Recently I met with Bernie Warren, a self-published author who wrote his memoir,
An Unlikely Engineer, about his life as a NASA engineer. We discussed how he should take his book to the next step, a national publisher. My advice to Mr. Warren is to zigzag towards his goal. I've noticed that two things get authors picked up by a national publisher: hard work and serendipity.
Instant success does sometimes come with a little luck. Getting the book on the Internet, in local book stores, and in front of people who publish memoirs takes the story from invisible to high profile, increases the chance for an interested publisher or agent to read it or have it referred to them by family or friends. Hit TV talk shows, radio shows up for a spot to talk up your book. Editors and publishers are like the rest of us, they listen to those they respect and love. Not all books come over the transom. If no one knows about your book, no matter how good it is, no one is going to buy it.
Marketing on a local and national level such as writing a newspaper story and submitting it to local newspapers as a local interest item will expose the book a large audience, and show a potential publisher that you are willing to work for the success of your book after it is picked up for publication, and that is where the work begins for both the publisher and author.
Luck comes with networking, marketing, and selling the book to agents on a day to day basis; work like the process is a job that the you wake up to and go to each day. Some days you have nothing to show for your work; then, a year later you may get a break from an action you took months earlier. It is all about connecting with the larger world.
Any good book has a chance for success but it depends on the author's persistence in making his book a national publication as his main goal.
Self marketing the book might raise the book's profile, as is it's potential audience does not know it exists. Give talks at libraries and bookstores. Call the libraries in the Brevard area, especially. Libraries buy copies of local books. Try Space Coast libraries all along the coast, cite the connection to NASA, sell the book, open it up to readers, to serendipity or auspicious chance
Show books at writers' conferences. Writers' conferences cannot be underestimated for contacts, or for a direct path to publication, and for the all important morale builder to stay the course. Hold off rewriting your book as long as you have copies left. Each editor is different, will cut or enhance areas of book to the publisher's needs that you cannot anticipate. If you reprint your book consider a redesign. The book desperately needs a good table of contents. It needs a new look. If you feel like you want to cut some at that point you might trim the book but I think at this point you will probably second guess yourself so it may or may not be productive.
Look for agents at writers' conferences. Agents may speak at conferences or actually consider manuscripts at conferences. Agents look for salable books that will make them money.
Look for reputable, maybe long standing,"agent meetings" where agents and book publishers and agents hold offer a 15-30 minute appraisal for a fee. Usually, $1000.00 or more. You give your pitch to sell your book in fifteen minutes, usually. The process is based on the fact that if a book cannot be succinctly summed up in 15 minutes and sold to them in 15 minutes, then it isn't going to sell.
Hire a screenwriter to write a play. Talented screenwriters write scripts for individuals to generate income while they write.
Contact Baker & Taylor book distributors. Baker & Taylor cost approx. $600.00 to get the book on the library lists, book store lists, also e-book download if you have the original PDF file. An ISBN number will be needed to market with this company.
Get a WRITERS MARKET book from the library. Write query letters to publishers who are a good fit with your book. Browse the bookstores for memoirs and books that resonate with your book.
Take a cruise. Seriously, some cruises offer authors contact with writers and agents.
shirley.publish@gmail.com