22 Comments

Thank you. Very helpful

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My copy of The Bell Jar has deckled edges. I adore that book!

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Thanks for this primer. Great idea. Can you explain the term "hybrid memoir"? I've written the story of ny son's near death at 15 after years of medical error but from my POV. Is that a hybrid memoir or narrative nonfiction?

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I think people use hybrid memoir to mean "memoir + something else" like memoir + a little fiction (which I think is tricky tbh) or Memoir + recipes? Honestly, I think it's a gray area and there's no solid definition. Your book sounds like like a memoir plain and simple. It's about YOUR experience of this event, more or less.

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Thank you.

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This is a great guide!

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Thank you, Kate, for your patient explanations. I'm not your patient, but you know what I mean!

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Theme park rights!? As in your book becomes a ride? Ha!

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I mean, Harry Potter has a whole world at disney and it was a book first!!

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Right! It's wild that it's in the contract though, at least to me

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Yes Kate this was helpful. I too like decked edges, didn't know that's what it's called.

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Very helpful.

Two other terms which seem to confuse many people (at least in Facebook writing groups) are 'blurb' and 'synopsis'.

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Yep! And there's multiple means of blurb! Sometimes it can mean the same, or close to, synopsis!

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thanks, this was helpful! Congrats on your 30k subscribers!

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Thanks, Kate! What about revert clauses, or reversion clauses?

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That’s a good one! And not a small topic. I’ll flag it for a future post! In short, though, a reversion clause outlines when an author would get their rights back, for any number of reasons, including if the publisher doesn’t publish it in a certain time frame, the book goes out of print, or lots of other reasons.

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I'm very interested in what you have to say about option clauses. Thank you!

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Spredges? O. M. G.

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I love the publishing terms!

You should make it into word finder search.

Hand it out at your panels & speaking events.

One of my authors made a word finder for her THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND -- her book on all things nautical.

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OMG I LOVE THIS IDEA. THank you!

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Thanks for this excellent information! So glad I’m signed up for your Substack! Sorry I can’t move up to paid. I am retired academic unlimited income, so I appreciate the free option.❤️🥰😊🙏

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