Thanks to Melody A Wilson for reviewing our book.
Tag: writer
First Review for The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published
The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: Brainstorms and Bylines In Inspiration, Reviews on October 26, 2010 at 6:30 AM
Good nonfiction books give you information. Great ones give you ideas. After reading The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, I have to say it falls nicely into the latter category. My ARC looks like a porcupine with the all the page flags that are sticking out everywhere.
Originally published as Putting Your Passion Into Print, this latest edition has been revised to include the most recent technological advances in the world of publishing. Like most books in the category, this one covers everything from pitch to print. It leads the reader step-by-step through putting together a proposal, finding an agent, finishing the book and landing a publisher. And then it goes the extra mile with sections devoted to publicity, marketing, social media, self-publishing, electronic publishing and more.
Unlike many books I’ve read about publishing, Eckstut and Sterry don’t pretend that every author is on the path to a smooth publishing experience. Not only do they tell you what to do in the best case scenarios, they address how to deal with the worst-case ones as well. What happens if your agent stops communicating with you? What if you sign with a publisher, deliver the book, and they decide to reject it? It’s in there.
The book’s engaging conversational style makes it an easy and entertaining read. And while the main thrust of the information is geared toward nonfiction writers, there’s something in here for everyone.
The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published
By Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry
Workman Publishing
November 2010THE BIG GIVEAWAY!
How would you like to win a brand new, shiny copy of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published? It’s simple. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. For extra credit (and an extra entry for spreading the word) tweet with a link to this post and use the hashtag #BBbookGiveaway.
I”l draw the winner from my proverbial hat (using Random.org) on November 1st.
Remember, you can’t win if you don’t play.
Denver Pitchapalooza a Smash
From New West Books & Writers:
“Pitchapalooza”
The most entertaining part of the MPIBA writers conference was “Pitchapalooza,” billed as the “American Idol” for books. Each conference attendee was instructed to prepare a 60-second pitch of his or her book to present to a panel for a critique. The writer with the best pitch won a 30-minute consultation with Arielle Eckstut. The panelists included Eckstut, who with her husband David Henry Sterry wrote The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It . . . Successfully, Elizabeth Jordan, the head buyer at BookPeople in Austin, and Katie Schmidt, the Small Publisher Liason for Tattered Cover Bookstore.
Eckstut and Sterry emphasized the importance of authors crafting a polished pitch of their books to use in query letters to agents and publishers, and to present to buyers at bookstores or whomever they happen to meet. Sterry circulated throughout the day, asking anyone who confessed to having written a book, “So, what’s your book about?” He posed this question to me at the coffee station, and I admit that I flubbed it. I hadn’t thought to prepare my own pitch, as I was just reporting on the conference, not participating. His point was made—anyone who is publishing a book should be ready for this question at all times.
Eckstut said that one frequent problem she sees with pitches is that authors sometimes “separate their pitch from their book,” writing a pitch for a humor book that isn’t funny, for example. “The voice of your book needs to come through in your pitch.”
After the introduction, volunteers began to deliver their one-minute pitches while the judging panel kept the time. All the participants had clearly worked hard on their short presentations, each of them delivering a convincing commercial for their books that were lively and frequently funny or moving. After each participant finished, the panel offered their critiques and suggestions, such as advising writers to balance their emphasis on plot and characters in the pitch, or including a comparison to other successful books that share something in common with the book being pitched. Eliza Cross, a Colorado-based writer, won the Pitchapalooza competition. She is the author of, most recently, The Rusty Parrot Cookbook: Recipes from Jackson Hole’s Acclaimed Lodge.
The MPIBA hasn’t yet decided whether they will offer this writers conference again at next year’s trade show, but if they do, anyone who is in the process of publishing a book, either through a self-publishing service or a traditional publisher, will benefit from attending.
Jenny Shank is New West’s Books & Writers Editor, and her first novel, The Ringer, will be published in March 2011. If you ask her what it’s about, she knows what to say now, she swears.
The Book Doctors Rock America
UPCOMING EVENTS
July 27, 3:30pm Politics & Prose, Washington DC
September 18, 7pm Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn Public Library
October 19, 20, James River Writers Conference, Richmond Virginia
Here’s what people are saying about The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published:
“I started with nothing but an idea, and then I bought this book. Soon I had an A-list agent, a near six-figure advance, and multiple TV deals in the works. Buy it and memorize it. This little tome is the quiet secret of rockstar authors.”—New York Times best-selling author Timothy Ferris, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich,
“It is a must-have for every aspiring writer… thorough, forthright quite entertaining.”—Khaled Hosseini, New York Times bestselling author of the Kite Runner
“Before you write your own book, read this one first.”—Jonathan Karp, editor-in-chief, Simon and Schuster
Here’s an article about Pitchapalooza in The New York Times.
Here’s a link to a blog about their Pitchapalooza at Barnes & Noble 86th St., with publishing titans Larry Kirschbaum and Bob Simon.
Here’s a link to an article about the Art of the Pitch and their Pitchapalooza on Publishers Perspective.
Here’s a write-up of a wild Pitchapalooza at the great book store Book Revue. PITCHAPALOOZA
Here’s a MINI-MOVIE about Pitchapalooza-TRY NOT TO CRY.
