The capitalistic publishing game

My favorite blogging literary agent, Nathan Bransford, should be charging tuition for his blog posts. The industry's best kept secrets are being revealed almost daily--if they really are secrets. Asking the right questions is a big part of the learning curve in the publishing world. Nathan answers the questions most of us don't know enough yet to ask.

Check out Monday's post at NathanBransford.blogspot.com. The more we learn about what agents are looking at in their query mail, the better we will be able to gauge how well our query is apt to do--will my query stand out because my concept, the premise of my book, is something new that the market needs and will clamor for, or am I tauting a concept that is just like the last one and indistinguishable from the next one. Is my manuscript at the forefront of a trend or at the tail end, or so far out in left field that agents and publishers can't get to it.

As a follow up to Monday's post, Tuesday's post at NathanBransford.blogspot.com , Following the Market, explores the power that agents and publishers have to make or break a book. That power extends not much farther than an educated guess about what the marketplace will embrace and then putting into the funnel those books which seem to fit--an agent's reputation and credibility in the industry depends on being right at least some of the time. Beyond that, there are layers upon layers of decisions being made that will make or break a book.

If Nathan can help us think more like agents and publishers, book dealers and book buyers, retailers and readers, more of us will produce original, engaging work and on-target queries that will help our work get published. There are still far more manuscripts out there than there are book contracts waiting to be signed but forewarned is forearmed, as some original thinker once said.

Thanks again Nathan for two more great posts.