If there were some easy ways to be more productive as a writer, would you want to know about them? If so, read on. “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” —W. Somerset Maugham In the above quote, Maugham is getting at one of the critical distinctions between professional working writers and, well, everyone else (which here includes students, hobbyists, people who don’t write at all, and those who approach you at parties, mildly drunk and grinning, to tell you that they hate writing because it’s too hard, but they’ve actually got THE MOST AMAZING IDEA EVER for a novel or screenplay – do you want to hear about it?). If you think of yourself as a working writer, or you aspire to that, then it’s worth considering the following seven hacks to help you be more productive: 1)  Separate writing into these distinct processes: WRITING: creating your narrative, finding the story, working through plot points, discovering character and voice, etc. EDITING: reading your work critically, and marking it the hell up REWRITING: taking your critical notes from editing, and rewriting to make your story stronger TYPING: if you’re able to write longhand, save the task of typing for days/times when you’re too exhausted to do anything else. It takes little thinking power, but still counts as writing. 2)  Pick one project and stick with it until it’s finished. Productivity suffers when writers flit from project to project. The good stuff always…

Hi. I’m Jill and I’m an editor. I enable writers. I mainline books like a junkie. I free base text into prose. I’m always jonesing for a good story. Yes, I’m hooked on grammar. I get a tremendous high when one of my writer’s books gets a starred review in Kirkus, featured in the New York Times or pops up as a question on Jeopardy. What a rush. Almost eight years ago I invented this job as a free-lance developmental book editor right at the time when publishers downsized editorial staff and expected authors to hire their own editors. One of the rewards of my job is learning new things from my writers. Did you know on Mars the duration of a solar day is called a “sol” and takes 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds? I didn’t. Who knew that Confederate soldiers burned the town and sacked the banks in St. Albans, Vermont? Not me. Or letters found in an antique shop in Stillwater, Minnesota, were written by a French catholic metalworker the Nazis conscripted to work in a Daimler factory? Writers come to me looking for a midwife to help them give birth to their books. If they’ve got a compelling story, I’ll help turn a good idea into a great book. But that’s not always possible. The most difficult part of my job is when I have to deliver bad news. No, your manuscript is not ready for publication. Hey, doctors sometimes have to tell a…

This summer Samantha Kolb completed an internship with Swenson Book Development LLC. Here she shares some of what she learned in the last 10 weeks. As an English major, I have learned to endure perplexed looks when family and friends ask what my major is. I have also learned to gracefully answer no to the follow-up question; “Oh, are you going to be an English teacher?” As far as teaching English is concerned, it is a noble profession and I applaud all who will take up that torch. My answer is that I  am interested in a career in publishing after college. As a summer intern for Swenson Book Development L.L.C, I have learned four things every English major should know about publishing. Publishing is a Business. It isn’t just about reading manuscripts and turning them into books. There’s a business aspect that doesn’t seem to come to mind when thinking about what to do with an English major. Contracts need to be reviewed, market research to be completed, submission guidelines to follow. While editing manuscripts certainly is part of the process of publishing a book, that is only a small percentage of what is involved with publishing a book. Distribution, profit-loss statements, copyright royalties, and sales are as important to understand as grammar and punctuation.  I learned about Publisher’s Marketplace where I can gain access to job postings and a database of agents, publishers, editors, and lists of book deals. Read. It seems like a simple request, but part…