Posts by Michael
The Editor’s Job is to Ask Questions
I was talking with one of my editors this morning. She was worried her edits would not be helpful to the author. Her doubt stemmed from all the issues she’d flagged in the manuscript, like repetitive language, anachronistic details, and certain scenes that might ring false to readers informed on the topic. Because she didn’t…
Read MoreThree Things to Remember When Publishing a Memoir
In this guest author post, memoirist Amy Sazama, author of Fleetwood Dreams, reflects on her own writing, publishing, and promoting experience. In 2024, I am publishing my memoir Fleetwood Dreams, recounting growing up and including the tragic loss of my mom and murder of my twin brother. The whole process, from starting to write to…
Read MoreWhat Percentage of Publisher Compensation Goes to Authors?
Big news! In time for our March royalty payments, I have completed our new royalty calculation tool. It’s all coded in the statistical programming language R, my programming language of choice. And it gives what I believe is unprecedented transparency in royalty calculations. Our authors can now see exactly the amount of compensation we received…
Read MoreAmazing Things Can Happen When Selling Your Books!
In this guest author post, author Jean Huxtable-Hamersky shares her experiences selling her book Parker’s Pumpkin at farmer’s markets and similar fairs. Not everyone likes selling their books face to face, but I enjoy the personal interaction much more than online selling. This comes somewhat from my 35 years as a speech-language pathologist working with…
Read MoreAnnouncing Our New Office Space!
Orange Hat Publishing has new office space for work and meetings! You can find us at 11803 W North Ave, Suite 204, in Wauwatosa, WI! Orange Hat has had many homes over our nearly 14 years in business. One spot that was extra special was our suite in downtown Waukesha in the Thrive Architects building.…
Read MoreUnderstanding Wholesale Discounts
One choice authors need to consider when publishing a book through Orange Hat is the wholesale discount they want to offer resellers (like bookstores). The wholesale discount is the sale price to resellers, the percent off the retail price and thus the profit earned by the store when someone buys the book. For example, offering…
Read MoreFrom the Archives: Call Your Work a Draft to Accept Criticism More Easily
If you call your work a draft, then you come to expect feedback and are more ready to make edits.
Read MoreMiddle Grade Magic
In this guest post, author Laura Anne Bird (Crossing the Pressure Line and Marvelous Jackson) shares what she loves most about middle grade fiction. I can’t think of one grown-up who wouldn’t benefit from reading a middle-grade novel. But why would an adult want to crack open a book written for eight- to twelve-year-olds? Because…
Read MoreOn Writing Slim, A Technique for Productive Writing
All credit to author Colleen Behnke for the term “writing slim.” She mentioned it to me as we discussed working together to publish her middle grade novel Marshmallow. I had asked her about her approach to writing, and she said she tends to “write slim.” I immediately connected to the term. It reminded me of…
Read MoreHow Well Do Ebooks Sell?
It’s royalty time here at Orange Hat Publishing! We have a new system that I’ve built for handling all the data and calculating what is owed. I wrote it all in the statistical programming language R, because that’s the programming language I’m most familiar with. It does a pretty good job handling datasets, and our…
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