Welcome back to the week, everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl. Not a huge sports person, myself, but I think everyone uses the game as another good reason to just get together and have fun–can’t have too much of that.
Anyways, I’m back to work, and for those of you who didn’t know, I work as a copy assistant at a publishing company. It’s pretty interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes and to contribute in my own way to a book getting produced and then seeing how well it sells. One of the best things I think anyone can do when they want to get an edge in writing is to understand the mechanics side…the business of it. What goes into the marketing, the cover art, the bylines? Why do they use that font size? What audience are they pushing this to sell in? How many advertising dollars should be invested in a certain book, and should the company invest in television or radio commercials for a title?
This kind of stuff fascinates me to no end, for some twisted reason. So imagine my joy in finding this blog:
Conversations in the Book Trade
What you have here is a long list of authors, editors, agents, publishers and more who are interviewed in-depth on the many facets of the publishing industry. They’re asked everything from the latest project they’re working on and why they think it will succeed to the steps they think need to be taken to improve on the industry as it stands today.
This is a great chance to peer into the brains of the people who populate the very business we writers are trying to conquer. Why not use the information they’re freely giving us rather than remaining in the dark about this big, mysterious industry?
I see that smile.