LIMITED OFFER

1. What am I really trying to do?
2. How am I going to do it?
3. How do I find a publisher?
4. How do I sell it?
5. How do I structure a piece of writing?
6. How do I write it?

How do I find a publisher?

It is well worth deciding on how the book is to be published before spending years writing it. You might be lucky and find a good one straight away, this could save you from a vast amount of extra work and allow you to concentrate on the writing. My choice however, after a lot of research and frustration, was to self publish.

Horror stories about writers being ripped off and abused by editors, agents, printers and publishers are manifold, and some are even true.

In the ‘70s a friend of mine worked for an agency in the post-room, he was also tea-boy, but his prime official task, and by far the must lucrative, was steaming the un-franked stamps off all the SAEs that optimistic authors had sent in with their manuscripts. No SAE was ever returned, and most ms ended in the bin or were farmed out to a flock of ghost writers for the ideas to be ripped off for pot boilers, Radio and TV. Fortunately, that agency died. The SAE steam-off is also a major reason why so many small businesses moved over to return-paid mailing using Business Reply or Freepost.

There are a lot of very good Literary Agents, and the Artists and Writers Yearbook is an excellent introductory guide, but nothing can beat making personal contact. Good luck, you’ll need it.

Some of the contracts and advances offered to writers make the bad boys of the Record industry look positively benevolent. Cautionary tales include writers receiving just a penny per copy for a book retailing at twenty pounds; or having to pay the full printing and promotional costs out of the advance, and paying moneylender’s rates of interest on it; of the publisher hijacking the film rights and overseas rights; and more, perhaps apocryphal, but then is there ever smoke without fire? And remember, the only reason they are in the business is to make money, out of you and your book.

So befriend a solicitor specialising in Company and Contract Law and seek their professional advice before signing anything; paying your solicitor generously might become an essential investment.

Vanity Publishing is where one bleeds through the nose to have the magnum opus printed with the empty promise of a marketing deal thrown in. Sometimes you don’t even end up with a pile of books littering your garage floor. Just don’t do it.

Print On Demand is another route where one gains hard copy but almost no profit. It does have its place however, especially if you only want a small quantity, and do not care if you never sell any copies, or alternatively if you want to keep a book in print regardless of a tiny demand. See my spreadsheet for the typical real costs/profits of printing at one of the more reputable POD sites, such as Authors On-Line (http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/). Lulu ( www.Lulu.com) is another one well established, and the margins are similar.

Or you could become a celebrity, and the publishers will be beating a path to your door and offering someone, perhaps you, a fortune for your book, the one guaranteed to sell on the coattails of your fame. However do not expect a second success, because the ghost writers will have used up all the useful angles for that first book.

...next