Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 24

Get Out of the Silo

Photo by Masood Aslami

Today’s post is by writer and creativity coach Anne Carley (@amcarley.bsky.social) who believes #becomingunstuck is an ongoing process.

We’re not alone.

As creative people we want to be alone—and sometimes need to be.

But underneath it all, we’re not alone. We’re primates, which means we’re fundamentally social creatures. 

It’s easy for me to forget this truth, and to my detriment. Recently, I got a great reminder. I hope that sharing it may be helpful to other writers who tend hole up in a writing silo of their own making.

A cool acronym

There’s this nonfiction book I’ve been working on for too long. Starting out, it was going great. I had a clear vision, the words flowed easily, and I got some colleagues and readers excited about my ideas. I even had a cool acronym to organize the book around. Then my life blew up. Soon after, the pandemic began. I told myself I could power through anyway, but the book withdrew into a coma. I tried unsuccessfully for a long time to revive it regardless of the chaos surrounding me.

A few years passed, during which I focused my writing on other things. Eventually, I felt ready to return to the comatose nonfiction book project, unseen for years by any eyes but mine. My attitude was good. I could do this. Except I still couldn’t.

I looked at the sentences and paragraphs and chapters in my document. There was plenty of good stuff there. I reviewed constructive comments from early readers of sections of my manuscript. They should have encouraged me. But everything felt distant. I was trapped by the words that were already in place. Even the structure felt off to me.

Get fresh

First, I thought the problem was that the work was stale. I had moved on from the ideas that were frozen in this draft. Good news, right? Over the past few years I’ve learned some things that will be helpful, so why was that a problem? Usually having new insights feels good, because it will improve the overall project. Somehow, I felt stuck on the ground, unable to rise above the words already in place and seed them with fresh ideas.

I continued making false starts, convinced that once I got the creative perspective I needed, things would flow again, as they had when I began, years earlier.

Progress was not made during this period. Although I returned time and again to the manuscript, I left each session having changed next to nothing in the pages. The book was already about 75% complete, so what was the #$%^ problem????

Structural flaws

Then came another a-ha moment: The problem wasn’t that I had some new, good things to add to the book and didn’t know where to put them. The problem was the structure itself. I had that cool acronym, and wanted the material to organize itself around the letters into four sections, each a key pillar. But it wasn’t really working. The four sections weren’t equal in weight, or thickness, or nature. A house built on this foundation would topple.

Peopling

This is where other people came back into the picture. The project and I got out of the silo. Finally!

When it came to the stalled book project, I’d been keeping everyone, writers and non-writers alike, at arm’s length throughout this multi-year period. The most I would say out loud is that I was waiting to return to the project when the energy was there to do a good job.

One day, over coffee with a writer friend, I surprised myself and got into it. My friend was interested, and we had just been talking about their writing struggles, so I went for it, excusing myself in advance if I got too granular with the details. I explained the book project, why I (still) believed in it, and where the problems lay. A lively conversation ensued. Looking a little wary, my friend suggested I needed a different acronym. A veteran of writer groups, I reassured myself not to get defensive, and listened with an open mind. Hmm. My friend made a good point. I said thank you, and resolved to re-think the matter.

My journal entries for the next week or two were full of experiments. Combinations of letters on page after page of my black-and-white college-ruled composition book document the brainstorming process. Nothing quite worked, though, to replace my anchoring acronym.

Whut?

Then, on a call with coaching colleagues, it was my turn to bring a problem to the group. I mentioned the whole unfinished book/unsatisfactory acronym thing. And one of my colleagues spoke up. Very quietly, they delivered a truth I really needed to hear. “You know, you don’t have to have an acronym.”

Bookshop • Amazon

It was a d’oh moment. Once you see it, you smack your head for having been blind to it for so long. Not only was the acronym structurally unsound, it also forced a false emphasis, away from what I could now see was the heart of the book. The tail no longer wagged the dog. Whew.

Free from the perceived need to have one short word to rule them all, I am looking at the manuscript with fresh eyes. At last. Is the book magically complete? No. Not yet. Traction has resumed, however, and boy howdy does that feel good.

My takeaway from this saga? Get out of the silo. Remember you have friends and colleagues out there in the world. Talk with them. See what happens. Repeat as needed—actually, maybe a little more often than that.

Avoid a Creative Slump By Writing and Publishing in a Different Medium

Photo by Google DeepMind

Today’s post is by author, filmmaker, and podcaster Elizabeth Rynecki.

Through a quirk of fate, I avoided the dreaded “first-book comedown” that often follows the publication of a debut work. The feeling of having poured everything into a single personal project and then wondering, what’s next? never quite hit me. That’s because after the release of Chasing Portraits: A Great-Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy (NAL/Penguin Random House), I pivoted to finishing my documentary film.

Also called Chasing Portraits, the film wasn’t a replica of the book. Instead, the film echoed the story I told in my book. That said, I should be clear: I didn’t actually dodge the slump, I just postponed it—I hit the proverbial wall when it came to finding project number three. But I carried forward an important lesson from projects one and two: Writing in an entirely different medium gives you the opportunity to explore storytelling in fresh and interesting ways.

Initially after the film screenings came to an end, I thought I’d write about my father’s ship salvage career. For more than 30 years my father traveled around the world helping rescue, repair, or recover maritime vessels in distress. But as I pondered my approach, working through his substantial archive of write-ups, reports, and photos of stranded or damaged ships, my younger son’s challenges with ADHD became increasingly debilitating. Strangely enough, as my focus bounced between the two subjects—and as improbable as this sounds—my father’s ship salvage stories slowly metamorphosed into metaphors for understanding my son’s ADHD.

As I debated writing about this unorthodox and unexpected combination, I tried explaining it to my writing group. They didn’t quite grasp the concept of the interwoven essays I envisioned, but encouraged me to follow my heart. Eventually, I had a manuscript. One that I loved and that I felt readers would find compelling. I told agents in my query letter that the book offered readers not a guidebook, but a lived experience of parenting a neurodivergent kid. Unfortunately, the literary agents I queried didn’t share my enthusiasm for the book.

But then something remarkable happened. A friend read the manuscript and he did find it compelling. More importantly, he asked, “What if we turned it into a podcast?”

At first I panicked. I knew shifting to a radically different format wouldn’t just be about moving paragraphs around, killing darlings, and rewriting dialogue. This would require my fully rethinking how to tell the story. But then I remembered a key lesson from my prior projects: different media help you tell your story in different ways.

I decided to go for it, because while I knew this would test me in ways that stretched far beyond a mere rewrite, telling my story in podcast format was a chance to immerse myself and the audience in a very different experience. And ideally, if we (my friend helped with the writing and took the lead on producing the podcast) did it well, we could not only transport listeners into the heart of my family’s stories, but we could add more perspectives of ADHD that could help give the audience a deeper and broader understanding of ADHD.

The process of coming up with the episode format, figuring how to weave together my story, the shipwreck stories, and ultimately the stories of our close to two dozen interviewees, was a process of trial and error. Sometimes what looked good on the page sounded terrible when we recorded it, and sometimes things that didn’t look quite right on the page, flowed well in audio.

Eventually we found our voice for the podcast, both metaphorically and literally, as we decided that I should narrate it. Which, even though I’d done the voice-over for my documentary film, led to my seeking out a voice lesson from a vocal narration coach to help me get closer to the delivery we wanted to nail. As my podcasting partner and I reimagined my original manuscript into a series of six podcast episodes (each focused on a different ADHD topic and different salvage effort), we quickly realized that, while podcasting is very much a modern form of oral storytelling, the medium demands a different structure and rhythm. Our podcast (That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage) required a different balance of pacing, tone, and sound design.

For me, the shift from book to podcast wasn’t about abandoning my book—it was about finding a different but equally compelling through-line. In writing, you can craft a cadence with punctuation to emphasize meaning. Transforming the book into a podcast allowed us to layer the narrative with more nuance. Instead of simply quoting my father’s words on the page, listeners would hear directly from him. And when a ship crashed and exploded into flames, we could do more than just describe it—we could share the actual audio from a U.S. Coast Guard film, making the disaster feel much more immediate.

This isn’t an argument that every author should turn their book into a limited series podcast. But I do believe that the experience of writing for different media is a worthy endeavor. I know a number of authors who have taken filmmaking classes in order to think about book scenes from a movie-going perspective. Other authors have written stage plays to better understand their characters. Writing for different media engages our imaginations in profoundly important ways. And learning to think more critically about how sound, tone, and narration work to carry a story is a worthwhile exercise for all writers.

This is all to say that authors need to be willing to consider beyond the act of writing words on a real or virtual page when trying to best tell a particular story. Ultimately, I think we as writers need to have a very broad view of what counts as reading. This really isn’t a radical idea in the current media environment: the idea of what counts as reading has evolved dramatically over the past 20 years, first with the rise of audiobooks and then with the ubiquity of podcasts and social media. While some people cling to the traditional definition of reading as engaging with printed words on a page, many of us now understand that reading extends far beyond the confines of physical paper. We listen to stories as much as we read them, and watch them too. The underlying lesson for me is that all media have the power to convey emotion, information, and imagination. The question is which is the best way to tell a particular story, and there may be more than one answer. As technology evolves, and our experience with different formats grows and shifts, so too does storytelling.

Podcast storytelling—as opposed to the interview format—offers the potential for a deeply engaging and personal way to engage with audiences. So if you’re an author looking to make a meaningful connection with your audience, it’s a format definitely worth exploring.

For me, pivoting to a different storytelling format has never been about choosing one medium over the other. It’s about embracing the unique strengths of each format. Whether you’re holding a book in your hands or listening to a podcast episode, you’re still engaging with a story, expanding your understanding, and growing. In the same way that it’s important for authors to read widely across genres, styles, and structures, I believe it’s equally essential for writers to consume stories, regardless of source or format. You never know how shifting from one medium to another might spark fresh insights or help you approach your writing in new, unexpected ways.

Don’t Write Every Day: 3 Things to Do Instead to Finish Your Book

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

Today’s guest post is by Allison K Williams (@guerillamemoir). Join her on Wednesday, Jan. 15 for the online class Organize Your Writing Life.

We’ve all heard the famous writing advice:

“I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book.” —Stephen King

“I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock.” —Peter De Vries

“Just write every day of your life.” —Ray Bradbury

Write every day. Build a habit. That’s the only way you’re ever going to finish a book, right? 

Wrong. 

I don’t write every day.

I don’t even write every week.

I’m a “binge” writer. With no children, pets, or family members who need care, I’m able to carve out 3–10 days about twice a year to do personal retreats, in a rental apartment or a hotel room. I try to pick places near grocery stores (snacks!) and where it’s easy to take a long, thoughtful walk between chapters.

My binge-writer friends with dogs and toddlers and aging parents try for a weekend or even an afternoon away from the house, with their phone off so they aren’t tempted to “check in.” It can feel weird to separate yourself so firmly from the people you love. But modeling dedication, focus, and commitment to a creative project is also good parenting!

Perhaps writing on a more regular schedule works better for you. You might have a job you enjoy, or students’ work to read, or be the primary keeper of your home life. You value regularity. Rhythm in a schedule helps you focus. Andre Dubus III wrote House of Sand and Fog 17 minutes at a time, sitting in his car after leaving for work 17 minutes early.

As writers, it’s tempting to agonize over the best system, or try to write with the pattern of a writer we admire. But it doesn’t matter which method works best for you. 

All that matters is that you choose a project, write it, and ask for support.

Choosing

Narrow your focus. Most writers I know have at least two projects rattling in their head, and it’s difficult to gain the kind of deep, sustained focus writing needs when you’re switching from one world to another. Imagine you’re about to walk through a magic door. On the other side is a guarantee you’ll finish a book, it will sell, and people will love it (if only!). But you can only take one manuscript through the door with you. Which one?

Say a gentle “I’ll be back” to your other work, and see what happens when you focus on one.

Writing

Write on the schedule you want—but make that schedule. Notice how you work best, and work that way on purpose. Maybe you are a daily writer who loves the rhythm. Maybe you’re better at the last minute. If you’re a daily writer, block it on your calendar like a class you paid for. If you’re a binge writer, look ahead and choose the hours or days of writing time. Start accommodating that time now—clear your list, let people know you’re out of commission, block the calendar.

Asking

Having a writing buddy to show up for motivates me a lot. Sometimes I meet a friend to write quietly together on Zoom, or at a cafe. Sometimes I make a deal that I’ll send them pages each day I’m writing. They aren’t obligated to give any feedback, but knowing someone’s waiting makes me push a little farther than working alone. If you have children, ask them what they care about finishing—can you schedule family time where everyone is working on their own painting/dancing/video editing/writing, and you come together to report on progress? (Maybe give prizes for making it through a session without interrupting anyone else!)

As a binge writer, I used to feel lazy and fake, because of course a real writer would use their time better. They’d spring from their bed, rush to the laptop, and bang out their daily word count, just like a real job! And since I didn’t act like a “real job” I must not be a “real writer.”

Then I realized how I work. I’m not starting from nothing. I don’t touch my manuscripts every day, but I stay in touch with the practice of writing sentences and micro-essays on social media. I write most blog posts shortly before they’re due, but I know the rhythm of a post and what makes a click-y headline. I keep a long list of blog post ideas. Every day on social media and in my email, I see what writers care about, what challenges they’re facing, and I think about what advice will help, making notes for when it’s time to write.

As you fit your writing process into your life, enjoy the things you value that take time. Very often, I’m neck-deep in someone else’s manuscript, teaching a webinar, or leading a retreat. I love and value doing those things. And while we can half-ass the things we don’t value to make more time for writing (teach the kids to cook! stop answering email!), it’s harder to pull time and focus away from things we care about doing well. Remember that keeping in touch with your writing isn’t always sitting down at the keyboard to make that day’s word count. Sometimes it’s thinking through ideas in the shower, building up your story in your head, making notes in your phone or your notebook. Sometimes writing looks like typing, and sometimes it looks like keeping in touch with your world.

And fellow binge writers? There are plenty of “real jobs” that operate on the model of “have a baseline of skill and resources and then do it all at the last minute under pressure.” Surgeon. Firefighter. Pilot. And in my case (and maybe yours), Writer.

Note from Jane: If you enjoyed this post, join us on Wednesday, Jan. 15 for the online class Organize Your Writing Life.

The Surprising Complexity of Picture Books

Photo by Kindel Media

Today’s post is by author and book coach Janet S Fox.

To most readers, picture books appear to be simple stories, easy to write and short in length. New writers often enter the world of writing for children by attempting to write picture books rather than longer form stories, only to discover that picture books are not easy to write at all.

Good picture books are complex and layered, structured as carefully as a novel yet linguistically closer to a poem. If you are a picture book author but not an illustrator, you need to know how to make a text that will allow room for the illustrator to bring their vision to the work and yet create a complete story.

Protagonist, antagonist, rising and falling action, arc of change, emotion—all of these must be developed in a picture book, and generally with a word count of under 500 words. The words used must be simple enough to be understood by the youngest readers yet engaging enough to entertain adults.

Plot arc is one facet of picture books that can be almost invisible. Yet like all great stories, the arc of character change must be present, and must be driven by cause and effect and not a random string of events.

For an example, let’s study the plot of the picture book Big, written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison. (For you writers who do not illustrate, I have concrete takeaways.)

Cause and effect structure

For everything that happens in a story—including a picture book—the next thing that happens must be a result of what came before. More importantly, what happens next must be the result of what your protagonist has done, for better or worse. Otherwise, your story becomes no more than a string of events.

One inspiration for this way of looking at cause-and-effect forces is a plot plan devised by the movie studio Pixar as #4 in their “22 rules of storytelling” (originally shared on what was then Twitter by Pixar Story Artist Emma Coats), in which you can see how this works:

Once upon a time there was [something].Every day, [something happened]. But one day [something new happened].Because of that, [something else happened].Because something else happened, [something else happened].Until finally, [the final thing happened].And ever since that day, [there was something new].

When we fit the Big concept into this template, this is the arc of its story:

Once upon a time there was a little girl with a big heart and big imagination.Every day, she grew and grew. But one day she grew very big in her body, too.Because of that, people around her laughed and scolded and teased.Because they teased, the girl felt she didn’t belong anywhere, like a great big nothing.Until finally, she decided to make space for herself and tell people they’d hurt her.And ever since that day, she liked herself just the way she was.

For each action of the protagonist, there must be forward momentum toward both an external goal and an internal desire. Your character must do things in opposition to the antagonist, and because of what they do, things will happen, and that chain of events will lead to an entirely new life for the character.

It’s the words “because of” that are important here:

Because of that, people around her laughed and scolded and teased.
Because they teased, the girl felt she didn’t belong anywhere, like a great big nothing.

How this actually works in Big

The little girl’s external goal is to not be teased and humiliated. Her internal desire is to be accepted for who she is—to belong. The antagonist is everyone around her who criticizes her and puts her in a box from which she must break out to achieve her desire and goal.

Let’s look at Harrison’s actual text, in italics, at each of the story arc steps:

Once upon a time there was [a girl with a big laugh and a big heart and very big dreams].Every day, [she learned her ABCs and 123s, she always said please and thank you…and it was good]. But one day [something big happened].Because of that, [it made her feel small].Because something else happened, [she began to feel not herself].Until finally, [she let it all out…and decided to make more space for herself and was able to see a way out].And ever since that day, [she was just a girl, and she was good].

Big has a total of 275 words, not including the illustrated “background” words, and is long for a picture book at 56 pages, not including the foldout; many of those pages are wordless. Of course, one part of the brilliance of Harrison’s story is the way she uses her illustrations, with the girl literally pushing the boundaries of her world until she can break free of others’ negative words.

But her text follows the Pixar template almost to the letter, which creates a complete story arc, with change in the protagonist and cause and effect.

For non-illustrating picture books writers

You who are solely writers must give the illustrator room while limiting word count. Harrison’s small word count is evidence that a picture book is a marriage of poetry and imagery, and this plus her use of a perfect story arc provides an example writers can follow.

Apply this lesson to your idea:

Fashion a story concept that has an arc like Big.Think about the illustrations to a point but leave plenty of room for the illustrator’s imaginative additions.Treat the words as you would if you were writing a poem, with spare, clean language and power-packed metaphors.Use the Pixar template—first, to fill in your concept.Now fill in the template with your actual text, 275 words, more or less.

Does your story work with the arc of story, character change, rising/falling action, and cause and effect?

When It Lights Up–and When It Doesn’t

Photo by Quentin Guiot

Today’s post, the first in a series, is by writer and creativity coach Anne Carley (@amcarley.bsky.social) who believes #becomingunstuck is an ongoing process.

An artist friend agreed to make the visuals for a video game under development. The brief was to produce tiny, colorful, woodland animals with expressive faces and body language. But super tiny. On a short deadline.

The struggle was real. She only had a few weeks’ time, and the medium, tools, and minuscule scale were all new to her. When we spoke during that period, I could hear the added tension in her voice. She has high standards and wanted to live up to them. Also, as a member of a small team, she felt a lot of pressure to excel, not to let anyone down.

To begin, it was essential that she learn some new game developer software. She applied herself. Frustration and anxiety ensued.

Then one day, her brain and her being pulled all the new information and experiences together. As she explained, “It all lit up for me.” From then on, she could work fast and well. Time flew, and she immersed. She delivered her work for the project on time, and the team got the job done.

Embracing the process

Those conversations with my friend reminded me how much of creativity is process. Annoying, unpredictable process can often fill more of our creative time than the fun stuff.

Lurching, staggering, doubling back, sighing, ranting, exploding, sulking, resting—all are as much a part of that process as the moments of clarity, inspiration, hope, vision, understanding, comprehension, connection, and joy. Those golden moments, when it all lights up, are wonderful pleasures, to be sure. The best way to experience more of them is to keep going.

Writers in it for the long haul understand this. Time teaches us all that if we hold out for the golden moments, we wait indefinitely, discarding days, weeks, months, years because the work didn’t present itself appealingly enough.

Mistakes happen

Along the way, not everything we do is going to work out well, or fit with the existing material, or make sense the next day. We goof. We err. We misspeak. We get lost. And that can lead to a sense of stuckness. To extricate ourselves, it can be helpful to recognize the mistake for what it is: another step in the process.

Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new.

—Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace in Creativity, Inc.

Golden moments happen

It’s not our job to wait around for the charmed instants when time stands still, and the angels sing. It’s our job to embody the truth that we’ll get more meaningful, deep satisfaction from our creative work by keeping at it. On the good days as well as the mediocre ones. On the days when we sneak in fifteen minutes of drafting a blog as well as the days when we devote four hours to the big project. On the days so hijacked by other things that no writing gets done at all.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to keep going, to frame the writing life as a process, not a necklace of golden moments connected by chains of tedium or worse. It’s all part of the mix, and it’s all worthwhile. Somehow, changing the emphasis to general acceptance, rather than toleration, at best, of the not-fun parts, changes everything. We’re not assessing, comparing, or analyzing how each moment is going. Instead, we’re looking at the whole project from a higher altitude, taking in a broader view, and feeling less jumpy, more matter of fact about it all.

Allison K Williams in her must-have book Seven Drafts talks about this process using water metaphors—waves, rainfalls, and reservoirs. “By thinking about stories, reading widely in our genre, noting ideas on scraps of paper and in our phones, we fill a reservoir of creative energy. We can drink from this well of ideas when it’s not raining inspiration. … The most successful and published writers I know are not waiting around for the wave to lift them up; they’re carrying buckets every day.”

Squirrel moments happen

Feeling stuck, I find with my clients, colleagues, and my own work, can be a problem of expectations. If we expect our writing life to feel welcoming and engaging all the time, then when it doesn’t the disappointment can morph into preemptive rejection: I’ll show you, you difficult project. Yeah, I’ll just leave you in the dust while I find another project that’s a lot nicer to me. Yeah.

That works, sometimes, for a while. I’ve done the half-complete-project sashay myself, over the years. Ooh: Squirrel!

Find a rhythmBookshop • Amazon

You know what feels better and lasts longer? Getting into an easygoing relationship with process. Not compulsively evaluating how it’s going, just knowing that a rhythm of regular—maybe daily, or nearly so—interaction with the project will ultimately result in some nice work. It won’t always be sparkly and magical. Those angel voices may quiet down to a low occasional hum. There may be some unmistakable squawks. The process will continue, and, from time to time, light up. The work will get done, with fewer sticking places and more ease.

My artist friend succeeded once she understood that she’d have to trust the process: Her talents, intelligence, and desire would get the project where it needed to go. It took that larger view for her to embrace the sometimes difficult day-to-day reality. At that golden moment when it all lit up, she understood, more than ever, that her trust had been honored. The process worked.

Should You Hire a Professional Designer for Your Book Interior?

Photo by Leslie Duarte Castro

Today’s post is by freelance book designer Andrea Reider.

Many independent authors design and format their own books to save money. Working with a professional book designer for your print book interior can cost between $2.00 and $3.50 per page, and there’s no guarantee that a book will sell enough copies to earn back that fee.

However, some authors may have good reason to hire a professional to work on their book interior. Even if you decide to design and format your own book, I hope to make you aware of important elements of book composition.

A professional designer can select the best fonts and graphic elements to showcase your work. Book designers often draw inspiration from the book cover design elements and fonts for the interior. Most professionally designed books use the cover design font treatments for the half title and title interior pages and often for titles and subheads. Designers typically use two main fonts for most books unless there is a reason to include other fonts. The main text is almost always set in a serif font. Times New Roman is a common default for word-processed files, but professional designers rarely use it for books. Some commonly used fonts are Garamond, Minion, Sabon, and Caslon, but there are many other fonts that work well for the main text. Designers may use a sans serif font for chapter titles and subheads.

Most designers will offer several different designs as a starting point with various fonts and design treatments and then come to a final design after feedback from the author. A great book design can range from a typographic treatment without any graphic elements, to an elaborate design using several different design elements. Some effective designs use a repeating image—often a line drawing or simple graphic—on chapter and part opener pages.

A professional designer can help an author determine the best size for their book. Considerations include the topic of the book, the prospective audience, the desired page count, and the most readable type size. There are several standard different book sizes. The most common is 6″ x 9″ but many books are set at the slightly smaller 5.5″ x 8.5″ size. If an author wants a book to have a higher page count, the 5″ x 8″ size is sometimes the best choice. Books with a lot of photographs are often set at larger sizes such as 7″ x 10″ or 8″ x 10″. Workbooks are usually set at 8.5″ x 11″. All of these are standard sizes offered by most print-on-demand services, including Amazon/KDP, IngramSpark, and most print-on-demand and traditional printers.

A professional designer makes sure that your book is properly formatted and adheres to the best practices for typography and layout. Many decisions go into formatting a book, including fonts, proper hyphenation, line endings, and page breaks. Most nonfiction books have chapters that always begin on a right-hand page, whereas the chapter openers for fiction books usually can begin on either left-hand or right-hand pages as they fall. There are good reasons for these long-standing publishing traditions. One big reason is that right-hand chapter openers make it easier for readers to find the beginning of chapters. Another reason is that if there is a change to any chapter that adds or deletes a page, it doesn’t affect the left/right page orientation of the rest of the book. Another consideration in deciding whether to begin chapters on a new right-hand page is the number of chapters or pages in a book. If there are less than 20–30 chapters in a nonfiction book, it’s usually a good idea to start chapters on a right-hand page. If there are more than 30 chapters, publishers often choose to begin chapters left or right in order to avoid having too many blank pages in the book and adding unnecessarily to the page count and printing cost.

Books that have part openers pages often start the part openers on a right-hand page and then the following chapters right or left as they fall, with the first chapter after a part opener usually beginning on a right-hand page.

A professional designer frees up an author’s time to focus on other aspects of publication. Books that are mostly straight text are relatively simple to format using online tools, but books with multiple levels of subheads, extracts, footnotes, and other elements can be a challenge to properly format even for an experienced designer.

Too many books are published with charts and graphs that makes them look amateurish, unprofessional, and are often difficult for readers to understand. Well-designed charts and graphs can set a book apart from those that are done using just basic Microsoft Word functions or produced through online formatting tools. A professional designer will know how to set tabular information in a way that is easy for readers to follow, taking into consideration factors like hyphenation, line length, and aligning numerical text on the decimal point.

A professional book designer ensures the best placement of photographs and images in the book. There are many conventions for proper placements of photographs and images, including the placement and formatting of captions. Most photographs and images are placed at the bottom or top of the next available space after they are called out in the main text. Most nonfiction books will call out a figure in the text by figure number. Some images can be placed within the flow of the text, but it’s often not possible to do so. Determining the best placement requires experience and good layout judgment. Most of the online tools do an inadequate job of formatting pages with images or photographs, often leaving large blank spaces at the bottom of pages. A professional designer knows how to fill out every page in the book in the best way possible and will rarely leave short pages with unused space at the bottom unless there’s a good reason for doing so.

A professional book designer focuses on well-balanced pages. Online tools can produce uneven pages that aren’t balanced across page spreads. In a professionally formatted book, all page spreads are bottom aligned at the same point. Some pages may run one line shorter or longer than the typical page length, but a short page should never be followed by a long page or a long page followed by a short page. There also should never be more than two short or long pages in a row. These are the rules that have been followed by professional designers and typesetters for many years. It may not sound like a huge matter, but it’s one of the factors that go into making a professional-looking book.

A professional book designer pays attention to all page and line endings and breaks, setting each in the best possible manner. Professionals know many ways to finesse line and paragraphs endings and page breaks. A book that is set with bad or awkward endings and breaks can be annoying to readers and lead to a book being perceived as unprofessional and less credible. For good pagination, layouts should avoid widows and orphans, which are single lines appearing at the top or bottom of pages. Most books are set with hyphenation, which can be customized to specify the number of hyphens allowed (it’s best to set the hyphens for a maximum of two in a row with a minimum of three characters at the end or beginning of lines). Children’s and poetry books are usually set without any hyphenation. A professional book designer will know how to apply the rules, and in some cases, where to break or modify the rules to achieve the best possible layout.

A professional book designer can produce ebooks with advanced features. An ebook can look great on your computer screen, but appear terrible when uploaded to Amazon or other sites. Troubleshooting the errors can be a challenging process for even experienced ebook designers. Unfortunately, ebooks often end up looking like stripped-down versions of the print book because some of the features of print design don’t translate well to the ebook format. However, a good ebook designer can do many things to produce a better-looking ebook, including adding color to headings and subtitles and using color versions of any photos and images in the book.

A professional designer can help the author troubleshoot and fix any issues that arise when uploading files to the printer. All book printers, including Amazon and IngramSpark, require that files be formatted exactly to their specifications. It’s not uncommon for the printers to reject files for any number of reasons, sending cryptic error messages that can be difficult to interpret. Even files prepared by professional designers are sometimes rejected by printers for not exactly following their specifications. The issues are usually easily resolved, but for authors who format their own books, having their files rejected can be very frustrating and time-consuming.

While some authors can well format their own books, a professional can save you time and produce results that exceed the abilities of available online tools. As a professional book designer and formatter, I am honored to be able to use my skills to help authors produce attractive and readable books that enhance the reading experience and add credibility to their writing.

The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2025–2026

Since 2013, I have been regularly updating this informational chart about the key book publishing paths. It is available as a PDF download—ideal for photocopying and distributing for workshops and classrooms—plus the full text is also below.

These PDFs are formatted to print perfectly on 11″ x 17″ or tabloid-size paper.

Traditional publishing paths (1 page)Other publishing paths (1 page)All publishing paths (2 pages)

One of the biggest questions I hear from authors today: What is the best way to publish my work?

This is an increasingly complicated question to answer because:

There are now many varieties of traditional publishing and self-publishing, with evolving models and diverse contracts.It’s not an either/or proposition; you can do both. Many successful authors, including myself, decide which path is best based on our goals and career level.

Thus, there is no one path or service that’s right for everyone all the time; you should take time to understand the landscape and make a decision based on long-term career goals, as well as the unique qualities of your work. Your choice should also be guided by your own personality (are you an entrepreneurial sort?) and experience as an author (do you have the slightest idea what you’re doing?).

For 2025–2026, I’ve greatly expanded this chart.

The chart is now two full pages instead of one. One page focuses on traditional publishing. The other page focuses on alternative paths, including paid publishing options, self-publishing, and informal types of publishing, like Substack newsletters or social media. This chart’s logic is driven primarily by how the money works and how and where the work is sold.

Here’s a quick overview.

Traditional publishing (the big guys and the little guys): I define traditional publishing as the publisher taking on the financial risk, not the author. Bigger publishers typically invest in a print run for the book; smaller publishers may focus on digital forms of publication (ebook, digital audio, and/or print on demand). Sometimes the author sees no income from the book aside from the advance; in today’s industry, it’s commonly accepted that most book advances don’t earn out. However, authors do not have to pay back the advance; that’s the risk the publisher takes.

University & scholarly publishers / professional & educational publishers. For the first time, I’ve added other sectors of book publishing, such as scholarly and professional publishing. These publishers generally do not publish for consumers, or produce the sort of books that bookstores sell or that an average person might buy. With professional and educational publishers, authors may not even retain their copyright. It is a sector of the industry that plays by a set of rules that can be quite different from trade (consumer) publishers.

I’ve included them in this version for clarity and because university presses in particular have become important players for literary writers, especially those producing poetry, short story collections, essay collections, and other works that the big traditional publishers don’t often accept.

Smaller traditional publishers. This is the category most open to interpretation among authors, and every year I struggle with how to describe them because they are so varied. Authors must exercise caution when signing with small presses; some mom-and-pop operations offer little advantage over self-publishing, especially when it comes to distribution and sales muscle.

When a traditional publisher doesn’t offer an advance: This can have important business implications for the author and the book. The author may not receive the same support and investment from the publisher on marketing and distribution. The less financial risk the publisher accepts, the more flexible your contract should be—and ideally they’ll also offer higher royalty rates. That is why I’ve segmented no-advance traditional publishing into its own category, but it’s still a traditional deal as long as the author isn’t paying for costs related to publication. As soon as the author does pay costs (aside from costs related to research, permissions or indexing, which are typically covered by the author), it’s a paid publishing situation.

Rights sales. In the last few years, it’s become much more prevalent for longtime traditional publishers to collaborate with self-publishing authors, allowing the authors to retain digital rights while helping them sell more broadly through print retail. Some newer publishing companies, such as Podium, have focused on such partnerships from the very start.

Of course, all authors can and do benefit from rights sales. Agents normally sell rights for traditionally published authors; increasingly, successful self-published authors have agents to do the same.

Hybrid publishers and paid publishing services. This is where the author pays to publish. Costs vary widely (low four figures to well into the five figures—even six figures). There is a risk of paying too much money for basic services or purchasing services you don’t need. Some people ask me about the difference between a hybrid publisher and paid publishing services. Sometimes there isn’t a difference, but here’s a more detailed answer. It is paramount that any author closely research and study these companies before investing. Scams abound.

Self-publishing. I define this as publishing on your own, where you essentially start your own publishing company, and directly hire and manage all help needed. Here’s an in-depth discussion of self-publishing.

Social publishing. Social efforts will always be an important and meaningful way that writers build a readership and gain attention, and it’s not necessary to publish and distribute a book to say that you’re an active and published writer. Plus, these social forms of publishing increasingly have monetization built in, such as Patreon. I’ve also included serialization platforms here, some which have a social or community component, like Wattpad.

You don’t need permission to use this

Feel free to download, print, and share this chart however you like; no permission is required. Below I’ve pasted the full text from the chart.

Traditional publishing definition: The publisher takes on the financial risk of publication, whether or not they pay an advance. The author does not pay for editing, design, printing, etc. The author retains copyright in most cases and some other rights unless it’s a work-for-hire or book packaging situation. In rare cases, some publishers may quietly offer deals where the author purchases copies or makes an investment in order to secure a contract. 

Big Five & Mid-Size Traditional PublishersWho they areThe Big Five: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan (each has dozens of imprints).Mid-size: W.W. Norton, Scholastic, Kensington, Arcadia, Chronicle.How the money worksPublishers take on financial risk and pay the author an advance; royalties are paid if advance earns out. Authors may invest in their own marketing.How they sellMost have a sales team that meets with major retailers, wholesalers, libraries, etc. Books are sold months in advance for a specific release date. Nearly every book has a print run.Who they work withAuthors who write works with mainstream appeal, that merit nationwide print retail placement.Celebrity & brand-name authors.Nonfiction authors with platform.Value for authorPublisher (or agent) pursues all possible subrights and licensing deals.Physical bookstore distribution nearly assured, in addition to other retail opportunities (big-box, specialty).Best chance of media & reviews.How to approachAlmost always requires an agent. Novelists should have a finished manuscript. Nonfiction authors should have a book proposal.What to watch forMost advances do not earn out.Publisher holds publishing rights for all major formats.Authors don’t control title, cover design, packaging decisions, but are consulted on such decisions.Authors are often unhappy with marketing support or surprised at lack of support.University & Scholarly Traditional PublishersWho they areExamples: University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press.How the money worksAdvances are minimal; royalties may also run lower than New York publishers.Pricing typically runs too high for bookstore placement, unless the publisher does books for the consumer market (as opposed to the academic market).How they sellThey tend to focus on selling through libraries and university systems, as well as direct. Some presses who publish poetry and fiction may put some effort into reaching the consumer market.Who they work withProfessors and academics.People outside of academia who have respected credentials.Literary authors (e.g., poetry, short stories, essays, memoir, literary fiction).Value for authorCredibility and validation within the academic or literary community; help for tenure for professors.How to approachDoesn’t require agent; see submission guidelines. Full manuscript desirable.What to watch forPeer review process (lengthy) and long time to publication date.Professional & Educational Traditional PublishersWho they areExamples: Pearson, Wiley, Springer, Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, McGraw Hill, Routledge, Blackwell.How the money worksAdvances are minimal; royalties may be modest.Some publishers require the author to assign the publisher all rights (including copyright).Pricing typically runs too high for bookstore placement, unless the publisher does books for the consumer market (as opposed to the professional or educational market).How they sellThey focus on university and educational systems (textbook and course adoption), libraries, and professional organizations.Such publishers may make works available through databases and subscription systems.Who they work withProfessors and academics.People with professional expertise or respected credentials in their field.Value for authorCredibility and validation within the academic or professional community; help for tenure for professors.How to approachDoesn’t require agent; see submission guidelines. Full manuscript desirable.What to watch forPeer review process (lengthy).Loss of copyright.Smaller Presses (Traditional Publishing)Who they areUnfortunately, the term “small press” means different things to different people. Here, it’s used to describe publishers that are traditional in practice, pay an advance (even if a small one), typically invest in a print run, and fully support their books. Examples: Unnamed Press, Coach House, Rose Metal Press, Forest Avenue Press, Microcosm Press.How the money worksAuthor receives a small advance; royalty rates are comparable to what the bigger houses offer. Contracts may be more negotiable and authors may be able to retain more rights.How they sellThese presses may prioritize marketing to the literary and independent bookstore community, the MFA/university community, or a niche community. Some rely on sales via Amazon or may focus on direct-to-consumer or specialty sales. Small presses may rely on big publishers and distributors to help them sell books into major accounts. They publish bestsellers and award-winning books like the big houses.Who they work withAll types; friendly to less commercial work and authors without platform.Value for authorPossibly a more collaborative relationship with the publisher.With recognized presses: editorial, design, and marketing support that equals that of larger houses.How to approachRarely requires agent. See submission guidelines.What to watch forResponse times can be very long.Some small presses are financially unstable and may be less reliable.Requires considerable research from author to find and ascertain fit.No Advance Traditional PublishersWho they arePublishers that don’t pay an advance but may pay higher royalties and offer a more flexible contract. Some traditional publishers (even the big ones) may use this model for specific imprints or scenarios.Example: Bookouture (owned by Hachette UK), Berrett-Koehler.How they sellSome rely on sales via Amazon; some focus on direct-to-consumer sales. Others rely on author. And still others work like bigger houses, with sales teams or distribution through larger publishers.Who they work withAll types; friendly to less commercial work and authors without platform.Value for authorWith recognized presses: editorial, design, and marketing support that equals that of larger houses.How to approachSee submission guidelines; doesn’t typically require agent.What to watch forTry to reserve subrights unless press has a track record of successfully exploiting subrights.They may only produce an ebook or print-on-demand edition and focus on Amazon for sales and marketing.Rights Sales (Traditional Publishers)What it isPublishers & imprints that partner with self-publishing authors to publish or re-publish successful work.Examples: Bloom Books, Podium Publishing, Entangled Publishing.How the money worksAuthor typically enters into a collaborative working arrangement with the publisher where they retain control and earn a higher royalty rate than a conventional publishing deal. How they sellSuch publishers specialize in marketing and promoting self-published work to a much bigger market—nationwide print distribution or audiobook distribution.Who they work withSuccessful, bestselling self-pub authors.Value for authorA collaborative relationship with a traditional publisher.Retain rights and control.Higher royalty rates than a conventional deal.How to approachTypically publishers approach authors who are already succeeding with an offer to partner.Increasingly, successful self-publishing authors have a literary agent to help facilitate rights deals with traditional publishers.

Other publishing paths definition: Any scenario where the author is paying for publication (shouldering the financial risk) or working independently.

If you pay any publisher or company to publish you—as you do in the hybrid and paid publishing service scenarios—some people will call it vanity publishing, but I avoid use of that term. (See later section on “gray areas and controversies.”)

Hybrid Publishers

Hybrid publishers work like traditional publishers in that they put their name on your book and become the publisher of record. Paid publishing services discussed later may or may not do this—or they may even offer you a choice.

Who they arePublishers that require accepted authors to pay to publish or raise funds to do so.Hybrid publishers have the same business model as paid services; the author pays costs.Examples of hybrid publishers: Amplify Publishing, Page Two, She Writes Press, Collective Book Studio, Matador (UK), Unbound (UK).How the money worksAuthors fund publication; cost varies.Hybrids pay royalties and author signs a publishing contract.Each hybrid publisher and each book carries its own distinctive costs. Package pricing may not include print run, developmental or content editing, marketing and promotion, etc.Because of the cost ($25,000 is a good rule of thumb assuming a print run is involved), it is challenging to earn a profit from book sales alone. Not a sustainable career path for novelists over many titles.How they sellSome hybrid publishers have distribution via Simon & Schuster Distribution Services or Ingram’s Two Rivers. This can help with bookstore placement as well as other types of consumer sales. However, without author investment in marketing and promotion, and a print run, such sales are unlikely; retail placement is never assured in any event. Sometimes retail placement must be paid for by author.Value for authorIf the hybrid has a good reputation and a strong community of authors, this can support sales.Some companies are run by former traditional publishing professionals and offer high-quality results.What to watch forSome services call themselves “hybrid” when they are not a hybrid.Authors often expect editing that does not happen.Authors can be persuaded to pay because they feel selected/special.Paid Publishing ServicesWho they areServices or individuals that help authors publish their work. They differ from hybrids in a few ways: (1) It is often a service agreement, not a publishing contract. (2) Authors often publish under their own name or imprint. (3) The best services do not take a cut of sales or pay royalties. Author earns 100 percent net on book sales.Examples of paid publishing services: Author Imprints, Girl Friday Productions.How the money worksAuthors fund book publication in exchange for assistance; cost varies.Some firms handle all aspects from start to finish and subcontract, paying workers on author’s behalf. With smaller outfits or individuals, they may connect authors with freelance help.How they sellThey don’t sell at all. The selling is up to the author. Some offer paid marketing packages, assist with the book launch, or offer paid promotional opportunities.Some services assist authors in setting up basic distribution available to self-published authors (IngramSpark and Amazon KDP).Value for authorProduce a quality book without navigating the service and freelance landscape solo. Ideal for authors with more money than time.Get help setting up an imprint and understanding how the self-publishing process works before going it alone.What to watch forAvoid companies that take advantage of author inexperience and use high-pressure sales tactics, such as AuthorSolutions imprints (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, WestBow, Archway, and others).Self-PublishingWhat it isThe author manages the publishing process and hires the right people or services to edit, design, publish, and distribute. The author remains in complete control.Authors set up accounts with ebook retailers to sell (Amazon KDP, B&N Press, Apple Books, Kobo), or use an ebook distributor (Draft2Digital).Authors use print-on-demand (POD) to sell and distribute print books via online retail. Most often used: Amazon KDP, IngramSpark. It costs nothing to distribute titles.If authors are confident about sales, they may hire a printer, invest in a print run, manage inventory, fulfillment, shipping, etc.How the money worksAuthor sets the price of the work; retailers/distributors pay based on the price of the work.Most ebook retailers pay 70% of retail for ebook sales if pricing is within their prescribed window (for Amazon: $2.99–$9.99).Amazon KDP pays 60% of list price for print sales, after deducting the unit cost of printing the book.What to watch forAuthors may not invest enough money or time to produce a quality book or market it effectively.Authors may not have the experience to know what quality help looks like or what it takes to produce a quality book.It is nearly impossible to get mainstream reviews, media attention, or sales through conventional channels (bookstores, libraries), unless the author is a known name.When to prefer over hybrid/paid servicesThe author intends to publish many books and make money via sales over a long period.The author is invested in marketing, promotion, platform, and developing an audience for their books over years.Social PublishingWhat it isWrite and publish work in a public or semi-public forum, directly for readers.Publication is self-directed and continues on an at-will and almost always nonexclusive basis.Emphasis is on feedback and growth; sales or income can be challenging.Value for authorAllows writers to develop an audience for their work early on, even while learning how to write.Popular writers at community sites may go on to traditional book deals.Many popular platforms include monetization methods, such as tipping/donations, ad revenue sharing, and premium content options for paying readers.Most distinctive categoriesSerialization: Readers consume content in chunks or installments and offer feedback that may help writers revise. Establishes a fan base, or a direct connection to readers. Serialization may be used as a marketing tool for completed works. Examples: Wattpad, Webtoon.Fan fiction: Work based on other authors’ books and characters. It can be difficult to monetize fan fiction since it may constitute copyright infringement. Examples: Fanfiction.net, Archive Of Our Own, Wattpad.Social media, newsletters, and blogs: All types of authors use popular platforms to share work and establish a readership. Examples: Substack, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.Patronage: Readers pay regularly for access to you and your content. Popular platforms include Patreon and Substack.Money and rightsAuthor retains copyright and rights to the work generally.Platforms like Substack or Patreon take 5–15% of payments, in addition to payment processing fees.Gray areas and controversies

What is vanity publishing? This is a pejorative term going back decades that generally refers to any arrangement where the author pays a company to publish their book. In particular, some people accuse hybrid publishers of being “vanity” publishers, usually in the spirit of calling out business practices they do not like or find deceptive. However, calling any company a “vanity publisher” tends to unfairly judge or shame authors whose best path forward may be paying to publish, whether they use a hybrid or some other company.

How can authors avoid a vanity publisher? Usually when writers ask this question, they want to avoid the bad business practices of some paid publishing services, or they’re trying to avoid the stigma associated with paying to publish. It is better to ask: How can I find a publisher or a service that helps me accomplish my goals? Many writers have not thought about their goals or what they hope to achieve beyond book sales, which are likely to be minimal (less than 2,000 copies). This leads to expensive mistakes and misplaced expectations across all publishing paths.

How can authors find a “good” hybrid publisher? There is no such thing as a “good” hybrid publisher for all authors, just as there is no such thing as a “good” agent or a “good” publisher for all authors. (Read more from me on this.) However, writers may ask this question knowing that some companies call themselves “hybrids” and take more rights (and/or charge higher fees), but don’t adhere to any industry criteria. The better question to ask: What does this publisher/company provide that authors can benefit from or they cannot get elsewhere? The biggest mistake authors make in looking for a hybrid publisher is believing a “hybrid” will be a “level up” from self-publishing or that it’s more “innovative” than traditional paths. The companies themselves often market to authors in this way, and all sorts of paid companies outside traditional publishing play to the author’s ego or harp on how traditional publishing is broken. Authors who believe the system is broken most often self-publish.

Some recognized hybrid publishers focus on publishing nonfiction by business people, thought leaders, and others who can’t secure a traditional publishing deal, want to publish quickly, or want to retain as much control as possible. They often have enough money that the cost is inconsequential and/or they know they will earn back the investment in other ways (e.g., increased business, speaking, clients, etc).

What about assisted publishing or partnership publishing? The meaning of these terms vary depending on who’s using them. In most cases, it refers to a paid publishing or a hybrid publishing service. In other cases, it may be a traditional publisher offering a hybrid or paid service if they’ve rejected authors for a traditional deal. In still other cases, it may mean a profit-sharing arrangement (no advance) with a traditional publisher. Because of the varied meanings, it’s critical to get a clear agreement or contract with all rights, fees, and royalty rates spelled out.

What is indie publishing? Today, “indie publishing” often refers to the community of self-publishing authors. Many years ago (prior to Amazon Kindle and especially prior to the Internet), indie publishing was a term used by small publishers who worked independently from the big conglomerates (the Big Five). The small press community will often still refer to itself as the “indie publishing” community or as “independent publishers,” but if you’re communicating within a group of authors, you can be certain they mean self-publishing. Authors must remember that “small press” does not mean self-publishing or paid publishing. Small presses, as defined by this chart, are traditional publishers who take on the financial risk of publication.

For more information on getting publishedStart Here: How to Get Your Book Published (traditional publishing)Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your BookHow to Evaluate Small Presses—Plus Digital-Only Presses and HybridsA Definition of Hybrid PublishingIMHO: A Nuanced Look at Hybrid PublishersShould You Traditionally Publish or Self-Publish?Earlier versions of the chart

Click to view or download earlier versions.

2023–2024 Key Book Publishing Paths2021–2022 Key Book Publishing Paths2019–2020 Key Book Publishing Paths2018 Key Book Publishing Paths2017 Key Book Publishing Paths2016 Key Book Publishing PathsThe Key Book Publishing Paths (2015)4 Key Book Publishing Paths (late 2013)5 Key Book Publishing Paths (early 2013)

My 2024 Year-End Review: Most Notable Publishing Industry Developments

Photo by Kampus Production

In my paid newsletter, I regularly report on and analyze what’s happening in the book publishing industry. Here’s a recap of the issues and trends I find most notable and meaningful as we move into 2025.

Best news for authors: increasing and profitable partnerships between self-pub authors and traditional publishers

While traditional publishers have always picked up successful self-published work, I can’t recall seeing more examples, on both a large and small scale, in prior years. The strategy and success of Sourcebooks’ Bloom Books imprint, an imprint formed specifically to partner with self-published authors, has spread to other imprints at Sourcebooks. Sourcebooks also established a new imprint, Hear Your Story, built on a self-published series that’s been selling terrifically well. (Read my conversation with the team, including CEO Dominique Raccah, from February 2024.) Sourcebooks’ majority owner is Penguin Random House, the biggest of the Big Five publishers.

A bestselling nonfiction title on TikTok, The Shadow Work Journal by Keila Shaheen, was picked up this year by Simon & Schuster as part of a five-book deal. Shaheen reportedly received a seven-figure advance and a 50-50 profit share. Indie cookbook authors, too, have been avidly signed; an example is Matthew Bounds, who I interviewed in August.

When I started digging further into the trend, I found that nearly every bestselling self-published romance author has an agent and a track record of subsidiary rights deals with traditional publishers; authors are able to retain ebook and audiobook rights if they wish. New literary agencies outside of New York City have sprung up to support these authors as well.

I believe it’s by far one of the best industry developments I’ve seen in recent years: good for authors, good for publishers, and possibly great for the future of the author-publisher relationship. Which brings me to …

Startup of the year: Authors Equity

In March 2024, a new publishing company—Authors Equity—launched, offering authors 60 to 70 percent of profits from book sales but no advance. It was founded by Madeline McIntosh, former CEO of Penguin Random House. What I find particularly interesting about the company: The investors are successful, established authors. They include James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 15 million copies and is published by PRH; Tim Ferriss, author of five number-one New York Times bestsellers (most of his books are published by PRH); and Louise Penny, a Canadian bestselling author of countless mystery novels (one of her publishers is Macmillan).

Some have criticized Authors Equity for not hiring a full complement of in-house editors, designers, etc. I find this criticism baffling because part of the point of Authors Equity is to give authors the freedom and power to determine their own creative team for their project. And one of the challenges of traditional publishing is that sometimes authors end up with mediocre or unenthusiastic editorial and design help—especially editors with limited time to edit.

Others find Authors Equity no different from hybrid publishing or paid publishing arrangements. That I understand, but there are differences. Authors Equity is as selective as any traditional publisher (I cannot tell the average author to go work with them—they would be rejected), and they’re not selling publishing packages or trying to upsell authors on additional services that sometimes add little value. Nor are they charging fees year after year to keep books in print or maintain the author-publisher relationship. In other words: Authors Equity has far more in common with traditional publishing (comparable to what Sourcebooks is doing with self-publishing authors), and I’d consider any author working with them to have scored a great deal. Here is my initial coverage from March. At the time, their first list hadn’t been announced. Now that it has, I think it supports my initial arguments about Authors Equity.

More successful than I anticipated (so far): Spotify’s entry into the audiobook market

In late 2023, Spotify announced that it would start giving premium subscribers 15 hours of audiobook listening at no additional charge. While it has made some pricing tweaks along the way, that offering for premium subscribers remains in effect. All major publishers continue to be on board with Spotify’s program, despite their reluctance to enter into similar subscription programs offered by competitors.

Now that we have a full year’s worth of book sales data since the launch, it’s clear Spotify has had an effect on the market, boosting audiobook sales by about 10 percent. Storytel, a competitor, credits Spotify for having “made the cake much bigger” by converting music listeners to audiobook listeners. However, it’s unclear to me whether this growth will continue. For now, publishers tout their audiobook growth, with audiobook sales often outpacing ebook sales.

Spotify has always argued there’s a bigger market for audiobooks that hasn’t been tapped because of distribution and discoverability barriers. For example, there’s the “credit worthy” problem in the Audible market: Consumers are less likely to choose shorter books, children’s books, or any book that doesn’t feel “worth” their monthly credit. But with hours-based listening, Spotify is offering subscribers the flexibility to mix it up, explore a range of books, and pick the right book for any moment.

Spotify is absolutely correct that the credit model has warped how consumers buy audiobooks, pushing consumption toward frontlist and bestsellers. In Europe, where subscription programs (e.g., Storytel) dominate, consumption is backlist dominant. Where I have questions: (1) How many Spotify customers go beyond their 15 free credits and pay for additional credits? (2) Is outright credit purchasing or audiobook purchasing necessary for this to be sustainable for Spotify? (3) Whatever publishers have been getting paid by Spotify—and it is a near certainty the biggest publishers receive payout rates that are the same as an audiobook unit sale elsewhere—can and will those rates continue? Were publishers given more money up front to participate? Is Spotify taking a loss right now in the hopes of building a program and audiobook customer base that will be profitable in the future?

Biggest horse out of the barn: AI licensing at a Big Five publisher

Even as publishers and media organizations sue OpenAI for copyright infringement, others are deciding to extract as much money as possible through legal licensing arrangements. Some of the most notable companies that have decided to take the money: the Associated Press, Politico, Business Insider, the Financial Times, Dotdash Meredith (the biggest US magazine publisher), News Corp (Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and many other newspapers), Vox Media, and The Atlantic.

The most recent to take the money? HarperCollins. They are the first Big Five publisher to strike an AI licensing deal, in this case with Microsoft for an unnamed model. I find it highly unlikely they will be the last, and AI models and licensing won’t abruptly come to an end because of author outrage or disgust—although authors absolutely have the legal right to opt out of such training. Still, I agree with the Authors Guild statement that says, “It is important to understand that the licensed use of books must replace AI companies’ current unlicensed and uncontrolled use. Moving to a regime of licensed AI use gives authors the power to say no or to insist on limits on output uses and be compensated. The current regime, which relies on fair use, means that authors have no ability to prevent use of their books by AI or control output uses.”

The question of what material AI companies can legally train on without permission or licensing remains open and will ultimately be decided in court.

Authors: Think Twice Before Paying to Exhibit at Industry Book Fairs

Photo credit: Clarissa Peterson / CC BY-NC-SA

Update (December 2024): In 2012, I wrote an earlier version of this article as a warning to self-published authors who fall prey to scams that take advantage of the highly recognized industry trade show, BookExpo (also known as BEA).

BookExpo no longer exists, but there are other trade shows, especially international trade shows, where the industry gathers. A few of the biggest include Frankfurt Book Fair, London Book Fair, and Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

While these trade fairs do what they can to educate and protect authors from making expensive mistakes, be smart and do your research before you make any trade show (those meant for publishing industry professionals and employees) part of your marketing, publicity, and PR plan. Most authors should not pay for visibility at these shows if they are not in attendance themselves in partnership with a publisher, agency or some other organization.

First, a little background: What are publishing industry trade shows?

Trade shows are large gatherings of publishing industry professionals, primarily publishers, literary agents, book scouts, and people who sell/buy rights or license intellectual property. They are important primarily to large traditional publishers. 

The bulk of any trade show consists of an exhibit floor where publishers purchase booth space to show off their upcoming titles (and authors), sell rights, and network with colleagues. There’s typically a separate rights area where literary agents have tables. Important distributors, retailers and service providers may also exhibit or attend.

Do authors attend trade shows?

Yes, but usually at the invitation of their publisher or some other organization—sometimes the trade show itself. Every year, traditional publishers decide what specific titles they want to market at trade shows, and may invite the authors to do signings or events meant to bring visibility to the work pre-publication. Remember that “visibility” in this context means visibility to the trade (the industry), not visibility to consumers.

Sometimes self-publishing authors (typically those who are bestsellers) will also attend because they have rights deals to conduct or otherwise have numerous business partners at the show.

Should authors attend a trade show?

If you’re a professional author with a significant history of sales, and already know of other professionals you could potentially meet and network with, then it may be a good opportunity to attend. However, this is not a good opportunity for an author who has just published their first book, and thinks attending might fix their marketing and promotion problems. It will not.

Most important, trade shows are not a shortcut to getting up close and personal with traditional publishers or literary agents, in the hopes one of them will publish or represent your book. You’ll greatly annoy people if you go pitching on the floor, unless it has to do with subrights or licensing. If that is indeed your goal, you should have a very polished pitch, and demonstrate a successful track record. Best-case scenario: set up meetings in advance and don’t ambush people.

Most trade shows are not interested in unaffiliated authors walking the floor, because every editor/agent hides from the author who is pitching their work, especially self-published work that hasn’t sold well.

Avoid paying to have your book promoted at trade shows

There are a handful of opportunities for self-publishing or independent authors to get visibility for their work at trade shows even if they do not attend. As far as I’m concerned—as someone who attended these shows for 20+ years—it is not worth the investment. Here’s why.

The emphasis of the show is on traditional publishing, rights sales and pre-publication marketing, and does not favor self-published title promotion. These are massive, busy shows where traditional publishing insiders talk to other traditional publishing insiders. Yes, there may be some librarians and booksellers, but they’re rarely paying attention to the places where a self-published book may be showcased or promoted.Nobody is going to notice your book there. Your book is likely to be promoted with many other books, with no way of attracting attention even if someone did pause for a second within 50 feet of your book. Imagine setting a copy of your book down in the world’s largest book fair, and expecting someone to not only notice it, but be entranced by it so much they can ignore 10,000 other things happening at the same time.If you—the author—are not present to advocate for it, your book doesn’t stand a chance. Services that offer to promote your book are rarely, if ever, hand-selling or promoting your book in a meaningful way. But they will be happy to cash your check and say that your book had a “presence” at the show. If you want to satisfy your ego, go ahead. But it’s not going to lead to meaningful sales. (I challenge anyone in the comments to provide evidence that a self-published book gained traction at a trade show because the author paid a fee to secure placement—and the author was not present.)

Trade shows are quality events, and they present a legitimate marketing and promotion opportunity for some authors and some books. But for the vast majority of authors, it does not make sense to invest what are likely your limited resources in these shows.

For more insight and adviceRead Orna Ross at ALLi on what book fairs (may) offer indie authorsIndie author David Gaughran has long warned against book fairs

What If You’re Writing Novellas? Now What?

Today’s post is by author Tara Deal, whose novella Life/Insurance is out now.

Pretend you’ve written a novella. And it wasn’t easy. But now it’s done and you’re finished. Now what?

It’s difficult to find someone who wants to publish it. No one wants to spend money on such a little book (whether you’re a publisher or a customer). But what if a novella is all you’ve got? What if a novella is what you love? What if you’ve tried to write a novel, believe me, you’ve tried, because everyone you know thinks you should just write a bestseller and be done with it, how hard could it be? But no. A novella is better. Is that what you feel? A novella is perfect, perched between prose and poetry, allowing the reader (not to mention the writer) plenty of space and time to think about things.

But now that you’ve finished it, what are you going to do with it?

Years ago, after I’d finished what would become my first published novella, I was ready to move on to writing something else (I didn’t realize it would be another novella), but I didn’t want to abandon the one I’d just completed, not yet. It felt like an accomplishment. I wanted to do something with it. Like most writers, I wanted someone else to read it. I wanted to do everything I could for that novella, to give it a chance to exist in the world. Was there someone I could send it to?

Publishers and agents and literary magazines didn’t seem interested in novellas. Or, rather, they didn’t seem interested in a novella from an unknown person. But I didn’t have any connections in the world of literary publishing. I didn’t know anyone. I still don’t.

But what about a novella contest? That was something else. I did some research. Anyone could enter, supposedly. It would be like winning the lottery.

Bookshop • Amazon

It might take a bit of work to find the right contest (and you don’t want to enter them all because entry fees add up and you need to save some money for non-novella-publishing pursuits, more of which later), but here are the contests that worked for me.

My first novella, Palms Are Not Trees After All, won the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press, in 2007. My second novella, That Night Alive, won the 2016 novella prize from Miami University Press. And my third novella, Life / Insurance, won the Fugere Book Prize from Regal House and is published today.

Having won three contests and entered a thousand more (well, I wish there were a thousand novella contests one could enter), I have some tips. Some maneuvers you might want to consider. To put yourself in the best possible position to catch that bit of good luck that is, in the end, the most important thing that is required to win.

1. Do not join a writing group or get input on your manuscript.

You don’t want your eccentricities to get flattened out, or deleted entirely. A novella doesn’t need to be a regular story. It can be unclassifiable. People won’t mind. (You can read anything for half an hour! Although, ideally, your novella should take somewhat longer than that to read—or write.) But you don’t need all kinds of character development or emotional entanglements or historical drama or romantic fantasies. You can just write what you like to think. You can play around with the format. I like to write in discrete blocks of text. I don’t like any dialogue. Is that what makes my books stand out? I don’t know. All I’m saying is that maybe your quirk (but not a gimmick!) will grab the random contest reader’s attention after she’s seen too many other things that didn’t make her jump. Think about it. How many times have you tried to read a novel recently and then given up because it’s so boring?

2. Clear out “excess, explication, or autobiography.”

That’s Ezra Pound talking about poetry. But I think that’s especially good advice for a novella (or for anything, probably). However long your novella is now, cut it in half (okay, by a third). It’s nice when a novella approaches an elongated prose poem. Which brings me to:

3. Don’t write an elongated prose poem—or even worse, a short story.

This is just me, but I hate short stories. If I’m going to read something short, I want something really short (poetry, flash fiction). Although I also enjoy something extra long (say, the multivolume My Struggle by Knausgaard or, from the olden days, Ulysses). The novella, unlike the short story, hits the sweet spot between these two extremes. The novella is an in-between thing that moves from the miniscule to the metaphysical and back again. Or so it seems to me. It’s nice to aim for this chimera-like creation (“an imaginary monster composed of incongruous parts” and also “an unrealizable dream,” according to the dictionary). I love a novella. The heart wants what it wants. The world is an enigma.

4. But what do YOU want? Why are you writing a novella at all?

Think about it (but not forever; don’t get depressed; there’s no time to waste). Write what is required. Write what you can’t avoid. I wanted all of my novellas to become novels (in order to make some money; novellas aren’t going to get you anything), but they failed. The novella is the form that the work had to take. I couldn’t make it any longer. I tried. I couldn’t make it any shorter. The form and content found each other. Like magnets. Like magic. Like a magician, you have to keep working until things come together seamlessly, until your art becomes invisible to the audience. Take your time. I once went to a magic show and the magician said that his main trick, a card trick, took him 36 years (or some such) to perfect, and he was still working on it. A novella probably won’t take that long, but maybe? (My last novella, 163 pages, took 10 years, from start to finish.)

5. Which doesn’t mean you should rework your novella to death or let it take over your life.

When the manuscript seems finished, or close enough, stop. Put it away for a few months (or a year if you have time to waste), then reread it again, then submit it. (Unless the manuscript makes you cringe, in which case, shred it.) And then forget it. When I won my second contest, I couldn’t even remember which manuscript I had submitted! (Keep a database to help keep track of things like this.) And when you’ve dispensed with that novella and put it out there and done all you could for it, after you’ve made your small contribution to the art of this world, even if it comes to nothing, and you’re ready to move on, then reward yourself and take a break. You don’t have to start another novella, not right away. You can do something else. Refresh. (Which will give you time to start thinking about writing another novella, and who knows, that next novella might be just the thing.) In the meantime, try something like jewelry making (I make my own earrings) or painting nude figures (I accidentally did this when I thought I had enrolled in a class on abstraction) or bookbinding (yes) or whatever. The world is full of things other than novellas, apparently. (You can use whatever you learn from these adventures in your next book. A couple of telling details are all you need in a novella.)

6. When you do submit, embrace the blind contests.

I, for one, love a blind contest. I don’t have to worry that no one will have heard of me. If someone hates my work, who cares? They don’t know who I am! I would publish anonymously, too, if I could. Imagine if we could all just read interesting books without worrying about who the author is. That would be a beautiful world. In the meantime, we have blind contests and that fine feeling of submitting your best work, with all its quirks and experimental bits and lyrical prose and insights into the human condition and references to paint colors and impasto techniques, then waiting a year or so or more to hear back and then receiving, should you win, very little money for your oversized efforts (plus the requirement to do your own publicity, which might include things like writing short essays about writing novellas.) What more can I tell you?

Good luck! (Have fun.)