MSI Press Blog

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic asks if connections matter. Well, of course, they do. But how do they fit in an author's life and success?  While one might wish that a formal proposal was a matter of seeking publication on a level playing field, unfortunately getting someone to look at your proposal often means having a contact at a publishing house. From the other side, publishers often look for recommendations from authors they have already published and trust. Closed circle, right? Well, maybe not. Here are says to make contact with publishers and build relationships: There is the traditional way of making contact--through a liter

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today, we step away from our weekly format to tell a couple of stories that might be revealing and helpful to authors who think that the only ways to get a book published are through the help of a literary agent, direct contact with a publisher, or self-publishing. Likely, very few authors think they might be contacted by a publisher and asked to write a book. But it does happen. How it happens, though, tends to be an "oh, by the way" that comes up as a publisher's need or as a publisher's insight about opportunity. Thre examples come from our publishing house.  When the pandemic broke out, there seemed

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about republishing self-published books. Can you get a traditional contract from a traditional publishing house for a book you have self-published?  Well, that depends. As the acquisitions editor for a traditional press that also offers hybrid publishing contracts for untested writers, the answer is an across-the-board no, but there are some publishers who might. Let's look at the reasons for and against republishing a self-published book, from a publisher's point of view. Why a publisher would not want to re-publish a self-published book -- Typically, an author thinks that he or she has exhau

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's post talks to those who use social media and explains the importance of predictability for effectively promoting your book. Specifically, how do we know? Most-Read Posts Our most-read posts come from our regular columns; other posts may be looked it, but the statistics show us that, with some exceptions, it is the regular columns that readers looks forward to and come back to. Here are some of them: The Story behind [a particular book, a different one each time] Sundays Cancer Diary Mondays A Publisher's Conversation with Authors Tuesdays (yeah, today) Posts dedicated to achievement of high levels of foreign language proficie

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic looks at a special contract feature.  We have been talking about contract specifics -- and will continue to do so -- but one clause that will not come up in the discussions based on MSI Press contracts is the exclusivity clause -- because we do not require it. Some publishers, however, upon contracting with an author for a book, will require the right of refusal for any future books. In other words, if the author writes another book, the publisher has first dibs on it, and the author does not have the opportunity to seek another publisher unless his/her current publisher says so (by turning down the subs

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic popped up because I received three book proposals that were very easy and quick to turn down. Although perhaps some editors might not have responded at all, I do like to get back to authors who submit proposals. Often, if a book is almost viable, just needs some tweaking, I might give some suggestions for improvement. (Not all authors take these suggestions kindly, but in those cases, I consider nasty responses evidence that I made the right decision in rejecting the manuscript; I would not want to work with such an author.) In today's cases, I was presented with proposals for novels. That is an easy

(photo by  Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about figuring out your book sales. Many authors try to figure out their sales based on some inaccurate thinking or assumptions.  Amazon posts a sales ranking. If you look at your ranking, it can appear that your book is selling more (the number is lower than it was a few minutes ago) or selling less (the number is higher than it was a few minutes ago). Actually, that number does not tell you anything about the number of books sold. A higher number could mean more books were sold, fewer books were sold, or no books were sold. The number is a relative one based on recency of purch

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic addresses a topic that comes into my in-box on a regular basis, at least once or twice a week: a self-published author (either thought self-publication would provide more control and money or was unable to land a traditional contract) does not like the self-publication results and would like a re-do, i.e. start over again with a traditional publisher/contract. To cut to the chase, this is the content of the typical response I send to these queries: Thank you for your submission. We have a policy of not re-publishing previously        published books, so your book would not be of interest to us.  Of the data available from A

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  As a follow up to last week's conversation about books long in the tooth, let's talk about sleeping books (a slightly different topic but one that has much in common with last week's conversation. e seen some books come to life after a long period of dormancy. Some approaches that have worked are: a.        Finding an Influencer…wow…the one book that found one came alive after 10 years and has remained one of our bestsellers ever since even though the Influencer is no longer involved. b.       Send to a legacy award competition; if an award is received, the press release can be brushed off and re-distributed—and we get lots of op