We’re all very excited over here to be a Critics Pick in Time Out New York for our Pitchapalooza at Greenlights Bookstore in Brooklyn, Wednesday, March 30, 7:30 PM.
Tag: books
Pitchapalooza Comes to Kansas City: Mon, Feb 28, 6:30 PM
The Book Doctors, aka, Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, will be making a house call in Kansas City, at the Kansas City Public Library, with Rainy Day Books. They want YOU to pitch your book at their acclaimed event, Pitchapalooza, which was recently featured in The New York Times, and in a mini-documentary for Newsday. Pitchapalooza is like American Idol for books–only without the Simon. Writers get one minute to pitch their book ideas to an all-star panel of publishing experts, including Chris Schilling, responsible for over a dozen New York Times best-sellers as editorial director at Andrews McMeel, and ex-editorial director at HarperCollins and Publisher at G.P.Putnam’s Sons; John Mark Eberhart, former Books Editor, Kansas City Star; and Jeffrey Jennings, entertainment law attorney/bookseller extraordinaire at Rainy Date Books. The winner receives an introduction to an appropriate agent or publisher for his/her book. Plus, anyone who buys a book gets a free consultation worth $100.
Arielle Eckstut has been a literary agent for 18 years. She is also the author of seven books and the co-founder of the iconic brand, LittleMissMatched. David Henry Sterry is the best-selling author of 12 books, on a wide variety of subject including memoir, sports, YA fiction and reference. His last book appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Together, they’ve helped dozens and dozens of talented amateur writers become published authors. They’ve appeared everywhere from NPR’s Morning Edition to USA Today, and have taught publishing workshops everywhere from the Miami Book Fair to Stanford University. Find more at www.thebookdoctors.com.WHAT: Pitchapalooza Comes to Kansas City
WHEN: Monday, February 28, 2001 at 6:30 PM
WHERE: Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, Truman Forum
WITH WHOM: Chris Schilling, editorial director Andrews McMeel Publishing,, John Mark Eberhart, former Books Editor, Kansas City Star; Jeffrey Jennings, entertainment law attorney/bookseller extraordinaire at Rainy Date Books; the Book Doctors, and Kansas City writers rich and poor, of every age, race, creed and color.The ‘Book Doctors’ Want to Know What You’re Working On
BY ELIZABETH OGUSSThe Montclair TimesOF THE MONTCLAIR TIMESOK, all you scribblers, it’s time to come out of your attics.
Time to let those manuscripts see the light of day.
Think about how you’d summarize your book to an agent if you only had the chance.
Distill that description down to a minute.
Rehearse it with a friend, or in front of the mirror.
Go to the Montclair Public Library tonight, and deliver that pitch to the Book Doctors and their panel of judges at Pitchapalooza, a sort of literary “American Idol” but without the cruelty.
The Book Doctors, in private life called Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, are the authors of “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.”
A revised edition of the book was released in November 2010 and since then Eckstut and Sterry have been touring the country with Pitchapalooza. They’re wrapping up the tour in their hometown and invite Montclair writers to pitch their books tonight, Feb. 10, at 7, at the library, 50 South Fullerton Ave.
Three judges will evaluate 25 pitches: Dominick Anfuso, vice president and editor in chief at Free Press; Liza Dawson, owner of Liza Dawson Associates Literary Agency; and Pamela Redmond Satran, bestselling author of “How Not to Act Old” and many baby name books, and the founder of the Montclair Editors and Writers Society, of which Eckstut and Sterry are members.
Eckstut has been a literary agent for 18 years and is the author of seven books. Sterry has written 12 books, in a wide variety of genres including memoir, sports, young adult fiction and reference.
With anywhere from 100 to 300 people at each Pitchapalooza event, the Book Doctors must see a wide range of pitches. Do they ever feel they’re wasting time?
“No one knows what’s going to be a successful book,” Sterry said. “If anyone knew they’d make a billion dollars.”
Citing Michael Jordan having been cut from his high school basketball team, Sterry said it’s not his job to nip anyone’s dream in the bud. But he won’t hesitate to tell a writer, “Look, this is not professional caliber. You need to do A, B, C and D.”
And as an agent, “trained to say no to everything,” Eckstut pointed out that there are no barriers to getting published anymore.
“One of the first questions we ask,” she said, “is ‘What is your goal?’ If they say ‘I want to be published by Random House and get a six-figure advance…’”
The sentence hardly needed finishing.
But what surprises publishers, editors, and agents, Eckstut says, is how many people don’t want that.
“They just want a printed book in their hands, and don’t care how they get it: self-publish, e-book, print on demand.”
Self-publishing doesn’t have the stigma it had a decade ago, when self-published meant ugly and riddled with typos.
“We tell everybody, if you’re going to self-publish, hire an editor, hire a proofreader, hire a cover designer and a book designer, so it looks like it deserves to be on the shelves,” Sterry said.
Many authors who’ve been published by reputable houses are choosing to publish on their own because they already have a following, he said. “If you’ve got 20,000 people champing at the bit and they can press a button [to get your book], why would you need a publisher?”
Before Pitchapalooza, Eckstut and Sterry conducted workshops based on the 2005 edition of their book — titled, like the book, “Putting Your Passion into Print”— and have had what Eckstut called “some major success stories.”
“A winner in San Francisco from seven years ago has seven books out,” she said, “and Tim Ferriss of ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ took our workshops. Even from this tour, we’ve already hooked up a lot of our winners with agents, so they’re in the process right now.”
Everyone pitching a manuscript tonight will get one minute.
“This is what makes the event so dramatic,” said Sterry. “That clock starts ticking. When they get to 50 seconds, Arielle says, ’10 seconds.’ You can feel the room tightening up.”
For an unknown writer to get to pitch a book to established agents and publishers is a rare thing, so the Book Doctors want you to make the most of your minute tonight.
For writers who aren’t sure what a pitch is, Eckstut suggests reading the copy on the backs of books in your genre. Whether mystery, sci fi, children’s book, whatever you read (and write), “on the back of every book is a pitch.”
The Eckstut-Sterry family loves living in Montclair, to which they moved just after the birth of their daughter three and a half years ago. Eckstut recently completed a book project with her mother, an expert on color.
Sterry has just finished a novel, which he describes as “‘Catcher in the Rye’ meets Stephen King.”
That’s a very short pitch.
Contact Elizabeth Oguss at oguss@montclairtimes.com.
Book Doctor on NPR: Books, Books, Books
Shaun Yu & David Henry Sterry talk about books on NPR
Zetta Elliott on the Joys and Pains of Self-Publishing
Changing the Game December 20, 2010 by elliottzetta
What I love most about self-publishing is the way it empowers creators everywhere—no more waiting for the “official” stamp of approval, and self-publishing no longer equals “substandard.” John Edgar Wideman has self-published, and earlier this month LA Banks announced that she is self-publishing her new series of YA books. Emerging and established authors are realizing that they don’t have to stand in line to be rejected and/or treated shabbily by big publishing houses. Small presses are looking better and better, and digital publishing offers even more options for authors.
This morning I found an article on Publishers Weekly that announced the triumphant emergence of Citizen Authors: “determined, motivated, fed up.” The article is written by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of the recently released Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published; I was interviewed for that book and I’m included in the PW article:What’s perhaps most exciting about Citizen Authors is that some of them have been able to say a big “I told you so!” to Manhattan publishing after having been rejected, mocked, and/or dismissed by that clique’s elitism, solipsism, and/or lack of creative vision. These include people like Zetta Elliott, J.A. Konrath, and Lisa Genova. Zetta wrote about race in a way that didn’t fit into the credo of the mostly white world of publishing, but fit perfectly into libraries all over the country that catered to children of every color…
The irony is, when Citizen Authors prove how valuable they are, all the big guns in the book business come running, throwing money. Even more ironic is that these Citizen Authors saw the marketplace in a clear-eyed, smart way that “big publishing” wouldn’t or couldn’t.
To my knowledge, only the Brooklyn Public Library and the NYPL acquired Wish when it was first self-published in 2008/2009, and we’re still working on getting libraries across the country to add Wish to their collections. One of the biggest challenges faced by self-published authors is marketing—not just getting the word out, but getting book buyers to look in nontraditional places for book reviews and recommendations. If you’re not reviewed in School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, or PW, many important institutional book buyers won’t even know you exist. The blogosphere was my best friend as a self-published author, but I meet educators all the time who still express amazement when they learn I have a YA novel in addition to my traditionally published picture book, Bird.
But I have no regrets about self-publishing and plan to do it again; it’s reassuring to know that you don’t have to take whatever the big houses are offering (when they offer anything at all), and I’ve had a great experience working with AmazonEncore. I’d work with them again in a heartbeat, but I haven’t given up on traditional publishers and small presses, and encourage other aspiring authors to keep their options OPEN. Take risks and be willing to work for what you believe in…which brings me to Neesha Meminger, the latest YA author to start her own imprint and take charge of her publishing career. Have you seen the great new trailer for Neesha’s new novel? You can view it here, and the book is now available online—just in time for the holidays!! Get your copy of Jazz in Love at Amazon.com, (Amazon.ca if you’re in Canada), Barnes & Noble, and indie bookseller Boone Bridge Books. Neesha has agreed to do an interview for my blog, so stay tuned for details about her exciting adventure…
The self-publishing experiment only works if people take a chance and support books that are coming out of nontraditional sources. So please do support these authors and remember: if things were equal, they wouldn’t need to be separate.
Terry Whalin Gives Book Doctors Some Nice Love
Monday, December 13, 2010
Do You Need Permission?
I work with a number of first-time authors who ask me about whether they need to gather permissions for their work. While I am not a lawyer (the first thing that I remind them), in most cases they do not need to get permission. Now if it is a poem or a song, then it is likely they do need permission because of how those forms are treated in the marketplace. If they are quoting a few sentences from a full-length book and refer to the source, it is unlikely that they need to get permission from the publisher.
Recently I read Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry’s new book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It…Successfully! This book is loaded with sound advice on many areas of the publishing process–including permissions. As they write on page 212, “Don’t start getting permissions too soon, because you don’t want to waste your time or money. However, since it often takes a while to track down a pesky permission–and all permissions should be handed in with your finished manuscript–we suggest the following process:“1. Break your permissions into three piles. Definites, Maybes, Unlikelies. Track down all sourcing and contact information for the Definites as early as possible. Get prices and any necessary forms. This will help you guesstimate total costs and figure out how much you’ll have left over for the Maybes and Unlikelies.”
“2. Don’t pay for a thing until you’re sure what’s going in your book. This way, you won’t wind up spending money on a Definite that turns out to be an Unlikely.”
Then Eckstut and Sterry include a length section about what needs permission. This discussion is tied to the over 30 pages from The Chicago Manual of Style on the topic of fair use (a legal term related to the amount of material you can use from a source without asking permission. Here’s the critical sentences on page 213, “It’s okay for us to quote 122 words from The Chicago Manual because that’s a tiny percentage of its total word count (the book could double as a doorstop). However, if you took 122 words out of a 200-word poem, you must get permission to reprint it–unless, of course, it’s in the public domain. And don’t forget, composers’ and poets’ estates are notorious for going after people who abuse copyright law.”
Also Eckstut and Sterry include a fascinating story called The Pangs of Permissions: Acquiring permissions requires the patience of Job and the persistence of a pit bull. When she began writing A Thousand years over a Hot Stove, a book with more than 100 photographs and illustrations, Laura Schenone was ill-prepared for the amount of work permissions required. Not to mention the pounding her pocketbook took in the process.”
“Laura was presented with an unexpected challenge. Many of the people she was dealing with would sell her rights only for the first printing of her book. ‘My editor told me this would be 7,500 copies,’ she says. ‘When I bought the permissions, I wanted to up this number to 10,000 to 15,000 copies to be sure I was covered. But sometimes the fees as much as doubled.’”
“Laura’s story illustrates the importance of understanding permission costs before signing a deal or developing a project. That said, Laura couldn’t be happier that she wrote her book permissions and all. A Thousand Years over a Hot Stove went on to win a James Beard Award, the Pulitzer Prize of food writing.”
Eckstut and Sterry include a sample permission form in an appendices (page 448). I’ve only shown one little area this book covers many other topics with great depth and valuable insight. I recommend this book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published–and in the process of writing this entry, hopefully I’ve shown you a little bit about the permission process.
AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonLong Island Pitchapalooza Writer on Winning
Writer Gets a Chance at Pitchapalooza!
Posted on 12/08/2010 by Suzanne WellsI practiced and practiced my pitch. I prepared supper for the kids, paced the kitchen floor and read and recited the pitch for my book in…ONE MINUTE! I got it down, I did – in 60 seconds. Nerve wracking for an author let me tell you!
This is the requirement to stand before a panel of judges from the publishing industry at Pitchapalooza, an American Idol concept for writers. Give your pitch in ONE MINUTE, and make it tantalizing, breathtaking and rapturous!
I’ve been writing this book for years. I’ve toiled and payed in blood, sweat and tears to get those words on the page – right. My kids have lived and breathed this thing with me. My laptop looks like its seen it – ALL. The keys have been tapped so many times, that this is a computer that’s LIVED. Lived it all.
And so has my book; since its a memior. A memior that fuses ‘Eat, Pray & Love” with “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest“; with guitar and vocals. I did make the panel of judges cry, and I my heart pings for that; BUT HAVE NO FEAR cuz’ Woody Allen directs this little play I’ve been living and writing about.
So, I marched up that podium, heart racing, hands shaking, sweat at my temples and gave it to them; my life, my book, my heart: in ONE MINUTE.
And I did it. I said it just like I practiced. I finished, caught my breath, steadied my shaking hands and looked at the panel. There was a pause, a silence so deep I thought I might jump right into that void and rest a while. I wondered if one of them was disguised as Simon Cowell and I’d be headed to the doors any minute now, half-devastated and half-dancing for joy with thoughtful guidance that will make me better writer. They seem like nice people, my sisterly self whispers in my head to cheer me.
More silence then: “You made my wife cry” from one of the judges. Oh my Gosh, I think, I’ve been crying all the way through this thing. Now she’s crying! Maybe we should OM together or something. She should read my book. It has tips on this sort of thing. Like how to breathe when your crying.
“One Wing the Book”, does make you cry. And it makes you laugh too. It may make you sing as well. It will make you look at yourself and your life and locate all kinds of beautiful things you may have needed to remember. That’s what happened to me when I lived it. That’s why I made the choice to write it.
There were so many great writers and ideas that night. So much art and talent and love for writing. It was inspiring and lovely to be among like-minded artists gathering in a group, in reverence for their art.
I’m glad I came, I thought, as sat in the audience and I listened to the other authors give their pitches. The panel offered hints and ideas for us to move along, in this morphing world of publishing.
Then, they were ready to announce the winner. Big drum roll, authors poised, we all gaze up like little chicks: waiting, praying, hoping for a chance from the Mother hen. Then…
“Suzanne Wells is the winner tonight.“ It was surreal. The crowd looks my way and transforms with rising sounds of well wishes and pats on the shoulder for congratulations. A tribe! A tribe of writers wishing me well! So nice to be part of tribe of like-minded people collected in art. I always wanted to be part of a tribe. I write all about it in my book.
Then, I head up to the panel and I have this weird experience. Suddenly I hear the music from the Miss America Pageant playing on the speakers in my head! Startling! Then I imagine a gem-med crown floating in the air above my head! I smell the fragrant roses I’m carrying! I smile big.
I did win. And I cried – again! Uggh! Then I went home and kissed my kids.
“Mommy won something.” I whispered as I kissed them goodnight. Their eyes opened like saucers.
“You d-i-i-i d?!
“I did. I won a chance, for a better life, for that book I’ve been writing…and for us.” They smiled like Santa Clause was coming. They’ve watched me write this book; lived the hours invested in it with me. Our eyes met and I took in their shiny faces. My heart stirred. They were genuinely happy for me. Kids who can feel you. I raised kids who can feel you, I thought. This is a good thing. Hope returned.
“Work hard, remember your dreams, don’t ever give up on your self. Your good kids – the best! We’re going to be alright.“ I kissed their heads, tucked them in their blankets, so they would sleep warm and sound.
Then I padded up the stairs and wondered about that crown.
http://onewingthebook.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/writer-gets-a-chance-at-pitchapalooza/
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