PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2015 by Jane Friedman, Columnist, Publisher’s Weekly Early in actor Bryan Cranston’s career, when his gigs were primarily composed of guest-starring TV roles in Matlock and Murder, She Wrote, he sent postcards to casting directors about his upcoming appearances. He told the New Yorker, “I knew 99 percent of them wouldn’t watch, but …

Lately I’ve noticed that some author bios are very short—sometimes not more than one line—and say little more than “John Doe is a writer.” When I made this observation on Twitter, Atlantic editor Alexis Madrigal observed that the super-short bio is a response to widespread use of super-long bios, and Glenn Fleishman, then the editor …

Although authors can now “publish” at the click of a button, it’s not easy to get attention in a world of cognitive surplus. Accordingly, more and more, respect tends to go toward authors who earn the attention of readers, rather than to those who pass muster with the traditional publishing gatekeepers. Most authors—before realizing that …

Authors hear the refrain from publishers—“Build your platform! Build your platform!” But building it is only the beginning. After that, it’s important to know how a platform is performing. Every platform is different (we are all unique individuals), but here are three specific kinds of numbers that can come in handy when evaluating the size, …