Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published

Author: Susan Rabiner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039334021X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
Distilled wisdom from two publishing pros for every serious nonfiction author in search of big commercial success. Over 50,000 books are published in America each year, the vast majority nonfiction. Even so, many writers are stymied in getting their books published, never mind gaining significant attention for their ideas—and substantial sales. This is the book editors have been recommending to would-be authors. Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains: • why every proposal should ask and answer five key questions; • how to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work; • how to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore; • why the most important chapter is your introduction; • why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction; • why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible. Whatever the topic, from history to business, science to philosophy, law, or gender studies, this book is vital to every serious nonfiction writer.

Thinking Like a Writer

Author: Stephen V. Armstrong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781402437724
Category : Legal composition
Languages : en
Pages : 510

Book Description

What Editors Do

Author: Peter Ginna
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022630003X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Book Description
Essays from twenty-seven leading book editors: “Honest and unflinching accounts from publishing insiders . . . a valuable primer on the field.” —Publishers Weekly Editing is an invisible art in which the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication. What Editors Do gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere. Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to approach the work of editing. Serving as a compendium of professional advice and a portrait of what goes on behind the scenes, this book sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text. This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing—and shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever. “Authoritative, entertaining, and informative.” —Copyediting

How to Write a Novel

Author: Nathan Bransford
Publisher: Nathan Bransford
ISBN: 173414940X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."

Getting It Published

Author: William P. Germano
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459606116
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
Since 2001 William Germano's Getting It Published has helped thousands of scholars develop a compelling book proposal, find the right academic publisher, evaluate a contract, handle the review process, and, finally, emerge as published authors. But a lot has changed in the past seven years. With the publishing world both more competitive and mor...

The Book Proposal Book

Author: Laura Portwood-Stacer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691216622
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
A step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal—and seeing your book through to successful publication The scholarly book proposal may be academia’s most mysterious genre. You have to write one to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so—and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides prospective authors step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers. Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors, shows how to select the right presses to target, identify audiences and competing titles, and write a project description that will grab the attention of editors—breaking the entire process into discrete, manageable tasks. The book features over fifty time-tested tips to make your proposal stand out; sample prospectuses, a letter of inquiry, and a response to reader reports from real authors; optional worksheets and checklists; answers to dozens of the most common questions about the scholarly publishing process; and much, much more. Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why, far from being merely a hurdle to clear, a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.

The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published

Author: Arielle Eckstut
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 076116085X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 544

Book Description
Now updated for 2015! The best, most comprehensive guide for writers is now revised and updated, with new sections on ebooks, self-publishing, crowd-funding through Kickstarter, blogging, increasing visibility via online marketing, micropublishing, the power of social media and author websites, and more—making The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published more vital than ever for anyone who wants to mine that great idea and turn it into a successfully published book. Written by experts with twenty-five books between them as well as many years’ experience as a literary agent (Eckstut) and a book doctor (Sterry), this nuts-and-bolts guide demystifies every step of the publishing process: how to come up with a blockbuster title, create a selling proposal, find the right agent, understand a book contract, and develop marketing and publicity savvy. Includes interviews with hundreds of publishing insiders and authors, including Seth Godin, Neil Gaiman, Amy Bloom, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Lopate, plus agents, editors, and booksellers; sidebars featuring real-life publishing success stories; sample proposals, query letters, and an entirely updated resources and publishers directory.

Developmental Editing

Author: Scott Norton
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022679363X
Category : Developmental editing
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
"First published in 2009, Scott Norton's book is the only guide dedicated solely to the art of developmental editing. With more than three decades of experience in the field, Norton offers expert advice on how to approach the task of diagnosing and fixing structural problems with book manuscripts in consultation with authors and publishers. He illustrates these principles through a series of detailed case studies featuring before-and-after tables of contents, samples of edited text, and other materials to make an otherwise invisible process tangible. This revised edition includes a new chapter on editing fiction, which presents similar challenges to nonfiction plus a range of additional ones, including issues of premise, setting, plot, and character development. For the first time, the book comes with a set of exercises that allow readers to edit sample materials and compare their work with that of an experienced professional. And it includes new or expanded coverage of basic business arrangements for freelancers, self-publishing, e-books, and content marketing, among other topics. Aspiring and experienced developmental editors as well as the authors who work with them will find a wealth of insight in this new edition"--

Perennial Seller

Author: Ryan Holiday
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110199214X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
The book that Inc. says "every entrepreneur should read" and an FT Book of the Month selection... How did the movie The Shawshank Redemption fail at the box office but go on to gross more than $100 million as a cult classic? How did The 48 Laws of Power miss the bestseller lists for more than a decade and still sell more than a million copies? How is Iron Maiden still filling stadiums worldwide without radio or TV exposure forty years after the band was founded? Bestselling author and marketer Ryan Holiday calls such works and artists perennial sellers. How do they endure and thrive while most books, movies, songs, video games, and pieces of art disappear quickly after initial success? How can we create and market creative works that achieve longevity? Holiday explores this mystery by drawing on his extensive experience working with businesses and creators such as Google, American Apparel, and the author John Grisham, as well as his interviews with the minds behind some of the greatest perennial sellers of our time. His fascinating examples include: • Rick Rubin, producer for Adele, Jay-Z, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who teaches his artists to push past short-term thinking and root their work in long-term inspiration. • Tim Ferriss, whose books have sold millions of copies, in part because he rigorously tests every element of his work to see what generates the strongest response. • Seinfeld, which managed to capture both the essence of the nineties and timeless themes to become a modern classic. • Harper Lee, who transformed a muddled manuscript into To Kill a Mockingbird with the help of the right editor and feedback. • Winston Churchill, Stefan Zweig, and Lady Gaga, who each learned the essential tenets of building a platform of loyal, dedicated supporters. Holiday reveals that the key to success for many perennial sellers is that their creators don’t distinguish between the making and the marketing. The product’s purpose and audience are in the creator’s mind from day one. By thinking holistically about the relationship between their audience and their work, creators of all kinds improve the chances that their offerings will stand the test of time.

The Forest for the Trees

Author: Betsy Lerner
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1509834796
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
No one is better qualifed to help with the writing process than a passionate editor with years of experience. Betsy Lerner, one of the most admired of American book editors, is such a one - and in this book she shares her editorial wisdom and provides a unique insider's understanding of the publishing process. From her long experience working with successful writers and discovering new voices, Betsy Lerner looks at different writer personality types; addresses the concerns of writers just getting started as well as those stalled mid-career; and describes the publishing process from the thrill of acquisition to the agony of the remainder table. Written with insight, humour and great common sense, this is the ultimate survival kit for writers everywhere.