Throughout our “Ghostwriting Confidential” series, we’ve addressed several prevailing misconceptions among first-time authors, from the cost of ghostwriters’ work to why it’s so hard to get an agent and when hybrid publishing is the right way forward. In this latest installation of Straight Talk for New Authors, we’re addressing the range of additional costs that you may not have planned for but should certainly explore as line items in your project budget. Our goal is to provide information to authors about the publishing process, so authors go in with their eyes open and set their budgets accordingly.
Emma Eisenberg recently learned the hard way something that a growing number of non-fiction authors are encountering: big trade publishers don’t pay for fact-checking. Writing about her experience in Esquire, Eisenberg said, “I felt the anxiety of getting something wrong grip my stomach. I could hurt someone, open myself up to lawsuits, or just make a reader lose confidence in everything I had to say. Getting my book fact-checked was not optional.” She concluded by arguing that it is in the publishers’ interest to front this cost. “The more we ask the big, shifty questions about power and privilege and truth, the more our foundation must be rock solid. Editors must insist on fact checking budgets for their authors,” she noted.
She makes a great point, but a quick fact-check of publishing trends indicates that it will fall on deaf ears. Indeed, the sad reality is that a range of supports and services that authors used to count on from major trade publishers — such as developmental editing and publicity — are either being minimized or cut out completely. This comes as a shock, much as it did to Eisenberg, to many of the first-time authors we are engaging with.
To help reset author expectations, we are devoting this installment of our Ghostwriting Confidential: Straight Talk for New Authors blog series to what trade publishers both typically do and increasingly don’t do. Our goal is to provide an honest, independent accounting of the services that non-fiction authors in particular are increasingly being asked to pay for themselves, so they can go into the publishing process with their eyes open and set their budgets accordingly.
Here are tips to help authors better understand the publishing process, particularly when it comes to fact-checking, editing, and publicity.
Consider adding a budget line for fact-checking. Don’t count on your editor to ferret out incorrect facts, because even the sharpest eyed wordsmiths can’t catch everything. Your publishing house may employ a lawyer, but that person will review your book for potential defamation in an effort to prevent the publisher from being sued. The peer-review system used by university presses can help find errors, but not all of them. In short, consider a fact-checking line item in your project budget.
Learn about the role of a developmental editor. There are at least a dozen different kinds of editors, and a developmental editor can play a pivotal role. They are experts who review a manuscript to improve its structure and content. Typically they step in once a writer has taken their manuscript as far as they can. The developmental editor works with the author to strengthen, enrich, and sharpen the book’s prose. They help to ensure that the work reflects an author’s vision. For many authors, especially those working with a hybrid publisher, a skilled developmental editor can make the difference between success and disappointment.
Understand a damaging misconception about publicity. Some new authors believe that publicizing their book is less important than writing and publishing it. Far too many fail to invest the same time, resources, and effort that they put into writing their book into publicizing it. This is a big mistake, and it can be avoided. In a recent Straight Talk article, we offered six tips for how to publicize your book. Additional insights about how PR can add considerable value to your publishing experience can also be gleaned in the Business Book ROI Study we recently co-sponsored.
In short, authors should regard fact-checking, book publicity, and working with a developmental editor as a career investment — and can benefit from the opportunities and credentials a factually accurate, carefully structured, and well-publicized book can offer.
