Writing with Jennifer

When I was working for a small publishing company, one of my jobs was to build relationships with bookstore owners. That way I could get information about what they liked to see, and I could try to sell them the books we were publishing. I learned a lot that way about what bookstores want to buy.  One of the things that often came up was size. I had no idea before talking to bookstore owners that size was such an issue. It used to be that you could only publish books in certain sizes because that's what the presses could print. A typical trade paperback is either 5.5 by 8.5 or 6 by 9. Mass market paperbacks tend to be 6.75 by 4.25.  Non-fiction books are printed in different sizes with certain genres or subjects conforming to a standard. Non-fiction books are often published in hardback, and those are usually  Today you can self-publish books in any size, but using the wrong size will make your book stand out as self-published. Bookstores don't like that, and you will hav...

You've written a book. Maybe it's a great book. But no one is going to bother reading it if it doesn't have an engaging cover.  It's a harsh reality, yes, but important if you want to sell books. And why create a book and then not give it the best chance possible to sell?  Covers matter a lot when it comes to  getting your book into a bookstore convincing readers to buy your book sending the message that your book is professionally created In fact, the whole graphic design of a physical book is very important. I talk about it a little bit in this post a about what I learned while working for a publisher.  If you are self-publishing or using a cooperative-style publisher, you want to be sure that your book has a professional look. This almost always means that it was professionally designed both inside and out.  What are the important aspects of a great cover? Besides not looking photoshopped (that is absolutely the worst thing you can do) here are some things t...

Before the COVID hit, I spent some time working for a small publishing company. I went into it as a writer, not knowing what publishing was all about. I learned a lot. For example, there are approximately 7 million kinds of paper (Okay, I might be exaggerating, but it's a lot!) My job was to help walk authors through the process from start to finish. Here are a few things I learned that are crucial to writers.  You need editors.  I spoke to so many writers who told me that their manuscripts were "already edited." None of them were right. That's because most people have not invested in a professional editor, and editing is often still needed even after a professional has been over the work.  At a minimum, you need a couple of different types of editors on your team. A developmental editor is one who looks at plot, consistency, story flow, character arcs, and other literary elements of the work. That person may also notice spelling and grammar issues, but that's not...