Bill O’Reilly

The Ploughshares Round-Down: Publishing Isn’t Dead

The Ploughshares Round-Down: Publishing Isn’t Dead

There’s an old joke in publishing about consultants, though it’s probably rooted in truth. A new executive hires a prestigious firm to spend months on an expensive deep dive, and they come back, excited, with one key insight: “You should publish more bestsellers, and fewer books that aren’t bestsellers.” Why didn’t we think of that?…

The Ploughshares Round-Down: How To Screw Up A Book Proposal

The Ploughshares Round-Down: How To Screw Up A Book Proposal

When I first start working on a proposal or a manuscript with a writer, I tell them I have two stages of advice: breaking things and fixing things. At first, I’m going to keep asking hard questions and recommending big changes, until I think the writer has said what that writer wanted to say. Once we’ve gotten all…