(Edit: Srangely enough, this post was set for yesterday, but it apparently never got set online. Not sure how that happened. Sorry for anyone who wandered by for the daily update and found it lacking.)
For those of you who might be interested in how the publishing industry works, there are a lot of terms that it might behoove you to be familiar with. Do you know what a partial is? Pitch sheet? Query?
Do you know the secret handshake to get yourself out of the slushpile? (or…do you know what the slushpile is? No…it doesn’t involve cherry snowcones.)
As many come to see, getting published involves a two-part effort. The first, writing itself, seems like a large enough energy dump. But the second part, understanding and working through the business, can be just as important.
Diana Peterson has posted the first part of a series that is intended to teach a lot of the basic terms and truths about publishing. She starts off by letting everyone know that:
- There is no secret handshake.
- There is no magic ticket.
- You don’t need to know anyone.
- Every author was once a debut author. New authors sell books all the time.
Then it goes into a glossary, covering everything from what agents, synopses, and queries are. Very helpful, especially if you’ve got some lingering confusion.
Check it out. You might learn something.
I see that smile.