Why Pre-Orders Matter (And What You Need to Know About Them)

Have you ever pre-ordered a book?


It’s okay if you haven’t. Most consumers don’t pre-order books. Very few take advantage of the opportunity, even though retailers like Amazon offer the lowest guaranteed price: “Amazon.com's price for not-yet-released items sometimes changes between the time the item is listed for sale and the time it is released and shipped. Whenever you pre-order an item eligible for Pre-order Price Guarantee, the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you place your order and the end of the day of the release date.” That’s a pretty great guarantee!!! Unless you are a super fan of books like Harry Potter, you probably weren’t aware of that hidden pre-order perk.


As literary agents and book enthusiasts, we preach the benefits of pre-ordering all the time. You save money and get a book you were already going to buy the day it releases. That’s a win-win!


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How Do You Build a Book Proposal?

What’s the deal with book proposals?


You can’t apply for a job without a resume, nor can you find a publishing partner without a proposal. That’s why book proposals are so important: They are a resume for your book idea.


A proposal is like a job resume for your book. Literary agents and publishers review them to gauge their interest in working with you. Just like a resume, it needs to have professional elements to help garner more interest. You wouldn’t show up to a job interview in cargo shorts and your favorite team’s t-shirt, would you? Remember that old adage, “Dress for the job you want, not the one you have?” If you want your book idea to be taken seriously, you have to make sure it looks the part for the role.


That’s why book proposals are so important.


Book proposals are essential. They are the key to advancing your publishing career. Without them, the chances of finding an agent or a publisher go down drastically....

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Don't Let Burnout Stop You

Suffering is not a requirement of writing.


Too often writers associate passion with suffering. If you are not suffering for your writing - for your craft - are you really passionate enough about it? These questions often come up when burnout begins to hinder the writing process. Like an indicator light on a vehicle’s dashboard, burnout is warning us that something needs to change. Today, let’s focus on three tips that can help you avoid burnout in your writing.


The first tip is to lean into your habits.


Maybe you are coming out of a busy season and you’ve neglected your writing. You are feeling exhausted and burned out from your home life or maybe work has been especially hard - or both. Habits are a great way to hit the reset button.


Give yourself the grace to get back to your writing habit again. Sometimes returning to habits can feel tricky. We start hearing that voice in our head tell us we wouldn’t have to start over if we had stuck to it and other...

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How to Keep the Fire Burning

You know that meme, right?


There’s that meme, the one with the dog with a hat; he’s at the table drinking coffee. Everything around him is on fire – the house is burning down. A word bubble says, “This is fine.”


As a writer, there are times that you can probably relate to the dog.


Pursuing your goals hasn’t changed but the world around you has. It’s required more, for sure.


If you’re reading this right now, then you have set a goal that you would like to write a book one day, or you see publishing or self-publishing as a part of your business goals, or maybe you’ve even dabbled in publishing already. You’ve made a commitment to the goal. That was the easy part. Now comes the doing, and with it, the resistance.


So, how do you dive into your creativity during a crisis? We want to share with you some inspiration to help you tap into your creative juices so that you can create something amazing and impactful.

“Your goals...

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What to Talk About When You Talk About Platform

Every writer wants to know how to build a stronger platform. We get constantly asked, How much is enough? What numbers should I shoot for? 


When asked how much money is enough, John D. Rockefeller famously said, “Just a little bit more.” The same goes for platform numbers. More is always better. Even if you have a large platform, it could be a bit bigger, right? Most writers are in platform infancy. So what do you do when you’re pulling together your proposal and you want to talk about your platform that you wish was, “Just a little bit more?”


Here are three ways to talk about your platform when you don’t have one: 

  • Talk about the good. What’s the strongest part of your platform? That’s where you want to emphasize the good. That’s a great place to focus on and explain why it will help sell your book. Good beats great when it comes to feeling like your platform has to be perfect. There is no perfect. As Seth Godin...
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The Subtle Art of Subtitling Your Book

Your reader has a lot on their plate. Between juggling careers, distractions competing with commitments, and living life, their time is extremely valuable. There’s no shortage of busy today.


You know this, so why doesn’t your subtitle reflect this?


Imagine going into a store - people still do this! - and looking for someone to help you. You’ve got questions. How frustrated would you be if, when you found an employee, they did everything they could not to answer your questions?


Your readers have questions and they’re busy. They need you to cut to the chase. A really great subtitle answers your reader's questions. Too many times writers try to create subtitles that do everything. They become convoluted and clumsy. They say a lot about nothing.


Here’s a good rule to use when you are brainstorming a subtitle for your book: Are you using commas in the subtitle? A serial comma can suggest your subtitle lacks focus. Really push to clarify what your book is...

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An Easy Trick to Get Writing

What’s an easy trick to get your book from your head to the page?


Writing is a lot harder than Netflix or Disney+. If binge-watching The Mandalorian was as easy as writing a book, you wouldn’t have signed up to receive this email. The truth is writing is hard. It takes a lot of work! This simple trick is going to help shift your mindset and make the work of finishing your book that much easier. 


Are you letting distractions keep you from writing your book?


When it comes to writing books, there are a million things that are easier to do. Everything becomes a distraction. Do you know what’s easier than writing your book? Talking about your book. Complaining about not having time to write your book...well, there might be as much time spent doing that as it would take to actually write the book.


That’s why we often share this easy trick to help writers shake off distractions like Netflix or Disney+, etc.: “Butt in chair.” It’s...

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How Do I Know If My Book Idea Is Any Good?

What’s the best way for me to figure out if my book idea is any good?


There’s this great cartoon of a doctor holding up an x-ray to a patient and saying, “It looks like you’ve got a book in you.” In the x-ray, there’s a book lodged in the patient’s ribs. 


If you’re reading this, you probably feel a lot like the patient, metaphorically, of course. Instead of wondering if your book idea is any good, let us help you figure that out.


Great book ideas start with the premise!!!


The very first step you should take when trying to figure out which book you should pursue first is to sit down and write out a premise of your book idea. The premise of your book is basically its thesis statement.


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“What are the important factors I should consider 

when I am developing my book idea?”

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But what if you have two book ideas and can’t decide which to write about first? The premise is a great...

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Help! I need an Editor

Are you struggling with having confidence in your writing?


Every writer reaches a point where their confidence in the manuscript begins to wane. Maybe it’s the structure and how the chapters are ordered. Maybe it’s the voice: “Does any of this sound good to my ideal reader?” Or the grammar: “I’m 50% confident in how to use a semicolon.” Or, and this is a big one, connecting with a reader: “Is any of this working?!?!”


Any one of these questions is enough to make a writer throw their hands up in the air and yell, “Help! I need an editor.”


Editors are God’s gift to writers. They help us clarify, build confidence, and correct those pesky grammatical errors, among other things. A good editor can help you regain confidence in your writing while pointing you in the right direction. The key to finding an editor who can really help you is to know what you are looking for. 


Let’s identify the different...

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Publishing Industry Market Update; Vol. 4, Issue 7

Audiobooks Continue Their Hot Streak


The Audio Publishers Association reported sales numbers for 2022 at approximately $1.8 billion – a 10% jump over 2021. That was the 11th consecutive year of double-digit growth for the audio segment—the current belle of the publishing industry ball. That followed a blistering 25% jump in 2021 over 2020. The group’s survey of Americans 18 and older showed that 53% of American adults have listened to an audiobook, up from 45% last year. That’s some incredible saturation.  


So Much for the Sunny Side of the Street


According to the good people at BookScan (I still can’t remember how to spell their new moniker), unit sales for the first half of 2023 finished down 2.7% to 353.5 million.  After a flat Q1 2023 (helped by a one-time prince), Q2 tipped us into the negative – and that’s compared to the first half of 2022 which fell 6.6% below the pandemically inflated first 6 months of 2021. By way of...

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