15 tips for working happily with publishers during book production

15 tips for working happily with publishers during book production

Even when your manuscript is done, the book is not. After you hand in the manuscript, your publisher (or if you’re self-published, whoever you hired to lay out the pages and put it into online bookstores) still has to copy edit the book, lay out the pages, and get it printed and available for distribution….

Be an author, not a sucker:  What services should non-fiction authors buy?

Be an author, not a sucker: What services should non-fiction authors buy?

Face it: if you’re prospective non-fiction author, you may as well have “sucker” written on your forehead. Everyone knows you yearn to be a bestseller and they’re quite happy to take your money to feed that need. Much of what they’re offering is waste. A lot of it is worthwhile. But it could cost you…

The Plantin Moretus Museum and a 450-year reflection on publishing

The Plantin Moretus Museum and a 450-year reflection on publishing

Yesterday I visited the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp. Christophe Plantin was printer who published his first book in 1555. What surprised me most about what I saw was not how much publishing has changed in 450 years, but how much it hasn’t. Plantin came from Normandy, settled in Antwerp, and started a publishing business…

To the New York Times: it’s a bad idea to screw around with The Copy Desk
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To the New York Times: it’s a bad idea to screw around with The Copy Desk

The New York Times is trying to decrease the number of editors at the paper, including cutting the copy editing desk by about half. With the world awash in fake and dubious news, this is no time to cut back on the last line of defense on quality and factual accuracy. But more to the…

13 proofreading hacks based on the psychology of reading

13 proofreading hacks based on the psychology of reading

Typos and mistakes seem inevitable. While you can delegate the proofreading job to someone else who’s an expert nitpicker, that’s not always practical when we’re all sending emails, blogging, and posting on social networks at real-time speed with little editing. But if you’re smart about how brains see (and don’t see) errors, you can catch more…

Your guide to the five levels of editing (infographic)

Your guide to the five levels of editing (infographic)

In my experience, a big challenge for writers is the inappropriate edit. You know, the guy who corrects spelling errors in your outline, or wants to rearrange the whole thing during the proofreading stage. In fact, only 32% of business writers say that their process for collecting and combining feedback works well. I’ve written before…