1. Publishing a book takes a really, really long time.
2. Authors have almost no say in the design of their book jacket or cover art.
3. Sometimes getting the title right comes down to the wire.
4. The blurbs on books can tell you more about an author’s connections and personal life than you think.
5. When an author’s photo is featured on the book jacket, it is usually because they are good looking.
6. If you read the acknowledgements in books you will find out a lot about an authors connections and their personal life. You will also gain insight into who they had read their book before publishing, other than their editor.
7. Not all authors have mastered the art of writing yet, and they utilize many people in order to assist them on their journey to success.
8. The editor and agent make more contributions to the book than you may think.
A lot of great books have been vastly changed, cut down, or redrafted by their editors. This makes some wonder at what point do the contributions of the editor, if they are substantial enough, become co-authoring?
9. Every author-editor relationship is unique.
Each author needs a certain amount of attention and guidance while creating their work and each editor has a specific way they edit and work. Most editors have to teach their new authors how to not be overly needy throughout the revision process.
These are really insightful! It’s funny that the author of Jaws only decided on the title twenty minutes before the books were printed!