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publishing Archives - Page 8 of 17 - The Book Doctors

The Book Doctors

Tag: publishing

  • FridayWritingTips: Making Your Book Great, Getting Rejected & The Sweet Revenge of Success

    FridayWritingTips: Making Your Book Great, Getting Rejected & the Sweet Revenge of Success

     

    FROM  to 

    Whenever you send your book to someone to read, it becomes your identity. It is the billboard that is attached to your forehead and
    represents who you are as a writer and many times, no matter how fictional your work is, it becomes melded into the way you are perceived. However, this is one characteristic that you can control. So, be sure to put your best foot forward. You want your book to be wearing its Sunday best when it’s out in the world. From the cummerbund to matching socks, you want your book to be wrinkle free of spelling and punctuation errors. You want it suited up to be in the best presentable format it can be in. You want to seduce your reader like a James Bond in a classic Aston Martin.  And the best way to do that is to start by getting lots of peoples’ input.  So many people send out manuscripts that are half-baked.  If someone was coming to your house for dinner, you definitely wouldn’t serve your friends a nasty, mushy, half-baked cake.  But we see writers who want to get published do this all the time.  Unless you have recently turned up in the pages of People magazine or have already sold a treatment of your unwritten novel to a Big Hollywood Film Studio, chances are you’ll need to write the whole enchilada before you start trying to sell it. You will probably have to keep editing until it has been road tested and test-marketed by as many readers as you can get and it has been proofread and edited by trained professionals.  Yes, of course, take all suggestions with many grains of salt.  But if 10 people say your ending is not satisfying, guess what….Chances are, your ending is not satisfying.  Writing a good novel takes a long time.  Use that time to develop contacts by reaching out to people and doing nice things for them.  People will be able to help you. As you are writing the book and making it perfect and rewriting the book and making it even better, you are collecting your tribe of people so that when the book is finished, you arrive at a publisher or an agent or a publication date if you decide to self published your book, with your tribe in tow, ready to go.

    As you start to send your baby out into the world, constantly remind yourself that the greatest writers in the world, from Dr. Seuss to Stephen King to even J.K. Rowling, were rejected a multitude of times before becoming trend setting bestsellers.  What makes you think you are any different?  Jack Canfeld and Mark Victor Hansen (authors of the, now franchise, Chicken Soup for the Soul) were rejected a whooping 140 times before being published.  Publishers are terrified of stepping out of their comfort zone, especially since they have no idea of what will work and what will fail. It’s a sweet irony that as soon as you sell a bunch of books, the same people who rejected you will be all over you like a gaggle of hormonal teenage girls trying to get a date to the prom with the cool kid.

    “No one wants to give you your first job. Everyone wants to give you a job after you’re already successful. A couple of nutty brothers wrote a script that was made into a movie, and suddenly they had the ear of some Hollywood muckety-mucks, all of whom wanted to know, ‘Where’s your next script?’ The brothers had been working on a big, crazy science-fiction idea they wanted to direct themselves, but the idea was so huge and unusual that no one would give them the money for it. No one would risk giving them their first directing job on a film so large and strange. So they wrote a smaller, easier-to-make movie, much of which takes place in one apartment. Because the budget was so small, and the movie was so good, it made money. So now those Hollywood muckety-mucks, who wouldn’t give hem money to make their crazy science-fiction movie before their success, were more than happy to give them $70 million. The nutty sci-fi film? A little movie called—“

    Want to know what movie? Or just learn more on this topic? Just turn to page 157 in your copy of “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published” by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. Don’t have your own? Buy a copy of the book at your local bookstore or from: https://bookdoctors2.pairsite.com/our-book & get a FREE 20 minute consultation with The Book Doctors (with proof of purchase)
    Happy writing! See you at the bookstore.  The Book Doctors

     

  • David Henry Sterry on Dawn Smith: How to Get Published, Reading, Writing & Confessions of a Sex Maniac

    Interview about how to get published, reading, writing, sex and life on Dawn Smith Books. Buy the printed version of my new novella Confessions of a Sex Maniac for $4.99 & get a free 20 minute consultation for your writing worth $100 from The Book Doctors. (with proof of purchase)

     

  • Friday Writing Tips

    Friday Friday Friday!  The work week is moving into the rear view mirror and the weekend is staring us in the face.  So we’re starting Fridaywritingtips.  To elucidate, illuminate, and inspire.  And please feel free to ask questions:  about books, publishing, writing, the meaning of life, whatever.

    This week is all about The Idea.  Here’s an insider’s tip.  The greater your idea, the better your chances of getting successfully published.  But what makes a great idea?  It’s original yet familiar.  New fangled but old fashioned.  It fulfills a need.  Scratches an itch.  Solves a problem.  Takes us on a wild ride.  Makes us laugh or cry or fall in love.  Fills a hole in the market.  Most of all, it has a big passionate audience.

     “’Now it’s time for some self- assessment. Do you really have something new to say? Something only you can put into words?’ Neal Sofman, owner of San Francisco’s BookShop West Portal, says ‘The thing I notice with successful authors is that they have a unique voice that communicates to their audience. They touch you in some way. You know immediately who’s speaking because they’re so distinct.’ Many, many people spend years and years writing and trying to market books that end up as recycled paper precisely  because they’ve failed to capture their uniqueness on the page. And those who fail often become bitter and frustrated, sliding sadly into desperate lives of drugs, booze and literary criticism. 

    Which gets us back to your idea. ‘Is it so compelling that a person will plop down his hard-earned money for a copy of your book?’ asks Jim Levine, founder of the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency and author of seven books. ‘Your friends and colleagues will say, “that’s a great idea,” which is different from saying, “that’s such a good idea, I’d pay $25 if you write it” most authors don’t realize the difference here.’ How can you tell the difference? Now is the time to put to good use whatever bits of self-knowledge you possess. Consult your therapist, your inner children, your guru, your webmaster, your e-friends on Facebook and as many other people as possible. And not just your mother and BFF’s who believe that nothing but sunshine pours out of you. The more you know in your heart that you are the perfect author for your book and that your book is salable and/or necessary, the better your chances of convincing someone else. Remember: Every day, another writer nobody ever heard of gets a deal to publish a book.  And now, you on’t even have to have a publisher if your idea is great enough and you can get it into the heads, hands and hearts of your large and passionate audience.”

    Want to learn more? Go to page 79 of “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published” by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry.. Buy a copy of the book at your local bookstore or from: https://bookdoctors2.pairsite.com/our-book & get a FREE 20 minute consultation with The Book Doctors (with proof of purchase) 

    Happy writing! See you at the bookstore.  The Book Doctors

  • David Henry Sterry & The Book Doctors on Mama Plus

    Blogging, writing, publishing. Oh yeah! Mama Plus.

  • The Book Doctors & Plotics & Prose Pitchaplooza on Georgetown Patch

    georgetown patch on pitchapalooza @ politics & prose http://georgetown.patch.com/blog_posts/country-mouse-review-of-pitchapalooza-part-1-introduction

  • David Henry Sterry on Gotham Writer’s Workshop

    Some small advice about how to get published & whatnot on Gotham Writer’s Wokrshop website! http://www.writingclasses.com/WritersResources/AuthorAdviceDetail.php/author_id/195073

  • NPR Pitchapalooza The Book Doctors Mary McCallum Northshire Books

    Very nice piece on Vermont Public Radio about Pitchaplooza @ Northshire, one of our favorite bookstores in the world.

  • College Times Reports on Pitchapalooza

    Have an idea for a book but don’t know the first thing about pitching it? The Book Doctors can help. David Henry Sterry, author of such varied works as “Confessions of a Sex Maniac” and “The Glorious World Cup: A Balls-Out Guide,” and his wife, literary agent and author Arielle Eckstut, help aspiring authors bring their ideas from conception to a polished, published book through consulting services, workshops and their book, “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.” Together with Changing Hands Bookstore, Sterry and Eckstut will conduct “Pitchapalooza” at South Mountain Community Library where writers will have one minute to pitch their book idea for the chance at an introduction to an agent in their genre. The Book Doctors spoke on the phone with College Times about the keys to a successful pitch.

    To see the article, click here.

  • NaNoWriMo Online Pitchaplaooza

    You wrote your 50,000 words (or got pretty close!).  You’re a winner.  You’ve been congratulated. You felt the high. But here’s the 64-gigabyte question: What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious manuscript? If you’re like the approximately one gazillion writers we know, you want to get published.  And you want to get published successfully. You want readers to devour your book ravenously; you want raves glowing in blog posts; you want bookstore owners to hand-sell your book so fast it’s literally flying off the shelves; you want to trade barbs with Steven Colbert; you want readings in front of rapt devotees; you want to go viral at the speed of one of those krazy kitten movies. But how? This is where we, The Book Doctors, come in. It’s our job to help writers make their dreams come true. It’s what we did with our first Pitchapalooza winners, Nura Maznavi, & Ayesha Mattu, whose book, Love InshAllah, just hit the shelves. In the last week, they were profiled in the New York Times, had one of the most talked about pieces on the Huffington Post, and cracked the top 500 of all books sold on Amazon. Then there’s Pitchapalooza winner and NaNoWriMo veteran, Genn Albin.  After she won Pitchapalooza, one of New York’s top agents sold her dystopian novel in a 3-book, 6-figure deal.  Now we’re embarking on our second online Pitchapalooza exclusively for NaNoWriMo participants so that you, too, have a chance to win.

    For those of you not familiar with Pitchapalooza, here’s the skinny: You get 200 words to pitch your book. You then email your pitch to nanowrimo@bookdoctors2.pairsite.com. Twenty-five pitches will be randomly selected from all submissions. We will then choose one winner from the group. The winner will receive an introduction to an agent or publisher appropriate for his/her manuscript. We will also award a fan favorite who will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250). All pitches must be received by February 29, 2012. The twenty-five random pitches will be posted on March 5, 2012. Winners will be announced on March 15, 2012. Anyone can vote for fan favorite, so get your social media engine running as soon as the pitches go up!

    You may be thinking, “I can’t sum up my entire book in 200 words!” Let us say this: “Yes you can!” Your pitch is the first thing an agent, editor, publisher, bookseller, and often reader, will look at. In this age of one-minute attention spans, if your pitch doesn’t blow the person you’re pitching out of the water, you’ll get that dreaded letter that starts: “Dear Writer, Unfortunately…”  We don’t want you to get any more of those letters.  So enter the 2nd Annual NaNoWriMo Pitchaplooza by sending us a kick-ass pitch for your kick-ass novel.  Who knows, maybe this year, the golden ticket will have your name on it.

    P.S. Like last year, we’re offering free 20-minute consultations (worth $100) to anyone who buys a copy of The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published. Just attach a copy of your sales receipt to your email and we’ll set up your consultation.

  • The Book Doctors on Huffington Post: How to Get Your Book Published When the Everyone Keeps Rejecting It

    The crazy tale of Nura Maznavi & Ayesha Mutta, & how their book Love InshAllah finally got published by Soft Skull Press.

    http://huff.to/ADAzEz