The book is finally published. It's on Amazon. The cover looks terrific. The author page is live. Your friends have congratulated you. Your family has bought copies, and someone you haven't spoken to since high school has left a five-star review.

Congratulations. You've typed those two beautiful words: THE END. Maybe you stared at them for a while. Maybe you poured yourself something expensive. Maybe you called someone who has listened patiently for the past eighteen months as you explained why you couldn't possibly come to dinner because a fictional character was refusing to cooperate. Whatever you did, you earned it.

Let me ask you a question, and I want you to be completely honest with yourself: “If you walked into a bookstore, saw your book sitting alongside hundreds of others, and had absolutely no idea who wrote it, would you pick it up? Better yet, would you buy it?” It's a tougher question than you might think.

You've probably heard that the first sentence needs to grab the reader. Yes, for sure. But I'd take that a step further. Your first sentence creates an impression. Your first paragraph establishes an expectation. And your opening pages begin making a promise about the experience ahead.

We’ve written here on this blog previously about the convergence of AI and the business of publishing. And it is important to state at the outset that First Flight Books is committed to publishing works written by actual human beings. It is at the core of our ethos.

Anyone who has ever sat down with a blank page in front of them, looking to express something impactful, knows that putting your thoughts into the written word with enough clarity and eloquence to evoke a desired response is the inherent challenge of writing.

Three kids, one ghost, and the spooky surrounds of the Smoky Mountains—we can’t think of a better way to have some family fun with this season than the book Ghost Witch Annie, by First Flight Books author Lamar Berry.

This is one of the most dangerous moments in an author's journey. You've got momentum. You can see the book. Maybe you can already picture the title, the cover, the Amazon page, the launch party; even yourself sitting across from someone talking about why you wrote it. So you open a blank document. Chapter One. The cursor blinks. And off you go. Six months later, you have 60,000 words, seventeen chapters, three different themes and absolutely no idea what to do with any o

‘Tis the season for tricks and treats. And our author and MasterChef Junior Finalist, Remy Powell, has several pages of sweet and savory recipes in her recent cookbook, Remy’s Kitchen Celebration.

Every book begins with an idea. Not every great idea, however, is a book. If that distinction sounds harsh, good. It should. Because before you spend six months or six years writing 80,000 meaningful words, you owe it to yourself to answer a much tougher question than Can I write a book? You need to ask: Do I actually have a strong enough idea?

Last week, First Flight Books had the privilege of getting out on tour with our latest author, Jeff Rimer. Rimer (or Rims as he’s affectionately known by throngs of hockey and sports fans across multiple generations) kicked off his book tour for his debut book, It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This: Unforgettable Calls in the Booth and Unexpected Turns in Life, in Columbus, Ohio.

One of the memories of that day that stays with me most is the “MISSING” photo flyers. They appeared quickly, these hastily crafted sheets of paper with photos of smiling men and women, some with their children or dogs. Homemade paper flares sent up by terrified families searching for some news of their loved ones amid a day where confusion and horror rained down on everything.

Aspiring authors sometimes put enormous pressure on themselves because they're trying to write The Book. Every sentence has to be brilliant. Every chapter has to work. Every idea has to survive. But creativity cannot be a slave to perfection. Or maybe another way to look at it is that creativity demands honesty and heart and sometimes (often) those things aren’t perfect. They’re messy. They’re raw. That’s why they work.

Dolly Parton gave us all so much over the eight decades she was alive. A catalogue of masterpieces. Songs we cry to. Songs we dance to. Songs that woo you in with an upbeat tempo and soon have you singing along to a song that became a feminist anthem without Dolly ever even needing to use the “f” word.

Many authors believe marketing begins after their manuscript is complete. In reality, that's often too late. The strongest book launches begin months, even a year before publication because marketing isn't something that's added to a finished book.

Imagine walking into a bookstore. Thousands of books surround you. What makes you stop? Usually it's not the author's credentials. It's the feeling that somehow this book understands you. It solves your problem. It tells your story. It scratches an itch you didn't even know you had. That connection happens long before anyone reads Chapter One. It's built through positioning.

One of the biggest misconceptions about publishing is that the best writers don't need editors. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the strongest authors we've ever worked with have also been the most collaborative during the editing process.

A good editor isn't simply looking for misplaced commas. They're looking at the book through a different set of eyes—the eyes of someone encountering the story for the first time. Your editor is a stand-in for your readers. And a good editor is your advocate, pushing for the very best version of your book to be the version that makes it into the world.

Over 300,000 writers brought a federal lawsuit against tech giant and AI juggernaut Anthropic in 2024 stemming from their claims of copyright infringement due to the fact that their works were used to train AI models without their consent and without compensation. That lawsuit has just reached a conclusion that will have implications in the publishing world and beyond for years to come.

After a slower start to the year, the publishing industry is showing renewed strength. According to the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) StatShot report, publishing sales climbed 6.8% in May across the more than 1,400 publishers reporting results, a welcome sign that readers continue to invest in great stories and meaningful content.