Publishing 101 for Writers (Morning)

with Tom Colgan

There’s never been a better time to be an author. Your options for publication are greater than they’ve ever been. So what’s holding you back?

Over the course of my forty-year publishing career, many authors have complained that they were daunted because they found the whole publishing process to be opaque. They worried that they were “breaking the rules” or unwittingly “stepping on land mines.” Let me explain the entire process to you, from the first time you sit down to write, until your book hits the Times list.

It will be four days of some lecture but much more discussion, demonstration, and participation. Each day we will discuss a different aspect of the process (with some inevitable crossover). Topics will include but not be limited to the below.

Day One—The Author

• How Do I Make My Book Stand Out?
• Plotter or Pantser? Which is Correct? (Spoiler: They both are, but there is one universal method that you must use)
• Three Tricks to Sharpening Your Writing
• The Rules of Writing (Actually, they don’t exist, but there are questions you need to be prepared to answer):
  1. How long is the book?
  2. Is it part of a series?
  3. Does my background bring anything to the table?

• Should I go Indie or Trad? (One does not preclude the other)

Day Two—The Agent

• Looking for an Agent
• Writing the Perfect Query Letter:
  1. Picking comp titles
  2. Positioning your book on the shelf
  3. What to highlight in your background
  4. Etc.
• Signing with an Agent
• What to Expect in the Agent/Author Relationship
• Submitting to Publishers
• Post-Acquisition Work

• Day Three—The Editor

1. What Happens When the Book Comes into the Publisher
2. What an Editor is Looking For
3. Presenting to the Editorial Board
4. The Acquisition Process:
   1. Finding Comp Titles (We don’t use yours)
   2. Creating a Profit & Loss Statement (We’ll go through one in the class)
   3. Different kinds of Auctions (We’ll do a mock auction in the class)
   4. Negotiations between Agent and Editor

• Working with Your Editor on the Manuscript

Day Four—The Publisher

• Scheduling the book
• How to Design the Cover
• The Copyeditor
• Text Design
• The Proofreader
• Publicity and Marketing (What you can expect the publisher to do and what you’ll have to do yourself)
• Sales Distribution (Why are there no copies at my B&N and what can I do about it?)
• The Life Cycle of the Book (What happened to mass market?)