After you’ve written a book, what happens when you turn it over to your editor to be published? Suddenly, after months or years of being alone with your work, you’re suddenly subjected to outside feedback and faced with some major decisions regarding packaging, like choosing a title and subtitle and commissioning a cover. These steps are perhaps the most critical to how your book will look to the world—and the final decisions are not always within your control if you’re going the traditional publishing route.

In this episode, Jennifer and Kimberly share insights and war stories from working with editors and publishers on a book. They offer thoughts on when to push back on editorial decisions, how to haggle about titles and subtitles, when to ask your agent to step into a conflict between you and your publisher, and how covers come to be. 

Cover designs discussed:

• Everything I Need to Know: I Learned from a Chick Flick
• Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted
• Seinfeldia
• The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch
• Why? Because We Still Like You