publishing Archives - MUSE • Leslie Keenan

How to Prepare for a Writing Conference

So you’ve finally decided: it’s time to go to a writing workshop. You’ve committed the big bucks and are ready to take the plunge. What do you do now? TWO QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ANSWER FIRST If the answer is no to either question, you should definitely not attend (**with one exception below). Are you ready? That is, do you have a draft of the manuscript that is ready to go? When you attend a conference it is highly likely that someone will ask to see it, so you need…read more

4 Questions To Answer “Yes” to Before Attending a Writers’ Conference

It’s easy to get caught up when reading an attractive conference website and realizing all the great people who will be there and how much you can learn (there’s always more to learn). But is it the right thing for you at this moment? I tell my students there’s really only one reason to go: you want to make connections to people who can help you publish. That’s because I think workshops can be risky if you are not fully prepared and in marketing mode. If you are still nurturing…read more

What’s Going On With Amazon?

A lot of my clients and friends are wondering what my opinion is, of Amazon in its “war” with the publisher Hachette. The bare facts are these: We officially know nothing about the negotiations between the two, but most industry insiders are guessing that the issue is over terms for ebooks, and that Amazon wants to keep more of the money than Hachette wants. (For further details, here’s the link to the New York Times piece on it.) On its face I have no problem with this. Amazon is a…read more

Why you might subconsciously sabotage your writing – and what to do about it.

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Writing

I have found in working with writers over many, many years, that underneath perfectionism and procrastination over why their manuscripts were never finished, is a deep subconscious fear. It is the fear of being rejected by other writers, or a circle of friends, who aren’t succeeding. This might sound laughable at first, but there’s a deep reason for it. It turns out that in order to survive as a species, humans have had to rely on the larger group. We literally have it bred into our bones to fit in…read more

How do you know when you are done?

After the excitement of finishing your first draft, and the tedium of making all the fixes and changes you knew you had to do, how do you know when you are really done and the manuscript is ready to send out, or that you need to polish it some more? The answer to this is tricky. On the one hand, you definitely don’t want to send your baby off to be read by agents before it’s done. You want to give it every opportunity to succeed. On the other hand,…read more

To Self-Publish, Or Not To Self-Publish…Alan Sepinwall’s Inspiring Tale

There is new evidence in the ongoing debate about how to publish a book – whether it’s better to go with a traditional publisher or self-publish. I was excited a few months ago to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Alan Sepinwall, who is a television critic, had written a book (The Revolution Was Televised). I was also intrigued to see that he had self-published. I emailed him to ask why he had decided to go this route and not the traditional one. I assumed someone with his high…read more

Amazon, Publishing, and You

From my current Newsletter, November 2011: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several people have been posting and asking about the recent NY Times article about Amazon working directly with authors and leaving publishers out. What do I think of this, they wonder. I haven’t actually responded yet, because what I think is the result of all my 30-plus years in publishing and a great deal of thought and observation. I couldn’t put it into a quick Facebook note, or a Tweet. I will see if I can unravel some of it for you here….read more

E-Books

From my Newsletter, Spring 2010 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We had a lively discussion about this at the end of one of my writing classes a few weeks ago and since the subject is coming up in the press frequently I thought I would address it here. First, let’s talk about what an e-book is. There are a couple of different types. There’s a simple e-book you may already have seen online. It’s just a downloadable file that you can purchase (or it’s sometimes free) usually from someone’s website, and usually it’s in…read more

The Bucket List

From my Newsletter, Autumn 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was talking to my mother on the phone two weeks ago and she said, of going to the new Yankee Stadium, “That’s another thing off my bucket list!” That night, while giving the exercise of writing down ten book ideas to a new class, I thought, hmm, what if you had a book bucket list? If you are wondering what the heck buckets have to do with anything, a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die…read more

Are Times Really So Bad?

From my Newsletter, February 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am being asked frequently, is this a bad time to look for an agent? Isn’t it a bad time to try to sell a book to a publisher? Or I’m being told with a knowing nod, that things are bad in publishing right now. Is this the truth? Here’s what I think. Publishing has always been a margin business. By that I mean the numbers are small all around and the profit is consistent, but consistently low. This is good and bad. It’s…read more