The Writing Life: Spread The Love

A number of times in these articles about the writing life, I've written about the large volume of books (over 4,500) which are published every day. It takes a lot of effort from a village to break through the noise and get any attention for your book.

As a frustrated editor, I wrote my original version of Book Proposals That Sell in 2004. When I went into my publication board meetings, I often didn't have the details from authors about their book (in their proposal or pitch) which allowed me to get them a contract. In addition, I wanted editors and agents (including myself) to receive better quality submissions from authors. Through the years, I've heard from a number of authors who have used my book to get an agent and get a publishing contract. But publishing has changed in those years. For example, one of my 21 secrets in my first book was to always include an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope). Back then very little was sent electronically and when you submitted you wanted to receive a response (even if it was a form rejection). It would not happen if you didn't include the return postage.

Today the submissions are handled electronically but you can't just send your material as an attachment because of potential virsus and bugs might be attached. You have to reach out to the editor or agent and get their permission to send your submission. It's a different process.

When I wrote my original book, I was focused on nonfiction and had published nonfiction. While some fiction authors used the book, my original book was slanted toward nonfiction. The reality of today's publishing world is every author needs a book proposal—whether you write fiction, children's books, nonfiction or self-publish. Your book proposal is your business plan for your book. It's not easy to write one of these documents but they are important for the author but also for others in publishing like literary agents, editors and other publishing executives. These professionals use your book proposal to make a decision about publishing your book. It's a critical part of the publishing industry.

The revised edition of Book Proposals That Sell fixed this key flaw in my original book. The revised edition will release in over 1,800 online bookstores and in the brick and mortar bookstores this coming week on October 5th. I need your help to share the news about my book.

I've created a single page with promotion details. I include some images but also some prepared ClickToTweets which you can use (whether you have read the book or not) to tell others about my book. If they come to my book website, they can get a free book proposal checklist from me. In addition, you can even print a single page, then take that page to your local library and encourage them to order the book. The ideas on this page is not exhaustive but will give you some action steps you can take to share the book with anyone who wants to write a book.

Thank you in advance for your help. Have you published a book? Or maybe you have written a book proposal? Have you created tools like my promotion page to help others promote your book? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

It takes a village to tell others about a new book. This prolific editor and author has a new release and created a single page to help you learn about it and tell others. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)