What Publishers Wish Writers Knew:
Or, the Difference Between and Author and a Writer

Authors are writers who choose to publish, professionals who enter the publishing industry.

Writing is an art. Publishing is both an art and a business. Like any creative endeavor, writing has worth in and of itself, but this article is about the business of authorship.

Authors write to get paid as well as to get their words to the widest reasonable audience. They also co-operate in the process of bringing those words to the people who will most want to read them. In my years in publishing, I have come to believe that successful authors follow many of these suggestions.

Write for your readers. Know who they are, and what else interests them. What needs are you filling? How can you give them more of what they want from your book?

Take advantage of your editor. A good one enhances your work without changing the essence of your content, style or voice. There are 3 types of editing.

• Copyediting is the most common, and generally focuses on spelling, grammar and punctuation. The usefulness is obvious.
• Line editing commonly pinpoints awkward or unclear phrases, sentences, and occasionally paragraphs. Author and editor bat possible improvements back and forth, until the issue is resolved.
• Deep, structural or developmental editing (it goes by many names) is least common, and can make the most improvement. These editors put themselves into the mind of the intended readers, to analyze your work's impact on that person as they read. They look for what could work better, and for ways to improve the reader's experience but still keep the essence that makes your work distinctive.
• If you have a good editor at your publisher, cherish him or her. If you want more editorial assistance than your acquisitions editor can provide, you may need to hire an outside professional.

Know your contract. Agents are useful, as are IP attorneys, but YOU are responsible for this agreement and its consequences. Critical items include:

• Royalty rate and bases. For example,10% of list is very different than 10% of sales net discounts and distribution fees. On a $20 book, 10% of list is $2.00. 10% of sales net discounts and distribution fees can be as little as $0.60. Each market segment and format will have different traditional rates and terms.
• Rights sold. Larger traditional publishers are quite good at selling subsidiary rights, to the benefit of all. If neither you nor your agent has a particular strength in marketing one or another of those rights, you're usually best served by letting your publisher do this for you.
• Termination and reversion clauses. My preference is for rights to revert, with the option for the author to purchase remaining inventory and possibly rights to the design of the book, when royalty earnings drop below a stated level for a stated period of time. Tastes differ on these clauses, but some specific clause should be included.
• Media liability insurance. Ask that their policy be extended to cover your risk. Waivers of subrogation (which accomplish this) are usually either free or very inexpensive.
• Due dates and details. Become known for meeting all deadlines, with time to spare. Publishers value authors who are easy to work with, and reputations spread.

Understand your readers: what else they like, and where there are high concentrations of them. Marketing is key to a successful book, no matter how you define it, but most publishers can no longer afford to invest as heavily in each book as they would like to do.

• Be prepared to do your own marketing, especially publicity.
• Work with your publisher's marketing people, rather than at cross-purposes.
• Be considerate of your assigned publicist, etc. They are usually spread too thin, and you'll get more from them by being helpful and kind.
• Think about paying for an outside publicist. Publicity is generally the most cost-effective method of marketing your book, whether fiction or non-fiction. Be creative, and go beyond reviewers and the book pages of newspapers and magazines.

There are now more publishing options than ever before. This leads to the refrain "Before you make books, read books," from many of the old hands in the industry. (There are reviews of books on publishing elsewhere on this site.)

Whatever choices you consider, information is critical. You have spent hundreds of hours writing that manuscript. Don't let them be wasted for lack of a few more hours learning about your options.

And please, feel free to avail yourself of the rest of the Reference Desk on this site. Gropen Associates maintains it as a service to the industry, and that now includes you. Welcome to publishing!

• Re-use of any material on this site requires written permission.
• Opinions presented are based upon our assessment of best practices for the mythical "average publisher." Please use your own business judgment in applying this information.