Category: The Business of Writing

There is more to being a writer than just writing your stories. There is a business aspect to this industry too. From hiring editor through to understanding copyright, this series is about understanding the business side of writing.

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How To Assess the Quality of Editorial Feedback

Feedback from external eyes is a vital part of the process for any writer working towards publication. It doesn't matter if you are new to writing or have been writing for decades with multiple publications to your name. Any writer on the road to publication will get feedback about their writing at some point during a book's life cycle.

It might be from critique partners, beta readers, editors, or friends. Those external eyes help us to see what is really on the page.

Let's face reality here: What we thought was on the page might not actually be there. We know our stories so well that what we thought was obvious might be confusing to another person who doesn't know what is inside our heads. They won't see things the way we do. But until we get that vital external feedback, we have no idea if something reads how we imagined it.

While I have written about how to handle feedback before, in today's post, I want to address editorial feedback specifically. I'm talking about the feedback that comes back from editors, either freelance editors that we've hired or editors assigned to our books by the publishing house. While it is still feedback, because it comes from a source that is seen as authoritative, it does carry a different feel.

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Initial Communications Say More Than You Know

Don't delude yourself: first impressions matter. We judge people by those first few seconds, and it is incredibly difficult to change someone's opinion after that judgment has already been made.

"Don't judge a book by its cover." Yet we do it ALL THE TIME.

There are countless examples where first impressions matter. But the one arena that people tend to forget about is digital communications (email and social media). It has become way too easy to send off emails, treating it like a text message with a friend, rather than a business or formal method of communication.

I can rant until I'm blue in the face about social media interactions, but today, I want to focus on email communications and the hidden messages that exist in those lines of email.

I will be taking examples from some of my communications with prospective clients, paraphrasing and hiding the identity of those email writers. But I want to give you some insight into the subtext I gleaned from those emails.

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To AI covers or not to AI covers? What a loaded question.

It's something that has been on my mind for a variety of reasons lately.

Is it acceptable to use an AI cover on a human-generated book or not?

Many of us will likely have an instinctive answer that will go one way or the other, but the question is not clear-cut.

First, we have AI-generative tools being embedded in photoshopping programs, making it difficult for graphic designers to avoid AI when designing our book covers. Then we have book awards saying that books will be discounted from consideration if any component of the book was AI-generated, including the cover, even though the competition is for the content; and the cover is technically not part of the content, especially when you consider that the change of a book cover does not require a new ISBN to be issued for that book.

And let's not forget any ethical concerns that might arise.

Cost is often a factor here. Though there is no guarantee that an AI-generated cover would be cheaper than a human-created one.

But putting all of this aside, it is still a valid question. Is it okay for a human-generated book to use an AI-generated cover?

In today's post, I want to explore the consequences of such an action, addressing questions that some self-publishing authors might have regarding AI covers.

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Don’t respond to reviews

Reviews are a necessary part of the business. Without good reviews, a book never sees the positive side of the algorithms that promote your books for you. Without reviews, many readers will turn away from your book, particularly if it is an old book. And reviews help to build SEO traction on a book.

However, as important as reviews are, reviews can also be a dangerous area for writers.

Writers have lost their publishing contracts because they badmouthed a review on social media. Writers have been review bombed because of such deplorable behavior. But writers have also been attacked because they left a negative review on a competitor's book. In some cases, those attacks were warranted. In other cases, they weren't.

The most important aspect with reviews is to remember that reviews are NOT for the benefit of the writer. They are for the benefit of the reader. It's readers telling prospective readers what they thought of the book.

And when it comes to reviews, it is a very bad idea to respond to any reviews (or comments on those reviews) regardless of what you think of the review.

If you want to share those reviews with others, then cross-post it on your feeds. Acknowledge the good reviews that way, but DON'T RESPOND.

It's time to take a closer look at how responding to reviews, good or bad, could land you in hot water.

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Finding an Editor for ‘The Eagle Order’ Addendum

In a recent blog post, I spoke about my venture in finding a new copyeditor, seeking a new partnership for my novel The Eagle Order and the other books in the series. In that post, I detailed the reasons why I said, "No," to certain editors who applied for the position—and it was a range of reasons.

Because of the nature of the post, I decided to share the post not only with the writing community, but with my editing networks too. There were people who laughed at some of the reasons, amazed at how "off" things were. But I also encountered significant pushback regarding my comments about no website.

Many editors came forward, insisting that having no website hasn't harmed their business in any way, and that I was discounting experienced editors because of my viewpoints.

I will concede that this is indeed the case: I am discounting experienced editors because of my viewpoints. BUT on a first glance, how do I know for certain that they were experienced editors and not just someone who knows how to use AI tech to make them look good on paper?

In today's post, I want to take a deeper dive into the no-website arguments and explain why I feel that having no website could be working against you if you are a service provider.

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