Would begging be to tacky?

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TrixieBelden

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I would really like a published author to give me a little preamble in my book on death row women. How do you go about asking for this?
Do I just write one and go "...please..please..I'm a big fan and Id really be endebted for life..."
Do you write straight to them or a PR or whats the protocol?
The one I'd really like is Dr. Helen Morrison. She wrote a book on all the men like Gacy that she treated for mental issues.
Where do you start?
 

William Haskins

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begging is counterproductive and unprofessional. i don't know much about ms. morrison, but i'd suggest a professional letter stating the impact her work has had on you and what you think she would add to your book by writing a forward. drawing a connection between her expertise and your chosen subject is a big component of starting such a dialogue.

good luck.
 

TrixieBelden

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Thank you so very much, gentlemen.
And should I offer to send the proposal to her also, since the book isnt finished?
Does she have to read the whole book before she agrees to write a forward?
 

William Haskins

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i would start with the letter, including some background about yourself and your project, and then let her request additional materials as she deems appropriate.
 

TrixieBelden

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Thanks for your advice, I used it.
I wrote both Ann Rule and Carol Anne Davis who were inspirations for me to begin this project. I received emails saying there was provisional interest in writing a forward. Can you have two?
 

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When I wrote my 60's musclecar boigraphy, I just looked-up the former editor-in-chief, Ro McGonegal, at Hot Rod magazine and called him.

We chatted about cars and I told him about my GTO book.
McGonegal had moved over to High-Performance Chevy magazine and was very busy, but man, he wrote the most fantastic foreword I could have ever asked for. It blew me away!
So, a phone call is even better if you want to do an intro.

His first paragraph...
It was Led Zeppelin, Tree Frog Ale, and Ram Air. It was Capitol Raceway, Kent State, and Miami Dragway. It was Jim Wangers, Woodward Avenue, and Ace Wilson’s Royal Pontiac. The psychedelic ‘60s were on the cusp of the wacky ‘70s and Milt Schornack was riding the crest in a mid-size Pontiac sedan with an engine pirated from a full-size one.
GTO.
Musclecar original.

When I met "Uncle Milty"
he was already somewhat of a legend in magazine land. I’d read about him and his nasty Ponchos in the pages of Car Craft and in the book I was new to, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, a tremendously popular monthly in the doorslammer Midwest and East Coast. Editor Jim McCraw had formed a bond with Milt and was predisposed to Royal Pontiac, where Milt did his work upholding the Bobcat tune-up credo and transformed Wangers’ sometime psychotic notions into reality. Thus, SS&DI got the scoop on most of the lanky Michigander’s adventures. Since Jim was pretty much bound to the office in Alexandria, Virginia, I was dispatched to live the experience and record the episodes of Milt, Dave Warren, and Brian Ballish, Milt’s main guys and also out of Royal. He never stepped out the door without them...

It gets even better as it goes. I loved the "book" reference to his magazine. It was '60s hippie journalist slang and my editor tried to change it to "magazine." I had to change several gearhead slang references back to slang after my editor tried to "fix" it.
 
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