Answering Writers Questions

Hi again, everyone. As I mentioned last time, over the holidays I did a series of book signings and presentations and as always, I’m greeted by aspiring writers and authors asking me a hundred questions about the publishing world. Believe me, I love talking to them and imparting whatever knowledge I have and sharing my story. But trust me, I am not the expert on this. I only know my story, but I am happy to share that with you and over the next couple of weeks on my blog, I will answer a couple of the most commonly asked questions.

Once again, I am not an expert by any means. I know. “But you have eighteen published books and a string of articles.” Every situation is different for every writer. Every publisher and agent is different and have varying submission requirements. And that is the first question all published authors are asked: How did you get that first book deal?

 My first book deal came quite by accident. I was writing short stories and articles but never once thought about writing a book. It was never on my bucket list. I wrote something completely different – a CD-ROM (remember those?) about section hiking the Appalachian Trail. One publisher rejected it but asked if I would write a book for the company about hiking in Alabama and I was sent my first contract.

 As I told a group of fellow writers during a recent presentation, that first book, Hike America Alabama (later renamed Hiking Alabama) might have come to me by accident, but a lot of hard work doing research, hiking almost 100 trails, writing, mapping, and following the publisher’s guidelines made it a success which literally had other publishers asking me to write other books resulting in thirteen outdoor recreation books and three non-fiction history books to date.

There are three different ways to land your first book deal. The first, and from all accounts the most lucrative, is to have an agent sign you on. They do a lot of the wheeling and dealing and, if they are worth their salt, get you the best deal monetarily and get you into the larger publishers. I have yet to go this route but might be soon with a new book idea I have. If I do, I’ll be posting my adventures with an agent for you.

Another is to go the self-publishing route. There is nothing wrong with being self-published, but it takes a lot of hard work to make a go of it. For the most part, it is up to you to promote, market, and sell your books, which could be at a considerable expense to you.

The one drawback I have seen in self-publishing is how the media treats a self-published author. Let’s face it, there are some good books and some bad books self-published. Many times, the bad outweigh the good since quite often there isn’t an editor giving the work a second set of eyes to correct errors. The media is overwhelmed by the number of these books published these days and refuse to spotlight any of them. I was fortunate to have a local announcer on a radio station spotlight one of my books that was published by a national company and interview me, but the lead-in suggested that even this was a rarity and insisted that nobody else send a book to him to review or put on the air.

The third way is the route I have taken and that is to go to a publisher directly. There are many out there looking to publish your book. Some are good, some are bad. It takes a bit of research to find the one that will be a perfect fit for your book. Do a Google search on “publisher submission guidelines” and you will find plenty of publishers out there who accept proposals from writers for books. If a publisher says that it does not accept un-solicited manuscripts, then don’t send one. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and your energy.

Now don’t expect to be paid handsomely for your manuscript. Most, but not all, publishers who accept un-solicited manuscripts have a set percentage you will receive in royalties that are rarely negotiated and don’t pay top dollar. Some publishers pay advances, usually half up front, the other half when the manuscript is turned in. These types of publishers also have an editing staff to proofread your finished manuscript a few times and discuss grammar and spelling changes and suggest making certain changes in the text that you can accept or give your reason why it needs to stand. They also offer varying degrees of promotional assistance as well, taking the burden off the author’s back.

 All of this doesn’t mean that the author doesn’t have additional work to do. For example, online marketing on social media and your own personal website and blog, setting up additional book signings and attending conferences that the publisher may have missed to help promote and sell your book, and so on, but it does take some of the work of the author's plate when it comes to getting that book out into the world.

With the exception of my first sixteen books, I realized that for my last two titles, SpaceOddities and Everyone’s Gone to the Moon, I would have to write my first real proposal to get in the door. Surprisingly, the proposals were such a hit that the publisher, Prometheus, is using it as a guide for new authors to go by when sending in their own proposal. Next week, I’ll talk about writing a proposal that I hope will help you get that first book published.