Stumped On A Submission?

Most book authors don't like to consider this dose of reality: there are millions of book proposals, book manuscripts and book ideas that are in circulation. If you want a heavy dose of some publishing statistics, I recommend you check out Dan Poytner's page on Book Industry Statistics because he regularly updates it with additions.

Some days it feels like every one of those would-be authors has sent their material to me--but they haven't.

It's key to continue getting your ideas and proposals out into the marketplace. There are many stories about authors with perseverance who continued to pitch their book concept in the face of rejection. I love this quote from Charles Kettering that came across my email today from Cynthia Kersey at Unstoppable:

"It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again."

If you are continually rejected with a book proposal, then there is value in getting insight and help from others. You can get this help at a writers' conference which involved a commitment of time and money to reach it. Admittedly it's difficult because the editors and literary agents send out form rejections--not because they don't want to help you--but because of time and that's not their role. I use form rejections as much as anyone else in this business.

Where do you get help? Yes you can turn to a local or online critique group or a paid critique service. I want to give you another resource--and it is FREE.

In two days or on June 25th, I've scheduled another teleseminar where I'm going to answer your questions about book proposals or pitches to editors and literary agents. Just to go http://www.askterrywhalin.com/ and use the form to ask your question. I'm collecting these questions through the Ask Database. (Just click this link for a $1 offer if you don't know about this valuable tool).

If you can't attend the teleseminar at the time of the event, still sign up because the call will be recorded and you will receive the replay information then you can download it to your computer or iPod and listen to it on your schedule. It's the same tool that I used last week with Andy McGuire and a while back with Sally Stuart. Each of these past teleseminars are in "replay mode" so there is no need to ask a question because the live event is past. Just type no question along with your name and email address and you will reach the replay page.

Back to my live event on Wednesday, I wanted to create a new book proposal resource. Since I wrote Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success, I continue to learn new aspects on book proposal creation--whether fiction or nonfiction. I've written about some of these aspects in these entries on The Writing Life. Yes, you can use my search tool in the right-hand column to collect and read this information in the archives. But do many people take this step? I doubt it.

I pulled together over 40 of my Writing Life entries about book proposals into a single Ebook called Book Proposals That Sell Extra Special Report. I removed the dates, created a table of contents and put it into an Ebook format. Every one of the links within the entries works and will take you to the resource that I mention in the text. It's 90 pages of powerful insight about the submission process--and it's free to every one who signs up for the teleseminar. You can download it immediately on the confirmation page, print it and begin studying this resource.

It's my hope that each of you will use this resource and the others that I create so you have better submissions. I'm a bit self-serving because I want those submissions to come into my mailbox but I'm also eager for writers to figure out the best way to pitch their idea.

I hope to be talking with you this week through the teleseminar--and answering your question.

Learn What Your Audience Wants -- Ask

Some times the obvious path isn't the one that a writer will select when they write their book. I met a number of these people last week at the writers conference. Some situation has inspired them to write a book (whether fiction or nonfiction) and they have pursued this dream and written all or part of their book project. Now they are trying to figure out what they perceive as the next step: find a publisher or a literary agent. Yet their project isn't focused on the needs or wants of the audience (their readers). Instead their work was created from inspiration. They never thought to ask the audience what they want, then create a product to meet the need. If you want to create a bunch of material which languishes in your desk drawer or file folder, then take the inspiration method. Instead if you want to write something which will scratch the needs of the audience, then ask them.

One of the valuable results of teleseminars and ask campaigns is the creator learns what the audience wants. Later today I will be interviewing Susan Driscoll, president and CEO of iUniverse in a live teleseminar. If you happen to be reading this post after the event, please go ahead and register as you will be notified of the replay and have the ability to download it to your computer or iPod. I've notified a number of people about this event and iUniverse has used several means to notify the audience about this event. I just checked my askdatabase account which collects and sorts the information for the event and found over 300 questions. It will be impossible to answer these questions during the 90–minute seminar so I will be looking for themes of questions to attempt and answer the majority of the concerns for the audience. Yet from these questions, I know what the audience is expecting and wants from the session. Asking the question has eliminated any doubts or guesswork.

There are many new ways to learn about electronic marketing. If you'd like to see where you are in this area of the market and receive a quick, FREE evaluation, then I'd encourage you to take this Electronic Marketing Survey. It could be one of the most important things you do for your own writing life.

I'm eager to learn about self-publishing and iUniverse later today. I hope to see you there.

The Necessity: Ask The Right Question

I've watched writers over the years and know they are a creative bunch. The majority of them have some idea for a magazine article or a novel or a book, sit down and crank it out. Often they invest hours in the writing process and when it's completed, they turn and try to sell that manuscript to a magazine editor or a book publisher.

Because there are literally millions of these ideas, queries, book proposals and manuscripts in the jammed pipeline, the writer waits forever for a response from some editor or literary agent. They burn a path to their mailbox or their email box looking for some response. And often when that response comes, it's a rejection. That's when the self-doubts set in for the writer.

It's like the old chicken joke which has been around forever. What came first the chicken or the egg? Where in the creation process of the writing do you begin and write something that fills a need in the market? There are three large elements with this process: Messenger, Delivery System and Market. The majority of people believe they are the messenger, the book is the delivery system and they are trying to reach the market. It's a long-shot way of touching that market in my view because not enough research has been put into discovering the need of the market.

Yesterday I was fascinated with this transparent post from Thomas Nelson President and CEO Mike Hyatt. While the writer invests vast amounts of time and creative energy in their idea, the publisher has the real "skin in the game" (as some people would say) or financial investment. The publisher has created a product and most of that creation is based on their experience and some "gut" reaction. Mike makes a case for the publisher to do more research before they produce the product. I want to take this idea a bit further and encourage the writer to survey the marketplace before they write another book proposal or another query letter.

How do you survey your market? I'd suggest you use a tool called the Ask Database. Behind the scenes, I'm using this Ask Database to compile the questions and data for my free teleseminar next week (and other teleseminars that are in the planning stages). I hope you’ve asked your question about book proposals or the publishing process because I'm eager to gather your input. Each writer should be building a list of people they can survey. It's their market and they should be connecting with their readers to find out what they want--then write something that fills a need in that audience. You communicate to your audience on a regular basis through a newsletter like my FREE Right Writing News.

This process of asking the right question and meeting a market need is more important than ever for every writer. Why? We’ve been saying there were 170,000 new books published last year--and a very small percentage (something like less than 500 book titles sold over 5,000 copies--I've heard this statistic but can't lay my hands on it--so I'm hedging) actually sold. Here's the frightening detail: R. R. Bowker who compiles the statistics have reworked their method to compile the numbers. Now they estimate that over 290,000 books were published last year--a 120,000 jump from their previously published number of 170,000.

Whether the number was 170,000 or over 290,000, it's a huge number of new books--and many of those titles are entering the market but not selling. I return to my key point in this entry: Are you asking the right question and what are you doing to get your answers?