Setting out to face the enemy!
If you've ever truly considered writing a book, then you should first take another hard and long look at the rubbish filling bookshelves. The so-called 'authors' of that stuff are laughing all the way to the bank. While English majors and real literary types are screaming at each other in the stuffy halls of academia, these lucky clowns and celebrities are quietly rehashing tired plots and making millions for doing this. You're a smart person, so we see no reason you shouldn't take a crack at making the bank as well. Heck, even if you're only half literate and need to get a story or poems out there, we think you should give it a try. (Celebrities don't ever write or edit their own books ...do they?) Yet their books sell in millions. (The question is why?)
The answer is simple, CONTACTS!!!
This site provides the rifle and ammunition on how you too can tap into the wallets of all those gullible readers out there through reaching those protected editors of books and movies Please note, however, that we can't actually write the book for you. You may have to do that yourself.
The first rule of getting a book published is to avoid writing a book.
Wait! ...Backtrack a little, what the heck are we talking about? Yes, it's very counterintuitive, but the main goal of anyone who wants to publish a book is to land a literary agent so, before spending years writing something nobody wants to read. It may help stimulate the inner being but, whether anyone wants it, is another question. (Of course, if you're reading this website because you've already churned out that work of genius, take courage and spend extra time preparing yourself to conquer the enemy). Let us explain: the literary world is a very closed community and the people who green light publication accept books only through very specific channels. Think about it: nobody could ever handle reading the mountains of spew that aspiring authors churn out all the time, it generally ends up on a slush heap with the other unread manuscripts in a corner. That's why the system has established filters to weed out most of the garbage. You need to learn what the filters are and how to get through them. Namely, trying to use a literary agent but, don't let this put you off.
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Agents -- what is a literary agent, exactly?
An agent is a necessary evil and a separate individual that performs much of this filtering process. You most certainly don't want to send a manuscript directly to a publishing house because it will end up in a slush pile. Be assured, they won't even read it and after several months you will get a letter telling you to read the Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents. What this really means is ...We couldn't be bothered! (Publishers and Movie Folk have a speak of their own). These gods will generally consider pieces only if they come recommended by an agent. Agents supposedly read manuscripts, or ideas for manuscripts (known as queries and proposals), and decide whether a project has promise because they NEED to make their cut out of whatever masterpiece crosses their paths. But then again, you get a very occasional wise and caring editor like Barry Cunningham who really understands the book world. (He discovered Harry Potter, and the publishing world still cannot quite understand how this phenomenon happened! Duh!!!). However, if this approach does make it, the agent then signs a contract with the author, promising to use best efforts to get the thing sold to a publishing house, in exchange for around 15% of the deal. Editors at publishing houses would much rather deal only with agents who have a good track record for presenting quality ideas, so agents can be very choosy about who they sign. Landing an agent in the first place, therefore, is the whole idea of the game. Once you have one of those on your side, they will hopefully work incredibly hard to get your idea sold. Now! Agents, in turn, don't particularly like reading 300-page manuscripts either. In fact, they don't like reading much more than 1 or 2 pages. So your first step to getting an agent to even pay attention to you is to send them a query letter. A query letter is like a snappy marketing campaign, in as few sharp bullet points this is essentially a short summary of your idea, who you are, and why you are qualified to write this project.
But you say, "Wait. I don't want give up 15% percent of my book-deal-to-be. That stinks!" Can you proceed without an agent? Don't even try and are they worth the cash? You bet: 85% of Nothing is still nothing!, as it now stands, you have nothing with or without an agent being there? It's a no-brainer to take on the world by yourself? Don't panic though, there are thousands of literary agents all across the world and only a few excellent guides that give you tons of information about what they like to represent and how to contact them. (But remember!!! There are crooked agents out there and we suggest you check, check, check out again any reports on the Internet before signing ANYTHING! ...and, NEVER PAY anything up front!)
But first you need to know who all these agents are and how to reach them.
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