Find Your Publishing Champion

Have you tried to send out your book idea or manuscript or proposal to an editor or literary agent? It's a challenge to get a response or attention.

Recently I met with another writer about her children's book. I looked at the manuscript and saw good potential in this book. The writer is an experienced journalist with a long list of magazine publishing credits.

Someone suggested that she send her manuscript to a publisher. As I listened to this writer, she had the name and address of an acquisitions editor from another writer who had worked with this editor. This publisher did children's books where the manuscript could be a possible fit for this company. She packed up her manuscript and pitch cover note and submitted it to this publisher. Then she waited—for weeks. She never received a response—even the courtesy of a rejection letter. 

The author was disappointed but her experience is common and one that I've heard from many other authors. They say that at any given time there are millions of manuscripts, proposals and ideas that are in circulation at publishing houses and literary agents. The challenge for every author is on several fronts:

1. Do not take it personal. It's a business and not about you.

2. Believe in your work and continue to search for your publishing champion. 

This search for someone to champion your project isn't easy. Some authors are rejected 10, 20, 30 or even 100 times before they locate the right person for their book.

It is not easy. Editors and agents have certain expectations about how they will receive ideas from authors. If you pitch in the wrong way, then your manuscript will bounce back like you sent out a boomerang instead of a book idea.

In the next few weeks, I've got several events where I will be teaching about How to Write a Winning Proposal and Find Your Champion.

On Monday, January 7^th, I will be teaching at the Global TeleClass or training without traveling. Use this link to learn the specifics about the class and to sign up for this free event. If you have heard me teach on proposal creation in the past, I encourage you to still sign up because I am reworking my presentation and adding new information to it. I'm constantly learning in this area and will bring my latest teaching to this free event. I hope you can participate.

Then in late February / early March, I will be teaching at the Florida Christian Writers Conference. I was added to the 2013 conference late in the planning stages. During the bulk of this event, I will be meeting one on one with different authors and helping them directly with their book projects. I will be teaching one workshop, Editor Read Proposals Not Manuscripts. Follow this link to see more details about my class at this event.

As a frustrated acquisitions editor, I wrote Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success. This book has 108 Five Star reviews on Amazon and has helped many people. The latest and updated version of this book is the Ebook version available at this link.

I am passionate about this topic of finding your publishing champion. I hope to see you at one or both of these forthcoming events.