I have worked in publishing virtually my whole career. I started as an editor at a mid-sized
publisher in Santa Monica CA, and 8 years later became the President
& CEO of that company. I served as a copyeditor, a line editor, the
acquisition editor, the editorial director and ultimately, I ran the
company and decided its strategic direction. I know how publishing
companies look at authors and potential authors and what they would
like from you in exchange for publishing your book.
Here are the values that guide us at eWomenPublishingNetwork:
- We honor the role of the author as the challenger of current
thinking as well as the keeper and recorder of the collective wisdom of
society.
- Every author's ideas have value and her dreams to become a
successfully published author deserve support, including giving her
honest professional feedback and out of the box thinking to make that
happen.
- Every author should have access to all the inside information we
have about how to navigate the publishing world. We will never withhold
information that would help a woman make wise choices about the course
of her own success.
- Every author's definition of success is different and her publishing decisions should match her life and her dreams.
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My career in publishing took a dramatic shift when at the top
of the dot.com era in 1998, a computer-based training firm made an
offer for my publishing company because they wanted what we owned -
content, intellectual property. We sold the company, and as a result I
signed a non-compete agreement. I was precluded from working in the
publishing industry for 3 years, with one exception - I could write my
own book. So that is what I did, and that book, Business Plans to Game
Plans is now in its 3rd edition.
The beauty of that experience was that it allowed me to see
the publishing industry from a whole new angle - that of a first time
author working with a New York publishing company. And boy was that an
eye-opening experience.
Unlike many new authors, I knew that publishing companies
have become less and less profitable in the past 10 years. Discount
booksellers like the big chains and amazon.com have radically changed
the publishing business model. Publishers just don't make enough money
on first books, generally, to give the new author much help in getting
that book written. So I thought I was ahead of the game. I knew what
made a topic interesting. I knew how to add interesting stories. And I
knew how a book should be organized. So I wrote what I think was and is
a pretty good book about a subject I knew well - running a growing
business.
What I didn't know then was that that was only half the
battle. A bigger challenge for a first-time author is that publishing
companies also don't offer much marketing help. I did know that
marketing a book can take months, if not years. So I made sure my
contract called for the publisher to publish the book in January, so
that I would have all year for the book to have the current years'
publishing date - just one of the tricks of the trade. I would
recommend to you that you'd like to avoid having your book come out at
the end of a calendar year. Just one of the things you will want to
negotiate in your publishing contract.
Mainstream publishers generally do a good job of getting your
book into bookstores and into catalogs - something vital to the
process. But if buyers don't know your book exists, they won't be
rushing into bookstores to buy it. And that is the trick - to generate
interest for you and your book through the media so that buyers will be
motivated to go to a bookstore, to go to Amazon.com, or somehow trade their money for your book.
How eWomenPublishingNetwork can help:
- We can teach you what you need to know about
publishing and reduce the learning curve you would otherwise encounter,
with our teleclasses, our eNewsletter, 24/7 articles on the Members'
Private Section of our website, and International Conference workshops
on all aspects of publishing .
- We can introduce you to the best minds in the
business and make sure you have access to all the resources you need to
do your best work through personal referrals tailored to you and your
book project through our members-only access to our book professional
directory (not everyone in the industry, just the best of the best).
- We can help you grow as writer and an author with
an honest critique of your ideas and your work by book professionals
who have no other agenda but to give you our best appraisal of your
strengths and what you might consider changing to succeed.
- We can inspire and encourage you with next steps
for developing your work no matter whether you are at idea stage or
already are a published author and you can also count on us to be
available to answer your questions and concerns about your publishing
challenges by phone or email.
- We can help promote you to one of the largest book buying
audiences - women professionals through the eWomenNetwork radio show, eMagazine,
online bookstore, International Conference and 110-plus
chapters in the U.S. and Canada.
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Your 1st challenge will be to put down your ideas in the form of a
book proposal. When I wrote my book proposal, I was surprised to find
my publisher of choice (John Wiley & Sons) was very interested in
the concepts I presented, but had a number of concerns about how well I
could market the book. In my experience with a number of authors, I
would say that when an author generated a publisher's interest, but
didn't ultimately get a contract offer, it was almost always because
she didn't convince the publisher that she would be able to effectively
sell it herself. I sent the book proposal to my first choice of
publishers and got an offer including an advance. It doesn't happen
that way often, but it does happen.
I didn't know until I did some research for my own book, that even
the largest publishers in the U.S. only spend an average of $500 to
$1,000 marketing a first-time authors' book. That generally covers some
promotional copies and a few flyers, so don't expect much more. What
they want to see in your proposal is evidence that you know you will be
responsible for most of your own marketing, and that you have the
contacts, the personal budget, the time, and the inclination to sell
the book yourself. It isn't unusual for an author to spend $10,000 and
more on marketing her book. And that's after the months away from work
and family it took to get the book written!
I think you would agree that writing a book and having it published is
a goal of many women. I can tell you from personal experience that it
is a calling card like no other and a real achievement, something you
can point to with pride.
Because of my own experiences, positive and not so positive, it has
become my personal mission to help reduce this learning curve, and help
women take their most personal and important ideas and make them
available to other women (and men) by getting them published in a great
book.
Join our community of authors, aspiring authors, and professionals in
the book industry. Together we will improve the publishing environment
and help women create and publish great books. I can't wait to work
with you!
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