My creative space

  I am sitting in my tree house sort of sprawl-legged, since Baxley, my daughter’s dog, is comfortable at my feet, chewing on a big rope toy, and I don’t want to disturb him. Since the tree house is only 8 feet by 8 feet, and Bax is about 3 feet long, sometimes we have to make a decision about who’s going to be most comfortable. I’m hoping to win next time. The tree house has become my creative home. I feel inspired every time I walk... Read More

Next year’s books

This is always a busy time for me in the book world that comprises my work life. Because I try to position most of my books for sell next spring, I’ve been at work for many months on the bigger books or am starting now to organize the smaller ones. This year I’ll have five or six new books, ranging from the Chappy Ferry book you’ve been reading about to a photography book of the lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, and Nantucket... Read More

A Q&A with book expert Rosemary Carstens

  Every once in a while I come across a website that seems to hit all the things I find interesting, and also has smart things to say about publishing books. Here’s a guest blog from the editor of FEAST, which focuses on books, art, food, film, and travel: Q. FEAST is an incredibly fertile site. What’s the genesis? For a couple of decades I’ve kept a list of all the books I read, writing a little synopsis of each. I don’t even know... Read More

Naming of a book

What’s in a name? Reader David Corriveau made a comment that included the suggestion of a name for The Chappy Ferry book. Tom and I have knocked around a few ideas on this one, but nothing wonderful has emerged from our own great minds. So I thought I’d open it up to you. If you have a suggestion for the book we’re doing on the Chappaquiddick ferry, send it to me. As the months go on, Tom and I will evaluate and see if any of you hit the... Read More

Target practice

I have a friend whose motto is “Ready, Fire, Aim.” Another friend just sent me a note with her motto attached to it: “To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.” Boy, how I wish that worked with books. I’ve found that a successful book begins first with an idea, then with a really well-thought out plan all the way through marketing. Is this book going to be 32 pages, 100 pages, or 300 pages? Is it... Read More

Butchering with finesse

I have a client who journeys from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard to work with me once a week. We spend about three hours going through her manuscript, clearing out the “noise” in the book that adds nothing to the story and enhancing the sections that need more development. Today she described our work as “like sculpting…we’re making a sculpture.” It struck me that she had described the art of editing far better than I ever could. Once... Read More

Will it be On-Time?

            Writers and photographers go through three distinctive phases when they’re working on a book project.   There’s the “thinking about” stage, when everything seems possible. There’s plenty of time to do the project. Reality hasn’t interfered with the reporting. Smiles all around from the clients to the interview subjects. The weather isn’t too important – Hey! We have lots of time to get... Read More

Everything but pornography

Gail Richards, founder of Author Smart, once wrote about an author looking for a publisher who was told by one publishing-related firm that they’d be happy to publish any book, regardless of subject, unless it was pornography. Richards suggests maybe the pornography bar isn’t quite high enough, and goes on to urge authors to put their books into the hands of someone who has quality to offer. How do you find other publishers (we, of course, think... Read More

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