Publishing Insights — September 2025

Dear Friends, 

Fall has arrived!  And for those of us in publishing, we know what that means. While publishers take much of August off and head to the Hamptons, we editors are supporting authors with book deadlines in Sept and are hard at work. With many manuscripts due in September, summer is always a flurry of activity.   

And even better? Many agents pitch prospective books in Sept when editors return, so proposals need to be ready to go. It’s crazy, but fun and reminds me why I love what I do. New ideas! Problem solving! Seeing books come to life. Thinking of a book or book idea? Now is the time to start on a book to have it ready for next year. Let’s talk and work on some ideas!  

With that last long weekend at the lake finished, it’s time for a few more warm late summer days and end of year projects.  Here’s what I’m thinking about these days. 

Developing a Personal Curriculum:  We start strong with this amazing column from Creatives Anonymous on how to develop a personal curriculum. Whether it’s for back to school or to improve an area of your life, the latest trend in personal development is design a personal program of study. Always wanted to read the classics? Study philosophy? Dive deep into an area of history or learn a new technology? What about master a cooking technique or start a new language? The idea is work exploring and there’s no better time to start.  

Provide Positive Feedback: I just finished a massive project to two of the best clients in the world (literally – they’re across continents.) In a reflective exercise, I analyzed why they were so terrific and one thing I discovered was their feedback style. Sometimes clients, especially busy executive leaders, can be distant. When they review text, they can be terse and you can receive their comments as faults or unhappiness with their work. But, this set of clients was different because of their feedback style. They offered praise. For every 10 comments asking for a fix, they would add one or two “I love this line” or “this sums up our entire concept really well.”  Those comments gave me a much needed boost as I slogged through revisions and let me know I was on the right course. Sometimes ghostwriters get it wrong, but it’s really nice when a client points out what we got right. 

Work Life Balance and the Detachment Paradox: To cap off your Labor Day weekend, this intriguing study from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business sums up much of what is happening in the American workforce. While employers want to promote a work life balance, they increasingly want employees electronically available more of the time. The conclusion?  Employees who detach or disconnect from work fully aren’t seen as dedicated to the company or valued by managers. How does one create a balance if the demand is that they’re consistently connected?  More on the study and the Harvard Business Review article from Axios. 

The War on Integrity:  It matters.  It’s shocking how few people have it – and now, in an environment where people get fired because the boss doesn’t like or understand the data, it becomes more important than ever.  When confronted with a demand, at what point does personal integrity take over? Jobs are important, yes, but how you do that job matters. In the past year, I’ve heard more stories from friends who were asked to take questionable action at their jobs. Are we becoming a society driven by winning at all costs? There may be tough choices to make but just remember that personal integrity still matters. 

More Notes on AI: I know I promised a deep dive into AI at some point, but now is not that time, for a wide variety of reasons. (Maybe this winter, when I have a little time.) With that said, I’ll only note that: 

• Re-writing is key. No matter how good you are at structuring your queries (query engineering, it’s called), you have to review, cover gaps and do the work. 

• No matter how good you are at asking AI to mimic your style, you still need an editor.  

• When you work with a professional editor, he or she should be knowledgeable about AI construction and help you eliminate tells from your writing. There are loads of tells.  

It’s largely fine if you use AI to help you create a study guide, find holes in your logic (or plot), to identify key areas or concepts you missed, or reframe ideas in context. But it’s not OK if you just cut and pasted the writing to your chapter document or school paper and did little else. AI text needs to be redrafted, integrated into your voice and other work, and scrubbed very, very clean. 

What AI is NOT:  I just finished James Frey’s Next to Heaven, which came out this summer.  Frey, who manages to always be in trouble with the Literati (or, in this case BookTok), has been lambasted for his use of AI in the book. His crime? Using AI for subject specific research and to flesh out a few characters as he notes in an English-language interview with France’s Centre Pompidou magazine. As a professional, those are not crimes. It’s smart use of the tool, especially as he used the notes for background. It hasn’t stopped a few purist reviewers from branding him as an AI author, which he most definitely is not. AI couldn’t write anything as hilariously funny and clever as Next to Heaven, which I highly recommend.

Hybrid Publishers Are Having a Moment: As many authors are discovering, the publishing business has changed a lot in the past 10 years. Self-publishing is no longer a negative vanity press but a tool for a job. Traditional publishers are for different projects, ones with a significant time and financial commitment for the author. And in between are hybrid publishers. Clients of mine are working with hybrid publisher Morgan James Publishing and I’ve been impressed with their sophisticated process. They have an incredibly low acceptance rate which means their list of 150 titles a year is highly curated. They do require an author commitment, but with that financial buy-in comes a significant amount of coaching, instruction, guidance, and help to make their books a success. This model is a good one and I’ll be curious to see how it works out for my clients.  

Rules for Author Changes: Writing and editing can be highly personal and receiving feedback from authors or clients can send you into a tailspin. (I’ve been there!) But recently, I read something from a young editor dealing with authors who rejected every edit she made. Since I’ve been deep in manuscript revisions in this past month, I considered how I handle author pushback to edits or suggested changes and what advice I would give about when an author is unhappy.  

• Don’t get defensive. 

• Do offer alternative solutions. 

• Don’t die on a hill even though you know you’re correct. 

• Do try to educate the author about why you made the recommended editing decisions you did. 

• Own up to mistakes. They happen, admit it and move on 

• Know when to let it go. Sometimes an author demands the change and you just have to let it go. 

• Sometimes you can trade a needed edit or something bigger. (Editors who’ve worked with me know I call this a “Shake and Bake”. Let me know if you want to know why and I’ll put it in a future newsletter!)

What Dan Read: Take a minute to check out this charming story from the Smithsonian magazine about a Dan Pelzer who died in July at 92. Amazingly, Dan kept a list of every book he read since 1962. His family published it upon his death and it’s 3599 amazing books that detail a life. This list and project will make your day. You an see the list for yourself at What Dan Read.

Fall is here and so is the time to book editors and writers.  Have manuscripts due to your publisher? Has your agent asked you for a proposal? Need someone to help you get your book across the finish line?  Reach out for a call and we’ll make an assessment together.  Together, we will refine your concept and get a book ready for market.  

Let’s work together this winter.  I’m currently booking clients for Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. 

Renee  

Music: Just back from the weekend with friends and my playlist is full of French pop, dance-able chill and French cafe classics.   

Books: Finishing up The Mirror and the Light, book 3 of Hilary Mantel’s incredible Wolf Hall series about Thomas Cromwell.  Reading slowly since, well, we know how it ends.  

Travel: France this fall for our annual wine trip to Burgundy in November. Looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones!