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Evaluating Nonfiction: A Nonfiction Editor Shares His Perspective What can set your nonfiction manuscript up for success ... or doom it to the reject pile

[by Peter Gelfan]

Fiction lives or dies by the author’s storytelling and writing skills (and perseverance and some luck). For nonfiction, then, one might assume that likewise, an interesting topic well elucidated will do the job. However, the publishing industry and readers regard nonfiction a bit differently.

One reason to hire a nonfiction editor is to make sure […]

By |2025-06-27T20:29:17+00:00|The Editor’s Craft and Process|Comments Off on Evaluating Nonfiction: A Nonfiction Editor Shares His Perspective What can set your nonfiction manuscript up for success ... or doom it to the reject pile
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The First Duty of a Manuscript Critique Why candor matters and what you can expect from your editor if your manuscript isn't very good

[by Ross Browne]

The first thing I’d put on the table in connection with how we handle very flawed manuscripts can, I hope, go without saying. And that is that we never want to be discouraging to an author. There’s no pleasure in telling a writer that a manuscript needs deep rewriting rather than editing or that […]

By |2025-09-25T20:12:34+00:00|The Editor’s Craft and Process|Comments Off on The First Duty of a Manuscript Critique Why candor matters and what you can expect from your editor if your manuscript isn't very good
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Miss Manners for Authors Our staff weighs in on best practices for responding to book reviews, good and bad

So what about reviews? If you get a good one—from a stranger, not your mom—it’s cause for major celebration: dancing around the room, busting out the champagne, wildly bursting into a song from The Sound of Music. But if you get a bad one, well, nothing can ruin your day faster. Now that your baby, aka […]

By |2024-01-06T23:58:04+00:00March 11th, 2018|Industry Insights|Comments Off on Miss Manners for Authors Our staff weighs in on best practices for responding to book reviews, good and bad
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How P.J. Parrish Starts a Story: A “First 50” Analysis

[by Ross Browne]

Flap Copy: For Louis Kincaid and his lover, female detective Joe Frye, the present and the past collide when they team up to find out what happened to Jean Brandt, who was reported missing by her husband from their Michigan farmhouse in 1981. Jean’s daughter Amy, only five at the time, has been plagued by […]

By |2025-08-04T19:58:07+00:00March 8th, 2018|Behind The Bestsellers|Comments Off on How P.J. Parrish Starts a Story: A “First 50” Analysis
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The Truth about First Novels and Traditional Publication What authors need to know

[by Renni Browne]

What you might hear:

  • “Acquisitions editors at major publishing houses don’t want to read first-novel submissions.”
  • “Literary agents don’t want to take on unknown writers anymore.”
  • “Publishers only want novelists who have a strong platform or a great track record of book sales.”
  • “If by a miracle you get a first novel published, it’ll […]
By |2024-01-06T21:01:19+00:00November 3rd, 2017|Industry Insights|Comments Off on The Truth about First Novels and Traditional Publication What authors need to know
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How Do We Write about The Future Now That It’s Here? Tips for writing science fiction writing in the 21st century

[by Shannon Roberts]

Science fiction, as a genre, has often struggled to be taken seriously. Oh, it’s garnered some respect, a few classics, and a bucketful of noteworthy authors, but how seriously are we expected to take a class of fiction that still doesn’t even warrant its own section in too many bookstores?

By |2024-01-06T22:46:38+00:00|The Writer’s Craft|Comments Off on How Do We Write about The Future Now That It’s Here? Tips for writing science fiction writing in the 21st century
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