Sarah Parsons Zackheim

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016

Getting your book published is an exciting milestone and one that requires preparation. First, you must write a great query letter or proposal to pique interest from literary agents (who can help sell your book) and editors. You have to explore submission strategies; compose a winning title; and consider adding a CD or DVD or something else of value to help attract readers and buyers. It's a long list — you'd better get writing!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Fiction is a general term used to describe an imaginative work of prose, either a novel, short story, or novella. Recently, this definition has been modified to include both nonfiction works that contain imaginative elements, like Midnight in the Garden Of Good and Evil by John Berendt (Random House, 1994) and Dutch by Edmund Morris (Random House, 1999), and novels consisting largely of factual reporting with a patina of fictionalization, such as Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Knopf, 1997). However, in the truest sense, a work of fiction is a creation of the writer's imagination. The two main types of fiction are literary and commercial. Commercial fiction attracts a broad audience and may also fall into any subgenre, like mystery, romance, legal thriller, western, science fiction, and so on. For example, The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (Warner, 1992) was a hugely successful commercial novel because the book described the fulfillment of a romantic fantasy that is dear to the heart of millions of readers. Written in a short, easy-to-read style, the book was as mesmerizing to 15-year-olds as it was to 100-year-olds. Other blockbuster commercial fiction authors include John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele, and Jackie Collins. Literary fiction tends to appeal to a smaller, more intellectually adventurous audience. A work of literary fiction can fall into any of the subgenres described in the following sections. What sets literary fiction apart, however, is the notable qualities it contains — excellent writing, originality of thought, and style — that raise it above the level of ordinary written works. A recent work of literary fiction that enjoyed wide popularity was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997). Other popular authors of literary fiction include Toni Morrision, Barbara Kingsolver, John LeCarre, and Saul Bellow. Mainstream fiction is a general term publishers and booksellers use to describe both commercial and literary works that depict a daily reality familiar to most people. These books, usually set in the 20th or present-day 21st century, have at their core a universal theme that attracts a broad audience. Mainstream books deal with such myriad topics as family issues, coming of age initiations, courtroom dramas, career matters, physical and mental disabilities, social pressures, political intrigue, and more. Regardless of original genre or category, most of the novels that appear on the bestseller list are considered mainstream, whether the author is Sue Grafton, Arundhati Roy, Michael Crichton, or David Guterson. In addition to mainstream fiction, more narrowly defined categories of popular fiction appeal to specific audiences. These different fiction categories, which are described briefly in the sections that follow, are classed as a group as genre fiction. Each type of genre fiction has its own set of rules and conventions. So, if you want to try your hand at writing fiction, start with what you like to read. A solid grounding in the conventions of your chosen genre helps a great deal, so the more familiar you are with the books in it, the better. If, for example, you're a voracious reader of mysteries, look closely at the conventions in the work of Agatha Christie, P.D. James, or whoever your favorite mystery writer is. If you can't get enough of Jennifer Wilde's historical romances, that may be where you start. Likewise, if the thrillers of Le Carre or the westerns of Louis Lamour are on your bedside table, make those your model as you embark on writing your novel. Mystery Mystery is a popular genre, boasting a huge established audience. All mysteries focus on a crime, usually murder. The action tends to center on the attempts of a wily detective-type to solve the crime. And the climax usually occurs near the end, in a leisurely setting where all the elements of the mystery are neatly assembled for the reader's convenience. The solution, complete with surprises, is then delivered to the characters and the reader alike. Mystery subgenres include spy, detective, and crime stories. You can find a vast network of mystery writers associations, conventions, and conferences, as well as publications to help mystery writers pursue their craft. For information, contact Mystery Writers of America. Great practitioners in this genre include Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Earle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason. Present day giants include Carl Hiaason, James Ellroy, Robert Parker, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard. Romance Romance is a huge category aimed at diverting and entertaining women. In romance novels, you have elements of fantasy, love, naïveté, extravagance, adventure, and always the heroic lover overcoming impossible odds to be with his true love. Many romances, especially the gothic romance, have an easy-to-follow formula — a young, inexperienced girl living a somewhat remote existence is courted or threatened by an evil man and then rescued by a valiant one. Other subgenres include historical, contemporary, fantasy romance, and romantic suspense. If historical detail and settings interest you, try writing a regency or historical romance. If you enjoy a dash of mystery or intrigue, then romantic suspense novels are for you. However, if you're interested in more modern stories with sexual candor, then consider writing a contemporary romance. Certainly, you have lots of opportunity in the field of romance writing, which is the largest, most diverse, and most popular of the commercial genres. And romance writers' organizations can provide exact writing guidelines. To receive a set of guidelines, contact Romance Writers of America. First-class romance writers include Jude Deveraux, Victoria Holt, Judith McNaught, Daphne Du Maurier, Jennifer Greene, and Nora Roberts. Women's fiction It's common knowledge in the publishing industry that women constitute the biggest book-buying segment. So, it's certainly no accident that most mainstream as well as genre fiction is popular among women. For that reason, publishers and booksellers have identified a category within the mainstream that they classify as Women's Fiction. And its no surprise that virtually all the selections of Oprah's Book Club are in this genre. From a writer's perspective, some key characteristics of these books include a focus on relationships, one or more strong female protagonists, women triumphing over unbearable circumstances, and the experiences of women unified in some way. The field includes such diverse writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford, Anne Rivers Siddons, Alice McDermott, Judith Krantz, Anne Tyler, Rebecca Wells, and Alice Hoffman. Science fiction/fantasy Science fiction/fantasy novels depict distant worlds and futuristic technologies that whirl readers far away from the here and now and yet provoke contemplation of contemporary issues. Imaginative, thoughtful, and other-worldly, this robust category is made even more popular by the Star Wars and Star Trek series. Leading science fiction and fantasy writers include Ray Bradbury, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the current, multi-best-selling, young adult author J.K. Rowling. To obtain professional assistance in this genre, contact the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Suspense/thriller Suspense novels and thrillers are tense, exciting, often sensational works with ingenious plotting, swift action, and continuous suspense. In this genre, a writer's objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom that propels the reader forward. Unlike mysteries, thrillers are dominated by action in which physical threat is a constant companion, and a hero (James Bond, for example) is pitted against a nefarious villain. This genre includes the great espionage writers, including John Le Carre, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, Clive Cussler, and Frederick Forsythe. It also includes the police procedurals of Patricia Cornwell, Tony Hillerman, and Lawrence Sanders, as well as the courtroom bestsellers of Scott Turow, Richard North Patterson, Steve Martini, and John Grisham, and the military thrillers of Tom Clancy and Stephen Koontz. Western Known simply as westerns, these novels about life on America's post Civil War western frontier usually involve conflicts between cowboys and outlaws, cowboys and Native Americans, or Easterners and Westerners. While this category still has a mass-market audience and a thriving regional market, it's not the popular genre it was 25 years ago. If you're interested in writing a western, contact the Western Writers of America Zane Grey and Louis Lamour, both deceased, are still among the popular western writers. Horror Filled with gut-wrenching fear, this popular genre keeps readers turning the blood-filled pages. From a writer's perspective, the defining characteristic is the intention to frighten readers by exploiting their fears, both conscious and subconscious: fears of supernatural forces, alien visitations, madness, death, dismemberment, and other terrifying notions. Tracing its roots back to the classic tales of Edgar Allan Poe, the horror genre today is dominated by Stephen King, whose vast output of bestsellers under his name as well as his alter-ego Richard Bachman has dominated the bestseller lists for nearly 25 years. Other major horror writers include Mary Shelley, Roald Dahl, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice. While horror isn't science fiction, the SFWA provides a great deal of information and community services aimed at horror writers. To obtain its professional assistance, contact the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Young adult This genre includes any type of novel with a protagonist in the 12 to 16 age range that speaks to the concerns of teenagers. Currently, J.K. Rowling and her amazing Harry Potter (Scholastic Press) books are dominating the field. Rowling's accomplishment — a truly universal story, brimming with magic and fantasy as well as likable characters that readers identify with — is an amazing feat. Watch out for all the Harry Potter wannabes in the coming year. Success stories in this genre share many of the qualities evident in the Harry Potter books: a memorable voice (J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Little Brown, 1951), believable characters (Golding's Lord of the Flies, Perigee, 1959), and a willingness to write about the disturbing subjects that preoccupy teens and preteens (Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, Dell Yearling, 1972, or Holes by Louis Sachar, FSG, 1998).

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

So you know you want to write a book — you just don't know what you want to write about. For many people, it's not uncommon to think that you need to write about something exotic or different or strange — that the familiar just could not be appealing to readers. But the opposite is often true. Writing, after all, is a form of understanding; you write best about things you know best. What seems familiar to you might seem very exotic to your reader. Your perception of a familiar truth might trigger insight and pleasure in your readers. And countless books — not to mention countless bestsellers — have been written about the most ordinary details of the most ordinary lives. Start with what you know What you know, before you do a minute's research, is the best place to start your idea search. Pay close attention to common, everyday experiences, whether at home or at work. What may seem drab or ordinary on the surface might actually be a book in disguise. Job experience Scott Adams, a middle manager for a large phone company in California, discovered that the drab and ordinary wasn't so dull after all. As an aspiring cartoonist, he jotted down notes on the interactions he saw at work during the day and turned them into cartoons at night. Today, Scott's cartoon strip, Dilbert, appears in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide and his books, The Dilbert Principle (HarperBusiness, 1996), Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook (HarperBusiness, 1996), and The Dilbert Future (HarperBusiness, 1997), which depict the reality of life in the office, have sold millions of copies. Likewise, Michael Lewis kept his eyes and ears open while working at Solomon Brothers, an investment bank in New York City. While thousands of others enjoyed the same access to the trading floor that Lewis did, it was Lewis who had the vision to see a story in the life of a New York City trader. While the tale played itself out right before his eyes, Lewis wrote it all down in Liar's Poker (W. W. Norton, 1989), which became an immediate runaway bestseller. Writing what he saw on the job launched Lewis into a whole new career. He hasn't set foot on the trading floor since. Hobbies If it fascinates you, no doubt it interests others, too. So when you're looking for book ideas, think long and hard about your hobby. Whether it's helicopter skiing or collecting first edition books, your prospects are better if you know and care deeply about what you write. Your passion may prove inspirational to readers. And whatever aspect of a hobby you find most interesting is the way to slant your book idea. Say, for example, that baseball is your passion. You could write a reference guide (Baseball by the Rules, by Glenn Waggoner, Taylor, 1987), a how-to (The Art of Hitting, by Tony Gwynn, Good Times Publishing, 1988), a specialized guide (The Sports Fans Guide to America, by Mike Tulumello, Longstreet Press, 1999), general information (Total Baseball, by John Thorn, et al., Total Sports, 1999), or moneymaking ideas for how to bet on your local team's games (Baseball Insight Annual, by Phil Erwin, Parrish Publications, 1999). Just make sure that the topic works for you. Advertising executive Ed Levine toiled with clients by day and shopped for food and drink by night. Among his friends, Ed was the man in the know if you wanted an exotic ingredient or were in search of the best barbecue or croissant or egg cream. Food may not have been Ed's job, but it was his life! Friends repeatedly told Ed that he could write the book on New York food. In 1992, he did just that. New York Eats published by St. Martin's Press is the bible of food in New York. Totally updated with 200 new entries in 1997, New York Eats (More) was runner-up for the prestigious Julia Child Reference Book Award, further establishing Ed as a fixture in the New York food world. And today, advertising is a distant memory. Personal experience Your own personal experience can be a great place to start your search for a book idea. After all, you're the only expert on this topic. Your life experience is unique to you; no one else has encountered exactly what you have. Your style, thoughts, opinions, attitudes, and desires are also unique. Many successful first-time book authors have gone this route. Take Frances Mayes, for example, a professor at San Francisco State University, who along with her husband fell in love with an abandoned old villa in Tuscany. Together, they purchased the place, completely renovated it, and discovered the joys of another culture. All the while, Mayes kept a personal record of the experience. This memoir, titled Under The Tuscan Sun, was published in 1996 by Chronicle Books. And even though many other books have been published about buying and remodeling run-down houses in sunny foreign countries, Under the Tuscan Sun became a bestseller. The book was very well timed, as it was published shortly after A Year in Provence (Knopf, 1990) by Peter Mayle had rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists. Like Mayle's book, Under the Tuscan Sun was a voluptuous and witty celebration of food, people, and glorious places — Mayes keen, compelling observations brought Tuscany vividly alive for millions. Indulge a passion What you care most about, whether it's belly dancing or growing your own herbs, is likely to lead you to a publishable book idea. And what's better than getting paid to revel in the pastime you love? Andres Martinez, a young journalist, turned his passion for gambling into a book. On the strength of a brilliant proposal, he persuaded Villard Books to advance him $50,000 with the understanding that he would wager all of it in Las Vegas and then write about the experience. The result, after wagering every penny and walking away with only $5,000 in winnings, is a book titled 24/7, published in November 1999. Take classes Taking classes of any kind is always a good idea — it can expose you to new influences, a new outlook, and also potential book ideas. David Denby, a movie critic for The New Yorker magazine, was inspired at the age of 48 to re-enroll at his alma mater, Columbia University, and repeat two core curriculum classes: Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization. He read what the students read and kept careful notes of his reactions — not only to the classics (he loved them all over again) but to the teachers, the students, the process of education, even the events in his own life while attending school. The result was Great Books (Simon & Schuster, 1996) — by no means Denby's first published work, but definitely his first New York Times bestseller. Identify a need The old business axiom, "find a need and fill it," is alive and well in the world of book publishing. Look around and see what need you can fill. Diet books like The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet (Rachel and Richard Heller, NAL, 1993) or exercise books like Body for Life (Bill Philips, HarperCollins, 1999) or lifestyle books like The Art of Happiness (The Dalai Lama, Riverhead, 1999) are filling a big need as you can tell by their extended stay on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Getting your work of fiction published is different from getting nonfiction published. A fiction submission (short story or novel) must be a complete manuscript when you submit it to a publisher. Create a query letter, along with plot synopsis, to submit with your manuscript. According to Marjorie Braman, a top fiction editor at HarperCollins, "We very rarely consider novels, especially first novels, unless there is a completed manuscript. And frankly, we almost never consider novels that aren't submitted by a trusted agent. There just isn't enough manpower to screen all of the unsolicited fiction manuscripts that come in every day." It's much harder to sell a work of fiction because most major publishing houses are reluctant to take a risk — investing time they don't have and money they may not earn back — on an unknown writer. A look at the number of fiction versus nonfiction books published each year is proof enough — approximately 50,000 new nonfiction titles compared to only about 10,000 new fiction titles. There's no question that the odds against a first novelist are tough — but not at all impossible. Your sales material is first and foremost your manuscript, which you've lavished a great deal of hard work on. So, when you're ready to submit your manuscript to editors and/or agents, craft a brief but compelling cover letter to send along with the first half of your novel. Provide just enough information in this letter to pique the reader's interest and entice them to read on. For example, "I'm enclosing the first half of my novel entitled, Future Habit. The story centers on a road trip that takes two unlikely protagonists — a convict on the run and a nun — to a future neither expected." Or, "A father/son drama that turns the Abraham/Isaac story on its head." A great title also helps get your reader's attention. When selling fiction, it's best to submit the entire manuscript — but only when invited. If you are determined to submit a novel, unsolicited, to a publisher, target a few editors, and use a query letter to get in the door. The same submission approach applies with literary agents that you are looking to have represent your novel. An agent won't agree to represent you until she has read a complete manuscript. However, she may ask for a synopsis and sample chapter first to determine whether she's interested in reading the entire manuscript. Your plot synopsis is a brief narrative summary — no more than a page or two — of your novel written in the present tense. The purpose of a plot synopsis is to hook an agent's interest enough for them to ask to see the manuscript. Make it as easy and enticing to read as possible. Make sure that it tells the entire story — don't, for example, leave out the story's ending as a gimmick to get the editor to ask for more. You want to get the story essentials across, not the descriptive details or the exact dialogue, so write as clearly and tightly as possible. And create the synopsis as a whole, unified piece. Don't break it up with chapter headings. To create your synopsis, start with a few sentences containing an action-filled summary of the novel. Introduce the main character and the conflict responsible for moving the story forward. As an example, here's a plot synopsis — of the sort that would be suitable for submission — based on the best-selling novel, The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve: Kathryn Lyons is awoken at 3 a.m. by news that the plane of her pilot husband, Jack, with 103 passengers aboard, has exploded off the coast of Ireland. When air crash investigators indicate that they suspect a bomb and Jack is somehow implicated, Kathryn is presented with startling new information about her husband and wonders if she really knows the man she had been happily married to for 16 years. Then tell how the character plans to resolve this conflict. Also, supply some of the story's essential details up front: Main character's age, occupation, marital status; story setting (place), and time (past, present, future): The Lyons family — Kathryn, a 38-year-old schoolteacher; Jack, a 48-year-old commercial airplane pilot; and Mattie, their 15-year-old daughter — love the ease and simplicity of their life in rural Vermont. Especially since the unusual schedule of Jack's job as a commercial airline pilot with an international route keeps them apart for the better part of each week. But when Jack's plane explodes and a media frenzy breaks out accusing Jack of responsibility for the bombing, Kathryn, so sure of his innocence, sets out to defend Jack's honor. That was her first mistake. Her second was dialing a phone number she discovers among her husband's papers. Now, you're ready to tell your story, focusing on what happens. Reread your novel, and as you finish each chapter, summarize the most important events that occur. Remember to focus on what happens in the novel including the character motivation and emotion that propels action and lends a human touch to the storyline. Imagine that you're telling your story to a group of friends. You won't have their attention for five hours, but you will for a few minutes. So convey the essential storyline complete with tension, pacing and character emotion. Make your synopsis complete and yet a quick read that stands on its own. The most effective synopsis provides the feeling of having read the entire book. Of course, it's impossible to tell from a single chapter or even the first few chapters whether an unknown writer can orchestrate the important elements of fiction — character, plot, dialogue, pacing, setting, and point of view. For this reason, editors find that fiction submissions of a plot synopsis or sample chapters aren't enough to demonstrate that the writer can carry through on what they promise. That's why it's important to write and rewrite your entire novel before submitting it for publication.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The core members of any publishing acquisition team are made up of two very different types: The creative, editorial types and the more financially driven sales and marketing types. Generally speaking, the editorial staff is responsible for obtaining a wide range of prospective book ideas and shepherding them through the publication process, while the sales and marketing people are in charge of allocating the publishing house's financial resources. The editor The editor is your advocate. While an editor's job entails more diverse duties than most people realize, an editor's main concern is to solicit books — hopefully successful ones — for the publishing company to publish. Soliciting books is accomplished in a few different ways: attending lunches and meetings with literary agents and prospective authors, commissioning book ideas, chasing down "hot" literary leads, and wading through the endless stack of query letters, proposals, and manuscripts that arrive daily. Most of the submissions are returned with a polite, albeit brief, rejection letter written by the editor. The editor presents the more promising submissions at the company's weekly editorial meeting. If the company decides to publish the book, the editor then works with the author to prepare the manuscript for publication. The editor also supervises the manuscript through the production process, including typesetting and jacket design. And while the book is in production, the editor helps work on the marketing plan and provides the sales team with everything from sample pages to ringing endorsements to help launch the book out into the world. Through the editor, an author must be prepared to fight for his book during each phase. For example, the author should seek consultation on jacket design and copy at contract time. In addition, the author must insist that his book is marketed and displayed appropriately. However, unless marketing money is promised at contract, an author can do precious little to influence display space provided in bookstores. You can sometimes effectively apply pressure to secure additional advertising and/or publicity expenditures on behalf of your book. If the author doesn't ask, the editor usually assumes the author is content. For that reason, you as an author must be persistent in your requests to your editor. Be kind, but firm. Remember, the author's interests and the editor's are to a certain extent in alignment: The success or failure of each of the editor's books helps determine the editor's salary (short term) and career success (long term). So editors are looking for books with the likeliest chance of prospering. The editorial assistant An editorial assistant assists a senior ranking editor. The assistant performs many secretarial tasks: processing paperwork, filling in forms, endless photocopying, answering the phone, filing, and generally taking care of as many of the day-to-day details for the editor as possible. In addition, the assistant helps with some of the editorial tasks: writing book descriptions, answering questions from authors, and in some cases acting as a first reader on book proposals and manuscripts submitted to the editor — championing some for the editor's consideration and simply rejecting others, often before the editor even knows they exist. If you're a first-time author, an editorial assistant can play a disproportionately important role in the fate of your book — either guiding it to the attention of a caring editor or killing your chances before you even get to square one. The publisher In publishing parlance, the publisher is the person who oversees the whole process of a publishing company — from which books to purchase and how much to pay for each, all the way through to how the books are sold. In most cases, the publisher has a fiscal responsibility within the publishing company: responsibility for spending a set amount of money in a given year for the purchase and marketing of books, as well as responsibility for earning a certain profit. A publisher stays informed about the profitability of each book. If a book doesn't perform up to expectation, the overall revenue and profit targets become difficult to reach, and the publisher has to make adjustments. The editorial meeting Most publishers hold a weekly editorial meeting, presided over by the editor-in-chief (at some houses) or herself. At most firms, the company's editors attend the editorial meeting, as do representatives from other departments, such as marketing, sales, or subsidiary rights. The editorial meeting is where projects are discussed and refined. The only absolute decisions being made in this forum are which books to pursue and for what kind of dollar figure. At some companies, more definite acquisition decisions take place at the editorial meeting, especially if the publisher presides at the editorial meeting. But usually, the editorial meeting provides an opportunity for the editor to confer with other editors about specific book projects — soliciting opinions and expert knowledge from colleagues. The acquisition process In all publishing companies, it is the publisher who has the authority to green-light a book. In some companies, the publisher is the sole decision-maker on whether to publish a book. At other firms, the publisher might solicit the opinion of important department heads such as the sales department, the marketing department, and the subsidiary rights department. The head of sales can provide an estimate of how many copies of the book the company can realistically sell based on previous experience with similar books. The head of marketing can propose a marketing campaign and estimate the probable costs involved in carrying it out. The head of subsidiary rights may be able to estimate income from the sale of such rights as foreign, movie, and book club. This information helps the publisher make an informed financial decision as to whether to publish a particular book. The decision to offer a contract to an author is usually based on a profit and loss analysis of the book, known as a P&L. To calculate a P&L, the editor — usually with the assistance of a financial analyst — estimates the number of copies the book is likely to sell, the list price, and the amount of money paid to the author as well as other costs, including manufacturing, distributing, and marketing the book. On the basis of this information, the P&L calculates how much profit (or loss) results if the book is published. Rarely do publishers move forward on a book that yields a P&L that is not marginally profitable. So, it's important for you, the writer, when submitting your work, to provide the editor with detailed information on the audience and market for the book that translates into a very positive P&L assessment. The acquisitions process in action Here's how a book project works its way from submission to acquisition in an ideal world. Say that an author sends a proposal for a nonfiction book to an editor whose name she got from the acknowledgment page of a book she admires. The editor's editorial assistant reads it at midnight and is surprised to find it captivating. The assistant strongly recommends it to the editor the next morning. The editor reads it on the train home that night and decides to bring it up at the weekly editorial meeting. She (a vast majority of editors in book publishing are women) sends a copy to two other editors to read before the meeting. At the meeting, the editor sings the project's praises, and is seconded by both of the other two editorial readers. The publisher agrees to read it that night and asks that a copy be sent to the sales director to provide a sales estimate. With a sales estimate in hand, a P&L can be drawn up. Two days later, the editor is summoned to the publisher's office. The publisher relays the fact that the sales director provided a very low sales estimate. Based on the sales director's estimate, the resulting P&L predicted a loss for the book. But the publisher says that she read the proposal and felt that with a few changes, the book could be much more saleable. The editor and publisher discuss how the book project can be altered in order to appeal to a larger audience. The editor calls the author, who agrees that the suggested changes are a good idea and may make for a stronger book. The next day, the editor returns to the publisher with the news that the author is happy to make the suggested changes. The editor produces a new P&L based on these changes. The publisher then authorizes a contract to be offered to the author for an agreed upon price. The editor excitedly calls the author, who is thrilled to learn that her first book will soon be a reality. This example shows you a few truths about how publishing works. The editor is the author's advocate throughout the acquisition process. An editorial assistant is often the gatekeeper between you, the editor (your advocate), and the publisher (the decision-maker). The decision to publish your book is made, in part, by a committee. This means your book submission is likely to be read by more than one editor before a contract is offered to you. Marketing and sales people are part of the decision and need to be directly addressed in the proposal. Publishing decisions aren't unanimous. All you need is a majority — or the single vote of the publisher. The publisher is the most important decision-maker your proposal will face. If you can sway her, your book is likely to be bought.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

To get your nonfiction book published, put together a strong proposal. Use the proposal to "sell" your book to potential literary agents, editors, and publishers. Make sure your proposal is as polished as possible by including the following: Cover page: Contains the title, author byline, and contact information Proposal contents: Gives an overview of the entire proposal The hook: Offers a brief, tantalizing look at what's unique about the book The market: Identifies the book's specific audience and how to reach it About the book: Gives a detailed description of the book including special features and benefits The competition: Shows how your book fills a void in the market About the author: Presents you in the best possible light Table of contents: Is the blueprint of your book Chapter summaries and sample chapter: Highlight important components and showcase your writing Production specifications: Details the length, format, illustrations, and delivery date Promotion and marketing: Outlines a plan for selling your book Attachments: Includes newspaper and magazine clippings on you or your book's topic

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If your book is going to be published (congrats!), offer some added value to amass legions of adoring fans more quickly. Your book's added value can be as simple as the recommendation of someone famous or one of these other attention-getters: Obtain celebrity endorsements Use a foreword written by a well-known expert or celebrity Associate your book with a recognized brand name Attach a coupon, a CD-ROM, or another product

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

One of the most important tasks in getting your book published is to find an editor who's going to get behind your book and help it — and you — make your way in the publishing world. To find an editor who's a good fit, try these tips: Read acknowledgment pages of books similar to yours — authors often acknowledge their editor's contribution Scour press coverage of books you admire for the editor's name Go to writers' conferences and/or conventions and network Call the company that published a book similar to yours and ask who the editor is

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

What's your plan when it's time to submit your manuscript to publishers for consideration? Your submission contains great writing — of course. Getting your book published, however, requires a strategy that includes getting on the phone and perhaps a bit of socializing. These tips can help you map your book submission strategy: Network to meet editors Send your proposal to a well-chosen editor Cold-call a highly recommended editor Send a great query letter to the editor Create a subtle but engaging package for your proposal Use a literary agent

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

One of the steps to getting your book published is to write and send query letters to try to get a literary agent or an editor at a publishing house interested enough in your book to sign you as a client, and, hopefully, offer you a nice advance — a sum of money you can use while you actually write the book. An effective query letter has the following characteristics: Runs one page — never longer Contains no errors — typing, spelling, punctuation, and grammar are all perfect Gets immediately to the point Appears on good quality paper Is upbeat in tone and style