Welcome to Spring!
Spring is here – at least in my neck of the woods, and I couldn’t be happier! The windows are open, tree leaves are budding (and allergies along with them), and the temps have finally notched into the non-coat range. In Indianapolis, it also means the start of the Indy 500 season. We celebrate the entire month of May starting with Kentucky Derby weekend and finishing with race celebrations on Memorial Day.
May also signals the beginning of a flurry of ideas, meetings, and potential clients as well! Maybe it’s getting clear or Q1 or maybe it’s the desire to start on annual goals, but it’s the season of authors, ideas, and publishing projects.
My latest insights:
The Other Bennett Sister: It’s been such a pleasure having a bit of time to write about books I love! My latest from Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty, an analysis and review of The Other Bennett Sister. I’ve also polished up the proposal for a new cookbook based on life and times of Adam Smith (and my What Adam Smith Ate columns.) It’s a bit academic, but these days, we could all stand to learn a little more about how Smith’s economic theories affect what we eat. And check out my latest – What Harriet Martineau Ate – paying homage to Martineau’s explanations of Smith’s concepts through food, of course.
Finding Clarity in Travel: A friend sent me an article from the New York Times (the link now lost to time) on how we enter a magical holding pattern in airports, especially when we encounter delays or other wrinkles. The author perfectly described that disconnected feeling and losing sense of time as we find a lounge or airport bar, sometimes meeting locals for an impromptu party. But I love that limbo. It’s almost restful. With our routines and noise stripped away, we can give ourselves permission to take a break and just go with the flow before returning to our regularly scheduled lives with a little clarity.
What else can we learn from travel? Here are 5 Leadership Lessons I’ve learned from travel over the years that you can put to work, too!
The Simple Joy of Everyday Tasks: Dinners at my house involve a lot of wine glasses. So, it was no surprise this gorgeous essay from author Dwight Garner spoke to me as a joyous ode to doing the dishes – specifically, washing the wine glasses. His description of those delicate stems set aside for morning wash duty is perfect as he captures the zen experience of drawing a sink of hot water with our wine glass polisher. He celebrates the simple, uncomplicated joy of everyday tasks. Just a beautiful piece of writing.
Deep Talk Is Better than Small Talk: Everyone says you need to learn the art of small talk, but I’d rather have a deeper discussion. Isn’t there value in discussing ideas and writing, philosophy and deep thoughts? I think so, but then again, I’m not always great to get stuck with at parties. Writer Arthur C. Brooks might not be either as he explores the art of conversation and why even science says we should focus on deep thoughts and getting to know people, instead of the perfecting our skills at small talk. His brilliant article in the Atlantic is worth a read.
Embracing AI: A publishing newsletter suggesting we embrace AI? Slow down, there, Tex. There are a lot of ways to approach this new technology and how its tools can make us better every day. While I know those in the academic space are dealing with a whole host of problems, those of us in the private sector are learning AI can help in a number of ways when it comes to structure and concepts. However, if you’re writing original content for publication, you should be aware of the difference between using AI to offer suggestions and using AI to draft your text. If you’re going to use AI to draft, you must rewrite reconstructing paragraphs for grammar, phraseology, and redundancy. If you don’t, your editor can suss out unedited Chat GPT text a mile away based on tell-tale bridges, words, and paragraph constructions. It’s great for generating ideas, but AI isn’t a great writer … yet. And if you’re querying, know that Query Tracker/Query Manager asks you to certify that your book wasn’t created by AI. It’s a useful tool, but don’t use it to write your manuscript.
Understanding Publishing Norms: Last month, I reviewed a project and decided wasn’t a great fit for me. Two weeks later, the author emailed asking me to ensure I deleted his work from my computer or he would ask me to sign an NDA. While I regularly clean-up files, new or unpublished authors shouldn’t worry that a publishing professional is going to steal their work. Publishing is held together by a solid trust among authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Worrying that an editor is going to steal your work is a bit of a red flag – and possibly an indicator of more difficulties to come. Publishing can be a tricky industry to navigate for those who don’t feel like they’re on the “inside” but know there is some etiquette. Ultimately, as Friedman says, trust your editor.
Self Publishing Review has a nice article on why you shouldn’t ask your editor to sign an NDA. (I’ll add a caveat that I make an exception when the work is for a private client.)
Literary agent Jane Friedman has 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Ask Your Editor to Sign an NDA.
Referrals: It’s the perfect time of year to schedule chats with colleagues to broaden the range of referrals I can make for clients. While I can help clients refine their concepts, outlines, proposals, and manuscripts, I can also refer them colleagues for services I don’t provide including copy editing, page design and layout, publicity, marketing, and even, now, intellectual property coverage. Authors don’t need to file copyrights specifically, but many authors have branded content that extends to multiple books, seminars, speaking, corporate ID, and more. I can make referrals for:
- Copy Editing
- Production Editing
- Layout (via a production editor)
- Marketing and Publicity – post publication (at a variety of levels)
- Intellectual Property Protection (useful if you have a portfolio of branded product offerings)
And, due to popular demand, we may have a publishing contract specialist available for referrals in the next year.
What can I do for you? I was reflecting the other day on last year’s Grand Experiment working remotely for 5 weeks! I came home refreshed – energized and ready to go for the year. I’m still feeling the same way as the weather improves and we settle into spring.
Agents, publishers, and authors, let’s make your project a reality. Need a manuscript overhauled or some help getting it put together? Pitched an idea to an agent who wants a detailed proposal? Need a custom book or project for clients, partners or your corporate community? Let’s make it happen – from concept to proposal to manuscript. Want to create a cookbook or business book for your corporate community? Need a navigator for the publishing process? I can help. Let’s schedule a one-on-one.
Looking forward to working with you in 2025!
Warm regards,
Renee Wilmeth
For more on my areas of expertise and a contact form, visit my website.
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What I’m Reading: Did you know that Hugo’s Les Miserables is longer than War and Peace? It’s an epic and worth every hour. We’ll do a 6-session VRG in October!
What I Learned Last Month: I sat back down to watercolors. Feels good to be painting again inspired by spring florals.
Best Thing I Saw Last Month: Was so pleased to receive the hardcopy of my cookbook from last year, Gather — a gorgeous, hardbound beauty we concepted, created, wrote, and published for an amazing client’s international community. Thanks, Ashby Technologies! It looks fantastic!
What I’ve Been Working On: A gorgeous new cookbook on Central Asian cuisine from food writer Anna Ansazi (publishing in October).
What I’ve Been Listening To: A lot of REM and some 80s New Wave. Maybe it’s the musical equivalent of comfort food?
Connecting. Creating. 
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