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We're happy to announce the arrival of publishing consultant and AQ sponsor, Scott Edelstein, of HelpingWriters.com. http://helpingwriters.com/ Scott Edelstein will be dropping by on Tuesday, October 20 at 8PM EST to chat it up with the AQ Connect community about tips for assessing your own writing, creating a professional book proposal (especially for non-fiction), and how to conduct proper market research for your proposal or novel. He will also be on-hand to answer your questions about everything related to the business side of publishing such as contract negotiation, how to comparing publishers and literary agents, and what it's really like to sell your book to a commercial publisher... Be sure to check out Scott Edelstein's responses to our AQC questionnaire (see below) for more information about his publishing experience, expertise, and services for writers. As always, our very own AQ Connect member, Jean Oram, will be serving as the official AQC chat moderator during the chat. We hope you'll join us on October 20th! You can view the chat room by clicking on this link: http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_view.aspx?id=95648905668640678f9de1ad57463277 -AQ Crew
1. Biographical information: I’ve published over 150 short pieces and 14 books, including several for writers, such as The Complete Writer’s Kit and 100 Things Every Writer Needs to Know. I’ve been a professional writer for 35 years, as well as a literary agent; a book, magazine, and newspaper editor; a newspaper and magazine journalist; a freelance writer for businesses and nonprofits; a ghostwriter; a columnist for Writer’s Digest magazine; an instructor in Hamline University’s M.F.A. writing program; and a writing and publishing consultant. 2. About HelpingWriters.com: http://helpingwriters.com/ HelpingWriters.com features live online classes and workshops such as Selling and Publishing Your Book, Positioning Your Nonfiction Book, Creating Nonfiction Book Proposals That Sell, The Ins and Outs of Book Contracts, How to Read Royalty Statements, Market Research for Writers, and other classes and workshops for writers. It also has plenty of free stuff, including articles, interviews, and an hour-long video workshop, What Insiders Know—and Rarely Reveal—About Getting Published. It also publishes a free newsletter, Scott Helps Writers, which comes out every other week. And soon after Labor Day, it will enable you to throw a pie at an editor (really). 3. Publishing success stories: I could tell dozens and dozens of these, and I’ll happily tell a few in our live chat. The upshot of most of them is that persistence pays off. I have two books coming out in 2011 that were both rejected over 50 times before getting picked up by a good publisher. As an agent, I once sold a book on the 111th try (yes, after 110 rejections). For a complete list, check out the next post! However, please note that it does not include lots of books where I helped the author create a book proposal, coached them through the publication and/or contract negotiation process, etc., but they used their own agent or did the negotiating themselves. Examples of these include The Napkin, The Melon and the Monkey by Barbara Burke (Hay House), How Can We Keep From Singing by Joan Oliver Goldsmith (Norton), Freeing Vera by Elissa Raffa (Permanent Press), What Kindergarten Teachers Know by Lisa Holewa and Joan Rice (Perigee Books), 2001 Tips for Working Mother by Gloria Mayer (Morrow), Gluten-Free Hassle Free by Marlisa Brown (Demos), and a slew of others. 4. What literary consulting I provide: These days I’m doing much less consulting and much more teaching. While I enjoy working with writers one-to-one, the simple reality is that I can help many more—at far less cost—through online classes and teleclasses. 5. Biggest misconceptions about commercial publishing: We could easily spend our whole chat session on this. Here are a few: 1) You need an agent to publish a book (only true for the biggest publishing houses); 2) Publishers are looking for the next big thing (I wish they were, but instead they’re looking for what was big yesterday); 3) You can’t publish a book unless you have a national platform (only true of some publishers some of the time); 4) Editors actually make acquisitions decisions (only about 1/6 of projects that editors want to publish get approved by their colleagues in sales, marketing, sub rights, etc.). 6. Trends in commercial publishing: Why bother trend-watching at all? While most of the largest houses try to chase trends (and are usually months or years behind), many small and mid-size houses continue to publish certain kinds of books very well—and sell plenty of copies—regardless of trends. In a continent of 330,000,000 people, there are plenty of readers for all kinds of books. Don’t worry about trends; instead, find those publishers with an ongoing interest in your subject. 7. Words of wisdom for writers seeking publication with a major publishing house: What’s up with this obsession about publishing with a major house? Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Where would you rather have supper: the little Italian place on the corner with a fountain and great gnocchi, or Kmart? Kmart’s bigger. Kmart’s huge. The wise writer looks for the publishers that will do the best job with their book, not for the one that’s biggest. The books I’ve agented that have sold the most copies (400,000 and 250,000 copies) both ended up at small specialty publishers; the two books I’ve written that have sold the most copies (120,000 and 50,000 copies) were both issued by small specialty presses.
For more information, go to helpingwriters.com.
It'll be great to have you, Scott. It sounds like you will have a lot of hands-on, fresh, and practical tidbits for our members.
I know I'm looking forward to this.
Hiya folks! I have to say, AQ Crew sure rocks at getting all sorts of fantastic guests for us--and for free. Is there any better place on the Internet for us aspiring writers? "Heck, no!" we say, "This place is the best." And to prove it, AQ Crew has planned a great evening for us tonight. Scott Edelstein, who has seriously had every job connected with publishing and writing, will be available for a member Q&A (8PM to 9PM Eastern). If you are lurking and don't have a membership, get thee one! It's free and well-worth it. (And don't forget to click on the Google Ads so AQ Crew can keep affording their website's servers. Don't shoot me for saying that, AQ Crew!) Enough babble from me, here's the scoop. A few minutes before 8PM Eastern tonight, log in to AQ Connect and click on this chat link: http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_view.aspx?id=95648905668640678f9de1ad57463277 At 8pm, hit 'join' to enter the chat room. You may have to refresh your browser if you get there before the chat room opens. Once the clock strikes 8, I will introduce Scott and go over some chat rules, tips, etc. I will then ask Scott a few 'warm up' questions to get the ball rolling. Then I will turn the chat room floor over to you folks. Because the chat room can get busy, I will form a question lineup for those who are interested in asking Scott a question. Keep in mind that he has worked as a professional writer, literary agent, editor, instructor and much, much more. He can answer practically anything! (He's better than a Magic 8 Ball.) Currently, he is working as a literary consultant for his online business HelpingWriters.com which is full of many resources for writers. When I am ready to form a lineup, I'll ask people to send a '?' in the chat room. On my end, I will form a list and prompt people when it is their turn. How do you send a question/type in the chat? Once you are in the chat room, there will be a box with the messages from other chatters as well as a text box at the bottom of your chat screen. You may have to click your mouse in the empty box. Type your message. Hit ‘enter’ on your keyboard to send your comment/question. The chat software only allows approximately 200 characters to be entered and sent at a time, therefore if you have a long question, please type '...' at the end of your first transmission so we know more is coming down the pipe. Hit 'enter' on your keyboard. Then finish your message and send it. If you need help during the chat send me a message in the chat screen. We'll see you there! Time Zone Info: Last chat we had folks from all over the world dropping in. That means figuring out what time this chat will 'really' be happening can be tricky. If you need help figuring it out, try this site: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc Click on radio button that says: "use the following date/time" Change date to October 20, 2009 (good for if you are off the North America continent.) Change time to '8:00' click on 'pm' radio button. 'From Time zone': choose 'America/New_York' (This is the Eastern timezone) Then in 'To Time Zone' choose your area of the world. (If you don't see your city, choose one that is either North or South of you for best results.) Click on 'convert time now'. It will look like it didn't do anything, but you will notice in the pale blue box in red letters it will say what time the chat will be in your timezone. This map may also help: http://www.worldtimezone.com/
Click on the link and ask those burning questions you've always been wondering. http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_view.aspx?id=95648905668640678f9de1ad57463277
Wow, what a fantastic chat. You know that cherished formula you've got cradled in your arms? Smash it, baby! Scott gave us a shake up, hug, and a shove tonight. His honest, shoot from the hip advice is exactly what some of us have needed. Think you can give up because you go 75 rejections. Ha! He's not letting you off that easily! Lots of great advice. Watch for the transcripts. The link will be posted here tomorrow. A big thanks to Scott and our fantastic AQ members who came armed with lots of questions and were willing to 'dance.'
As promised, here are the transcripts. Click on the link, then click on 'view transcripts.' (Bottom right.) http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_view.aspx?id=95648905668640678f9de1ad57463277 Scott would like to add a P.S. to those who were in the chat or read the transcipts: "Someone in the chat asked for some good lists of book publishers. I neglected to mention Jeff Herman's excellent book, JEFF HERMAN'S GUIDE TO BOOK PUBLISHERS, EDITORS, AND LITERARY AGENTS, which is published every October." [Updated on 10/21/2009 9:19 AM]
One thing that struck me about the pub info question - he left out Writer's Market. Has Writer's Market lost its mojo? I don't see much about it any more. I used to be a member but didn't use it enough. Now I would, but perhaps Publisher's Marketplace is a better venue?
Maybe it's mojo was stolen by a man in a rocket. I honestly, and somewhat obviously, don't know. Sorry.
iI got a lot of useful information from last night and a wake-up call. I'll be doing things a little differently now. Thanks, Jean - what happened to the hat?
It was a pretty good wake-up call, wasn't it? My chat moderator account gets the cowgirl hat. :) This is just normal, everyday, aspiring writer me without the hat.
