2019 was a wild year (another baby! books are pubbing! the world's on fire!) but we had some great times on here, y'all and i, so here are my top #writetip + #pubtip tweets

beginning with

a thread on challenging our notions of universal narratives

twitter.com/agentsaba/stat…

#pubtip for #authors: Make sure your agent is reviewing your royalty statements, and you are too! Catching errors = $$ in your pocket. I’ve caught a couple this week!

Good morning! Today’s #pubtip: don’t be myopic. At all stages of the process, is one of the most impt habits of mind you can cultivate. Narrow focus on one enthusiastic pursuing editor, one time frame, one issue: all of these things usually hurt the quality of your book and deal.

Why do some books on Amazon come up first in searches? The algorithm is a black box but we know the number of reviews is a factor. If you’re an author, encourage readers to leave reviews. #pubtip

Authors, I say this with all the love in my heart: please be realistic and responsible about your manuscript deadlines. Your editor is juggling A LOT and they may not have the capacity to constantly check in to see if you are on track... (thread) #pubtip

An actual human person got a book deal* from reading Agents and Books and she tells you all about here today!

*and not even a client!

katemckean.substack.com/p/agents-and-b…

#pubtip #WritingCommunity #amquerying #amwriting

WELL, someone managed to find my personal Gmail address - which none of my clients have bc I don't use it for work - and send a query there. DO NOT DO THIS. It's not a good way to get extra attention; it's a good way to get yourself blocked on all my accounts. #pubtip

NDAs are not so common in book publishing and 99% of instances where I’ve been asked about one did not warrant it. #protip #pubtip #workingwithagents

Dear Writers,

Congrats to those who hit the NaNo finish line! Now that it’s over, please put that MS away. Forget about it for at least a month. Then take it back out and revise. Find critique partners and revise. Polish it again and again. THEN start querying agents. #pubtip

Writers: it’s that time of the year! Publishers Marketplace is having their free trial until the 30th.

Go forth, do research.
#pubtip #writetip #WritingCommunity

::surges awake while drifting off to sleep:: I don’t know who needs to hear this #pubtip, but the first paragraph you write when drafting a pitch letter usually should come last in your final, and vice versa. First last! Last first! Remember this alwaaaaaaaayyyzzz 😴

SO MUCH THIS. YOU set the timeframe. YOU take your time to make the choice. The fastest is not always the best for you. The first is not always the best for you. #pubtip

#Pubtip Make sure to fully know and understand your genre as well as the market. I have been rejecting a lot of authors who seem to have just sat down and wrote something not realizing there is no place out there for that book (even in the self-pub realm).

#pubtip I feel like authors worry about the title of their MS, like it can make or break the query.

Of every book I've published, very few kept the original title from beginning to end, and it usually changed multiple times during the editing process. Don't stress it so much.

Just explained my author:
SELL IN. Books that publishers ship to retailers.
SELL THROUGH. Books purchased by consumers thru retailers. Bookscan tracks 80% of these sales.
SPECIAL SALES. Bulk discounts, back-of-the-room sales, corp orders
#pubtip

I’ve spent much of this week talking w/ agent friends about a specific kind of professional violation: the exciting author who makes a verbal commitment, disappears, and then either signs with s/o else or just poof! Is in PubMark one day w/a surprise deal. (Incoming #pubtip rant)

If you love my #pubtip threads, Kate’s Substack is amazing FYI

We wanted to revisit an older video to expand. So here's more on... What is a Hook? youtu.be/vihHZuouJbA via @YouTube #WriteTip #PubTip

Psst: of all my recent #pubtip threads, this is the one that I think is most important - or at least the one that has the most distance between level of importance and number of would-be authors paying attention. TREAT IT LIKE A SMALL BUSINESS, people.

I am reading this book by @idler’s Tom Hodgkinson and HEARTILY recommend it for the aspiring nonfiction writers among you, especially those under contract. (No personal connection here, just found it at the library.) #pubtip