Beth Jusino's Blog, page 2

The Top 20 Articles of 2016 for Aspiring Authors

This has become a bit of a tradition: every December since, well, 2015, I’ve looked back at the year and compiled a “best of” summary of the Top 20 articles, news, and resources for writers who are working toward publication. Making the jump from writer to published author means entering a whole new world of business, and it’s important to do your homework and understand the landscape.

The Trends

This year, as I went back through my tweets and notes, two things became clear:

It was a hard ye...

Choosing Higher Ground: Release Day!

Publishing can be a long, slow process, but there’s nothing like the feeling of holding a book in your hand and thinking I made this!

Two years ago, the head of a small publishing company I’ve done some marketing work for approached me with a new project. He’d heard a local business leader speak at a Rotary Club event (of all things) and was blown away by how much the man’s message resonated. There was a book there, the publisher was sure of it. The business leader agreed, but he was busy run...

How to Hire an Editor (Editing Series, Part 3)

If your goal is to publish your book, you’re going to need an editor at some point.

If you’re self publishing, this should be obvious. After all, who else will stand between you and your readers and make sure that you’re putting your best self forward? Who else will help you see the holes, the errors, and the missing pieces of your manuscript? None of us are perfect judges of our own work. (I was reminded of this today, when an acquaintance posted a heartfelt reminder on social media to “Proo...

8 Tips for Working With Beta Readers (Editing Series, Part 2)

“The self edited author is as foolish as the self medicated patient.”

– Guy Kawasaki, APE (Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur)

For many writers, finding the right editor is the first real challenge they face in their journey toward publication. So far, your words have been entirely yours. But now it’s time to send those words out into the world. Are they ready? Are YOU ready?

To be sure, you’ll need an editor…probably more than one.

You should not be the only person who has seen your material w...

What Does a Developmental Editor Do? (Editing Series, Part 1)

Every now and then, someone sends me one of those social media memes that say something clever like “I am silently judging your grammar” or “I can’t be freinds with someone who hastypos.”

Usually I smile and say thanks. Sometimes, though, I stop to explain that I’m notthat kind of editor. I don’t fix people’s spelling, and I’m not really interested in your dangling participles.

“So, then, what do youdo, exactly?”

“I’m a developmental editor.”

And then I get a lot of blank looks.

Most people k...

Tweet On! (Or Don’t)

A couple of weeks ago, I taught a class for Book Publishers Northwest called Tweet On: How to Use (And Not Abuse) Twitter to Build Your Platform and Sell Your Books. It was a fun evening, despite (or perhaps because) I don’t currently have a projector that works with my laptop, and so was reduced to drawing the Twitter homepage on a white board:

The Twitter homepage, whiteboard style

There was one attendee, though, who was not impressed. He announced that he was skeptical of this “social medi...

5 Ways to Make a Writers’ Conference Work for You

I know I need an agent, but I don’t know where to find one.

I don’t know how to start building an author platform…I don’t even know what a platform is!

I should join or start a critique group, but I don’t know any other writers!

Sound familiar? Aspiring authors and curious writing bystanders say things like this to me a lot, and my answer is always the same:

Get Thee to a Writers’ Conference!

Writers connect at the Port Townsend Writers Conference (Photo Credit: Centrum Foundation)

Althoug...

Evangeline Denmark’s Path to Publication

How long have you been trying to get published? I don’t mean how long have you dreamed about seeing your book in print. I mean really, seriously, tried to get published? Completed novels, wrote pitches, went to writing conferences? Signed with agents and waited for months to find out if a publisher would offer a contract? How many manuscripts do you have sitting in the proverbial drawer?

I like to tell writers that the path to publication is a marathon, not a sprint. Your first draft of your...

3 Questions Your Book Proposal Must Answer

I’ve been reading a lot of book proposals lately, and even writing one or two of my own. And I’m loving it. I may be the only person in publishing who really loves the process of breaking a book down into a proposal.

For many writers, the process of creating a proposal is as hard—or harder—than writing the book itself. Yet it’s a critical, and often project-defining, step. Even if you’re planning to self publish, writing a proposal is a great way to explore and examine your project more deepl...

The 20 Must-Read Articles of 2015 for Aspiring Writers

Every month or so, I have the chance to stand in front or a group of people and talk about how to get published. How does a writer go from a manuscript to a published work that readers can buy?

One of the points I regularly make—one of the facts I think is critically important and often overlooked—is that a writer has to take the responsibility to understand the publishing industry.You need at least a general idea of how the sausages are made.After all, you wouldn’t decide to open a restauran...