After the Proposal: the Wedding

So what happens to your book proposal after you've poured your blood, sweat and fears into it? (Be sure to read my previous post so you're ready for this part).

Submission: If you have an agent (difficult to interest one with a first book, but if it's good enough, it's possible), you submit it to him (in my case, Greg Johnson of WordServe Literary Agency) and he in turn, tweaks it to his high standards and then submits it to an editor at a publishing house. Actually, he sends it to more than one. If you don't have an agent, you submit the proposal yourself after you've received a positive response to your query (one-page pitch letter).

Literary Limbo-land: You wait. Your proposal is piled with the other submissions and sometime within the next six months (a week or two if you're lucky), the editor sneaks a peek at it. If interest is piqued, she will likely read it thoroughly and discuss it with the editorial team at an "acq ed" meeting (acquisitions editorial).

They will be looking at all aspects of your proposal: your writing skills, idea, timeliness of topic, author platform, marketability, voice. If your proposal falls flat at any point along this continuum, a rejection letter will find it's way to your in-box or mailbox.

Hope on the Horizon: If your submission makes it past the acq ed board, you can start to breathe again, but don't bet the farm yet. It is passed on to the Pub Committee, where many projects are nixed. The Pub Committee is made up of the big cheeses: the publisher, editorial director, marketing director, sales director, and sometimes even the CFO. The question now is not just whether the book is good (it wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't), but will it sell? Is it a good fit with the publishing company? Is it too much like any other projects already in the works? (This last question killed at least one of my books.)

This is where your book is studied under a microscope. The market will be analyzed and numbers crunched: first-year sales projections, production costs, royalty rates, etc. You are now an objective product that must be processed.

The Engagement Ring: If your book is still alive and well at this stage, a contract offer will be forthcoming via your agent (if you have one). If it doesn't make this final cut, your "pass" letter will arrive (they don't like to call them rejection letters but you and I know that's what it feels like). You are free to try another publishing house, and I highly recommend that you do so.

But if the glitter of a diamond announces an engagement, you're to be congratulated!

Stay tuned next week for the next exciting steps to publication . . .

*Special thanks to Rachelle Gardner, WordServe Literary Agent for her input; if you don't already get her excellent newsletter, you should sign up!

Pump up the Promo

Promotion. A sometimes overwhelming but absolutely necessary part of the publication process.

Writers often wish we could just, well, write. But sorry, toots, it just ain't so. Would you like to follow along on my publication journey to see how it works?

I've had three books previously published by a small press and was blessed to be able to climb the next rung of the ladder to an established "traditional" publishing house for my humorous women's book, Mom Needs Chocolate, set for release 3/09.

I have just spent six straight hours staring bleary-eyed at my computer monitor filling in interview questions, cranking out queries, sending press releases to newspapers, radio and TV stations, and following up on scads of dangling communications regarding book event scheduling for the spring.

I'm not at the point of being able to afford an assistant to help with all this grunt work, and the PR person assigned to me by my publishing house is sweet and helpful but only does so much. I never had a PR person with my previous books (smaller publisher, less frills) so it's refreshing to have someone to help with anything at all.

She is arranging TV/media interviews and B & N signings to coincide with several out of state trips I'll be taking. That's good. Plus she has brainstormed a marketing plan with me by phone and e-mail on more than one occasion. Also good.

I really don't know what else to expect, but I will let you know as I'm enlightened. I'm scheduled to speak with a publicist (not related to my publisher but recommended by them)later this week to decide if it would be worth my hard-earned bucks to have another hired gun out there firing literary bullets on my behalf.

I'll keep you posted.

The wide-eyed new girl on the block,
Debbie