Beth Jusino's Blog, page 3

You Take the High Road, I’ll Take the Higher Road…

A few days ago, a question came to the email group for the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, a networkof professional freelance editors who are both thoughtful and have very good grammar.

A member askedthe question that plagues many modern authors: should Iself publish or seek a publisher? More specifically, this editor wanted to know why there was so much antagonism in the discussion.

“I havenever heard anyone complain at all about self-publishing photographers orartists of any other kind...

From World Building to Happily-Ever-After: Exploring Genre Fiction

This past weekend was Beyond the Red Pencil, the largest conference for freelance editors in the country, sponsored by the Northwest Independent Editors Guild. I’ve been a Guild member for five years (as long as I’ve been freelancing) and love the chance to soak up the wisdom of my colleagues. There were sessions on delivering difficult feedback and managing our finances, round table discussions on coaching authors, and lots of time to share stories.

It’s a unique event. The most popular swag...

A Little Perspective on POV

I’ve been editing a lot of fiction recently, and talking to a lot of other editors who work with fiction.

And so I’ve found myself developing a rather strong point of view aboutPOV.

A little background:

Point of View (POV) is the perspective from which a story is told. Generally speaking, it’s divided into three types: first person (where the narrator of the book is the primary character, and writes as “I” and “me” throughout); omniscient (where the narrator observes and describes the events...

Why Everyone Isn’t Going to Read Your Book

Who will read your book?

When I start working with a new client, either on the marketing or the editing side, I always ask some version of this question.

All too often, the answer I get is some variation of “Everyone will like my book! It will appeal to women and men, from their teens all the way to senior citizens! People who don’t even read books will want to read this one!”

Sorry, wrong answer.

Nothing appeals to Everyone. Even Harry Potter and the Bible have their serious fans and their d...

Why Isn’t My Social Media Selling More Books?

My week is full of marketing meetingswith authors. And, since this is the twenty-first century, at some point every conversation about marketing comes back to social media.

We’ve all heardthat authorsneed some kind of social media presence. But all social media is not the same, and it certainly doesn’t all get the same results. If you’re a new writer wondering why your Facebook page or Twitter feed isn’t generating the kind of attention you think it should, ask yourself a few questions:

1. A...

Your Agent Is Not God (And Other Things That Should Be Obvious, But Aren’t)

It seems like all of the conversations I had with writers lastweek were about agents—what they do, what they don’t do, how to get one, and when to leave one.

That might be because it’s conference season, and writers all across the country are pitching new agents or arranging meetings with their existing agents. Or it might be because literary agents still hold this mysterious place of power in the publishing journey.

Many of the new writers I meet (and some who aren’t so new) think that agent...

Look what I got in the mail (and look what you can get for free)

I’m back!

The sabbatical is officially over. Last week Eric and I returned from our 90-day adventure walking the Way of St. James, better known to some as the Camino de Santiago. We walked more than 1,000 miles from Le Puy, France, to Finnestere, Spain, along an ancient pilgrimage trail that follows, in many places, the roads that the Romans built. We moved forward almost every day, staying in gites and albergues, hiking over mountains and across vast mesetas, and making new friends from all...

Sabbatical

A long time ago, over a pitcher of margaritas, my friend Beth introduced me to the idea of setting a one-word intention for each year. Instead of a specific New Year’s resolution, which was sure to be broken, each January I commit to a single word, and then see how it affects my thoughts, feelings, and actions over the next twelve months. I’ve triedit every year since I moved to Seattle. There was the year of Presence, when I tried to focus on being here, wherever here was, without getting di...

Will Facebook’s 2015 Changes Affect Your Author Page?

While I was on vacation last week, a post over at The Write Conversation (and then picked up by The Passive Voice) stirred up quite abuzz among some authors. A savvy client sent it to me yesterdayand asked what I thought. Did I recommend that we all give up on Facebook?

At first read, the news was dire. Facebook, it says, is on the brink of instituting a monthly fee that small businesses, including authors, willhave to pay in order to have their content seen by their followers. No more cover r...

Buyer Beware: Can You Trust Your Self-Publishing Company?

Last week, Barnes & Noble launched a new Print on Demand service to complement their Nook ebook publishing platform.

On the surface, that should be a smart move. More self-publishing authors are looking for ways to produce both print and ebook editions. Barnes & Noble knows a lot about books. Their Nook Press platform works (relatively) smoothly.

But then, if you read the fine print, things are weird.

First of all, Barnes & Noble—a retailer whose primary business is selling books—does not offer...