Anna Leinberger's Page
Anna Leinberger is an editor, writer, and former high school teacher. She is passionate about launching books that make the world a better place and amplifying the voices of authors who are doing the work. The authors she has worked with include startup founders, award-winning peacemakers, and... read more...
Adapted from Brian Tracy's international time-management bestseller, Eat That Frog!, this book will give today's stressed...
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
The Power of a Story Is Not the Story
A particular brand of personal storytelling has recently taken American pop culture by storm. This American Life, The Moth, StoryCorps, and countless other podcasts have popularized the spontaneous, first person narratives reference bigger truths and essential human experiences. When asked wha...
October 25, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Don't Come to Me With Your Problems
When Global Warming Isn’t Enough to Sell Your Book Why does the world need your book? If you have ever sought to have a book published, ever created a book proposal, or ever talked to an agent you have likely encountered a similar question. What is the need for this publication? Or sometimes ...
September 27, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Who Really Makes Money Self Publishing?
Dial back the clock about 10 years, and self-publishing was expensive, difficult to do, and rarely made the author any money. Aside from a few notable exceptions (Wizard of Oz being one) self-publishing was largely a dead-end endeavor. These days, the media is touting the narrative of self-publ...
August 31, 2016
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Anna Leinberger commented on Jeevan Sivasubramaniam's blog post Why I Endorse Marginally Unethical Behavior
Discovering how to manouver in grey spaces was a huge moment for me in my 20s. Black and white thinking can be quite damaging, and it was a huge relief to realize that I was not always required to fit everything into one slot or the other. I love this feature of the newsletter!
June 8, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Recently, my friend Charlotte Ashlock emailed me about a blog post that she planned to write. She was considering the trope of the “wise mother”, and what she considers its male opposite- the “manchild,” specifically examining how the wise mother and manchild can enable each other, to the ...
May 16, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why Your Book Cover Can't Actually Tell A Story
The coveted book cover! It is one of the most exciting parts of being an author-- where you get to see that beautiful, full color piece of art! It will be stunning! A picture saying 1000 words, or rather, 30,000 words! It must do more than tell a story, you think, it must convey the whole conce...
May 9, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
How to Write Something New When Nothing Is New Under the Sun
If you have ever wondered if is at all possible to write something new, I will kindly direct you to anyone who has studied the western classics. By this I specifically mean the literature of the Greco-Roman world. Not just The Metamorphoses, but the military texts, the philosophy, even the graf...
April 13, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
A Visual Tour Through the Insanity That Was SXSW
In a departure from the usual Editorial ramblings this week, Confessions is instead going to send you, dear readers, on a virtual trip to Austin, TX for the SXSW Interactive festival that happens every March. In attendance: Charlotte Ashlock, our Managing Digital Editor, Shabnam Banerjee-Mcfa...
March 30, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
The One Word That Is Making Your Political Arguments Way Harder than They Need to Be
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword Powerful speech can move people in a way that threats do not, which is generally the established meaning of the above saying. However, the implications are much farther-reaching and can even be quite concrete. Small words have power too, words we don’t event ...
March 3, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why I Am Not Interested in Books on Women
Women Leaders! Women’s skills! Women’s special ways of navigating the male dominated field! Books for women….because we need special books just for us. Many books in the marketplace cater directly to women, yet somehow these well meaning books so frequently end up patronizing the audience, rat...
February 16, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why a Great Platform Might Not Land You a Book Contract
Know Your Platform, and Know How to Use It It is no secret that publishers are focused on the platform of a prospective author. In case you have made it to this blog without know what that is, platform is a term that describes the network of people that an author can reach directly. These are...
February 4, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Someone Else’s Opinion of Your Book Is Always Better than Yours
Writing is terrifying. Anyone who has taken up a pen or placed fingers on a keyboard knows this. And when I say writing is terrifying, I really do mean that writing itself is terrifying. In my writer’s group, we do not mandate that writing be shareed. There is zero pressure- there is fear even ...
January 6, 2016
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
In this week’s "Confessions of an Editor," we are going to get quite a bit more confessional than usual and talk more about the real world inside the publishing industry. Many books, especially nonfiction books, have two, three, or more authors. Any close relationship generally has its ups and d...
December 17, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Pictures Don't Actually Sell Business Books
Ever since Business Model Generation hit best-seller lists, aspiring business authors everywhere have thought they found the holy grail: PICTURES!!! Engaging! Whimsical! Creative! The underlying assumption being “this is how I can get people to be excited and engaged with my (admittedly dry and ...
November 24, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Radical Vulnerability in Publishing
On Vulnerability and the Submissions Process Submitting your written work to a publisher or an agent is one of the most terrifying things a writer experiences and, even worse, one that any writer must constantly repeat. Vulnerability is an inextricable element of the publishing process, and i...
November 7, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why a Book is Not the Best Way to Tell the World About Your Message
Coming from a publisher with a mission statement about changing the world, this blog title might confuse some. Our whole existence is ostensibly to change the world by publishing books, so shouldn’t we think that books are the best way to change the world? Turns out, that would be a no. Books...
October 28, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
How To Interpret Your Rejection Letter
“Just not a good fit for us at this time” or, Why your rejection letters are always pretty vague “Dear ________, Thank you for your proposed book, but unfortunately it is just not going to be a good match for us/not going to meet the needs of our booklist/insert generic, nonspecific reason her...
October 12, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why Your Big Personal Awakening Doesn’t Do Anything For Me
When I was a little girl, I lived on a farm. Now, you simply must understand that there was a creek in the back yard, and that there was a spring where we got our water. I never knew people had “water bills” until I left home. It was this experience that lead me to a profound realization about ...
September 16, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Why you should never ask an editor what you should write about
A favorite amongst aspiring authors’ reasons for why their book is unique is “No other book covers the entire subject matter! Everything else only focuses on one thing!” As I have written before, there is actually a reason for that- generalist books are neither compelling nor successful. There is...
September 2, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
How Is More Important Than Why
At Berrett-Koehler, we believe books can change the world. Our authors believe this, and they live their mission outside the writing they do in their professional lives. Hundreds more aspiring authors want to change the world, and send us proposals about why they too want to publish a world chan...
August 19, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Today's Confessions is brought to you by someone else's experience with the Slushpile. There is a long and illustrious history of people who have reviewed and responded to book proposals before I took over the post- one who I still work with very closely. Everyone's reaction to this task is dif...
July 23, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Publishing is the Best Conversation Starter
Working in publishing is a great conversation starter. Telling people my job is in publishing never fails to elicit an interested “Oh! How cool!” followed by a lot of questions. As it happens, I am new enough to this world that still I love these conversations. This past weekend being a holiday ...
May 27, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Everyone Wants to Write a Book
In a departure from my usual this week, today I want to explore the strange dichotomy of the world of books in an internet age. If there is one thing I have learned in two years of introducing myself as working in the editorial department of a publishing house, it is that somewhere, sometimes dee...
May 14, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Never Ask a Publisher this Question
One of the most baffling questions I sometimes hear as an acquisitions editor is “So what are you guys looking for?” I am never quite sure how to answer. It is true that some publishers to have a specific agenda of topics for which they are seeing a qualified author. I personally do not have a ...
April 28, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
What Publishers Really Think About Twitter
If I have One More Publisher Ask How Many Twitter Followers I have…. Today I take on the dreaded question, the elephant, the big one, the one that makes your stomach turn itself into knots…… When your prospective editor or agent asks ……So how many Twitter followers do you have?....... ...
April 14, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
The Proposal to End All Proposals
A few months ago we received an absolutely phenomenal proposal for a very exciting book. The whole office was excited about it weeks before we were able to make any official decisions about it. The author is smart, motivated, doing fabulous work in journalism, writes for major media outlets, an...
March 18, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Your Audience Isn't Who You Think It Is
Many people would love to believe that thinking about “audience” is the domain of Madison Avenue and Mad Men, that people who write things as noble as books should not be concerned with such things. It is a common misconception that books contain ideas that are intrinsically and independently va...
March 2, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
The Quick and Dirty Guide to the Architecture of a Book
Today I am going to dive into one of the cuter mistakes people make when they are writing their books, rather than ones that make me want to pull my hair out! Positivity! Hurrah! Hehem. A mistake that frequently finds its way...
February 18, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Where should I Pitch My Book Proposal?
This morning I had an email waiting for me in my inbox that amounted to a query letter for a photo book. It looks like a great project- beautiful cityscapes from above. There is just one teensy problem- and that would be that our publishing company does not do photo books, and actually cannot. I ...
February 4, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
How Much Ground Does Your Book Cover? The Less the Better!
One of the first questions people ask me when I introduce myself as working in publishing is "Oh! What kind of books do you publish?" This is actually a bit harder to answer than one might initially suppose. The easiest answer is to say "Non-fiction" but that is a pretty broad area! If I want t...
January 21, 2015
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Anna Leinberger posted a blog post
Confessions has an exciting announcement this week! My first acquisition will be launching soon over at SethAdamSmith.com, and, on top of that, I just got approval to present my next book to our company. So, I am quite pleased about how 2015 is shaping up. It occurred to me that this blog has foc...
January 7, 2015
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Charlotte Ashlock commented on Anna Leinberger's wall:
Hello Anna! your profile is looking great!
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Charlotte Ashlock commented on Anna Leinberger's wall:
Hello Anna!
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Anna Leinberger is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
Favorite Books not published by BK
The Luminaries
The Name of the Rose
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