This guide teaches the reader how to sell themselves and their book in order to get in print. Using sales techniques taken from other industries, it demonstrates how the writer can target and market their book in the competitive business of publishing.
Each and every day, thousands of unsolicited manuscripts land upon the desks of the stressed-out, overheated editors of publishing houses all over the world. And each and every day, those selfsame editors will instruct that thousands of polite “Thanks, but no thanks” letters be sent back to their authors along with the unread material. The reasons given in the standard letter may range from pressure of work to the state of the market, but for the author it doesn’t really matter - a rejection is a rejection. And it hurts.
Rejection is a crushing blow to any author. After months, perhaps years, of unpaid labour on a project dear to his or her very soul, the author is greeted not with praise but with a computer-generated letter from someone who can’t even be bothered to read what’s on offer. Ninety out of a hundred such pieces, in fact, will meet with this fate. The bad news for the would-be author doesn’t stop there, either. The odds of those pieces that survive this process getting into print are vanishingly small too. In addition to the above litany of woes, authors face unique problems that are not encountered by any other species of creative artist. A painter, for instance, can hang his or her paintings on a wall and tell the critics go hang themselves! If necessary, it can even be sold on a street corner, where enough people will see it to perhaps start a trend. Likewise, a musician can make direct contact with his or her audience and even cause record companies to sit up and take notice. (Think of punk rock in the late seventies and those who refused to sell it until they saw the money involved.) The hapless author, on the other hand, must seek any audience larger than a gathering via a third party. An author cannot fully function without the permission and help of a publisher.
Faced with these overwhelming problems, many authors simply give up the struggle. The once cherished manuscript that seemed to offer all the promise of a fresh young life is consigned to the attic or cellar. Frustrated and bitter, the author joins the company of those who comfort themselves with the thought that “it’s impossible to break in.” This is a tragedy in both artistic and human terms. Chances are that the rejected material is no worse than books, poems, plays or films that have “made the grade”; it might even be better in a few cases, and the world is poorer for the loss. It’s tragic, too, because of the energy, expense and sheer love involved in creating such a special thing.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are willing to make certain changes, certain compromises and take certain actions, then a certain measure of success can almost be guaranteed. In the terms of this book, success means one thing and one thing only - publication.
from Selling, Not Telling...
To tip the odds just a little in your favour you will perhaps need to look at yourself and your work in a very different way. This exercise might offend, annoy or disturb you. Whether or not you are prepared to undergo this process depends upon your desire, your need to be published. If your need to be seen or heard outweighs all other consideration then you will get what you want. If not, then the road that you have chosen to walk is going to hurt even more than it needs to. The days when talent, originality and mere genius automatically led to publication are long gone - such traits can even be a disadvantage in a world where everything must be “the same, but different.” Novelty is risky, and there are simply too many authors chasing too few publishers for anyone to be able to slip the likes of a “Moby Dick” or “Tom Jones” past the accountants. That’s sad, but with very few exceptions that’s how it is. Literary output is just a product, and a play, poem, book or film is going to be judged as much by its commercial worth as anything else.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Author As Salesperson 7
Chapter Two: Planning For Publication 16
Chapter Three: Product Development 3 6
Chapter Four: The Sales Presentation 5 3
Chapter Five: Handling Rejection 7 3
Chapter Six: Sales Meetings 9 3
Chapter Seven: Work In Progress 108
Chapter Eight: Rejection Revisited 124
Chapter Nine: Beyond Failure 145
Appendix: Recommended Reading 151
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