Think Like a Publisher: 33 Essential Tips to Write, Promote, and Sell Your Book

In today's publishing world, it's increasingly important for authors to know not only how to write but how to sell their work to agents, publishers, and readers. This book does a good job of putting together all the pieces of publishing that authors need to know and doing so as succinctly as possible. Randy Davila, the author, knows of what he speaks. He is the president of Hampton Roads and Hierophant publishing, and is also the author of a spiritual novel. He tells what he has experienced working from both sides of the publishing desk. Most of the chapters--or "tips"--are short, around 500 to 700 words. Happily, he doesn't spend a lot of time belaboring each point. FYI, I wear some of the same hats Davila wears, as the author of several books on writing, including  Write from the Heart : Unleashing the Power of Your Creativity and as a novelist  Spirit Circle: A Story of Adventure & Shamanic Revelation . In my work as an editor and publishing consultant/editor, I've seen many first-time authors fail to find publishers, or fail to succeed as self-publishers, because they don't know the basics of publishing which are now highly accessible in Davila's book. While I have a slightly different slant on a number of issues that Davila discusses here, I highly recommend his book for writers, editors, agents, marketing consultants, publicists, and booksellers. Yes, some will argue that all of this is available on the internet but there's something to be said for having it all in one neat package that you can hold in your hand.

I highly recommend this book to anyone planning to publish anything in any format.This book is highly readable- something you can't say about all the books in this category. It is concise, there's really not a word wasted (one of the tips, by the way). It is not a technical manual for writers.Randy Davila knows his subject - he works in the field. He gives tips for both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and e-publishing, and examples from his experience.Even someone who has read other books on publishing, has done any research or just thought about the topic will find something useful here. Personally, I had given some time to the subject before reading this book, so about half of the information wasn't entirely new. For instance, the tip on covers and cover design didn't provide much new information for me. On the other hand, the tips on platform building and interviews were a goldmine.Even the parts that I had researched contained a lot of practical information. I would say that, of the topics I had some knowledge of, a good 50% or more was presented from a new perspective or was previously unknown to me.If you intend to charge other people to read your work, read Th!nk Like A Publisher. It's very much worth the investment, and that is what it is - an investment in the future of your work! It _will_ give you back more than you spend on it.

Since I was a small child, books and publishing have always fascinated me. Yet it had this vague air to the entire process. I was an inner city kid and no one I knew was published or just wrote for the sheer joy of it. I understood someone was writing books and someone was publishing them. When I began my freshman year in college, I finally met others who had this joy for writing. The internet was not available to the public at that time, so access to the type of information we needed to succeed was secluded to bookstores, libraries, phone calls, traditional mail, and word of mouth.Randy Davila’s book cleared up this process for me, even after all these years. The frustration of my writing journey was receiving conflicting information over the years, sometimes through unsolicited advice from unpublished writers and professors.He rekindled my belief that publishing with a traditional publisher is possible for any person who genuinely puts in the work. His experience as an author shines throughout the pages and you can feel his compassion for authors just by reading the book.I am the first person in my family to publish a book. Sure I have read countless books, articles, and blog posts since my teen years on publishing and writing a book proposal. So some of the information here I knew, but review is good for the soul. When you take your craft seriously, you know you must keep up to date on things you have knowledge of.Some things like in Tip #21 where Davila mentioned getting access to BookScan (sales data) on your Amazon.com author profile. I was out of the loop with this one, I surely didn’t know. I then checked it out on my Amazon author profile. And what makes a book a best seller? I didn’t know the answer. These pieces may seem obvious to some, but with me coming from a background where no one seemed to know about these things, I was grateful to learn this and several other tidbits.If a book this clear was available in the 90’s, I would be further ahead in my publishing knowledge and it would have saved me a lot of headaches. I bought the kindle version, so I took physical notes to read use as a reference. I can be confident my twelve-year-old will understand these tips and be better prepared for her writing career.Buying Mr. Davila’s book is a necessary yet truly inexpensive investment into your writing career. I’ve been writing for years and I can tell you picking up publishing information crumbs for two decades to compile them together yourself is no fun. I especially recommend this book for writers who do not have writing mentors, published friends, and/or an encouraging writing circle.Love Blessings, Sandra

Publishing and marketing has changed drastically over the years and since the arrival of the digital age but at last...the author's DREAM book! Thank you, Mr. Davila.

Think Like a Publisher has a wonderful feeling of encouragement and empowerment alongside all the amazing first hand information that makes publishing for a new writer a whole lot clearer! Randy Davila provides the knowledge that affirms where you are in the process and he makes it easy to focus on the next steps. Thank you

It says what it’s called

Quickly delivered, clear and helpful

Excellent book for new authors & anyone who creates music or photography books. I am in the process of creating a DVD Pictorial about L'Anse aux Meadows, NL. I am ready to release my eBook on the same subject next week. This book has many good tips. Wendy Nuttall Photography is the publisher,author & photographer, Thank you Randy Davila. I am so glad I found 'Think Like A Publisher'