Blogs

The Rules of Grammar...

May 22nd, 2018

Out of all of the items in our publication contract, the one I get asked about most often is “The Publisher may make all corrections of typographical or grammatical errors without the Author’s consent.” Does this mean I will make corrections to a manuscript without consulting an author? Probably not. I find most authors understand the importance of proper grammar. I also know that doing so would make the editing process more stressful for both the author and myself. So why is it in the contract?

Simple. It’s to remind authors that the rules of grammar are not optional.
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Catechism and Point of View...

April 2nd, 2018

I grew up Episcopalian, and it will probably shock some people I knew in my twenties that I was an altar boy growing up. One thing I had to learn was The General Confession, where we confessed that we had probably sinned by our thoughts, words, and deeds – although on any given week I couldn’t come up with too many ways I had done that, at least until I hit my twenties.

So what does this have to do with publishing?
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Why We Require Queries...

January 7th, 2018

This weekend was spent getting caught up on queries, going back and reading the ones I had placed on my review list. For those who are curious, that means I reviewed close to 150 manuscripts. The reply I received from one author about his rejection letter was interesting. His comments were that 1) queries, in general, lack merit, 2) a better method would be for authors to discuss their platform rather than discuss their book because that would identify serious authors up front and reduce the number of queries a publisher needs to read, and 3) publishers and agents are wrong for not sending critiques with rejections.
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Oldies but Goodies...

Lesbian Vampires and the NSA...
For NaNoWriMo in 2014, I wanted to write a spoof on young adult paranormal romance books with hunky-blue-eyed-servants-of-the-underworld and angsty teenage girls that fall in love with them. The result was Misunderstood. My favorite line, written at 3 a.m. while trying to make my word count for the day, was delivered by one of the female vampires after a vampire hunter hits on her: “I prefer my men dead, but thank you for the compliment.”
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Hacking My Keurig 2.0...
For Christmas last year we purchased a Keurig 2.0 coffee maker. People who know me will tell you I drink a lot of coffee (usually with cognac in it when I’m reading queries). I took it out of the box, put in my favorite ‘Donut Shop Coffee’ k-cup, and was floored when I saw the “Oops, this package wasn’t designed for this brewer” message. The cup worked fine in my previous Keurig brewer...
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Do What's Best...
It’s all right if you see other publishers. In fact, I encourage it.

That comment is in response to a question recently asked by an author we have under contract. The question was whether it was considered proper etiquette to submit his new book to us for consideration before submitting it to other publishers and agents. My advice is very simple:

Do what’s best for your book...
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Size Does Matter...
About 13 years ago, when we bought our current home, my wife and I decided it was time for a big screen TV. Off we went in search of the perfect home theater system. People who are old like me will recall that 13 years ago rear-projection TVs (there were no LCDs back then) cost several thousand dollars. In fact, the difference in price between the 55 and 60 inch units was over $500. While I was in the middle of making the argument for saving $500 and asking if we really needed the extra 5 inches of viewing space, my wife suddenly turned to me and yelled loud enough for everyone in the store to hear “Contrary to what you men believe, size does matter!”

For the record, back then they also did not make washing machines large enough for a human being to hide in.
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Being Less Serious...
It seems lately that a lot of my blogs have been very serious – discussions of our policies, blogs about how technology is changing publishing, advice for authors, rants about some of the less-than-charitable emails we get in reply to rejections, and tips for creating a brand if you’re an author. So this week I decided a little levity was in order.

The word “Divertir” is French for “to amuse and entertain,” and I’ve long believed that not only should our books accomplish this, but so should our work environment. The fact that we have fun doing what it is we do (even when it’s being a “Tool of the Publishing Elite”) should be evident both to our authors and readers. And if some of the things we do aren’t fun, maybe it’s time to change that (this is a subtle hint to the staff to speak up). Life is too short…
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What's in a Name...
My wife had always loved the name Samantha, in part because “Sami” would be the girl’s nickname – complete with an i at the end. So when our daughter was born we named her Samantha Lynn. We always call her Sami, and always spelled it with an i. When Sami was three she had learned to spell her name – complete with the i at the end. She was so proud she was telling everyone we met. At a restaurant one night she was telling the server, who responded, “Hey, I’m Sammy too. I spell it with a y because I liked to have a squiggle at the end.”

On that night, Samantha decided a squiggle at the end of her name sounded too cool for words, and Sami was no more. She became Sammy, complete with her squiggle, and there was nothing the original authors of her epic tale could do about it.
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Amazon Never Forgets...
Once your self-published book is successful, you can negotiate with a larger publisher from a position of experience and strength.

The above quote is from a self-publishing web site, and lately this seems to be a common theme for companies selling these types of services: the best way to land a publisher is to self-publish your book to “show publishers how it will do.” It may surprise you to hear this, but I’m a big fan of self-publishing and think that any author with the business know-how to self-publish should. What I’m not a big fan of is blanket statement like the one above that fail to disclose the potential risks of this strategy.
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National Novel Writing Month
Most people who follow our website know that this week we released Dragon’s Teeth, a futuristic detective novel by Suzanne van Rooyen. What most people don’t know is that Dragon’s Teeth was the novel Suzanne wrote in 2010 for National Novel Writing Month.
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Tools of the Publishing Elite...
Last summer I agreed to read a manuscript for a friend of a friend. The book told the story of a cross country road trip by four frat boys which goes horribly wrong. While I won’t disclose the plot, the manuscript included a 127 year old witch that sucked the life out of the frat boys to stay young (you’ll need to use your imagination here). Upon checking, I determined that the author had already published the manuscript with a vanity press and in fact didn’t own the rights. Trying to be helpful, I sent the author a very nice email explaining why I couldn’t publish the manuscript. Big mistake...
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