[by Sean Fletcher]
It happens more often than you think. A budding (or seasoned) writer approaches me for an edit on what they believe to be a work of middle grade, only for me to tell them that their 100,000-word fantasy about a 17-year-old discovering their identity among a totalitarian regime would fit better as a young […]
[by Ross Browne]
One piece of advice authors who write popular fiction often hear is that your odds of landing an agent and a traditional publishing deal can improve considerably when your novel is conceived as (or has the potential to work as) a series. This should come as no surprise to anyone who enjoys settling down […]
[by Ross Browne and John Robert Marlow]
Publishing has changed a lot in the 43 years since The Editorial Department opened its doors—and not necessarily for the better, in the eyes of many. But it’s nonetheless an exciting time to be a writer, in large part because when it comes to getting published, you have more […]
[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.
Publishers generally have certain prerequisites for even considering […]
I’ve recently worked through a post-holiday backlog of submissions, and stumbled on some recurring themes and – naturally – some recurring pet peeves. Agents are as diverse in their taste for query letters as they are in their tastes for reading material, so please know my advice comes from personal preference. But I hope these rules will […]
If you want to publish today, your work must be impeccable. Whether you have a novel manuscript that has been slaved over for years, or are an expert in your field with a non-fiction book proposal, the case is the same. Your writing must be in the best shape possible to win the attention of an agent. […]
