Your reader has a lot on their plate. Between juggling careers, distractions competing with commitments, and living life, their time is extremely valuable. There’s no shortage of busy today.

You know this, so why doesn’t your subtitle reflect this?

Imagine going into a store - people still do this! - and looking for someone to help you. You’ve got questions. How frustrated would you be if, when you found an employee, they did everything they could not to answer your questions?

Your readers have questions and they’re busy. They need you to cut to the chase. A really great subtitle answers your reader's questions. Too many times writers try to create subtitles that do everything. They become convoluted and clumsy. They say a lot about nothing.

Here’s a good rule to use when you are brainstorming a subtitle for your book: Are you using commas in the subtitle? A serial comma can suggest your subtitle lacks focus. Really push to clarify what your book is...

What’s an easy trick to get your book from your head to the page?

Writing is a lot harder than Netflix or Disney+. If binge-watching The Mandalorian was as easy as writing a book, you wouldn’t have signed up to receive this email. The truth is writing is hard. It takes a lot of work! This simple trick is going to help shift your mindset and make the work of finishing your book that much easier. 

Are you letting distractions keep you from writing your book?

When it comes to writing books, there are a million things that are easier to do. Everything becomes a distraction. Do you know what’s easier than writing your book? Talking about your book. Complaining about not having time to write your book...well, there might be as much time spent doing that as it would take to actually write the book.

That’s why we often share this easy trick to help writers shake off distractions like Netflix or Disney+, etc.: “Butt in chair.” It’s...

What’s the best way for me to figure out if my book idea is any good?

There’s this great cartoon of a doctor holding up an x-ray to a patient and saying, “It looks like you’ve got a book in you.” In the x-ray, there’s a book lodged in the patient’s ribs. 

If you’re reading this, you probably feel a lot like the patient, metaphorically, of course. Instead of wondering if your book idea is any good, let us help you figure that out.

Great book ideas start with the premise!!!

The very first step you should take when trying to figure out which book you should pursue first is to sit down and write out a premise of your book idea. The premise of your book is basically its thesis statement.

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“What are the important factors I should consider 

when I am developing my book idea?”

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But what if you have two book ideas and can’t decide which to write about first? The premise is a great...

12 books. 

According to the Pew Research Center, the average adult American reads 12 books a year, with half of Americans reading 4 or less. One more time for the people in the back: half of Americans read 4 books or less a year. Ouch. If you want to elevate your writing from amateur to professional, you have to become an avid reader.  At Author Coaching, we want to help you read more books this year. That’s why we put together 3 quick and easy ways to read more books in 2024. 

Here are 3 tips for reading more books this year. 

#1. You’re doing it wrong. 

The easy answer for why people don’t read more is they don’t have time. We get it. Everything is busy. But, there is an easy way to prioritize reading: audiobooks. 

You might not have time to sit down with a book, but you might have a commute to work or work out at the gym or time in the pick-up line for school. Many moments in the day can be used to listen to a book...

Rejection happens.

Every writer faces rejection. The difference between the writers you read about and the ones you don’t, comes down to who conquered that fear. It’s up to you to decide which path you choose.

But it’s not that simple, is it?

It’s easy to list how many times great books were rejected – J.K. Rowling was rejected numerous times before she finally found a home for Harry Potter – but we lose sight of the choice that the writers made. They chose to lean into The Resistance.

Let me explain.

Rejection is an outcome, but what if it was actually a positive outcome? To be rejected, you have to revise, submit, and query. You have to hone your craft. One of the biggest secrets writers don’t get to see, and sometimes ever know, is that they oftentimes have less control over rejection than they think because it’s a numbers game.

“The Resistance can’t win if you keep writing.”

A writer can’t control an agent...

Are you struggling with having confidence in your writing?

Every writer reaches a point where their confidence in the manuscript begins to wane. Maybe it’s the structure and how the chapters are ordered. Maybe it’s the voice: “Does any of this sound good to my ideal reader?” Or the grammar: “I’m 50% confident in how to use a semicolon.” Or, and this is a big one, connecting with a reader: “Is any of this working?!?!”

Any one of these questions is enough to make a writer throw their hands up in the air and yell, “Help! I need an editor.”

Editors are God’s gift to writers. They help us clarify, build confidence, and correct those pesky grammatical errors, among other things. A good editor can help you regain confidence in your writing while pointing you in the right direction. The key to finding an editor who can really help you is to know what you are looking for. 

Let’s identify the different...

Are roadblocks keeping you from pursuing your publishing dreams?

Recently we received this comment on Facebook: “I am so sick of all the roadblocks to publishing a book when you’re an everyday person.” We agree. That’s why we built Author Coaching - to help you navigate the ever-increasingly complex world of publishing. Today, let’s begin removing those roadblocks. Let us show you how. 

A book proposal changes how you are viewed.

At Author Coaching, we hear a lot about what stops you from publishing your book. The comment we mentioned earlier said, “If you’re a celebrity of any type, you can get your book of any kind on any subject published without any obstacles. It’s ridiculous and it’s simply not right.” It’s not fair. We’ve got to eliminate those barriers and create a level-playing field for your book idea.

That starts with a book proposal. Too many writers with potentially great book ideas are...

Audiobooks Continue Their Hot Streak

The Audio Publishers Association reported sales numbers for 2022 at approximately $1.8 billion – a 10% jump over 2021. That was the 11th consecutive year of double-digit growth for the audio segment—the current belle of the publishing industry ball. That followed a blistering 25% jump in 2021 over 2020. The group’s survey of Americans 18 and older showed that 53% of American adults have listened to an audiobook, up from 45% last year. That’s some incredible saturation.  

So Much for the Sunny Side of the Street

According to the good people at BookScan (I still can’t remember how to spell their new moniker), unit sales for the first half of 2023 finished down 2.7% to 353.5 million.  After a flat Q1 2023 (helped by a one-time prince), Q2 tipped us into the negative – and that’s compared to the first half of 2022 which fell 6.6% below the pandemically inflated first 6 months of 2021. By way of...

Not Too Shabby

In these uncertain economic times, good news seems even gooder. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported its Q1 2023 publishing industry results last week with an increase in total sales of 3.2% over Q1 2022. March 2023, in and of itself, shot up 6.6% in a year, with audio and ebook segments each posting double-digit gains both for the month and for the quarter.

The AAP also put out its final report on the 2022 results, with the total sales for the year slipping only 2.6% below banner 2021. That figure bested their preliminary “negative-Nancy” projection of a 6.4% drop. The early projections did not include K-12 educational publishing, which exceeded the prior year by a whopping 16.6%, and helped offset a 6.1% drop in trade sales.

As promised in last month’s issue, we now have Q1 results from Big 5 member, HarperCollins.  After some documented struggles—and some layoffs—HC appears to have stabilized. Following...

Back on the Auction Block

One of the lone bright spots in the publishing industry, league-leading Simon & Schuster posted another banner quarter.  Q1 2023 saw sales increase 19% and operating income jump 18%. Regular readers of the Update will remember that these results are being compared to a “gravity-defying” 2022.  But, all the S&S success isn’t fazing corporate parent Paramount Global.  Paramount still insists that they want to off-load this “non-video” cash cow.  

If anyone is looking to invest a couple of billion dollars, seems like a solid opportunity to us.

Meanwhile, Penguin Random House—the former suitor whose advances were rebuffed by the Justice Department—was saved by the (former) prince. Over 4 million copies of Harry Windsor’s “SPARE” were credited for German parent Bertelsmann’s Q1 2023 sales increase of 5.6%.

One last item in the...