From Greek feta and Turkish delights to French baguettes and Vietnamese salad rolls, we’re diving into a smorgasbord of world cuisine in honor of all the translation rights Page Two authors have landed.
Writers ask us regularly if they can float a book idea past us to see if it might attract interest from publishers. If we know the writer, or they have a lot of credibility in their fields (whether as a writer or a professional in something else), we’ll usually be keen to hear it.
One of the burning questions for most writers hoping to get a book deal is: what kind of advance will I get? We’ve written before about the sobering state of writers’ incomes.
A couple of weeks ago, we blogged about whether you need a literary agent to get a book deal. Let’s say you decide you want to pitch publishers directly.
We’ve all heard stories of writers who self-published a book and went on to sign a big deal with a major publisher. One of the most famous examples is Amanda Hocking, a thirty-something paranormal romance writer who self-published nine books that sold over a million copies.
When we first became literary agents through Transatlantic Agency after years on the publishing side of the business, we diligently responded to every query we received from writers.
These days there’s an endless barrage of articles about why traditional publishers are horrible (they’re not.), and why self-publishing is a bad idea (it’s not).
You’ve been offered your first book deal, for your novel. Congratulations! Now that you’re looking at the publisher’s draft contract, you’re concerned because it includes an option clause, requiring you to send your next manuscript to this company too.
If you want to get a traditional publishing deal for your non-fiction book, the good news is that you can get one without writing an entire manuscript first. Publishers evaluate non-fiction based on proposals. The bad news is that proposals take a lot of work to write, sometimes many months.
At an International Festival of Authors party this week, a young writer approached one of us with the line “Aren’t you the sister of Mrs. Grimshaw, my grade six teacher?” A bit confused, we stopped and explained that no, we didn’t know any Grimshaws.
