Hope to See You at the Lecture This Evening
If you are a paid subscriber to The Rhizosphere | For Writers, you are invited to a monthly lecture on a topic concerning THE BUSINESS OF WRITING, one of my blazing passions.
This month we’ll be talking about how to Craft a Winning Book Proposal. I will be attaching a simple template for a book proposal and also one for a marketing plan.
There will be no guest speakers, only me talking about what I’ve learned, with plenty of time for answering questions and deepening our understanding of book proposals.
The date of the online lecture is today, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, at 7 pm Eastern US/Canada Time via Zoom.
This will be a small and intimate group. The link has been sent to paid subscribers.
If you decide to join as a subscriber, you will be able to find the link in the posts. Or I will resend it just before 7 pm Eastern.
I hope your writing is firecracking!
Your friend,
Janisse
Why Revising Matters (a Lot)
Writers get disillusioned by the time required to revise, and I often find myself saying to them, Don’t give up. You can find a publisher for this if you go a little farther with it.
The more polishing, the more readers you'll have and the better a book (or essay, or whatever you're working on) will sell. Small changes, even a single word, often make large impacts, which is why revising is so powerful.
Many years ago at a conference I introduced myself to the gifted editor and poet Barbara Ras, then at Sierra Club Books. I described a project I was working on. "When you get it as good as you can," she said. "Send it to me." That line was very helpful. It meant I had a limit. I could only get a book as good as I could get it. Afterwards, I'd need someone else to get it to a higher plane.
Hopefully, after you have got your project as tidy as you can, a stellar editor will emerge for you. Most people underestimate the value of editors and get all puffed up about someone messing with their baby.
Please believe me when I say that great editors are
hard to find,
increasingly uncommon, and
essential to the writing process.
An editor is a writer's bestie. Truly. Everything I am was made possible because I’ve had some fabulous, discerning and unrelenting editors. Without Emilie Buchwald at Milkweed my book Ecology would have been a nice package of fire starter.
When an editor appears, pray she’s brilliant, and pray that you are emotionally free enough to take her comments and use them to make a bestseller or at least a book to be remembered through the ages.
Your first book is very important. You only get one first chance with the great story of your life, and there’s no reason to blow it and every reason to make it as good and writerly as you can make it. Every bad piece you publish will make your next one harder to place, I believe.
All your books are important.