How I Got My Book Published…Twice!
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10 Authors. 10 True Stories. 10 Ways to Get Your Book Published. Emily Harstone, Editor Authors Publish Copyright 2016. Do not distribute without explicit permission. To share this book, please go to: http://www.authorspublish.com/get-your-book-published/ Editor: Emily Harstone Copy Editor: Marian Black Associate Editor: Jacob Jans Contributors: Eric Williams, Shirley Raye Redmond, Janice Oberding, Hester Schell, Patricia Gaydos, Rebecca Ann Smith, Linda Kush, Heather Smith Meloche, Kathryn Olsen, Shani Greene-Dowdell Introduction.................................................................................................. 5 How I got My Book Published…Twice!............................................................. 7 "What are You Looking For?"..........................................................................13 Self-Publishing as a Step Toward Traditional Publication...............................18 That is My Book.............................................................................................. 21 How I Sold Over 7,000 How-to Books.............................................................26 It is All About the Right Fit..............................................................................32 How a Magazine Article Launchedthe Rice Paddy Navy................................38 Winning was the First Step............................................................................. 45 Lost in Interpretation......................................................................................48 You Should Write a Book!............................................................................... 53 Appendix..................................................................................................... 57 Recommended Tools and Resources............................................................. 62 Introduction Writing makes intuitive sense. One sentence follows another. Anne Lamott might have phrased it best when she said, “Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. the act of writing turns out to be its own reward.” Trying to publish a manuscript is not always intuitive or rewarding. There is a lot of work involved and most of it, like self-promotion, research, and conferences have nothing to do with writing. Because of this, publishing your first book can seem overwhelming. When it comes to publishing, everyone has an opinion of what is the best thing to do for your book. Some say it is best to self- publish. Others argue for an agent. Some writers say you should approach a publisher directly. This book isn’t about the "best" way to get published. I don’t claim to know the best way. Neither do the ten authors whose essays are contained in this book. Each of these authors followed a very different path, some self- published, others obtained an agent, still more approached publishers directly. No matter which path they pursued, all paths led to the same place: successful publication. Some of these authors, like Kathryn Olsen, are just about to publish their first book. Others, like Shirley Raye Redmond, write full-time, with a number of successful books under their belts. None of these essays will reveal exactly how to get your book published, but they will give concrete examples of how other people did it. In the back of this book there is additional information pertaining to agents, publishers, and other resources that will help you publish your manuscript successfully. How I got My Book Published…Twice! Erik Williams So, how’d I get my novel Demon published not once, but twice? Well, gather around and I’ll tell you a tale. It all started back in the spring of 2008. I was in Salt Lake City attending the World Horror Convention. I was a newbie writer with a few short story credits under my belt. I knew the next step was a novel, but had no idea for one. Sometime during that Con, I was walking around the dealer room, looking at all these different small press publishers (because no big publisher would ever take me, cuz I didn’t have a book or an agent, so why not try an easier path? Brilliant!) and their books and a thought occurred to me: I can do this, and I can do it faster and better. Self-centered? Sure. But sometimes as a writer you need to think that way to fuel the creative drive. To get the pistons humming. You know, all that stuff. Anyway, I’d been toying with the idea for a short story about a ship that finds a life raft adrift. On board is one guy. And that guy is possessed by a demon. Of course, they don’t know that when they bring him on board. However, they soon find out when all hell breaks loose. Then I got to thinking, well, where did this guy come from? How’d he become possessed? And who the hell is this demon? Suffice it to say, the book took on a life of its own. No longer a short story, I knew I had at least a novella in my hands. As I started writing it and learning more about the characters, I came to the conclusion it would be a novel. Not a big one, but your run of the mill trade or mass market paperback size coming in at around 80,000 words. I plunged in, writing every single day, for multiple hours, until it was done. Side note, it was easier to do when I didn’t have kids. Anyway, in twenty-eight days, I had a finished first draft at just under 80,000 words. Fast forward to January 2009. I decided to attend Thomas F. Monteleone’s Borderlands Writer’s Bootcamp for novels (I attended a short story bootcamp in 2006). Tom always lines up great professionals who will review (and by review, I mean tear apart) your work and give you honest feedback to make it better. That year I had Tom, author Gary Braunbeck, and a couple of big New York editors as my reviewers. The feedback was priceless and, thankfully, the book was well-received. In fact, for a moment, I thought I might come out of there with a publishing deal. Sadly, it didn’t happen. In 2010, I sold a novella to Bad Moon Books, a small press specializing in limited edition hardcovers and collectable trade paperbacks. My experience with that book was so positive, I sent them a newly revised Demon. They bought it. So, there, that’s how I got Demon published the first time. Ah, but what about the second? Well, that is another story. Demon came out in 2011. The problem about that timing was the small press was imploding, while, at the same time, e-books (especially self-published e-books) were going through a parabolic rise in sales. Nobody wanted to buy the limited edition hardcover (because, hell, the economy sucked and nobody wanted to throw down $50 for a super-duper hardcover). Very few wanted to toss money in the hat for even a trade paperback. Thankfully, I had retained the e-book rights. I did my own cover art and book formatting and put it out to the world of e- commerce myself. In 2012, sales for Demon had completely stalled. I was making a few bucks in royalties for the electronic edition. I had a sequel ready to go, but was hesitant to pull the trigger. And then came along this open call for submissions to this new e-book only imprint HarperCollins was starting. I figured, “Hey, I have the e- rights to Demon and Harper is accepting reprints. What the hell?” So I sent it off. And quickly forgot about it. In late 2013, I bought back all the rights to Demon from Bad Moon Books. Basically, I bought what they had remaining in stock and they relinquished their hold on the trade paperback and hardcover rights. It was a good business deal for all sides. And then something odd happened. I got this e-mail in early 2014 —literally out of nowhere—telling me HarperCollins wanted to publish Demon for their new Harper Voyager Impulse line. They wanted it and the sequel, Guardian, with an option for a third. All they needed to know is if I had all the rights back. Boy howdy, did I! I quickly fired off all the info required, received the two-book contract with an option for a third, and found myself being published by a big New York publishing house. HarperCollins! Victory! You may be thinking: Hey, great story. But how did you get your book published…twice! Enough yammering! Okay, okay. Here’s how I did it: 1. I wrote the book. Sounds obnoxious but, hey, if you don’t have a book, what do you think you’re going to get published? 2. Feedback. Not only feedback from your peers, but also professionals who are gracious enough to give your book a read. Luckily, I had a great writer’s group I was a part of at the time, in addition to capitalizing on my previous experience at the writer’s bootcamp. If I wrote the book, those experiences forged it. 3. My experience with the publisher of my first novella gave me an “in” where I could contact them whenever I wanted with possible other projects. Having these kind of relationships are invaluable. Instead of going in a slush pile, you go into the To Be Read pile, which may still be big, but not legendary like some slush piles are. 4. Keeping my e-rights for the first round helped me pocket some money. It also made it easy to submit to other markets, since I had retained them. 5. My decision—after realizing sales in the small press weren’t ever going to pick up—to buy back my print rights was, in hindsight, brilliant. Yes, I had to fork out some money out of my own pocket, but after I had, the book was mine again. 6. The HarperCollins open call was a huge opportunity. I didn’t think I had a chance, but sometimes you have to say, “What the hell?” Thankfully, when that opportunity came to fruition, I had the rights in my pocket to make the transition very easy. 7. As any experienced writer will tell you, this stuff doesn’t happen fast.