It’s National November Writing Month – the month when writers around the world join in a quick-fire effort to complete a story of 50,000 words in just 30 days. I’m marking it this month by re-posting some of the material I’ve published in past years to help writers get to that goal. ++++++++++++++++++++++ It’s mid-November, … More Unblocking the muse: a few writing tricks for NaNoWriMo
On-line and off, one of the biggest challenges publishers wrestle with is colour matching. All sorts of systems have been devised to make it possible to take the special shade of blue the designer has come up with, reproduce it accurately in a proofing system, and make it reproduce just as accurately when printed. Some … More Revealing possibly the most useful publishing secret ever
I had to admit to my wife the other day the traditional publishing and bookselling industry isn’t as big as it was. Worldwide, but especially in New Zealand. Retail book sales here have dropped a compound 25 percent in the past two years, driven by a perfect storm combination of downloadable e-books and the rise of internet-driven hard-copy imports. People … More It’s not as a big as it was…reconceptualising publishing
Ever wondered what happens when a main-stream publisher receives a contracted manuscript? It’s worth knowing because even if you’re self-publishing, the process is industry standard – I’ve been through it many times, and it’s followed by everybody from Penguin Random House to some of the smaller houses I’ve published with. It’s evolved that way for … More Nine steps to professional publishing
Today I thought I’d reveal something about book binding. An ancient art – but also a modern one. And a subject that, really, authors need to know quite a bit about. The basic principle of book binding hasn’t changed for centuries. The issue is simple enough; getting individual pages – which are often printed in multiples on … More All about the ancient and modern art of book binding
If you’re intending to self-publish – or supplying a picture to your publisher that might be used in a print edition, the three terms you’re most likely to hear are ‘bleed’, ‘CMYK and ‘resolution’. They sound suitably mysterious but – as always – there’s no particular secret to them. And they apply both to potential cover … More Unravelling the mystery of making book covers
People buy books for a lot of reasons. The main one is the emotional response they get from reading. And that’s true of non-fiction as well as fiction. But that isn’t the only reason. Why buy this book and not that? Why buy at all? A lot of it, it seems to me, flows from … More The dark secret behind better book sales
Although traditional publishing is in upheaval these days, there are lessons we can learn from its processes. The new age of e-publishing hasn’t changed the need for quality control – which trad publishing has had down pat for decades. The traditional publishing process breaks down into twelve broad steps. They vary a little from publisher … More Write it now: the twelve steps to traditional publishing
Traditional book reviews – as opposed to the instant reader feedback via Amazon and so forth that we now call a ‘review’ – have almost always been written by writers. I’ve written plenty of them myself, professionally, for newspapers and lit magazines. The trick to it is abstraction. The problem with the process, certainly in … More Write it now: can authors review other authors’ work?
I’ve always held that the two or three most crucial words for any author are the first ones a reader sees – the title. Titles have to be snappy, descriptive, catchy and short. With the cover design, they can make or break a book. They have to sum up the theme or aim – and … More Write it now: title – the most vital words you’ll ever write
Matthew Wright 
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