Humorous & Real-world Insights from a 25-year Journey in Publishing
Wry, practical survival guide for today’s authors
A compact, seriously unserious guide to surviving and thriving in the modern publishing world—warts, weirdness, and all. Pauline Baird Jones distills 25 years of real-world experience, early-digital pioneering, and hard-won war stories into laugh-out-loud lessons and actionable tactics for authors who want to run their writing like a business.
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Real, Wry, Business-Savvy
Advice for Authors
You’ll get blunt, tactical guidance on rights, contracts, royalties, KU vs. wide distribution, formatting, covers, and marketing—plus what actually moves the needle (and what’s a distraction). This is practical, step-by-step counsel for authors who want to protect their rights, maximize income, and make publishing decisions with confidence.Pauline’s voice blends no-nonsense strategy with self-deprecating humor: an early tech adopter turned seasoned publisher who’s lived through traditional, indie, and small-press trenches. Written for aspiring and mid-career authors, indie/self-published writers, and anyone tired of gatekeeper confusion, this book offers relief, validation, and the straight talk you won’t always get from the pundits.Read this and you’ll move from frustrated guesswork to a clear, practical publishing playbook—with laughs along the way.
The Author’s Odyssey: A 25-Year Guide to Publishing, with Humor and Hard-Won Advice
Pauline Baird Jones shares wry, practical lessons from a quarter-century of being a published author — for newcomers and seasoned pros alike.
The Author’s Odyssey is a seriously unserious guide to the strange, rewarding, and sometimes bewildering life of being an author today. Pauline Baird Jones blends memoir, practical instruction, and wry commentary to map the twists and turns she’s navigated across twenty-five years of publishing. From early tech experiments to modern self-publishing strategies, this book gives you the context and the laughs to survive—and thrive—in a shifting industry.
Perfect for aspiring authors, mid-career writers, and anyone curious about how a writing life actually looks, this book delivers timely advice on craft, career management, and the business of books. Pauline pulls back the curtain on agents, editors, contracts, backlists, and marketing while offering concrete tools and mindset shifts that readers can apply immediately. Expect candid stories, unexpected lessons, and a reminder that a sustainable author career rarely follows the “dream deal” script.
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Pauline Baird Jones is a longtime author and early adopter of publishing technologies whose career spans traditional publishing, hybrid approaches, and independent releases. With twenty-five years of experience, she writes with dry humor and clear practicality about what it takes to be happily published.