The Spur & The Sash: Love and Displacement in the Civil War
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August 3, 2011

Robert Grede’s first novel has all the makings of a rollicking good story. Based on the life of Sergeant George Van Norman, Grede’s great-great-grandfather, The Spur & The Sash seamlessly combines fiction and fact. The facts, Grede tells us, are these: “Sergeant George Van Norman, a Yankee, was wounded in one of the last battles of the American Civil War, at Nashville(December 15th and 16th,… [Read More]

A Matchmaking Tool: Publisher’s Marketplace
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July 17, 2011

Swenson Book Development, LLC works to match an author’s project with an agent or publisher. Our success in doing so makes many people wonder how we do it. Drawing back the curtain on the Wizards of Bookery, we reveal one of the methods employed in our toolkit to serve our clients’ objectives. Publisher’s Marketplace is the largest online network of publishing professionals. Our professional subscription… [Read More]

Think you should self-publish? Think again.
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July 2, 2011

Authors and Publishers and Agents mash it up in new ways as the book business gets remade. The reallocation of risks and rewards happens as self-publishing, e-books, and the current economies of scale with new digital technologies encroaches on the crumbling financial houses of traditional publishing. Agents without advances these days from trade publishers now retool to manage and administrate the self-publishing initiatives of authors…. [Read More]

Listen to Blog Talk Radio Books
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June 23, 2011

If you are an author who wants to get published, you need a website, blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms. Publishers expect the author to play the primary role in social media marketing. You can hem and haw, but most book professionals are going to insist you build your author brand online. Luckily, Swenson Book Development, LLC assists authors with their… [Read More]

Danielle Sherwood is the reader on the book beat
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June 12, 2011

When Jill Swenson asked me to write a 500 word post for Swenson Book Development LLC book blog, I was apprehensive. For one, writing creatively has never been one of my strengths. But writing critiques, doing research, and procrastinating are. Helping others write is why I want to work in book publishing. Even if the publishing industry is struggling. I refuse to say publishing is… [Read More]

Publishers “higher standards” excludes authors at BEA
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May 31, 2011

“Attendance at BookExpo America last week, including BlogWorld, was 23,067. Excluding BlogWorld, whose participants were not included in last year’s attendance figures, attendance was 21,664, down just 255, or 1.2%, from 21,919 in 2010. BEA emphasized that this year’s slightly lower number reflected higher standards: the show “strategically vetted more attendee groups to improve the quality of those participating in BEA.” One resulting major change:… [Read More]

How Authors Can Overcome the 10 Mistakes Big Publishers Make
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February 18, 2011

So you want to get your book published, but your chances of securing a contract with a big publisher continue to diminish and they bleed financially. Amazon undercuts the publishers’ price; making it increasingly difficult to recover production costs. Borders files for bankruptcy this week while the small and independent bookstores of Main Street continue to close up shop. J.E. Fishman of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania,… [Read More]

Writer’s Rejoice!
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February 8, 2011

News that AOL is buying the Huffington Post for $315 million is an indication that internet content actually matters. With 25 million users monthly, The Huffington Post is the brainchild of Arianna Huffington. She pulled readers to the Post with her branded content. It’s a new model for news and publishing. This business buyout follows the successful appointment of Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker,… [Read More]

2011 Guide to Literary Agents
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February 2, 2011

The 2oth anniversity edition of this Writer’s Digest Book seems a bit leaner than in previous years; despite new articles, hundreds of listings for writers’ conferences, and fresh material on this rapidly changing business. Nearly a third of the book is dedicated to how-to and background information for authors on finding the right agent for your work. The second third of the reference guide offers 550… [Read More]

Sticky wickets on book sales
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January 29, 2011

Barnes & Noble,  Borders, and thousands of small and independent book stores are struggling to pay their bills, including bills to publishers. Big commercial publishers are still in sticker shock that the old profit margins and traditional ways of doing business are gone. But everyone loves books.   Even GE.  Their extension of credit to Barnes & Noble to keep things alive a few more months in this… [Read More]