manuscript Wish List (https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com). Calling itself “the most human database for the most efficient querying,” this online business is run by literary agents and authors offering writers in-depth information about who to pitch and how to pitch better.

• QueryTracker (https://querytracker.net). This site offers a free searchable database of mainly literary agents, with some publishers thrown into the mix. A paid subscription is required for full search filtering and access to user-submitted information that can be insightful in understanding what agents actually request and accept.

• Literistic (https://home.literistic.com). This paid newsletter rounds up contests, residencies, fellowships, and publishing opportunities.

• Publishers Marketplace (https://www.publishersmarketplace.com). This site offers the best resources for researching literary agents. Those who subscribe to the weekday newsletter Publishers Lunch will find it invaluable for anyone interested in day-to-day book industry news.

• Lit Mag News (https://litmagnews.substack.com). For anyone actively submitting to literary journals, subscribing to this newsletter will be a big help.

• Writer Beware (https://writerbeware.blog). This blog keeps writers informed about suspicious publishers, agents, and publications. It also maintains lists of markets to avoid. Writer Beware staffers actively research scammy behavior in the writing and publishing community and help writers address grievances with all types of businesses and individuals.

Getting Your Book Published

• One of the most comprehensive guides to book publishing is The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published (2010) by Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry, an agent and editor.

• Before and After the Book Deal (2018) by Courtney Maum is a popular guidebook that especially appeals to literary novelists and memoirists. It’s chock-full of advice from established literary authors who speak to the realities of the publishing industry, based on their personal experience. Maum also has a popular paid Substack newsletter by the same name with regular guidance and learning opportunities.

• How to Write a Book Proposal (2017) by Jody Rein and Michael Larsen is the industry-standard guide to book proposal writing. It first appeared in the 1980s and has been updated regularly ever since.

• The Book Proposal Book (2021) by Laura Portwood-Stacer is a guide for authors writing scholarly book proposals likely to be submitted to university presses. The author has a companion website and newsletter.

• Thinking like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published (2002) by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato is a classic guide for any writer seeking to publish a nonfiction book. Rabiner is a well-respected New York editor and agent, and Fortunato is her freelance editor husband.

• Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript (2009) by Chuck Sambuchino remains the only comprehensive and visual guide on how to format your submissions materials—by genre, category, and purpose.

• The Forest for the Trees (2000) by Betsy Lerner is a New York editor’s sage and timeless advice to writers who seek publication. (She’s now an agent.)

You can also find copious amounts of publishing guidance and advice from the following newsletters, which typically require a paid subscription to receive the most valuable information:

• Agents & Books by literary agent Kate McKean

• How to Glow in the Dark by literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer

• Publishing Confidential by Kathleen Schmidt

• Notes from a Small Press by Anne Trubek

• Indie Kids Books by Darcy Pattison

• Counter Craft by Lincoln Michel

• The Attention Economy by Leigh Stein

• The Shit No One Tells You about Writing (by a mix of authors, editors, and agents)

As you might guess, newsletters can come and go very quickly. To find the latest and most active publishing-related newsletters, try searching Substack for what’s currently popular.

The Book Publishing Industry

• “The Business of Literature” by Richard Nash (Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2013) discusses what the digital era augurs for the business of publishing.

• Merchants of Culture (2010) by John B. Thompson is an engagingly written history of US and UK trade publishing in the twenty-first century. Thompson is a Cambridge professor.

• Book Wars (2022) by John B. Thompson is something like a sequel to his Merchants of Culture; it covers the rise of e-books, self-publishing, Amazon, and digital marketing, among other topics.

• Publishing for Profit by Thomas Woll (2014) is invaluable for anyone thinking of a career in the book publishing industry—or any writer thinking of starting their own book publishing operation.

• People’s Guide to Publishing (2018) by Joe Biel is another outstanding guide to building a sustainable publishing business, with a distinctly outsider, alternative perspective.

• Big Fiction (2023) by Dan Sinykin looks at how conglomeration changed the book publishing industry in the United States.

• The Untold Story of Books (2023) by Michael Castleman is a fascinating writer’s history of book publishing.

For those interested in publishing careers, Agate’s Publishing Academy offers affordable online classes on how the business works. It’s a good alternative to expensive degree-based programs or summer programs in book publishing: https://agatepublishingacademy.com.

Marketing & Promotion and Author Platform

Books in this category become dated quickly, so rather than seeking specific published work, you’re better off identifying experts actively offering guidance that’s timely and relevant for you. Always remember, too, that marketing and promotion advice can be very different depending on whether you’re writing for adults or children, nonfiction or fiction, and so on—try to find experts who are knowledgeable in your genre or with your audience whenever possible.

Here are a few of the experts I trust and learn from; some are more geared toward traditionally published authors, others toward self-publishing:

• Dana Kaye: https://danakaye.com

• Penny Sansevieri, Author Marketing Experts: https://amarketingexpert.com

• David Gaughran: https://davidgaughran.com

• Nicholas Erik: https://nicholaserik.com

• Dave Chesson, Kindlepreneur: https://kindlepreneur.com

• Sam Missingham and Katie Sadler, The Empowered Author: https://theempoweredauthor.com

• Andrea Guevara: https://andreaguevara.com

• Shelby Leigh, Marketing by Shelby: https://marketingbyshelby.com

• Dan Blank, WeGrowMedia: https://wegrowmedia.com

• Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential: https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com

• Jeffrey Yamaguchi, Book Publishing Brick by Brick: https://bookpublishing.substack.com

Magazines, Digital Media, and Freelancing

One of the best print guides to pitching short pieces for newspapers, magazines, and online publications is The Byline Bible (2018) by Susan Shapiro.

Study Hall (https://studyhall.xyz) is a paid membership site and newsletter for active freelancers that regularly broadcasts opportunities to members and has message boards where you can gain insider information from more established writers. Those interested in a full-time freelance writing, despite the challenges, should follow the Writer’s Co-op (https://www.thewriterscooppod.com) and Wudan Yan, who offers a podcast, newsletter, and online education on freelance writers.

An excellent guide to learning how to submit short stories, poetry, and essays to literary magazines is How to Submit by Dennis James Sweeney.

For ongoing news and analysis on what’s happening in the media and magazine industry, look for newsletters by Brian Morrissey, Casey Newton, Kate Lindsay, and Mark Stenberg.

Earning Money in the Creator Economy

Helpful resources and experts—who won’t try to convince you it’s possible to earn millions overnight—include For the Interested by Josh Spector (https://fortheinterested.com), the Ghost Newsletter (https://ghost.org/resources/newsletter/), and Simon Owens (https://simonowens.substack.com). Owens in particular offers regular interviews and case studies that explain in detail how other people do it.

Major Organizations

• The Authors Guild (https://authorsguild.org) is the largest US professional organization for writers. Membership is affordable and available to anyone. Even if you’re not a member, you can still take advantage of its regular free programming and some resources it makes available publicly, such as its model publishing contracts. For those in the UK, seek out the Society of Authors.

• The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI; https://www.scbwi.org) is an international organization for writers and illustrators of children’s work of all kinds and for all ages, including young adult.

• Just about every genre and category has an affiliated organization. A few of the larger ones include the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Women’s Fiction Writing Association, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and Romance Writers of America.

• The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP; https://www.awpwriter.org) is an organization that supports writers and instructors at hundreds of college and university creative writing programs, writers’ conferences, and centers. It hosts the annual AWP Conference, one of the largest gatherings of writers in North America.

• The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi; https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org) is an international organization supporting authors who self-publish.

• The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA; https://www.ibpa-online.org) is a US-based organization that serves small publishers and self-publishing authors.

• The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA; https://www.asja.org) is the largest professional organization for nonfiction writers, offering education, events, advocacy, and other resources.

Legal Issues

• The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook (1998) by Lloyd Jassin and Steven M. Schechter is one of the few guides to sorting through legal issues in written work, particularly those pertaining to permissions.

• Law and Authors (2020) by Jacqueline Lipton is a readable and informative guide on the most common legal issues that writers face.

• Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract (1999) by Jonathan Kirsch is a reference book that every agent has on their desk.

Notes

Introduction

1. “Dana Gioia on the Close Connection between Business and Poetry,” Knowledge at Wharton, May 30, 2007, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/dana-gioia-on-the-close-connection-between-business-and-poetry.

2. Richard Nash (@R_Nash), “Business & marketing are abt understanding networks & patterns of influence & behavior. Writers can handle that,” Twitter, September 13, 2016, 12:01 a.m., https://twitter.com/R_Nash/status/773370482007638018.

Introduction to Part 1

1. Ta-Nehisi Coates quoted in Emma Green, “Advice on Writing from the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates,” Atlantic, September 27, 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/280025/advice-on-writing-from-i-the-atlantic-i-s-ta-nehisi-coates/.

Chapter 1

1. Mark Rose, Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 4.

2. Edward Eggleston quoted in “Poetry,” Literary World (Boston) 21 (1890): 88.

3. N. K. Jemisin, “Turn and Face the Strange,” NK Jemisin (website), May 24, 2016, https://nkjemisin.com/2016/05/turn-and-face-the-strange/.

4. Paul Graham, “How to Do What You Love,” Paul Graham (website), January 2006, http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html.

5. Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2000), 1.

Chapter 2

1. FictionDB (@fictiondb), “Back of the envelope calcs,” Twitter, December 6, 2019, 1:37 p.m., https://twitter.com/fictiondb/status/1203035784850239488.

2. S. L. Huang, “Writing, Failure, and Time,” Ask an Author, May 6, 2020, https://askanauthor.substack.com/p/writing-failure-and-time.

3. Peter Aspden, “Lunch with the FT: Novak Djokovic,” Financial Times (London), October 15, 2015, https://www.ft.com/content/efaeed40-725c-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162cc.

4. Jeff J. Lin, “Ang Lee and the Uncertainty of Success,” jeffjlin.com, February 23, 2013, https://jeffjlin.com/2013/02/23/ang-lee-and-the-uncertainty-of-success/.

5. Bonnie Garmus quoted in Jen Juneau’s “Bonnie Garmus Says Her First Novel Was Rejected 98 Times Before Lessons in Chemistry Success (Exclusive),” People, October 14, 2023, https://people.com/lessons-in-chemistry-author-bonnie-garmus-first-book-was-rejected-98-times-exclusive-8350804.

6. Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, “Borges and $: The Parable of the Literary Master and the Coin,” Longreads, June 14, 2016, https://longreads.com/2016/06/14/borges-and-money/.

7. Joan Acocella, “How ‘Little Women’ Got Big,” New Yorker, August 27, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/27/how-little-women-got-big.

8. Austin Kleon, “Physical Disabilities,” Austin Kleon (website), October 29, 2017, https://austinkleon.com/2017/10/29/the-hard-way/.

9. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.20.

10. Stephen King, On Writing (New York: Scribner, 2000), 157.

11. J. B. MacKinnon, “The Strange Brain of the World’s Greatest Solo Climber,” Nautilus, August 3, 2016, https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber-236051/.

12. Melissa Yancy, “Playing the Odds,” Glimmer Train, accessed January 29, 2024, https://www.glimmertrain.com/bulletins/essays/b53yancy.php.

13. Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: 10th Anniversary Edition (New York: Penguin, 2008), 123.

Chapter 3

1. “Ira Glass on Storytelling,” part 3 of 4 (Public Radio International, 2009), YouTube video, 5:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE.

2. Rebecca Skloot (@RebeccaSkloot), “For those curious about my #HeLa rejection letter collage in last tweet, this should be zoomable enough to read them,” Twitter, October 29, 2015, 3:46 p.m., https://twitter.com/RebeccaSkloot/status/659833675413106689. For QueryTracker, see https://querytracker.net.

Introduction to Part 2

1. Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (New York: Penguin Books, 2010).

2. Daniel Lyons, “Has Arianna Huffington Figured Out the Future?” Newsweek, updated July 27, 2010, http://www.newsweek.com/has-arianna-huffington-figured-out-future-74833.

3. George Packer, “The Struggling Writer: Gissing Had It Right,” New York Times Book Review, October 13, 1991, 1.

Chapter 4

1. “Ira Glass on Storytelling,” part 3 of 4 (Public Radio International, 2009), YouTube video, 5:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE.

2. Here I am partly indebted to Michael Margolis, “The Resume Is Dead, the Bio Is King,” Behance Blog, May 11, 2011, https://www.behance.net/blog/the-resume-is-dead-the-bio-is-king.

3. Maria Popova, “John Cleese on the Origin of Creativity,” Open Culture, September 23, 2010, https://www.openculture.com/2010/09/john_cleese_on_the_origin_of_creativity.html.

Chapter 5

1. Chris Guillebeau, 279 Days to Overnight Success: An Unconventional Journey to Full-Time Writing (self-pub., 2009), 31–32, https://content.chrisguillebeau.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/279days.pdf.

Chapter 6

1. Michael Ellsberg, “How to Connect with Powerful and Influential People,” Michael Ellsberg (website), March 6, 2014, http://www.ellsberg.com/awesomeness-fest.

2. James Clear, “It’s Not Your Job to Tell Yourself ‘No,’” James Clear (website), accessed May 20, 2024, https://jamesclear.com/your-job.

Chapter 7

1. Tad Friend, “The One Who Knocks: How Bryan Cranston Made Himself a Star,” New Yorker, September 16, 2013, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/the-one-who-knocks.

Chapter 8

1. Rachel Kramer Bussel, “From Podcast to Book Deal: What Agents and Editors Want.” Hot Sheet newsletter, June 23, 2021, https://hotsheetpub.com/2021/06/from-podcast-to-book-deal-what-agents-and-editors-want/. (This is a paid subscription newsletter.)

2. Bussel, “From Podcast to Book Deal.”

3. Bussel, “From Podcast to Book Deal.”

4. Jane Friedman, “Authors Who’ve Launched Their Careers on TikTok,” Hot Sheet newsletter, November 23, 2022, https://hotsheetpub.com/2022/11/authors-whove-launched-their-careers-on-tiktok/.

5. Jane Friedman, “Using Patreon and YouTube to Grow a Writing a Career: Case Study,” Jane Friedman (website), updated July 18, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/patreon-youtube-writing-career/.

Chapter 10

1. Jim Milliot, “Where Have All the Midsize Book Publishers Gone?” Publishers Weekly, October 1, 2021, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/87526-where-have-all-the-midsize-book-publishers-gone.html.

2. Celestine Vision, “The History of the Celestine Series,” accessed January 29, 2024, https://www.celestinevision.com/the-history-of-the-celestine-series/.

Chapter 11

1. George Haven Putnam and John Bishop Putnam, Authors and Publishers: A Manual of Suggestions for Beginners in Literature (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1904), v.

2. Markus Dohle quoted in Victoria Bekiempis, “The Biggest Plot Twists in the Simon & Schuster Antitrust Trial,” New York magazine, updated August 18, 2022, https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/penguin-random-house-simon-schuster-antitrust-trial-recap.html.

3. “Imprints,” Penguin Random House, accessed January 8, 2024, http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/imprints.

4. The two most trusted demographic surveys for publishing industry employees are the Publishers Weekly Industry Salary Survey, conducted every year, and the Lee & Low Diversity Baseline Survey, conducted every four years. In 2023, PW’s survey found that women make up 77 percent of people working in the industry and 56 percent of managers. For more information for 2023, see Jim Milliot, “The PW Publishing Industry Salary Survey 2023,” Publishers Weekly, November 17, 2023, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/93769-the-pw-publishing-industry-salary-survey-2023.html; and Lee & Low Books, “Where Is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2023 Diversity Survey Baseline Results,” The Open Book Blog, February 28, 2024, https://blog.leeandlow.com/2024/02/28/2023diversitybaselinesurvey/.

5. James Tager and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, “Reading Between the Lines: Race, Equity, and Book Publishing,” PEN America, October 21, 2022, https://pen.org/report/race-equity-and-book-publishing/.

6. Michael Cader, “Beyond Bookscan and AAP: The Good and Bad of 2020 Sales,” Publishers Lunch newsletter, January 26, 2021, https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2021/01/beyond-bookscan-and-aap-the-good-and-bad-of-2020-sales/ (paid subscription required).

7. Nathan Goldman, “The Conglomeration of Literature,” Jewish Currents, August 25, 2022, https://jewishcurrents.org/the-conglomeration-of-literature.

8. Adam Davidson, “How Dead Is the Book Business?” New York Times, November 13, 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/magazine/penguin-random-house-merger.html.

9. Michael Meyer, “About That Book Advance . . . ,” New York Times, April 10, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/books/review/Meyer-t.html.

10. Daniel Menaker, “What Does the Book Business Look like on the Inside?” New York magazine, November 16, 2013, http://www.vulture.com/2013/11/daniel-menaker-on-publishing-industry-insanity.html.

11. Westchester Publishing Services, “Publishing Now ’23: Best Practices for Publishing in a Changing Marketplace,” March 23, 2023, YouTube video, 1:01:41, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vAebfTiWnM.

12. John Steinbeck quoted in Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 80.

13. Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800, trans. David Gerard, ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and David Wootton (London: Verso, 1976), 161.

14. “The Subscription System,” Mark Twain in His Times, University of Virginia Library, accessed June 27, 2024, https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/marketin/soldxsub.html.

Chapter 12

1. Martha Woodmansee, The Author, Art, and the Market: Rereading the History of Aesthetics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 28.

2. Hamilton Nolan, “The Problem with Journalism Is You Need an Audience,” Gawker, January 14, 2016, http://gawker.com/the-problem-with-journalism-is-you-need-an-audience-1752937252.

3. On “literary fiction,” see John William Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman, The Magazine in America, 1741–1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 249–50.

4. Tebel and Zuckerman, Magazine in America, 22.

5. Morgan Entrekin et al., “The Business of Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century,” session 248 (panel discussion, AWP Conference, Seattle, WA, March 1, 2014), https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_detail/1784.

6. Travis Kurowski, “In Exile and against Criticism: The Paris Review and the Branding of Contemporary Literature,” in Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, ed. Travis Kurowski (Madison, NJ: Atticus Books, 2013), 191–206.

7. Richard Nash, “6Qs: Richard Eoin Nash, Social Publisher,” interview by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, As in Guillotine . . . Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (website), September 29, 2009, http://loudpoet.com/2009/09/29/6qs-richard-eoin-nash-social-publisher/.

8. Chris Fischbach, “Literature Is Not the Same Thing as Publishing,” VQR (blog), Virginia Quarterly Review, May 23, 2014, http://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2014/05/literature-not-same-thing-publishing.

Chapter 13

1. Discussing the differences in commercial and literary fiction is challenging in the abstract and far more interesting (and obvious) when you examine specific authors. For example, in 2023 author Leigh Stein argued that best-selling author Brandon Sanderson is a good storyteller (which isn’t necessarily the same as “good writer”) and that’s why he’s so successful. See Leigh Stein, Attention Economy newsletter, https://mailchi.mp/adaebbe3268d/fantasy-land?e=94015e5f23.

2. Dan Sinykin, “What Was Literary Fiction?” Nation, October 10, 2023, https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/what-was-literary-fiction/.

3. Adriana Barton, “How to Write a Hybrid Memoir,” Jane Friedman (website), March 16, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/how-to-write-a-hybrid-memoir/.

4. Jonathan Nowell, “The Changing Mix of What Sells in Print,” Publishers Launch Conference SlideShare presentation, January 15, 2015, slide 3, https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-changing-mix-of-what-sells-in-print-jonathan-nowell-nielsen-book/43557178.

Chapter 14

1. William Heinemann, “The Middleman as Viewed by a Publisher,” Athenaeum Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama, no. 3446 (November 11, 1893): 663.

2. Mary Ann Gillies, The Professional Literary Agent in Britain, 1880–1920 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007).

3. Jane Friedman, “The Problem with Auctions,” Hot Sheet newsletter, February 15, 2023, https://hotsheetpub.com/2023/02/the-problem-with-auctions/.

4. Association of American Literary Agents, “Canon of Ethics,” accessed January 29, 2024, https://aalitagents.org/canon-of-ethics/.

5. Jillian Medoff, “Dollars, Cents, and Being Left With the Bill,” Literary Hub, August 5, 2022, https://lithub.com/dollars-cents-and-being-left-with-the-bill-jillian-medoff-on-breaking-up-with-her-literary-agent/.

Chapter 15

1. If you would like a map of how all the imprints fit together, you can see a big-picture overview of the top houses at Critical Thinker, “The Big Five US Trade Book Publishers,” updated March 1, 2024, https://almossawi.com/big-five-publishers/. However, remember that most imprints listed on this chart require an agent for consideration.

Chapter 16

1. Description, which appeared on my website, used with permission. Dean Cycon’s novel released in December 2024 from Koehler Books.

2. Mary Kole, “Should You Reveal the Plot Twist Ending in a Query?” Kid Lit, September 7, 2011, https://kidlit.com/plot-twist/.

3. When Massar’s agent was unable to place the work with a traditional publisher, Massar decided to self-publish. The final work is Matched: A Memoir, published in August 2024.

4. Writer’s Digest convened an agent panel on memoir in 2010 to discuss what was selling; while some if it reflects the concerns of the time, it’s still a valuable discussion to learn what stories agents can tire of seeing. Writers are still submitting such stories today. See Jessica Strawser, “The Market for Memoirs,” Writer’s Digest, October 5, 2010, http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/get-published-sell-my-work/the-market-for-memoirs.

5. Rebecca Ruiz, “‘Fight for What You Believe In’: How Best-Selling Authors Battled Rejection,” TODAY, August 22, 2013, http://www.today.com/popculture/fight-what-you-believe-how-best-selling-authors-battled-rejection-6C10971491.

Chapter 17

1. Eric Nelson, “The Secret to Coming Up with Ideas People Can Get Excited About,” LinkedIn, September 19, 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-coming-up-ideas-people-can-get-excited-eric-nelson.

Chapter 18

1. Metadata for your book include information such as the cover image, author bio, categories and keywords, book description, excerpts, reviews, prizes or awards, target audience, and tables of contents. Bottom line: complete and accurate metadata are important for online discoverability and help support your book sales. Metadata should be updated periodically by the publisher, especially the description, category, keywords, and author bio.

Chapter 19

1. Katy Waldman, “Is Publishing about Art or Commerce?” New Yorker, August 16, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/is-publishing-about-art-or-commerce-penguin-random-house-simon-schuster-antitrust.

2. Andrew DeYoung, “On Media Survivorship Bias,” Save As newsletter, April 23, 2023, https://andrewdeyoung.substack.com/p/on-media-survivorship-bias.

3. Madeline McIntosh, “So What Are We Doing Here?” Authors Equity newsletter, April 16, 2024, https://authorsequity.substack.com/p/so-what-are-we-doing-here.

Chapter 20

1. In 2017, industry reporter Michael Cader estimated that indie authors represent about 20 percent of overall author earnings; see Michael Cader, “Blended Statistics Part 4: Wh at Authors Earn,” Publishers Lunch newsletter, June 23, 2017, https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2017/06/blended-statistics-part-4-broader-view-authors-earn/.

In 2022, at the Global 50 CEO Talk at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the CEO of e-book retailer Kobo said that self-publishing e-book sales represent “a whole other Penguin Random House” in the market; see Buchmesse, “Global 50 CEO Talk: ‘Beyond Publishers: New Facets of the Global Book Business Today,’” October 19, 2022, YouTube video, 1:00:28, https://youtu.be/cKX6xAAxJRo?si=CznO4nvQkL86Fs21.

For many years, an effort called Author Earnings (underwritten by self-publishing author Hugh Howey) attempted to quantify the earnings of self-published authors in a series of posts no longer directly available. In one of its last reports in 2017, Author Earnings claimed, “Self-published indie authors are . . . capturing at least 24 to 34 percent of all ebook sales in each of the five English-language markets. . . . When you also include the uncategorized authors, the vast majority of whom are also self-published, the true indie share in each market lies somewhere between 30 and 40 percent.” The report is still accessible via the Wayback Machine; see Author Earnings, “February 2017 Big, Bad, Wide, and International Report: Covering Amazon, B&N, and Kobo Ebook Sales in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,” accessed July 16, 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20190203095623/http://authorearnings.com/report/february-2017/.

2. Eugene Kim, “After Almost 30 Years, Amazon’s Original Book Business Is Booming, Leaked Document Shows,” Business Insider, June 20, 2024. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-original-book-business-booming-2024-6. Based on the leaked document, the article says that Amazon sold 456.5 million print books and 419.8 digital books during the first ten months of 2022. If one looks at BookScan-reported print book sales during that same period, it would make Amazon responsible for selling 77 percent of all print books in the US, at least as tracked by BookScan. However, this figure is astonishingly high even for people who believe Amazon sells more books than is commonly believed, so it’s likely some share of Amazon sales in the US store are being exported to customers abroad, which would inflate the figure. The e-book units sold by Amazon are three times higher than figures reported by publishers who participate in BookScan’s PubTrack Digital service during the same time period. Amazon would not confirm or deny the information in the leaked documents, and it does not report book sales figures. So the industry continues to guess at what percentage of the market Amazon has captured for both print and digital books. Even though it is now out of date, it’s instructive to read this 2018 discussion involving two industry veterans showing how people try to read the tea leaves: Mike Shatzkin, “A Changing Book Business: It All Seems to Be Flowing Downhill to Amazon,” The Idea Logical Company (blog), January 22, 2018, https://www.idealog.com/blog/changing-book-business-seems-flowing-downhill-amazon/.

3. Jim Milliot, “Self-Publishing Is Thriving, According to Bowker Report,” Publishers Weekly, February 17, 2023, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/91574-self-publishing-is-thriving-according-to-bowker-report.html.

Chapter 21

1. Kenneth Whyte, “The Most Interesting Statistic in Book Publishing,” SHuSH newsletter, October 27, 2023, https://shush.substack.com/p/the-most-interesting-statistic-in.

2. Johnny B. Truant, “5 Ways a Book Cover Could Hurt Sales—And How to Fix It,” Partners (blog), BookBub, August 16, 2017, https://insights.bookbub.com/ways-book-cover-hurt-sales-fix/.

Chapter 22

1. Is It a Steal? An Investigation into ‘Hybrid’ / Paid-for Publishing Services, Society of Authors and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, April 2022, https://societyofauthors.org/SOA/MediaLibrary/SOAWebsite/Documents-for-download/_REPORT-Is-it-a-steal.pdf.

2. “Self-Publishing Services Rated,” Alliance of Independent Authors, accessed February 15, 2024, https://selfpublishingadvice.org/best-self-publishing-services/.

3. You’d need to sell more than 3,412 copies (half print, half e-book) to recoup your investment with the hybrid publisher. If you were self-publishing the same book and sold that number of copies through Amazon, half print and half e-book (earning $5 per print copy, which is a very low estimate), you’d earn more than $20,000.

Chapter 23

1. Samir Husni, “Where Have All the Magazines Gone?” Poynter, March 9, 2023, https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2023/where-to-buy-find-magazines-2023/.

2. William Pfaff, “The Decline of the New Yorker,” Chicago Tribune, March 10, 1998, https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/03/10/the-decline-of-the-new-yorker/.

3. John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman, The Magazine in America, 1741–1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 320–21.

4. Jeremy W. Peters, “Web Focus Helps Revitalize the Atlantic,” New York Times, December 12, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/business/media/13atlantic.html.

5. Sara Fischer, “The Atlantic’s Ad Business Takes a Short-Term Hit as It Focuses on Profitability,” Axios, August 8, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/08/08/scoop-the-atlantics-ad-business-takes-a-short-term-hit-as-it-focuses-on-profitability.

6. Wikipedia, s.v. “Salon.com,” last modified May 30, 2024, 16:44, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon.com.

7. Brian Dean, “Ad Blocker Usage and Demographic Statistics,” Backlinko, updated February 12, 2024. https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users.

8. Sara Fischer, “Social Media Traffic to Top News Sites Craters,” Axios, October 3, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/10/03/social-media-traffic-news-sites-decrease.

9. Sara Fischer, “IAC Warns Regulators Generative AI Could Wreck the Web,” Axios, November 2, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/11/02/iac-generative-ai-wreck-web.

10. Brian Morrissey, “After the Fire,” Rebooting, January 23, 2024, https://www.therebooting.com/after-the-fire/.

11. Jane Friedman, “An Interview with Bo Sacks on the Magazine Industry,” Jane Friedman (website), updated July 18, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/an-interview-with-bo-sacks/.

Chapter 24

1. Simon Owens, “Is a Freelance Journalism Career Even Possible Anymore?” Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter, August 18, 2023, https://simonowens.substack.com/p/is-a-freelance-journalism-career.

2. Richard Wiseman, The Luck Factor: Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life; The Four Essential Principles (New York: Miramax, 2003).

Chapter 25

1. See their websites: Clifford Garstang (https://CliffordGarstang.com); Bookfox (https://thejohnfox.com).

2. Ecotone, “Submissions,” accessed June 1, 2024, https://ecotonemagazine.org/submissions/.

3. See Lit Mag News (https://litmagnews.substack.com) for posts and discussion, including “Submission Fees Are Wrong,” by an anonymous contributor on February 2, 2023, as well as “Why We Charge Submission Fees,” by Christine Maul Rice, on May 25, 2023.

Introduction to Part 5

1. David Vinjamuri, “The Trouble with Finding Books Online—And a Few Solutions,” Forbes, February 27, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2013/02/27/the-trouble-with-finding-books-online-and-a-few-solutions/.

2. See Adam Grundy, “Internet Crushes Traditional Media: From Print to Digital,” United States Census Bureau, June 7, 2022, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/06/internet-crushes-traditional-media.html; and Aisha Majid, “Charted: How Has the UK Consumer Magazine Industry Evolved?” PressGazette, updated November 18, 2022, https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/magazines/uk-consumer-magazine-industry-charts/.

3. Andrew Albanese and Jim Milliot, “Self-Publishing’s Output and Influence Continue to Grow,” Publishers Weekly, Nov. 8, 2024, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96468-self-publishing-s-output-and-infuence-continue-to-grow.html. According to Bowker, the number of self-published titles in 2023 was roughly 2.6 million. The number of traditionally published titles that same year was just over half a million.

Chapter 26

1. Kyle Chayka, “How Artists Can Be Part of the New Digital Creator Economy,” ARTnews, April 13, 2021, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/digital-economy-artists-creators-patreon-1234589596/.

2. “Monica Byrne,” Patreon, accessed June 3, 2024, https://www.patreon.com/monicabyrne/about.

3. Kevin Kelly, “1,000 True Fans,” Technium, March 4, 2008, https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/.

4. Jane Friedman, “Where My Money Comes From,” Jane Friedman (website), updated July 18, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/where-my-money-comes-from/.

5. L. L. McKinney, #PublishingPaidMe, accessed June 3, 2024, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xsx6rKJtafa8f_prlYYD3zRxaXYVDaPXbasvt_iA2vA/edit#gid=1798364047.

Chapter 27

1. In 2023, I spoke with Leslye Penelope about how to expand her fiction readership by identifying her ideal readers and doubling down on preferred platform-building activities. You can watch our conversation; see Jane Friedman, “The Business Clinic: Growing a Fiction Platform,” December 8, 2023, YouTube video, 1:20:34, https://youtu.be/uKTp4UhpmZk?si=5eSfx_aLWvwGAt3b.

2. With thanks to Kevin Smokler.

3. Jane Friedman, “An Interview with Richard Nash: The Future of Publishing,” Jane Friedman (website), updated July 18, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/an-interview-with-richard-nash/.

4. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (New York: Workman Publishing, 2014), 23.

5. Friedman, “Interview with Richard Nash.”

6. Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2000).

Chapter 28

1. Jane Friedman, “Q&A about Crowdfunding for Authors with Bethany Joy Carlson,” May 24, 2016, https://janefriedman.com/qa-bethany-joy-carlson/.

2. “Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson,” Kickstarter, updated March 5, 2024, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/surprise-four-secret-novels-by-brandon-sanderson?ref=msa.

3. “Pilgrimage Book: Travel Memoir with Practical Walking Tips by Joanna (J.F.) Penn,” Kickstarter, updated February 2, 2024, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecreativepenn/pilgrimage-book-travel-memoir-with-practical-walking-tips?ref=profile_created.

4. “The First-Ever Patreon Creator Census,” Patreon, May 4, 2022, https://news.patreon.com/articles/the-first-ever-patreon-creator-census.

Chapter 29

1. Jane Friedman, “The Newsletter Service Substack Is Attracting High-Profile Journalists and Media Professionals,” Hot Sheet newsletter, November 11, 2020, https://hotsheetpub.com/2020/11/the-newsletter-service-substack-is-attracting-high-profile-journalists-and-media-professionals/.

2. Megan Marz, “Poets in the Machine: Why Does the Literary World Still Hold Online Writing at Arm’s Length?” Longreads, October 24, 2023, http://longreads.com/2023/10/24/30-years-internet-online-writing/.

3. Marz, “Poets in the Machine.”

Chapter 30

1. Greenberg quoted in Keith J. Kelly, “Substack Signs Ex-Forbes Writer as It Seeks to Disrupt Book Publishing,” New York Post, July 1, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/substack-signs-ex-forbes-writer-as-it-seeks-to-disrupt-book-publishing/.

2. “Online Comics Platform Webtoon Reveals Revenue Growth, Profitability in US IPO Filing,” Reuters, May 31, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/online-comics-platform-webtoon-reveals-revenue-growth-profitability-us-ipo-2024-05-31/.

3. Wattpad, “About Wattpad,” accessed June 3, 2024, https://www.wattpad.com/press.

4. Jane Friedman, “Kindle Vella Sees Loyalty among Some Authors—for Now,” Hot Sheet newsletter, February 2, 2022, https://hotsheetpub.com/2022/02/kindle-vella-sees-loyalty-among-some-authors-for-now/.

Chapter 31

1. Ann Friedman, “AF WKLY / Advertise,” accessed June 4, 2024, https://www.annfriedman.com/classifieds.

Chapter 32

1. Paul D. McCarthy, “Developmental Editing: A Creative Collaboration,” in Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know about What Editors Do, ed. Gerald Gross, 3rd ed. (New York: Grove Press, 1993).

Chapter 33

1. Program Director’s Handbook, Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Rev. 3.0, 2012, 104. https://cdn.awpwriter.org/pdf/DirectorsHandbook2012.pdf.

2. Daniel D’Angelo, “AWP’s 2014–2015 Report on the Academic Job Market,” Association of Writers & Writing Programs, December 2015, https://www.awpwriter.org/careers/career_advice_view/3919/awps_201415_report_on_the_aca.

3. John Warner, “To Potential MFA Students: There Are No Academic Jobs,” Inside Higher Ed (blog), September 14, 2014, https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/potential-mfa-students-there-are-no-academic-jobs.

4. Wes Kao, “The Super Specific How: How to Make Your Cohort-Based Course More Rigorous,” Wes Kao (blog), March 7, 2021, https://www.weskao.com/blog/super-specific-how.

Chapter 34

1. “Welcome to Adventure: #AmtrackTakeMeThere,” Amtrak, accessed June 5, 2024, https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/residency.html.

Chapter 36

1. David Wogahn, “Why Self-Publishing Authors Should Consider Establishing Their Own Imprint,” Jane Friedman (website), updated September 21, 2023, https://janefriedman.com/why-self-publishing-authors-should-consider-establishing-their-own-imprint/.

2. See Authors Guild, “Forming an Entity: When Should Authors Create an LLC or S Corp?” August 19, 2021, YouTube video, 59:53, https://youtu.be/uwif_J7rHp4?si=njFjwPsdWmCfqsNt.

Chapter 37

1. For the actual copyright law, contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, see Copyright.gov, “Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17),” US Copyright Office, December 23, 2022, https://www.copyright.gov/title17/.

2. “Termination of Transfer,” Authors Alliance, accessed May 15, 2024, https://www.authorsalliance.org/resources/termination-of-transfer/; Sean Doran et al., Termination of Transfer: Information and Templates for Notices for Termination under § 203 and § 304(c), Authors Alliance, updated March 15, 2018, https://www.authorsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180315-ToT-Templates.pdf.

3. Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes,” press release, April 23, 2024, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes.

4. “Model Trade Book Contract,” Authors Guild, March 12, 2020, https://authorsguild.org/resource/model-trade-book-contract/.

5. For the limited use contract template, see Freelancekit and Freelancers Union, Design, Photo and/or Video Limited Use Contract Template, accessed May 15, 2024, https://freelancersunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FU_FreelanceKit_LimitedUseContractTemplate.pdf. On the contract creator, see Rafael Espinoza, “Simplify Your Work Agreements with the Freelancers Union Contract Creator,” Freelancers Union Blog, May 14, 2024, https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2024/05/14/introducing-the-freelancers-union-contract-creator/. This helpful explanatory article contains a link to the contract creator, or you can access it directly: Freelancers Union, “Freelancers Union Contract Creator,” https://freelancersunion.org/contract/.

Chapter 38

1. Copyright.gov, “Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17): Chapter 4; Copyright Notice, Deposit and Registration,” US Copyright Office, December 23, 2022, https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html.

2. For the specific criteria as defined in the law, see Copyright.gov, “Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17): Chapter 1, Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright; Section 107, Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use,” US Copyright Office, December 23, 2022, https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107.

Index

AALA. See Association of American Literary Agents (AALA)

AARP Magazine, 231

Abel, Jessica, 251–52

Academic Jobs Wiki, 302

academic publishers. See university presses and publishers

accountability, 7, 40, 297, 304

accounting software, and taxes, 319–20, 324–25

accounts and accounting, 119, 121, 167, 217, 272, 291–92, 322, 328. See also finances

ACES. See American Copy Editors Society (ACES)

acknowledgments pages, 39, 46, 135

Adobe Creative Cloud, 346

advance reading copies (ARCs) (also known as galleys), 166–67, 179–80

advertising: and affiliate marketing, 288–93; budgets for, 86; categories and types, 288–90; conversion, 167–68; digital, 182; and digital media, 221–24; direct placement, 289; and earnings, 6; effective and relevant, 293; and email newsletters, 183, 252, 290; exercise, 293; and Facebook/Meta/Instagram, 182; finding and locating, 293; and marketing/promotion, 178, 181–83; networks, 289; online, 222–24, 288–89; and online, 222–23; and online promotions, 174; pay per click (PPC), 290; and platforms, 68, 289; and podcasts, 73; and pricing of ads, 292–93; by publishers, 167–68; and readers, 292; relevant and effective, 293; and sponsorships, 288–93; targeted, 182, 222, 292; and television, 106; trade, 181; and values, 293; video, 290; website display, 289–90. See also marketing and promotion; media coverage; sponsorships

agents. See literary agents

Agents & Books (McKean email newsletter), 126, 355

AI (artificial intelligence, generative), 4, 221–22, 230, 346–47

Airmail digital weekly newsletter, 219–20

airport books, 111

Alcott, Louisa May, 18

ALLi. See Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)

Alliance for Audited Media, 225

Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), 212, 358

Amazon: Advantage, 205; advertising, 167–68, 181–82, 222, 291; affiliate marketers, 291; bestsellers, 71, 90, 117, 191, 193, 196–97, 199, 202, 205; and capitalism, 14; categories and genres, 117, 200, 202; and digital media, 225; distribution and discoverability, 106; distribution and sales, 203–4, 210; e-books, 196–97; First Reads (promotional program), 84; and literary publishing, 108; marketing, 188, 198–99, 291; online advertising, 222; Publishing, 84; sales, 100, 170, 173, 180, 191–92, 196–97, 199, 203–6, 366n2; and self-publishing, 87, 191–92, 198–99, 203, 207, 328; special deals on, 63. See also Kindle

American Booksellers Association, 168

American Copy Editors Society (ACES), 297

American Library Association, 260

American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), 230, 358

Andrews McMeel, 84, 112

anthologies, 84, 114, 241, 247, 334

Apple: and digital media, 225; distribution and discoverability, 106; e-books, 205; podcasts, 69, 73

Archive of Our Own, 284–85

ARCs. See advance reading copies (ARCs)

art: and business, 2–3, 14, 255; and commerce, 2, 91; and craft of stories, 142; and craft of writing, 1; and earnings, 10, 251; goals, 11, 253; and goals, 11; monetized, 255; of online writing, 282; payment for, 14; of poetry, 249–50; real, 2; of short stories, 249–50; success of, 2; vision for, 315. See also creativity

articles: contracts for, 332–34; and freelancing, 230–33; and social media, 234. See also short works

artificial intelligence, generative. See AI (artificial intelligence, generative)

Artist’s Guide to Grantwriting, The (Rosenberg), 316

Art of Possibility, The (Zander and Zander), 13, 267

ASJA. See American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA)

Association of American Literary Agents (AALA), 120–21, 125–26, 364n4

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), 19, 41, 106, 246, 291, 301–3, 314, 357–58

Atlantic, The, 7, 232, 359n1, 367nn4–5; as digital media enterprise, 105, 220; and literary publishing, 105–6

Atomic Habits (Clear), 19

Attenberg, Jami, 275

Attention Economy, The (Stein email newsletter), 355

Attia, Peter, 68–69

Audible, 90, 204

audience. See readerships; target audiences

audio and video, 97; advertising, 290; for book launches, 73; content, 72, 76, 220, 290; digital, 102, 132, 170, 173, 204; drama, 73; long-form, 72–73; pitches for, 73; platforms, 75; production, 68–73; rights, 95, 97; royalties, 102; sales, 191; self-publishing, 191; short-form, 50, 70–72; website display ads, 289–90. See also podcasts

audiobooks: and business models, 254; digital, 102, 170, 204; fantasy, 201; licensing and rights, 82; and narration, 346; sales, 170; and self-publishing, 201, 204

Austen, Jane, 11

Author Earnings, 365–66n1

AuthorHouse, 191

Author Marketing Experts, 356

Authors Guild, 41, 95, 121, 125, 330, 336, 338, 345, 346, 357

authorship, 1, 190, 250, 328; revolutions in, 9

autobiographies, 112–13; fictionalized (autofiction), 138. See also biographies; memoirs

awards, 168, 171, 260, 273, 309–16; in bios, 37, 142; and branding, 35; and earnings, 6; on home page, 55; and literary journals, 241–42; for literary publishing, 107; in metadata, 365n1; in queries, 145; and talent, 19; of teacher candidates, 302; and university presses, won by, 85–86; value of, 312–14. See also contests or competitions; fellowships; grants; prizes; residencies

AWP. See Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)

BackerKit, 274

backlists, 170, 286

Bad Feminist (Gay), 114

Bala, Suruthi, 70

Barnes & Noble, 100, 173, 188, 204–5

Barton, Adriana, 113–14, 363n3

beach reads, 111

Beckett, Samuel, 9, 267

beehiiv, 283

best practices, 362n11; how evolve, 76; of hybrids, 210; for newsletter lists, 61; for newsletters, 63; for online foundation, 61, 63, 66; vs. rules, 74; for social media, 63; for sustainability, 74, 76; for video lectures in online education community, 306

bestsellers: and A-lists, 166; and debuts, 148; and genres, 117; and handselling, 184; and literary publishing, 108; study exercise, 90. See also Amazon, bestsellers; New York Times, bestseller lists

Beventi, 184

Big Business Publication, 156

Big Fiction (Sinykin), 111, 356

Big Friendship (Friedman and Sow), 70

Big Magic: Creative Living beyond Fear (Gilbert), 17

biographies (genre), 112; popular music, 162. See also autobiographies; memoirs

biographies (bios), professional: for book launches, 38; capsule, 37; dream job or aspirations in, 37; exercise, 36–38; for freelancing, 37; kitchen-sink, 37, 53; for literary journals, 242; on platforms, 35–38; in proposals, 155; in queries, 142–43; social media, 38

BISAC. See Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC)

BISG. See Book Industry Study Group (BISG)

Blank, Dan, 356

blogs and blogging, 275–83; and email newsletters, 62; and marketing/promotion, 186–88; and websites, 56. See also online writing; vlogs and vlogging

Blue Ink Review, 180

Blume, Judy, 115

Bon Appetit, 234

Book Bonanza, 184

BookBub, 63, 182, 188–89

book club editions, 82

book clubs, 39, 50, 59, 73, 111, 166, 174, 181. See also reading groups

BookFunnel, 180

Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) codes, 200

Book Industry Study Group (BISG), 200–201

book launches: and audio/video productions, 73; biographies (bio), professional for, 38; and communities, 175; and email newsletters, 62–63; in independent bookstores, 184; influencers for, 47; networking for, 47, 49; and newsletters, 62–63; outside help for, hiring, 174–79; on platforms, 73; professional bio for, 38; and publicity, 174; for self-publishing, 199; for serials and serializations, 287; and social media, 186; virtual, 184

Book Post (Kjellberg newsletter), 276

Book Publishing Brick by Brick (Yamaguchi email newsletter), 357

book reviews, 21n, 50, 107, 159, 175, 179–81, 193, 202–3

BookScan, 90, 96, 101, 170–71, 187, 362n6, 366n2

Bookshop, 170, 173, 204, 291

bookstores, 82–84, 86–88, 90–91, 96–98, 101–2, 132, 141, 152, 165–68, 170–71, 209, 211, 229, 233, 287; advance reading copies to, 166; airport, 111; and community events, 41; for comparable authors, 148; at conferences, 168; distribution to, 107; and exposure, 192; Facebook pages, 185; and genre sales, 116; independent, 62, 90, 167, 170, 180, 184–85, 214, 291; and marketing/promotion, 176–80, 183–85, 188–89; and preorders, 62; and readerships, 258; relationships with, 157; sales, 98; and self-publishing, 191–93, 198, 204; and TikTok favorites, 70; validation from, 192

BookTok, 49, 70–71, 187

BookTube, 73

Borges, Jorge Luis, 18, 360n6

Botton, Sari, 223–24

Bowker, 204, 249, 366n3, 368n3

Boy with Fire, The (Verma), 71

brands and branding: author names as, 57, 260; building, 34–35; on business cards, 59; and business model, 253; and contracts, 337; and creator economy, 253; digital media, 219, 223; as expectations, 34; and freelancing, 226, 230; and hybrids, 214; legacy, 219, 223; literary, 107–8; magazine, 225; in media kits, 292; and mission, 288; and persona, 107; personal, 287; and platforms, 34–35; and readerships, 150, 173, 225, 260, 264; and sponsorships, 253, 293; strong and recognizable, 96, 98; writing, 303

Brooks, Regina, 119–20

Brown, Dan, 108

Buddhism, 20, 22

budgets and budgeting: advertising, 86, 108, 257; contests, 310; grants, 310, 315; illustrations, 115; marketing and promotion, 85, 167, 178; online foundation, 53–54; operational, 109. See also finances

business: and art/creativity, 2–3, 14, 252, 255; basics, 6, 317–47; cards, 59, 64, 319, 321; and compromise, 3; education, for writers, 2; exercises, 6; vs. hobbies, 319; information and resources, 3, 6, 353–58; licenses, 321; outlets, 229; savvy, 1; scalable, 223; successful, 252; of writing, 10, 14, 309, 319, 351. See also business formation; business models; commerce; contracts; entrepreneurship; law and legal issues; taxes; writing careers

business formation, 6, 326–30; exercise, 330; imprints or companies, setting up, 328–29; and insurance, 329–30; and pass-through business entities, 326–27; and pen names, 68, 328, 329; and sole proprietorships, 320, 326–27; and trademarks, 328

business models, 6, 251–56; and agents, 125; building, 6, 251–56; and categories or genres, 98; for digital media, 219–20, 223–24; editorial and production standards for, 97–99; for esoteric and literary writing, 79; exercise, 255–56; and finances, 252; and genres, 98; for literary journals, 245; for magazines, 219; for platforms, 5; and readerships, 223; for self-publishing, 190–97; for serials and serializations, 284–85; of small presses and publishers, 84; time for money, 252–53; of traditional publishing, 91–92, 97–99; transactional, 274; and visibility, 251; for writing careers, 2–3, 13, 79, 252

Butler, Octavia, 260

BuzzFeed, 221, 223, 248

Byline Bible, The (Shapiro), 357

Byrne, Monica, 254, 273, 368n2

Cader, Michael, 94, 95, 362n6, 365n1

Call Your Girlfriend (podcast), 70

Campbell, Joseph, 7

Cannell, Sean, 68

Canva, 58

careers. See writing careers

Carrd, 57

Carter, Graydon, 219–20

categories. See genres

Celestine Prophecy, The (Redfield), 87

certainty and uncertainty, 16, 18, 165, 349

ChatGPT, 152, 346

Chayka, Kyle, 254, 368n1

Chekhov, Anton, 9

Chesson, Dave, 356

children’s books and writing, 41–42, 87–88, 122, 190, 193–94, 307, 356, 357; chapter books, 115; and creative writing, 114–15; educational, 114–15; illustrators for, 102, 115–16; middle-grade, 114–15; picture books, 102, 114–15. See also young adult (YA) books

Chill Subs, 308, 353

Chronicle (AWP), 314

Chronicle Books, 84

Circana. See BookScan

Clark, Hope, 314

Clear, James, 19, 50, 361n2

Cleese, John, 36, 361n3

coaching and coaches, 56, 119, 134, 252, 294, 296–97, 305

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, 7, 232, 359n1

Codex Group, 249

Coffee House Press, 108–9

collaborations, 43, 45, 50, 88, 116, 153, 166, 175, 183, 199, 279, 295, 315, 326; and cognitive surplus, 30

comicons, 184

comics, 257, 258, 284, 370n2; online, 370n2

commerce: and art, 2, 91; digital-age, 97. See also e-commerce

Committee to Save the World, The (Thompson), 70

communities, groups, organizations: authenticity and meaning in, 108; for book launches, 175; in categories and keywords, 200; and literary publishing, 109; in marketing plans, 157; and online writing focus, 277; in platform inventories, 77; and readerships, 184; as relationships and networking, 39, 41, 45–46, 49, 51, 69, 157, 184, 280; visibility in, 5, 36

competitions. See contests or competitions

compromises, 3, 13, 17, 24, 247, 252

conferences, 4, 15, 19, 26, 41–43, 49, 53, 57, 59, 106, 131, 137, 144, 157, 233, 244–46, 258, 291, 319, 339–40, 349, 357–58; for booksellers, 168; tax deductions for, 321; video-, 340; virtual, 289

confidence, 1, 22–23, 25–26, 34, 43–44, 127, 137, 145, 156, 164, 178, 202, 213, 233–34, 237, 241, 271, 307–8, 315; and awareness, 148; for freelancing, 228; and literary agents, 119, 122, 125. See also empowerment

Connor, Brenna, 187

Consumer Reports, 224

contests or competitions, 309–16, 354; evaluating and entering, 310–12. See also awards; prizes

contracts, 331–38, 352; agency clause in, 120–21; as awards or prizes, 311, 312; boilerplate, 337; for books, 334–36, 338; contract creator for, 371n5; with digital-only publishers, 132; digital replicas in, 333; digital rights in, 333; and editing/editors, 295, 317–18; exclusivity rights in, 331–33; exercise, 338; fixed terms in, 335; for freelancing, 235, 337, 338; and free/purchased copies of books, 133; and grant of rights, 331–35; with hybrid publishers, 211; information and resources, 358; language in, 6, 247, 317, 331–38; and legal issues, 339, 345; liability insurance for, 329–30; limited use template, 338, 371n5; and literary agents, 118–21, 123, 125, 335; with literary journals, 242, 244, 247; with midsize publishers, 84; model, 357; names on, 328; noncompete clauses in, 336–37, 371n3; and nonfiction proposals, 149, 161; for online-only publications, 334; and publishers, working with, 163–64, 168, 172; rights to works in, 337; for self-publishing, 196; for short works, 332–34; with small or independent publishers, 85; and social media, 63; and sole proprietorships, 326; sub-, 327; trade book publishing, 371n4; traditional publishing, 27, 83–84, 91, 93–95, 99–100, 102, 104, 336; work-for-hire agreements in, 332, 335, 336–37; work rights in, 337. See also copyright; law and legal issues

ConvertKit, 61, 289

Cook, Claire, 17–18

cooking genre, 71, 112, 150, 234

Copyblogger, 268

copyright, 82, 91, 328–36, 339–47; and AI, 347; exercise, 347; and fair use, 343, 371n2; for illustrations and images, 116; information and resources, 358; laws, 9, 331, 339–47, 371n1; life of, in contracts, 334–36; and permissions, 342; and protection of work, 339–41. See also contracts; law and legal issues

copywriting, 251, 268

corporate writing, 230, 251

Cosmopolitan (magazine), 231

Costco, 170

Counter Craft (Michel email newsletter), 67, 171, 355

cover letters, 241–44, 246, 311

covers: of books, 54–55, 59, 62–63, 83, 85, 117, 147, 160, 162, 164–65, 167, 169, 199–200, 212, 313, 346, 366n2; of magazines, 229–31; metadata about, 365n1; of publications, 238

COVID-19 pandemic, 70, 187, 264, 303

Craigslist, 140, 217

Cranston, Bryan, 57, 59–60, 361n1

Craven, D. R., 201

Crazy/Genius (podcast), 70

Creative Cloud (Adobe), 346

Creative Commons, 58, 342

creative nonfiction, 87, 112, 242

creative writing, v, 1, 10, 22, 27, 35, 44–45, 266, 309, 357–58; about famous and historical figures, 345, 347; and children’s books/writing, 114–15; in classrooms, 3–4; and literary journals, 243, 248; online education, 301–8; and shadow careers, 251; teaching, 301–8

creativity, 1–4, 6, 21–22, 33–36, 65, 74–75, 109, 162, 253–54, 260, 264, 266–67, 285, 306, 337, 342–43; and business, 2; and cognitive surplus, 30; and goals, 11, 253; and literary citizenship, 278; and mindset, 10–11; and online writing, 278–80; and queries, 138; and self-publishing, 194; and talent, 16–18. See also art

creator economy, 6; defined, 253–54; earning money in, 250; earning money in, resources for, 357–58; entering, 217, 250, 253–55; and NFTs (nonfungible tokens), 254

creators, defined, 253–54

credentials: of editors, 298, 300; and freelancing, 237; of instructors and teachers, 308; and literary journals, 241–43; and online writing, 277; and platforms, 5; and proposals, 150–52; and queries, 145; and rejections, 23

credibility, 132; of literary publishers, 108; and proposals, 152, 155, 161; with publishers, 82; and queries, 144

Critical Thinker, 364n1

crowdfunding, 76, 88, 263, 264–65, 269–74, 369n1; and earnings, 6; exercise, 274; and hybrid publishing, 209. See also donations; patronage

cultural zeitgeist, 339

curiosity, 13, 113, 282

Cycon, Dean, 138–39, 364n1

Dana, Jackie, 286

Davidson, Adam, 97, 362n8

“Dear Sugar” (Strayed advice column), 231

de Leon, Paco, 260

“Developmental Editing” (McCarthy essay), 295, 370n1

DeYoung, Andrew, 173, 365n2

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (Kinney), 115

Dickens, Charles, 104, 105, 284

digital: advertising, 182; audio, 102, 132, 170, 173, 204; commerce, 97; distribution, 108, 190, 224–25; marketing, 108, 188, 355; publishing, 9, 97, 132, 220–21, 223, 226, 302, 351; replicas, in contracts, 333; rights, in contracts, 333. See also digital media; digital-only; virtual

digital media, 219–25; and advertising, 221–24; business models for, 219–20, 223–24; and content vs. writing, 220; exercise, 225; and freelancing, 357; and genres, 242; and hybrids, 212; information and resources, 357; and literary journals, 248; and literary publishing, 109; and magazines, 105, 219–25, 357; native efforts, 220–24; and nonfiction, 242; ongoing business upheaval surrounding, 5; and search engine optimization (SEO), 223; and self-publishing, 198. See also magazines; online writing; short works; social media

digital-only, 132, 170, 220, 226, 335, 351. See also online-only content and publications

direct-to-consumer sales, 84, 98, 150, 173

direct-to-reader business, 205, 286

discounts, 102–3, 133, 159, 182–84, 188, 194, 204–5, 261

discoverability: and literary publishing, 106–7; metadata for, 365n1. See also readerships

distribution: of ARCs, 166; and branding, 214; in delivery, 224; digital, 108, 190, 224–25; and discoverability, 106; of e-books, 204–5; and marketing, digital, 108; and packaging, 171; by publishers, 82, 132–33, 171; and retail, 86, 97, 198, 205; and sales, 85, 98, 194, 205, 211, 214, 313; and self-publishing, 132–33, 203–5; and tech industry, 106

diversity, 93, 96, 106, 362n4

Djokovic, Novak, 16, 359n3

Doerr, Anthony, 19

Dohle, Markus, 92, 362n2

donations, 105, 269–74. See also crowdfunding; patronage; sponsorships

Dotdash, 219

Doubleday, 108

Draft2Digital, 204–5

Dream, The (podcast), 69–70

Drinking Diaries, 280

Drive, The (podcast), 68–69

Duotrope, 129, 353

earnings. See finances

eBay, 217

e-books: bestsellers on Amazon, exercise, 196–97; in contracts, 334–35; digital-only, 132; discounted, 182–83; distribution, 204–5; exercise, 196–97; as giveaways, 183, 198, 207; and paid publishing, 212–15; pricing of, 97, 104, 198, 202, 214–15, 367n3; and romance genre, 87; royalties, 95, 100, 102, 132; sales, 104, 170, 190–91, 195, 196–97, 204–5, 214–15, 365–66nn1–2, 367n3; and self-publishing, 87, 97, 183, 195–99, 202–5, 207, 365n1; and visibility, 197

EBSCO NoveList, 148

e-commerce, 56, 205, 266, 275. See also online retail

Ecotone, 243, 368n2

Edelweiss, 171–72

editing and editors, 82, 83, 115, 129, 139, 162, 349, 354–55; acceptance from, and future earnings, 107; AI as assistants, 346; and authors, 298; book doctors, 295; business, building, 297–98; clients of, 298–300; and coaching, 294, 296–97; content, 295; content and substantive, 295; and contracts, 295, 317–18; copy-, 296; credentialed and experienced, 298, 300; as critical business partners, 127; developmental, 134, 294–95; exercise, 299–300; freelance, 56, 134, 213, 227, 230, 241, 294–300, 321, 355; high-level, 294–96; line, 296; and manuscript wish lists, 131; outsourced, 213; and pitches, 117, 235; and preempt deals, 124; and proofreading, 296; and quality work, seeking, 108; relationships with, 42, 128; roles of, 163; and self-publishing, 297; and social media, 130–31; stages of, 294; submissions to and rejections by, 24–25, 27–28, 124; substantive, 295; surface-level, 296. See also proofreading

Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), 230, 297

Educated (Westover), 113, 158–59

education. See graduate degrees and students; MFA (master of fine arts) degrees; online education; teaching

EFA. See Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA)

Ellie Awards. See National Magazine Awards

Ellsberg, Michael, 48, 361n1

email newsletters, 5, 86, 156–57, 275–84, 286, 307, 355; and advertising, 183, 252, 290; best practices for, 61, 63; and blogs, 62; and book launches, 62–63; and consistency, 60–61, 278–79; content strategy for, 59–61; exercises, 67, 283; and freelancing, 31; frequency of, 278; lists, starting and building, 61–62; monetized, 31; native functionality for, 57; and networking, 50–51; and online foundation, 52, 54–55, 57, 59–63, 67; and paid subscriptions, 60–61, 281–82, 283; and readerships, 259, 261–62, 265, 267; and self-publishing, 206–7; and social media, 61; subject matter of, 278–79; and sustainability, 75–77; technical and logistical guidance, 31; as transactional mode, 274; on websites, 54–55, 61. See also online foundation; online writing; subscriptions

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 105

Empathy Exams, The (Jamison), 114

Empowered Author, The, 356

empowerment, 1, 66, 356. See also confidence

Endeavor or Creative Artists Agency, 123

entertainment, self-expression as, 30. See also recreation

Entertainment Weekly, 219

Entrekin, Morgan, 106, 363n5

entrepreneurship, 6, 30, 126, 194–95, 217, 228, 229, 248, 252, 257, 319

Erasmus, 103

Erik, Nicholas, 356

erotica genre, 191, 193. See also romance genre

essays, 1–2, 77, 84, 112, 114–15, 126, 127, 129, 310, 353; collections of, 114, 280; and criticism, 232; and freelance editing, 295; humorous, 114, 257; and literary journals, 242–43, 247; and literary publishing, 107; personal, 54, 226–27, 232, 234, 242, 267; pitches for, 232, 234, 236–37; and queries, 142. See also short works

excellence, 4, 12–13, 44–45, 105, 108, 224, 309

Excel spreadsheets, 317

exercises, 6; accounting software, 324–25; acknowledgments pages and relationships, 46; advertising, effective and relevant, 293; bestsellers, 90; bio writing, 36–38; business formation, 330; business models, 255–56; contracts, 338; copyright, 347; copywriting, 268; crowdfunding, 274; digital media, 225; earnings, 255–56; e-books, 196–97; Edelweiss, 171–72; editing, freelance, 299–300; email newsletters, 67, 283; freelancing, 240, 299–300, 338; genres, 116–17; grants, researching, 316; hybrid publishing, 214–15; literary agents, 126, 135; literary journals, trends in, 248; literary publishing and nonprofits, 109; LLCs, 330; making a living, 13; marketing and promotion, 189; nonprofits, 109; online education, 308; platform inventories, 77–78; podcasts, 73; proposals, 162; publishers, identifying, 135; queries, 147–48; readerships, 225, 268; real writers, 20; rejections, 28; relationships, 46, 51; self-publishing, 196–97, 207; serials and serializations, 287; taxes, 324–25; teaching online, 308

expectations, 1–2, 11–12, 20, 34, 110, 116, 122, 142, 199–201, 206, 230, 237, 264, 274, 301, 307, 349–50

exposure, 43–44, 84, 208, 291, 317, 333; in essays, 2; and freelancing, 228, 234; and marketing/promotion, 180, 184; and readerships, 264–65; and self-publishing, 205; and validation, 192; to what sells (genres), 296. See also visibility

Facebook, 244, 305; and advertising, 167–68, 182, 217; bookstore pages, 185; and creator economy, 253; public and professional bios on, 38; and readerships, 258. See also Meta

FanFiction (website), 284–85

fantasy genre, 82, 110, 139, 184, 200–201, 260, 273; Indian novel, 71; short, 106

Faulkner, William, 9

Fedden, Victoria, 113

fellowships, 108, 242, 251, 264–65, 268, 309–16, 354; applying for, 314–16; and earnings, 6. See also awards; grants; residencies

fiction: auto-, 138; commercial, 110–12, 137–38, 303, 363n1; and digital media, 242; editing of, 295; fan, 242, 284–85; as fresh (plot, characters, story), 23; funnels for, 262; genre, 110–12, 145, 198, 214, 242, 286; high-quality, 96; historical, 138–39; literary, 84, 87, 104, 106, 110–12, 190, 193, 363n3, 363nn1–2; mainstream, 137–38; and online writing, 277–78; sales during COVID-19 pandemic, 70; serialized, 285; short, 105–6, 243, 272–73; and teaching, 307; upmarket, 111; women’s, 89, 111, 117. See also fantasy genre; literary novels; mystery genre; nonfiction; novels; romance genre; science fiction genre; thriller genre

FictionDB, 14, 359n1

50 Shades of Grey (E. L. James), 285

Finance for the People: Getting a Grip on Your Finances (de Leon), 260

finances: and accounting, 319–20; advances, security of, 82; and business models, 252; business vs. personal, 326; and day jobs, 10–11, 228; and earning/making a living, 2, 5–6, 9–13, 52, 79, 107, 195, 217, 240, 249–56, 278–79, 282, 336, 357–58; and income streams, 292; information and resources for, 260; and marketing/promotion, 183; as obstacles to writing career, 1–2, 3, 10, 44, 251–52; and revenue-generating opportunities, 107; and taxes, 183. See also accounts and accounting; budgets and budgeting; sustainability; taxes

Fischbach, Chris, 108–9, 363n8

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 9, 106, 249

Ford, Ashley C., 248

For the Interested (Spector website), 292, 357

Fox, John, 241

Franzen, Jonathan, 111

freelance editing and editors. See under editing and editors

Freelancers Union, 330, 338, 345, 371n5

freelance writing, 5, 226–40; bios, 37; business and trade vs. consumer, 229; and clients of, 299–300; confidence for, 228; consumer vs. business and trade, 229; and content marketing, 230; contracts for, 235, 337, 338; corporate, and content marketing, 230; decisions, 229–30; and digital media, 357; and earnings, 10; and email newsletters, 31; exercises, 240, 299–300, 338; expenses, 237; experience, 239; and exposure, 228, 234; generalists vs. specialists, 229; and immersion in trends, 234; information and resources, 357; journalism vs. service, 229–30, 231; and luck, 233, 239–40; and marketing, 230; and memberships, 230, 330; pay rates for, 240; pieces and short works, 230–33; pitches for, 226–40; and print publications, 249; and readerships, 233; service vs. journalism, 229–30, 231; of short works, 217, 226, 230–33; specialists vs. generalists, 229; and taxes, 322–23; and time, 228; trade and business vs. consumer, 229; and visibility, 226–28, 231; and websites, 55. See also self-publishing

Freelance Writing Jobs website, 230

Friedman, Ann, 60, 70, 290, 370n1

Friedman, Jane, 351, 353

Fudge series (Blume), 115

fundraising, and literary publishing, 109. See also crowdfunding

Funds for Writers, 314

galleys (advance reading copies), 166

Gannon, Emma, 275

Garmus, Bonnie, 17, 359–60n5

Garstang, Clifford, 241, 368n1

Gaughran, David, 356

Gawker, 223, 363n2

Gawker online publisher, 345

Gay, Roxane, 114, 266

generative artificial intelligence. See AI (artificial intelligence, generative)

genres, 13, 27, 30, 41–42, 54, 67, 73, 79, 87, 100–101, 129, 131, 134, 136–38, 141, 147–48, 175, 182–84, 187, 189, 302–3, 307, 309, 355–57; affiliated organizations, 357; art books, 116; best of lists, 148; and business models, 98; and categories, 110–17; debuts, 148; determining, 110–17, 127; and digital media, 242; exercise, 116–17; and fiction, 110–12, 145, 198, 214, 242, 286; home design, 71; horror, 183; humor, 114, 257; keywords for, 200–203; lifestyle, 150, 229; military, 200; multiple, 122, 302; and online writing, 279–80; photography books, 116; and sales, 110; self-help and self-improvement, 112; and self-publishing, 87, 110, 190–91, 193, 197, 200–202; sub-, 110, 115, 116–17, 199; as subjective and controversial, 111; well-known, 110; and what sells, exposure to, 296. See also children’s books and writing; specific genre(s)

Ghost (content management system, website builder, newsletter platform), 57, 276, 283, 357

Ghost Newsletter, 357

ghost stories, 105

ghostwriting, 335

G. H. Putnam, 92

gifts: and earnings, 6. See also awards; fellowships; grants

Gilbert, Elizabeth, 17

Ginna, Peter, 163, 294

Gioia, Dana, 2, 359n1

Gioia, Ted, 259

giveaways, 87, 113, 159, 174–75, 183, 198, 202–3, 205–7, 213

Glass, Ira, 21, 33

Glengarry Glen Ross (film), 260, 262

goals and goal setting, 297; creative or artistic, 11, 253

Good Housekeeping, 230

Goodreads, 117, 152, 180–81, 183, 213

Good Story Company, 115

Google: advertising, 217, 222–23, 288; digital media, 225; distribution and discoverability, 106; Workspace, 346

Gotham Writers Workshop, 303

graduate degrees and students, 1, 3–4, 7, 35, 44–45, 301, 307, 349. See also MFA (master of fine arts) degrees

Graham, Paul, 12–13, 359n4

grants, 242, 251, 264–65, 268, 309–16; applying for, 314–16; and earnings, 6, 107; exercise, 316; and literary publishing, 107–9; researching, exercise, 316. See also awards; fellowships; residencies

graphic novels, 115–16, 254, 263

Graywolf Press, 96, 105, 109

Green, John and Hank, as Vlog Brothers, 72

Greenburg, Zack O’Malley, 284, 370n1

Grove Atlantic, 84, 106

Guernica, 289

Guevara, Andrea, 356

Guide Star, 109

Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents (Herman), 129

Guillebeau, Chris, 45, 361n1

Gusto payroll service, 328

Hachette, 70–71, 83, 93, 97, 236

Hanks, Tom, 328

Harlequin romance publisher, 130

HarperCollins, 83, 93, 130, 266

Harper’s Magazine: and literary publishing, 105–6; loyal and diverse audience of, 106; as nonprofit, 105, 220

Harry Potter series (Rowling), 84, 108, 115, 345

Harwood, Seth, 74

Hawkins, Jordana, 70

Heinemann, William, 118, 364n1

Herman, Jeff, 129

Hillenbrand, Lauren, 112

Hitchcock, Stephanie, 69–70

Hit Makers (Thompson), 70

hobbyists, 257–58

Honest Broker, The (newsletter), 259

Honnold, Alex, 19

Hoover, Colleen, 93, 178, 184, 187, 190

Horace, 92

Hot Sheet newsletter, 351

Howey, Hugh, 285, 365–66n1

How to Glow in the Dark (Sproul-Latimer email newsletter), 126, 355

How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck (Stockman), 68

Huang, S. L., 15, 359n2

Huffington, Arianna, 30, 360n2

Huffington Post, 221

Hunger (Gay), 266

Hunger Games series, 115

Hurley, Kameron, 273

hybrid publishing, 88–89, 208–15; best practices of, 210; contracts with, 211; crowdfunding driven, 209; defined, 88, 209; editorially curated, 209; evaluating, 210–11; exercise, 214–15; finding and locating, 211–12; investments and sales with, 214–15, 367n3; and marketing/promotion, 209; sales, 366n3; by traditional publishers, 209; and visibility, 211. See also paid publishing

Hyphen, The (Gannon newsletter), 275

IBPA. See Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)

illustrated books, 115–16, 161, 214

illustrators, 102, 115–16, 357

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The (Skloot), 28, 144

imprimaturs, 87, 107

imprints, 83–84, 86, 93, 97–98, 118, 130, 132, 209, 362n3, 371n1; setting up for business, 328–29; trade book publishing, 364n1

incomes. See finances

income streams, 292. See also sales

Indeed, 217, 303

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), 210–11, 358

independent (indie) publishers, 85, 127, 199. See also indie authorship; small presses and publishers

indexing, of websites by search engines, 62

indie authorship, 190, 193–94, 199, 205–6, 213, 365n1. See also independent (indie) publishers; self-publishing

Indiegogo, 270, 274

Indie Kids Books (Pattison email newsletter), 355

“In Exile and Against Criticism: The Paris Review and the Branding of Contemporary Literature” (Kurowski essay), 107–8, 363n6

influencers, 37, 69, 73, 81, 166–69, 211; and advertising, 288; and donations, 271; and giveaways, 183; and marketing, 174, 177, 181; and memoirs, 150; networking with, 47–52; and online foundation, 52–53, 59; and proposals, 152–53, 157; relationships with, 279; and sponsorships, 253; and sustainability, 76

infographics, 220

Ingram book distributor, 101, 133, 210; Content Group, 191

IngramSpark, 132–33, 191, 204–5, 328–29

inspiration, 18–19, 38, 70, 75, 112, 145, 315

Instagram, 49, 112, 253; and advertising, 182; book clubs, 73; as platform, 77; reels and short-form videos, 70–72; visuals on, 58

Instapoets, 71, 87, 112

InStyle (magazine), 219

insurance. See liability insurance

International Thriller Writers, 41, 357

Iowa Writers’ Workshop, University of Iowa, 74

iTunes, 74

iUniverse, 191

James, E. L., 93, 285

James, Marlon, 111

Jamison, Leslie, 114

Jane Marie (podcaster), 69–70

Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents, 129

Jemisin, N. K., 11, 273, 359n3

Johnson, Samuel, 9

journalism and journalists, 6, 10, 26, 37–38, 59–60, 68, 106, 149–50, 156, 254, 290, 302; about famous and historical figures, 345, 347; decline of, 224; and email alerts, 185–86; and freelancing, 229–30; high-quality, 220, 223–25, 250; inverted pyramid of, 38; investigative, 330; and legal issues, 344–45; and memoirs, 150; and pitches, 235; professional, 235; service vs., 229–30, 231. See also newspapers

journals: general-interest, 217; and high-quality content, 224; ongoing business upheaval surrounding, 5. See also literary journals; magazines

Kafka, Franz, 10

Kao, Wes, 305, 370n4

Kate McKean’s Agents & Books (email newsletter), 126, 355

Kaur, Rupi, 71, 87

Kaye, Dana, 356

KDP. See Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Kelly, Kevin, 254, 368n3

Kensington, 84

Keynote, 306

keywords: for genres, 200–203; in metadata, 277, 365n1

Kickstarter, 261, 269–71, 274, 369nn2–3

Kindle: launch of and book retailing changes, 192; sales, 199; Store, 196–97

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), 191, 201, 203–4, 215, 328–29

Kindlepreneur, 356

Kindle Unlimited, 90, 101, 170, 173, 195, 203–4

Kindle Vella, 284–86, 370n4

King, Stephen, 14, 18–19, 328, 360n10

Kinney, Jeff, 115

Kirkus Reviews, 166, 180

Kit (once known as ConvertKit), 61

Kjellberg, Ann, 276

Kleon, Austin, 18, 266–67, 360n8, 369n4

K-lytics, 199–201

Kobo, 205, 365–66n1

Kole, Mary, 115, 139, 364n2

Kurowski, Travis, 107–8, 363n6

large publishers, 83, 85, 93, 94, 97, 100, 132, 187, 364n1. See also midsize publishers; small presses and publishers

Larson, Daniel, 68

Law and Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers (Lipton), 347, 358

law and legal issues, 6, 339–47; branded or well-known names and products in writings, 344; and contracts, 339, 345; and defamation, libel, slander, 344–45, 347; and fair use principles, 341–44, 371n2; information and resources, 358; and invasion of privacy, 345; and liability insurance, 347; and likeness, name, or identifying information for commercial purposes, 345, 347; and permissions, 341–42; plagiarism, 342, 347; and protecting work, 339–41; with publishers, 82; and right of publicity, 345, 347. See also contracts; copyright

leads, 4–5, 30, 60, 151, 206, 261–62, 264–65, 267

legal issues. See law and legal issues

Leigh, Shelby, 71–72, 356

Lerman Method, for critiquing, 40

Levings, Tia, 142

Lewis, Helen, 60

Li, Yiyun, 241

liability insurance: for business and contracts, 329–30; and legal issues, 347; media, 329–30; professional, 329; and taxes, 323

libraries, 82, 86–87, 91, 97–98, 100–101, 152, 165–66, 170, 178–80, 198, 204, 209, 238, 258, 310, 333; advance reading copies to, 166; and categories/genres/subjects, 117; and community events, 41; for comparable authors, 148; at conferences, 168; relationships with, 157

library editions, 86

Library Journal, 166, 179, 181, 262

licenses and licensing: business, 321; publishers, 82

Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), 86, 320, 326–30, 371n2; researching, exercise, 330

Lin, Jeff J., 16, 359n4

Lindsay, Kate, 357

LinkedIn, 53, 61, 258

Lipton, Jacqueline D., 347, 358

Listen Notes (podcast search engine), 73

literary agents, 1, 70, 82, 118–27, 347; advantages of engaging, 118–19; and agency size, 123; and book deals, 119–21, 124–25; in boutique agencies, 123; and confidence, 119, 122, 125; and contracts, 118–21, 123, 125, 335; as critical business partners, 127; email replies from, 146; enthusiasm of, 122–23; evaluating, 121–23; exercises, 126, 135; finding and locating, 119, 353–55; gatekeeping responsibility, 118; and genres, 115; history and advent of, 92, 118; as humans, flawed, 126; and hybrids, 211; identifying, exercise, 135; in-depth investigations of, 130–31; and industry professionalism, 122; and manuscript wish lists, 131; and markets, 127; networks of, 103, 119, 132; offers of representation from, 146; pitches to, 242; and preempt deals, 124; and proposals, 156–57; and quality work, seeking, 108; and queries, 130–31, 139, 242; and readerships, 264; referrals for, 131–32; and rejections, 124–25, 128–29; relationships with, 42, 156–57; reputation of, 121–22; researching, 127–35, 353–55; and revise/resubmit requests, 120; and royalties, 121; signing with, 123–24; and social media, 130–31; submissions to and rejections by, 24–25, 27–28, 124; understanding and working with, 118–26. See literary agents

literary citizenship, 39–48; and business model, 253; and community visibility, 36; and creativity, 278; and freelancing, 227; and literary publishing, 45; and networking/networks, 39–46, 47–48; and online foundation, 64–65, 278; practice of, 45; and relationships, 30, 36, 39–46; and social media, 64; and visibility, 36, 39. See also networking and networks; relationships

literary fiction, 84, 87, 104, 106, 110–12, 190, 193, 363n3, 363nn1–2; and novellas, 111; and readerships, 111; and short stories, 111. See also literary journals; literary novels; literary presses and publishing

Literary Hub, 126

literary journals, 241–49; acceptance and success with, 245–47; business models for, 245; contracts with, 242, 244, 247; cover letters for, 241–44, 246; exercise, 248; print, 242–44; publishing in, 241–48; and reading fees, 244–45; and rejections, 28; rejections for, 28; simultaneous submissions, 24; and student publications/media, 302; submission guidelines, 243; submissions to and acceptance by, 245–47; trends in, exploring, 248. See also literary fiction; literary presses and publishing; magazines; short works

literary novels, 110–11, 129, 273, 354. See also literary fiction; literary presses and publishing

literary presses and publishing, 105–12, 245, 351–52, 363n5; and artistic excellence, 105; brands for, 107–8; challenges of, 105–9; and communities, 109; and creative nonfiction, 112; credibility of, 108; and distribution/discoverability, 106–8; exercise, 109; and experimental literature, 107; and fundraising, 109; genres of, 111–12; and good literature/writing, 107, 110; and grants, 107–9; imprimatur of, 107; and literary citizenship, 45; and newsletters, 259; and niche work, 108; and place-based contexts/works, 243; and poetry, 112; pushes against traditional expectations, 116; and quality, 109; and readerships, 108; and small or quiet books, 107; and values, 45, 108. See also literary fiction; literary journals; literary novels; university presses and publishers

Literistic, 354

Lit Mag News, 248, 354

Little, Brown, 108

LLCs. See Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)

LMBPN Publishing, 97

Lockhart, E., 70

Lost Art Press (woodworking), 98, 150

Lyons, CJ, 193

Macmillan, 83, 93

magazines, 219–25, 249; business models for, 219; circulation figures for, 225, 249; customers of, readers and advertisers as, 219; and digital media, 105, 219–25, 357; general-interest, 217, 236; and high-quality content, 224; information and resources, 357; ongoing business upheaval surrounding, 5; short pieces for, pitching, 357; and student publications/media, 302; visibility in, 231; writing for, 217. See also digital media; journals; literary journals; short works

Maguire, Hannah, 70

MailerLite, 61

mainstream media, 27, 29, 82, 86–87, 225

Manuscript Wish List, 131, 353

Marcus Aurelius, 18

Marginalia, 272

marketing and promotion, 5, 100, 103, 164, 171–89, 355–56; affiliate, 224, 272, 288–93, 291–92; and awards, 186; big picture for, 174–75; and blogs, 186–88; boilerplate plans, 83, 172; and book launches, 171, 174–79, 184, 186, 189; budgeting for, 85, 167, 178; and content strategy, 226, 230, 263; and contracts, 99, 168, 172, 333; cookie-cutter plans, 172; and creative power, 34; and creativity, 34; defined, 174; digital, 108, 188, 355; and distribution, 108, 210; and editors, 302; and email newsletters, 182–83, 186–89, 289–93; events, 183–84; exercise, 189; and exposure, 180, 184; and finances, 183; focused and finite, 178; and freelancing, 230; and funneling, 206, 260–64; of genres, 116, 199–201; and hybrid publishing, 209; and influencers, 174, 177, 181; information and resources, 356; and literary agents, 127, 133; and literary publishing, 108, 116; and media, 185–86; and networking, 2; online, and advertising, 174; for online education, 302, 307–8; and online writing, 279; organic, 168–69; and outreach, 153, 166, 180, 302; and pitches, 185; plans, 83, 86, 153, 156–60, 166–68, 172; and platforms, 30, 52, 168–69, 356; podcast about, 69–70; and podcasts, 186–88; proactive, 168–69; and proposals, 153, 156–60; and publishing, 116; and queries, 147–48; and readerships, 145, 257, 260–64, 266; resources, 356; responsibility for, 171; and sales, 5, 59, 83–86, 92–93, 100–101, 141, 163, 165–69, 191–92, 207, 213; and self-publishing, 193–94, 196, 198–207, 213; and social media, 39, 63, 178–79, 186; strategy vs. tactics, 175; and sustainability, 75; and taxes, 321; touch points, 59; and visibility, 61, 176, 180, 185–86, 188, 202, 263, 291. See also advertising; publicity; public relations (PR)

Marketing by Shelby, 356

market research: for agents and publishers, 127–35; for fiction books, 258; for nonfiction books, 154; for proposals, 152–53; by publishers, 92; for readerships, 257–58

Martian, The (Weir), 195

Martone, Michael, 7, 38

Marz, Megan, 269–70nn2–3, 282

Massar, Denise, 139–40, 364n3

master of fine arts degrees. See MFA (master of fine arts) degrees

Maum, Courtney, 114, 274, 354

MBA for Writers (Friedman), 329

McCarthy, Paul, 295, 370n1

McCullers, Carson, 114

McIntosh, Madeline, 188, 365n3

McKean, Kate, 126, 355

McKinney, L. L., 256, 369n5

McLean, Kristen, 170–71, 187

McSweeney’s, 105, 301

media: and community outreach, 159; earned, and outreach, 159; industry, 82; kits, 178, 233, 291–93; and marketing, 185–86; organizations, 311; owned, 157; and proposals, 152–53, 157; successful, 153. See also digital media; mainstream media; multimedia; online media; social media

media coverage, 63, 171, 174–76, 183–84, 186, 193, 198, 287

Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), 18

Medoff, Jillian, 126, 364n5

Melville, Herman, 10–11, 105

memberships: in bios, 142; and freelancing, 230, 330; paid, 281–82, 357; in professional organizations, 115, 125, 142, 192, 321, 357; and subscriptions, 276, 281–83, 312. See also paywalls; subscriptions

Memes, visuals on, 58

memoirs, 99, 112–16; best-selling, 248; challenges of, 113–14; guidebook for, 354; hybrid, 89, 113–14, 363n3; illustrated, 115–16; and influencers, 150; and journalists, 150; killer cocktail anecdotes for, 160; markets and sales for, 364n4; online, 276, 282; pitches for, 140; and platforms, 150–51; plus (hybrid), 114; proposals for, 149–51, 158–61; queries for, 136–45, 147; reported, 114; researched, 114; self-published, 364n3; target markets for, 158–59; teaching, 307; travel, 271, 369n3. See also autobiographies; biographies

Menaker, Daniel, 99, 362n10

mentorships and mentors, 14, 26, 29–30, 39, 41, 44, 77, 93, 96, 227, 271, 339

Meredith magazine conglomerate, 219

Meta: and advertising, 182, 221–22; and digital media, 221, 225. See also Facebook

metadata: of books, 169, 365n1; and categories/keywords, 200; keywords in, 277, 365n1; for online discoverability, 365n1; for sales support, 365n1; updates, 365n1

MFA (master of fine arts) degrees, 31, 35, 44–45, 74, 87, 96, 145, 195, 301–3, 309, 370n3. See also graduate degrees and students

Michael Martone: Fictions (Martone), 38

Michel, Lincoln, 67, 171, 355

Microcosm, 98

Microsoft Office, 346

midsize publishers, 15, 83–84, 87, 96, 98, 100, 123, 127, 271, 361n1; defined, 84. See also large publishers; small presses and publishers

Milk & Honey (Kaur poetry collection), 87

Miller, Madeline, 70

Millions (digital magazine), 289

mindset, 4–5, 7–28; as aspirational to working writer, 317; and earning a living, 9–13; and freelancing, 240; and online foundation, 63; and rejections, 21–28; and relationships, 45; as starving artist, 2, 251–52; and talent, 14–20; and unproductive thought patterns, recognizing, 16–19

Missingham, Sam, 356

money. See finances; grants

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia, 111

Morrison, Toni, 11

Morrissey, Brian, 223, 357, 367n11

Mosley, Walter, 17

motivation, 15–16, 44, 65, 73, 81, 132, 262, 277, 286, 297, 304, 311, 314; internal, 39; and validation, 39

multimedia: companies bought big publishers, 93; content for online consumption, 77; entertainment, for children, 114; and online writing, 277

Must Love Dogs (Cook), 17–18

My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Shapland), 114

My Mistake (Menaker), 99

MySpace, 64

mystery genre, 42, 84, 110, 137–38, 292, 307

Mystery Writers of America, 41–42, 357

narrative: nonfiction, 112, 143–44, 160; writing, 262

Nash, Richard, 2, 108, 265, 267, 355

National Book Awards (NBA), 84, 96, 313

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), 37, 309, 314

National Magazine Awards, 313

National Pubic Radio (NPR), 68, 291

NBA. See National Book Awards (NBA)

NEA. See National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

Nelson, Eric, 162, 365n1

NetGalley, 166, 181, 183

networking and networks: for book launches, 47, 49; building, 35, 45, 183, 188, 280; and business, 2; and business models, 255; and community relationships, 45–46, 49, 157, 184, 280; at conferences, 339; and connections, 183; and freelancing, 227–28; with influencers, 47, 49–50, 52; and interviews, 280; and literary citizenship, 39–46, 47–48; and mergers in publishing industry, as challenging, 96–97; multiple, 255; and online foundation, 52–53, 57, 65, 166; and patronage, 269–70; and patterns of influence/behavior, 2; and platforms, 29–31, 47–51, 52, 166; and podcasts, 69; and public presence, 29; and readerships, 75, 184, 188, 261, 267; and rejections, dealing with, 27; and relationships, 35, 43–46, 157, 227; social, 53, 65, 74; and social media, 48; with students, 305; supportive, 16, 45; with VIPs (powerful or influential), 47–52, 69, 77; and visibility, 30, 48, 50–51, 157. See also literary citizenship; relationships

New Earth, A (Tolle), 20

newsletters, 275–83; best practices for, 61, 63; literary, 259. See also email newsletters

newspapers, 38, 249; circulation figures for, 225; copy editors for, 297; customers, readers and advertisers as, 219; customers of, readers and advertisers as, 219; and high-quality content, 224; local, 185; ongoing business upheaval surrounding, 5; short pieces for, pitching, 357; and student publications/media, 302; writing for, 217. See also journalism and journalists

Newton, Casey, 263, 357

New Yorker (magazine), 57, 159, 179, 220, 229–30, 231, 232, 241, 281, 333

New York Post, 284, 370n1

New York Review of Books, 276

New York Times, 51, 171, 176, 224, 292, 346; bestseller lists, 17, 82–83, 90, 96, 141, 183, 193; digital subscribers, 219; paywall, 222, 281; personal ads, 232; reviews, 179

New York Times Book Review, 159

Nicolas, Sarah, 264

Nolan, Hamilton, 105–6, 363n2

nonfiction: business cases for, 144, 149–62; contracts, 149; creative, 87, 112, 242; and digital media, 242; editing of, 295; narrative, 112, 143–44; and online writing, 277; pitches for, 149; and platforms, 112; prescriptive, 112, 143, 157, 162, 200; proposals, 149–62; queries, 143–44; sales, 211; and seasonality of topics, 183; short works of, 114; target audiences for, 153. See also creative nonfiction; essays; fiction

nonprofits, 41, 77, 96, 105, 111, 156, 220, 228, 291, 297, 303, 309, 342; exercise, 109

Nook, 285

Norton (W. W.), 84

Notes from a Small Press (Trubek email newsletter), 355

novellas, 111, 285

novels: funnels for, 263; historical, 138–39; queries for, 136–43, 147. See also fiction; graphic novels; literary novels

NPR. See National Pubic Radio (NPR)

Oates, Joyce Carol, 36

Old Man’s War (Scalzi serial), 285

Oldster (digital magazine), 223–24

online education: asynchronous learning, 303; basics of, 304; considerations and decisions, 304–5; course descriptions, 306–8; earnings, 303–8; exercise, 308; freedom and flexibility for students, 304; marketing and publicity for, 302, 307–8; and outreach, 302; personalized interaction, 305; providers of, exercise, 308; scalable, 303; synchronous learning, 303; and teaching, 301–8; values of, 308; video lectures, best practices for effective, 306. See also teaching

online foundation: best practices for, 61, 63, 66; design and visuals for, 58–59; and email newsletters, 52, 54–55, 57, 59–63, 67; and networking/networks, 52–53, 57, 65, 166; and platforms, 52–67; prescriptive advice for, 66; and relationships, 52; and social media, 54, 63–66; visuals and design for, 58–59; and websites, 52–57. See also email newsletters; platforms; social media; websites

online literature, 287

online media, 11, 75, 334

online-only content and publications, 232, 240, 277, 282–83, 334. See also digital-only

online publishing and publications, 9, 220–22, 231–32, 248, 266, 334, 343, 345, 357. See also online writing

online retail, 62, 87, 97, 106, 132–33, 173, 180, 188, 190, 192, 195, 198, 210, 291. See also e-commerce; sales

online writing, 275–83; as art form, 282; and content, 276–77; and paid publishing, 282; readerships for, 278–82; and search engine optimization (SEO), 277; successful, principles of, 276–79; visibility of, 282. See also blogs and blogging; digital media; email newsletters; online publishing and publications; subscriptions

On Writing (King), 18–19, 360n10

OpenAI, 346

opportunity, and preparation, 239

Oprah’s Book Club, 181

O’Reilly Media (tech education), 98

orphaned books, 165

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (Attia), 68

outreach: and earned media, 159; and marketing/promotion, 153, 166, 180, 302; and teaching online education, 302; and websites, 54

Owens, Delia, 17

Owens, Simon, 226, 230, 357

Packer, George, 30, 360n3

paid publishing, 79, 88–89; evaluating, 212–13; and net sales, 210; and online writing, 282; options, 208–15. See also hybrid publishing

PANK, 248

Paris Review, The, 107–8, 241, 289, 363n6

partner publishing. See hybrid publishing; paid publishing

partnerships. See relationships

Patreon (paid-subscription-based platform for content delivery), 11, 69, 72–73, 254, 256, 269, 272–73, 285–87, 321

patronage, 68, 269–74; and earnings, 6. See also crowdfunding; donations; sponsorships

Patterson, James, 17, 108

Pattison, Darcy, 355

paywalls, 206, 222, 263–64, 275–76, 281, 283. See also memberships; subscriptions

peers, 12, 39, 44, 47

Pen America, 93, 362n5

Pen Center USA awards, 313

Penelope, Leslye, 260, 369n1

Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, 96

Penguin Random House (PRH), 83, 92–97, 170, 173, 188, 198, 365n1; imprints, 362n3; and literary publishing, 108

Penn, Joanna, 69, 205, 256, 271, 369n3

People (magazine), 17

Petersen, Anne Helen, 275

Pexels aggregator, 58

Philyaw, Deesha, 96

Phoenix King, The (Verma), 71

photography. See illustrated books

Pinterest, visuals on, 58

pitches and pitching, 5–6; by acquisitions editors, 101; art of, 233–34; for audio and video, 73; for columns, commentary, departments, 231–32; and confidence or charm, 233; and copywriting, 268; for criticism/critiques, 232; for essays, 232, 234, 236–37; and expenses, 237; for freelance writing, 226–40; hooks for, 235, 238; for interviews and profiles, 231; length of, 235; to literary agents, 242; and marketing, 185; for memoirs, 140; for nonfiction, 149; rejections of, 237, 239; for reporting, 232; for roundups, 231; science of, 234–39; for service pieces, 231; for short works, 357; successful, 235–39; variables of, 233

plagiarism, 342, 347

Planet Money (podcast), 97

platforms, 29–78; and advertising, 68, 289; after rejection, 21n; and body of work, 33–38, 52; book launches on, 73; and brands/branding, 34–35; building and development of, 5, 29–78, 169, 255, 264–65, 269, 369n1; business models for, 5; components of, 52; and credentials, 5; defined, 29–30; and earnings, 5, 31; exercise, 77–78; and financial support, 11; information and resources, 356; inventories, 77–78; and memoirs, 150–51; and networking/networks, 47–51, 52, 166; and nonfiction, 112; and online foundation, 52–67; and playfulness, 75; priorities for, 75–76; and proposals, 150–51; and readerships, 76, 264–65; and relationships, 30–31, 39–46, 52, 78; and social media, 29, 64, 74, 76, 77; sufficient, 23; and sustainability, 74–78; and visibility, 5, 30–31, 33, 36, 49, 51, 77, 143–44; for websites, 56–57. See also email newsletters; online foundation; social media; websites

playfulness: and platforms, 75; and social media, 75

playwrights, 339

POD. See print-on-demand (POD)

podcasts, 68–70, 73–74, 260, 263; and advertising, 73; and books, inspired and related, 70; exercise, 73; and marketing/promotion, 186–88; and networking, 69; and sponsorships, 73. See also audio and video

Podium Publishing, 97

poetry, 71, 112; as art form, 249–50; contracts for, 332–34; funnels for, 262–63; high-quality, 96; in literary journals, 242. See also Instapoets; short works

Poetry Foundation, 105

Poetry (magazine), 105

Poets & Writers, 308

Poets & Writers (magazine), 231, 299, 314

Popova, Maria, 272, 361n3

PowerPoint, 306

PR. See public relations (PR)

predatory practices, 214

preorders, 62, 76, 157, 169, 174, 186, 189

preparation, and opportunity, 239

Pressfield, Steven, 251

press releases, 178

prestige, 3, 12–13, 19, 31, 35, 51, 82, 105–7, 111, 127, 145, 175, 180, 209, 229, 241, 247, 254, 309, 312–13

PRH. See Penguin Random House (PRH)

print-on-demand (POD), 97, 132–33, 190–91, 204–5. See also self-publishing

prizes, 309–16; value of, 312–14. See also awards; contests or competitions

promotion. See marketing and promotion

proofreading: AI as assistants, 346; and editing, 296; outsourced, 213. See also editing and editors

proposals, 6, 149–62; big-picture questions answered by, 151–52; bios in, 155; chapter outlines in, 160–61; competitive or comparable title analyses in, 154–55, 162; examples, 162; exercise, 162; for illustrated books, 116; market-informed, 152; market research for, 152–53; and media, 152–53, 157, 159; for memoirs, 149–51; for nonfiction books, making business cases, 149–62; openings and overviews in, 160; and platforms, 150–51; rejections of, 150–51; and relationships/networking, 157; and social media, 157; target readerships or markets in, 155–56; and visibility, 151–52; visions in, 149, 295; worksheets, 153. See nonfiction proposals

publicists, 38, 54, 133, 169, 174, 176–78, 183, 185, 193, 319

publicity: and book launches, 174; defined, 174; and marketing/promotion, 38, 147–48, 168–69, 174, 177–78, 302, 313; right of, legal, 345, 347. See also marketing and promotion; public relations (PR)

public relations (PR), 92, 176, 177–78, 210–11, 284, 313. See also marketing and promotion; publicity

Publishers Lunch subscription based newsletter, 94, 95, 354

Publishers Marketplace, 121, 129–30, 137, 297–98, 354

Publishers Weekly, 90, 166, 179–81

Publishers Weekly Industry Salary Survey, 362n4

publishing and publishers, 5, 79–215; advantages and benefits of, 81–82, 93; choices, 81–90; commercial, 10, 27, 86, 91, 94, 105, 107–8, 111–13, 152, 271; conglomeration and consolidation of, 93–97; digital-only, 132; educational, 91, 114–15; evaluating, 132–34; finding and locating, 353–54; general-interest, 98, 106, 221, 229; and high-quality content, 223; identifying, exercise, 135; imprimatur of, 87; middlemen in, 118, 364n1; ongoing transformation in, 1; researching, 127–35; social, 89, 108, 363n7; working effectively with, 163–72. See also digital, publishing; hybrid publishing; imprints; independent publishers; large publishers; literary presses and publishing; midsize publishers; online publishing and publications; paid publishing; publishing industry; self-publishing; small presses and publishers; trade book publishing; traditional publishing; university presses and publishers

Publishing Confidential (Schmidt email newsletter), 67, 355, 356

publishing industry: commercial lineage (Gutenberg-era printers), 92; demographic surveys for employees, 362n4; information and resources, 355–56; learning about, 1; understanding of, 79; and writing careers, knowledge of, 1, 79, 117. See also publishing and publishers; traditional publishing

Pushcart Prize, 241

Putnam (George Haven), 92

queries, 6, 136–48; bio notes in, 136, 142–43; checking for problems and red flags in, 145–47; comparable titles and authors in, 136, 141–42, 147–48; elements of, 136; and essays, 142; exercise, 147–48; letters, 136–37, 142–43, 147, 241, 255; and literary agents, 130–31, 139, 242; for memoirs, 136–45, 147; for nonfiction, 143–44; for novels, 136–43, 147; personalization of, 136–37; selling points in, 144–45; sending, 144–45; story descriptions in, 136, 138–41; synopses in, 139, 142, 146–47

QueryTracker, 28, 129, 353

Random House, 99; merger with Penguin, 94, 97

Reader’s Digest, 9

readerships, 257–68; building for sustainability, 74–76; and business models, 223; exercises, 225, 268; and exposure, 264–65; and freelancing, 233; and funnels, building, 257–68, 277; general, 142, 153; identifying, 369n1; increasing, 12; and literary agents, 264; and literary fiction, 111; and literary publishing, 108; market research for, 257–58; measurements and quantifiables for, 265–66; and networking/networks, 75, 184, 188, 261, 267; for online writing, 278–82; and platforms, 76, 264–65; in proposals, 155–56; reviews by, 180; and self-publishing, 207; and social media, 261, 266–67; and success, 276; and sustainability, 74–76; target, 150–51, 155–56, 168–69, 175, 258–59, 277, 281–82; values of, 267, 287; visibility to, 5, 143, 151, 195, 263, 267, 278–81. See also discoverability; target audiences and markets

reading groups, 108. See also book clubs

Ream, 286

recreation, writing as, 30. See also entertainment

Reddit, 152

Redfield, James, 87

RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick (Bala and Maguire book and podcast), 70

Reedsy, 298

Reid, Taylor Jenkins, 111

rejections, 21–28; and book deals, 124–25; business response, 28; coping and dealing with, 21–28, 119; exercise, 28; forms of, 21n, 27–28; form vs. personal, 23–25, 27; and freelancing, 237; and hit rates, 22–23; information and resources, 28; letters, 2, 22–23, 25, 27–28, 124, 129, 144, 360n2; and literary agents, 124–25, 128–29; and literary journals, 28; and mindset, 21–28; moving on from, 147; personal vs. form, 23–25, 27; of pitches, 237, 239; of proposals, 150–51; and queries, 137; reasons for, 25–27; and resilience, 239; and self-publishing, 21n; and strength to continue, 27

RejectionWiki.com, 28

relationships, 39–46; and acknowledgments pages, 39, 46; building, 39–46, 52, 74, 178–79; and communities, 39, 41, 45–46, 51, 69, 157, 184, 280; and community events, 41; and conferences, 41–43; and content creation, 68; and credentials, 241; and critique groups, 39–41; exercises, 46, 51; as foundational to career, 39; with high-profile authors, 51; and literary citizenship, 30, 36, 39–46; and local/regional/state organizations, 41; and networking/networks, 35, 43–46, 157, 227; and online foundation, 52; personally unique, 78; and platforms, 30–31, 39–46, 52, 78; and proposals, 157; and reputations, 122; and social media, 261; and sustainability, 74; and visibility, 39, 51, 68, 157; and volunteering, 43, 45; and writing degrees, 44–45; and writing groups, 39–41; and writing organizations, 41. See also literary citizenship; networking and networks

residencies, 309–16, 354; applying for, 314–16; social media, 310. See also awards; fellowships; grants

resilience, 239

resources, 353–58

retail: and distribution, 86, 198, 205; print, 173. See also online retail

revisions, 21, 23–24, 26, 113–14, 123–25, 134, 137, 163–65, 247, 294–97, 305, 351

Roach, Mary, 112

romance genre, 36, 70, 84, 87, 98, 106, 110, 130, 137–38, 145, 183–84, 187, 191–93, 197, 200–202, 280. See also erotica genre

Romance Writers of America (RWA), 192, 357

Rosenberg, Gigi, 316

Ross, Gail, 70

roundups, 117, 152, 231, 245, 280–81

Rowling, J. K., 84, 108, 115, 345

royalties, 102–3; and advances, 196, 209, 335, 338; audio, 102; e-book, 95, 100, 102, 132; and literary agents, 121

Rumpus (digital magazine), 231, 248, 289

RWA. See Romance Writers of America (RWA)

Sacks, Bo, 224, 367–68n12

Sadler, Katie, 356

sales, 5, 170–71; and A-lists, 166; audio, 191; estimating for advances, 100–102; floor price for, 124; and income streams, 292; and marketing/promotion, 5, 59, 83–86, 92–93, 100–101, 141, 163, 165–69, 191–92, 207, 213; of nonfiction, 211; online, 173, 185, 207; and self-publishing, 87, 196–97, 203–5, 207; and visibility, 197, 203. See also e-commerce; income streams; online retail

Salon (digital magazine), 221–22

Sanderson, Brandon, 190, 271, 363n1, 369n2

Sansevieri, Penny, 356

Saturday Evening Post, 249

Saunders, George, 275

SCBWI. See Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)

Schmidt, Kathleen, 67, 355, 356

scholarly publishers. See university presses and publishers

Scholastic, 84, 98, 108

School of Life, The (intellectual self-help), 98

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, 41, 357

science fiction genre, 106, 110–11, 139, 184, 273, 285

Scratch Magazine (digital), 351–52

screenwriters, 339

Scribd, 101, 170

search engine optimization (SEO), 223, 277

Secret Lives of Church Ladies, The (Philyaw), 96

self-awareness, 2, 74, 251

self-doubt, 14–15, 17, 286

self-expression, as entertainment, 30

self-publishing, 71, 79, 85–88, 93, 190–97, 364n3; after rejection, 21n; and artistic decisions, 86; audio, 191; book launches for, 199; business models for, 190–97; considerations and decisions for, 190, 192–96; contracts for, 196; and customer reviews, 202–3; defined, 86; and distribution, 132–33, 203–5; earnings, 195, 365n1; and e-books, 87, 97, 183, 195–99, 202–5, 207, 365n1; e-book sales, 365n1; and editing, 298; exercises, 196–97, 207; and exposure, 205; and genres, 87, 110, 190–91, 193, 197, 200–203; and handselling, 87; history of, 190–92; and independent (indie) publishers, 85; information and resources, 356; media attention for, 193; podcast about, 69; and pricing, 202; prolific, 194; and readerships, 207; and rejections, 21n; and sales, 87, 196–97, 203–5, 207, 213; and strong product foundation, 199–203; success of, 196, 198–99; and technology, 195; and visibility, 190, 193–95, 197, 199. See also freelance writing; indie authorship; print-on-demand (POD)

Seneca, 239

SEO. See search engine optimization (SEO)

serendipity, 31, 33, 43, 169, 228

Serendipity Literary Agency, 119–20

Serial (podcast), 69

serialized fiction, 285

serials and serializations, 284–87; book launches for, 287; business models for, 284–85; defined, 285; exercise, 287; fan-fiction, 285; and online literature, 287; pure, 285; slow-build model, 285

series writing, 194, 196, 307

Shapiro, Susan, 357

Shapland, Jenn, 114

Shelf Awareness (email newsletter), 181, 189

She Writes Press, 209

Shirky, Clay, 30, 360n1

Shit No One Tells You about Writing, The (email newsletter), 355

short pieces. See short works

short stories, 9–10, 54, 87, 111–12, 129, 234, 242, 247, 273, 275, 310, 353; as art form, 249–50; contracts for, 332–34; as entertainment, 106; as literary fiction, 111. See also short works

short works, 5–6, 217–48, 272–73; contracts for, 332–34; and freelancing, 217, 226, 230–33; information and resources for, 357; of nonfiction, 114; pitching, 357; publishing, 217; on websites, 54. See also articles; digital media; essays; literary journals; magazines; poetry; short stories

Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Kleon), 266–67, 369n4

Simon & Schuster (S&S), 69–71, 83, 92–96, 173, 362n2

Sinykin, Dan, 96–97, 111, 356, 363n2

Sisters in Crime, 42

Skloot, Rebecca, 28, 144, 360n2

Slate (digital magazine), 222, 236

SlideShare, 263, 364n4

small presses and publishers, 83, 84–86, 96–98, 154, 209, 275, 312, 358; business models, 84; distribution by, 132–33; essay collections of, 114; and literary agents, 125; and self-publishing, 191. See also independent (indie) publishers; large publishers; midsize publishers; university presses and publishers

social media: and articles, 234; best practices for, 63; and biographies (bios), professional, 38; bios on, 38; and book launches, 186; and contracts, 63; and email newsletters, 61; ground rules for, 66; and links shared, 65; and literary citizenship, 64; monetized, 31; and networking, 48; and online foundation, 54, 63–66; and platforms, 29, 64, 74, 76, 77; and playfulness, 75; and poetry, 112; and proposals, 157; and readerships, 261, 266–67; and relationships, 261; residencies, 310; and social networks, 53, 65, 74; success on, 70; technical and logistical guidance, 31; and video editing tools, 58; and websites, 53–54. See also digital media; online foundation

social publishing, 89, 108, 363n7

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), 41–42, 115, 357

Song of Achilles, The (Miller), 70

Sound Reporting (Larson), 68

Sourcebooks, 130, 193

Source of Sources, 185

Sow, Aminatou, 70

SparkToro, 259

Spector, Josh, 292, 357

sponsorships, 68, 290–91; and advertising, 288–93; and earnings, 6; and podcasts, 73. See also advertising; donations; patronage

Spotify, 69, 73

Sproul-Latimer, Anna, 126, 355

Squarespace, 56–57

S&S. See Simon & Schuster (S&S)

start-ups, 223–26, 275, 317, 337

Steel, Danielle, 17

Stein, Gertrude, 11

Stein, Leigh, 355, 363n1

Steinbeck, John, 103, 362n12

Stenberg, Mark, 357

Stockman, Steve, 68

Story Club (Saunders newsletter), 275

storytelling, 17, 21, 110, 112, 144, 149–50, 161, 284, 302, 363n1; for platforms, 34–35

Strayed, Cheryl, 231

student publications and media, 302

Study Hall, 229, 233, 357

Submittable, 244–45

subscriptions, 76, 274–83; digital, 173; and earnings, 6; and memberships, 276, 281–83, 312; paid, 60–62, 274, 281–82, 284. See also email newsletters; memberships; online writing; paywalls

subsidy publishing. See hybrid publishing; paid publishing

Substack, 53, 61–62, 67, 89, 223, 250, 253, 259, 272, 274, 275–76, 283, 284, 286, 321–22, 354, 355, 369n1, 370n1

success: of art, 2; of authorship, 1, 14; deserving of, 14; and failure, 83; as published author, 79; and readership, 276; of self-publishing, 196, 198–99; and seriousness of intent, 58; uncertainty of, 16; and word of mouth, 50–51; of writing career, 64, 79, 252, 266–67, 349

Sudowrite, 346–47

Sullivan, Andrew, 275

sustainability, 10, 45–46, 63, 96, 105, 214, 220, 223, 254, 301, 356; and email newsletters, 75–77; and influencers, 76; and marketing, 103; and platforms, 74–78; and readerships, 74–76; and relationships, 74; of websites, 53. See also finances

Swanson, Jay, 72–73

Swift, Taylor, 76

synopses, 6, 160; in queries, 139, 142, 146–47

talent, 7, 27, 76, 84, 118–19, 123, 134, 144, 262; and genius, 16; and mindset, 14–20; in publishing industry, 82

Talks at Google program, 157

Target, online sales, 173

target audiences and markets, 23, 25, 33, 69, 131, 153–59, 165, 174, 183, 186, 188, 193–94, 196, 231, 258–60, 267, 278–79, 365n1. See also readerships, target

Tartt, Donna, 111

taxes: accounting software, 319–20, 324–25; basics for writers, 6, 317, 319–25, 326; and business licenses, 321; deductions for expenses, 320–21; exercise, 324–25; home office deductions, 323–24; and liability insurance, 323; sales tax, collecting, 321–22; Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business, 319–24, 327; and sole proprietorships, 320, 326–27. See also finances

TaxJar website, 322

Teachable platform for online teaching, 303

teaching, 3–4; applications for, 301–2; basics of, 304; and coaching, 305; course descriptions for, 306–8; credentials, 308; decisions and considerations for, 304–5; and earnings, 6, 303–8; excellence, 45; exercise, 308; marketing courses, 302, 307–8; and online education, 301–8; and outreach, 302; and personalized interaction, 305; possible opportunities for, 302; and proposals, 157; values of, 308; video lectures, developing, 306; and visibility, 228. See also online education

Tebbel, John William, 106, 363n3, 367n3

This American Life (podcast), 69

This Is Not My Beautiful Life (Fedden), 113

Thompson, Derek, 70

thriller genre, 55, 84, 110, 142

TikTok, 361n4; and books sales, 76, 187; influencers, 47, 73; and marketing, power of, 187; as platform, 77; as popular platform, 76, 250; short-form videos on, 50, 70–72; visuals on, 58. See also BookTok

Tolle, Eckhart, 20, 360n13

trade book publishing, 91, 355; advertising, 181; contracts, 371n4; freelance writing for, 229; imprints, 364n1; outlets, 229; reviews, 179; and self-publishing, 194. See also traditional publishing

trademarks, 131, 328, 344

traditional publishing, 79, 81–86, 91–104; advantages and benefits of, 81–82, 93; and business models, 92; business models and strategies of, 91–92, 97–99; conglomeration and consolidation of, 93–97; earnings, 195; and hybrid publishers, 209; as lengthy process, 82–83; profit-and-loss statements (P&Ls) [bottom line], 91, 97–100, 104. See also under contracts; publishing and publishers; publishing industry; trade book publishing

transactional models, 274

translations, 82

Trollope, Anthony, 105

tropes, 71, 199, 201–2

Trubek, Anne, 355

Tumblr, 266

Turning Pro (Pressfield), 251

Twain, Mark, 103–4, 105, 363n14

Twilight series (Meyer), 115

Unbound, 88, 209

uncertainty. See certainty and uncertainty

Underdown, Harold, 115

University of Iowa’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 74

university presses and publishers, 83, 85–86, 96, 105, 111–12, 155. See also literary presses and publishing; small presses and publishers

Upwork, 230

USA Today bestseller list, 90

validation: and awards, 313; from bookstores, 192; and exposure, 192; external, 15–16, 37, 39; and motivation, 39; from publishers, 89

values: and advertising, 293; and literary publishing, 45, 108; of online education, 308; of readerships, 267, 287

Vanity Fair (magazine), 219–20

vanity presses and publishing. See paid publishing

Vella (Kindle platform), 284–86, 370n4

Verma, Aparna, 71–72

video. See audio and video

virtual: book launches, 184; conferences, 289; events, 62, 69, 174, 184, 264, 282

visibility: of books and writing, 23, 33, 85, 106–7, 132, 165, 169, 185–86, 188, 199, 203; and business models, 251; in communities, 5, 36; and content creation, 68; and content strategy, 263; and contest winnings, 311; and e-books, 197; and freelancing, 226–28, 231; and hybrids, 211; and licensing, 82; and literary citizenship, 36, 39; in magazines, 231; and marketing/promotion, 61, 176, 180, 185–86, 188, 202, 263, 291; in markets, 84, 152, 226; and networking/networks, 30, 48, 50–51, 157; of online writing, 282; and platforms, 5, 30–31, 33, 36, 49, 51, 77, 143–44; proactive, 29–30; and proposals, 151–52; to readerships, 5, 143, 151, 195, 263, 267, 278–81; and relationships, 39, 51, 68, 157; and sales, 197, 203; and self-publishing, 190, 193–95, 197, 199; and teaching, 228. See also exposure

Vlog Brothers, 72

vlogs and vlogging, 72, 253, 291. See also blogs and blogging

volunteering: and editing, 297; and freelance visibility, 228; for literary journals, 246; and relationships, 43, 45

Walmart, 170, 173, 204, 258

Warner, John, 301, 370n3

Washington Post, 179

Wattpad, 21n, 77, 89, 284–87, 370n3

Wave cloud-based accounting system for small business owners, 319–20, 324–25

We Are All Musicians Now (Greenburg), 284

websites: and advertising, 289–90; and blogs, 56; content for, 53–54; copy for, 178; crafting, 55–56; domain names for, 57; email newsletters on, 54–55, 61; and freelancing, 55; homepages for, 55–56; indexed by search engines, 62; monetized, 31; and online foundation, 52–57; and outreach, 54; platforms for, 56–57; short works on, 54; and social media, 53–54; and social networks, 53; sustainability of, 53; technical and logistical guidance, 31. See also online foundation

Webtoon, 284–85, 287

WeGrowMedia, 356

Weir, Andy, 195

well-being, 66

Well-Trained Wife, A (Levings), 142

Westover, Tara, 113, 158–59

We Were Liars (Lockhart), 70

What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing (Ginna), 163, 294

Where the Crawdads Sing (Owens), 17

Whitman, Walt, 190

Who Pays Writers website, 229, 240

Williams, Allison K, 18

Wirecutter (website), 224, 292

Wired for Music (Barton), 113–14

Wired (magazine), 254

Wiseman, Richard, 239–40, 368n2

Wolfpack Publishing, 97

women’s fiction, 111, 117

Women’s Fiction Writing Association, 41, 357

Wool (Howey), 285

WordPress, 56–57, 276

WorldCat, 117

Writer Beware blog, 347, 354

writers: aspirational, 317; real, 2, 20, 251; working, 1, 242, 317

writer’s block, 18

Writer’s Co-op, 357

Writer’s Digest, 299, 303, 308, 310, 364n4

Writers Guild of America, 339

Writer’s Market directories, 129, 353

“Writing, Failure, and Time” (Huang article), 15, 359n2

writing careers: active and consistent submissions for, 27; from aspirational to working, 317; building, 217; business models for, 2–3, 13, 79, 252; and business savvy, 1; and commercial success, 93; coping mechanisms or rituals for, 22; and day jobs, 10–11; decisions and questions to consider, 11–13; and experience, 349–50; and experimentation, 4, 57, 64, 66, 74–75, 182–83, 195, 248, 252, 349; information and resources, 3, 6, 353–58; lifelong, 2; and life obligations, 349; and making a living, 9–13, 249–50; obstacles to, 2, 3, 10; published author as expressed goal and dream of, 2, 79; and publisher industry knowledge, 1, 79, 117; small and local vs. national, 309; statistics about, 14; as sustainable, 10, 45–46, 53, 63, 74–78, 89, 96, 105, 214, 220, 223, 254, 301, 356; traditional paths to, 21n; and unproductive thought patterns, recognizing, 16–19; and vision, 315, 349–50; writer as label, usage, 18; your best work, defined, 134. See also creative writing; freelance writing

Writing the Other, 308

W. W. Norton, 84

Xlibris, 191

YA books. See young adult (YA) books

Yamaguchi, Jeffrey, 357

Yan, Wudan, 357

Yancy, Melissa, 19, 360n12

Year of the Horses, The (Maum), 114

young adult (YA) books, 41, 87, 114–15, 130, 187, 193, 357

YouTube, 49, 250, 253; advertising, 289, 290; long-form videos, 72–73; podcasts, 69; short-form videos, 68, 70–72; visuals on, 58. See also BookTube

YouTube Secrets (Cannell), 68

Zander, Rosamund Stone and Benjamin, 13, 267

zeitgeist, cultural, 339

Zen parable, 15–16

Zippo (Craven), 201

Zoom, 282, 303

Zuckerman, Mary Ellen, 106, 363n3, 367n3

Footnotes

1f Some writers choose to self-publish after rejection, while some decide to self-publish from the very start. Others may write and publish for free on platforms like Wattpad as they grow as a writer and improve their craft. All of these are valid and increasingly popular ways to build a career as a writer; one needn’t seek acceptance from traditional figures at any stage of the journey. Whereas this chapter focuses on writers focused on traditional paths, every writer, regardless of how they publish, will eventually encounter rejection somewhere, somehow. It could be in the form of silence in response to a pitch, a negative book review, or simply lack of sales or readership.