Tag: writing life

How To Be an Editor’s Favorite Author

by Maria

Favorite Author

I’m excited to have one of my favorite editors, Christine Dore, back on the blog today with some fabulous advice for authors. She’s shepherded dozens of books from the idea stage to final printed copies, so she’s seen it all. And one thing authors sometimes forget is that it is always to your benefit to be working with your editor, rather than against him or her. Publishing people are all in the business because we genuinely care about books and want to see authors thrive. We want to make sure you and your book are a success, and the more we can rave to our teams about how professional, gracious, and hard-working you are, the happier we all are.

Of course, every editor has their own idea of how casual or formal they like to be with their authors, but here are Christine’s great tips for building a happy, productive relationship with any editor:

Email Rules – Or: How To Make Your Editor Not Want to Reply to You

Most editors thoroughly enjoy the lax-professional relationships we build with our authors. We know we’re working on “your baby,” and don’t take that honor lightly. We want to get to know you; we want you to trust us (so you’ll trust us when we suggest changes to your writing).

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Read, Eat, Drink–Weekend Roundup

by Maria

Read:
As much as agents do our best to try to help writers and offer insight into the wild, whacky world that is publishing, sometimes nothing resonates quite like hearing directly from other writers. So here’s my favorite author blog post of the week–Colleen Hoover’s incredible story of how writing changed her life. Three years ago, she was living in a trailer, working 12 hours a day, and barely making ends meet. She picked up writing in her spare time and self-published her first book. She sold about 30 copies in the first week, but she kept at it. Today, she’s the New York Times bestselling author of 6 books and has a lucrative book deal with Atria/Simon & Schuster. And the best part of it all? In her words:

Three years ago, my husband and I dreamed about the day we would be able to build a new house. Tomorrow, that’s going to happen. On the same land where we happily lived in our single-wide trailer, we will be breaking ground on the house we will spend the rest of our lives in, and I still can’t wrap my head around it.

I know this started with the fact that I wrote and finished a book, but that was as simple as putting a pen to paper. Nothing would have followed had it not been for the support of my readers. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the motivation. And remember-

Dreams are free, so make sure you have a shit-load of them.

And THAT right there is exactly why we’re all in this crazy, unpredictable, shaky business.

You can read Colleen’s full story here.

Eat:
Raise your hand if you like bacon. Looks like…everyone on the planet. And the only thing better than bacon is bacon + pasta, especially when it’s Mario Batali’s Spaghetti Carbonara. This is (I think) the same recipe he uses at his restaurant Otto in New York, but you can make it yourself at home for, oh, a 95% discount.

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