Improbable Press Blog — Publishing
Your Writing Career: How to Make Sure It's a Real Short Trip
Publishing Reference Your Writing Career: How to Make Sure It's a Real Short Trip
By Atlin Merrick First: I hope you have a fantastic writing career, full of exciting challenges, wondrous peers, and the respect of a dozen editors and publishers. Now let me tell you how not to have any of those things. How to be Sure Your Writing Career is Short Be rude. That's it. That's the whole post. Be rude to your editor or publisher and it's the best way I know to make sure you have a really short writing career. I'll refine what I mean by 'rude' by saying first that no your editor isn't out to get you....
What to Do When Publishers Are Closed to Submissions
Closed. Closed. Closed to submissions. If it seems to you that most small presses are closed to book submissions you're not wrong. A random check just now showed me 60-70% of presses are closed – usually including Improbable Press. There's a good reason for this: not enough staff to read submissions, and edit, proof, layout, illustrate, and promote the books we already have in progress. So. What's a writer to do when there seems no way in? First, Know That There Is a Way In I can't speak for every press, obviously, but I can speak for a couple, including...
"Great, I hate it!" Why You May Not Like Your Book's Cover (and What You Can Do About It)
Book covers publishing reference
Secret time: We don't always love our book's cover right away. As a writer for whom covers have been created, and an editor who commissions covers for others, I know this is so very true. Book Cover Expectations: Let's Go Back In Time When I was a teen, Casey Kasem hosted a weekly top 40 radio show; I listened for years before I finally saw a photo of Kasem himself, and: No. Nope. Nada, that's not what Casey Kasem looks like. Except. Except what did I think he looked like? I don't know. I'd had no idea I even had...
Submission Guidelines? I'm a special writer, I don't need no stinkin' guidelines!
Atlin Merrick Publishing Reference Submission Guidelines Writer's Guidelines
By Atlin Merrick Just…just go around me. I'm going to be here awhile, stretched out on this grass, staring at the fluffy clouds while I tell youngsters to get off my lawn. Which is to say I am a tiny bit exhausted. O so weary of others doing what I used to do, and now I just want to squirt everyone with this hose I'm not holding and holler "Learn from my mistakes for heaven's sake! I also didn't follow submission guidelines! And do you know what it got me? Don't you walk away while I'm yelling at you!" Submission...
Royalties and Who’s Out to Get You
Atlin Merrick Publishing Reference Royalties
By Atlin Merrick Okay, you’ve signed a contract with a small press and you’re doing the butt-wiggle dance of joy. You probably sent your book to a lot publishers and at last your work found a home. Whether you’re a new writer or have been published before, it’s a relief to know you’ve found someone else who loves your work as much as you do. And—WAIT! Screeching To a Halt: Loving Small Presses That! It’s that I want to bold and italicize: We love your book, too. I can nearly 100% guarantee that that’s why any small press anywhere...