It's important for authors to hold themselves in high esteem, by making comparisons of their writing to success stories. That is why I like to sit down with the writers I work with and nail down what the comparative or competitive book titles to their manuscript might be, before making a submission to editors at publishing houses. We in the industry casually refer to this as asking what the "comps" are (short for comparative or competitive book titles). These are books in the current publishing marketplace that are similar and successful. It's not just about simply saying that a book or author is not unique—it's about celebrating how great a potential publication could be...

First Impressions Are Everything: Using Social Media Banners to Promote Books

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but people often do, and that's one of the reasons why first impressions will likely leave a lasting impression. Why else would stores such as Macy's make elaborate storefront arrangements? It's often to draw customers into the store.

Using Google News Alerts to Grow an Author's Career

Welcome to my first blog post on Talking Books with Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb! I've created this blog as a way to share helpful tips and tools with authors to grow their online presence. For this first post, I'd like to focus on one of the many methods I use with my book publishing clients to help further grow their careers.