You want to get into art, but you don’t know how to begin. The first step is simple: find what you like. — The Power of Liking How do you know what you like? Yes, what do you like? Embedded in that seemingly simple question is actually a pretty subversive notion — namely that it matters what you actually, personally, like. That you should be going out and looking at stuff, not because it is the important…

Unlocking the single greatest truth that grown-ups know and teenagers don’t know. — Realizing you’re a grown-up is a little bit like realizing you have a super power. You’re just going along about your business when unexpectedly something clicks and the truth is revealed to you. I remember the exact moment when I suddenly understood that I possessed the power of adulthood. It…

Gaining insight into publishing’s diversity problem, one article at a time. In the fall of 2015, Mira Jacob wrote a piece for BuzzFeed about a speech on diversity that she attempted to deliver at a publishing industry party, to which no one listened. For a person in publishing it’s a…

You’re a creative person and you’re sitting on a pretty great book idea. So how do you get it out of your head and into the world? Ask editor Bridget Watson Payne who has been helping authors do just that for over 10 years. A lot of people who are already well-known seem to get book deals. Do you have to be famous to pitch something to Chronicle Books? Absolutely not. For certain kinds of…

The 12 steps from proposal to holding that print copy in your hands. When you work in publishing all day long, you come to think of the process of making books as being this natural and organic thing that everyone understands just as intuitively as you do. But alas, many…