ASTD Press welcomes proposals from prospective authors with new and innovative ideas that fit into our current publishing program...Key to the publisher and author relationship is a willingness to partner with ASTD Press to ensure your book reaches its intended audience and that the investment made by you and ASTD Press pays off...ASTD Press is happy to provide basic marketing support for your book through all its sales channels. However, the most critical element of your proposal is how you plan to market the book.
Because books are printed as they are purchased (buyers receive their books within several days), there are fewer overhead costs. That’s good news to all authors, since they need not fear the “fiscal-year reduction” of stock and being told their book has not sold enough copies to stay in print.
There are two paths for publishing your book: traditional and self-publishing.
The traditional path involves selecting a literary agent who can then submit your proposal to publishing houses such as Thomas Nelson.
Fewer and fewer publishers will accept a manuscript or proposal directly from an unknown writer
thesedays; instead, they rely on literary agents to separate wheat from chaff and send them only
the best work that has been thoroughly vetted, edited, and properly formatted.
So what advantage do the publishers have left? It's a buyer's market! They get
to choose the writers they will work with. And make no mistake, they have plenty
of choices: According to one source, about 81 percent of all Americans (that's
243 million) say that want to write a book. Further, there are about six million manuscripts, proposals, and queries
circulating among American publishers and agents at any one time. If you want to get noticed in this competitive
marketplace you might as well sit around waiting to get struck by lightning, or win the Powerball Lottery, or get
drafted into the NFL.
After completing the first draft of my first book, I didn't know where to turn next. So I
looked up the mailing addresses of a couple dozen random publishers on the Internet.
After all, one is just as good as the other (or so I thought). Surely, someone in this
group would see that I was offering them the chance of a lifetime. Naturally, they would
share my vision and offer me a generous contract. Right?
As it
happened, there was a large bookstore near my home. So I went in and asked if someone on their staff could offer a
professional evaluation of my manuscript. The owner pointed me to Bill, who happened to be a retired editor from
one of the major publishing houses. Maybe he could help.
The following morning, over pancakes and coffee, he told me all about the ins and outs of the publishing industry.
After 30 years in the business, he should know. My writing style was good, he said, and my grammar was better
than average. He was encouraging, yet gently admonished me that I had a lot to learn. Then he handed me the
business card of a professional editing service. Their fee wasn't cheap, and it took two weeks to complete. But after
a lifetime dreaming of a career as a writer, that was the best money I ever spent.
WordWise Media Services started out in 2006 as a manuscript critique and editing service
for aspiring writers. In this capacity we tackled assignments on every subject from Bible
study to yoga to credit repair. And life was good.
Finally one day we received an email from a potential client who asked us to do something
we had never done before: To recruit writers for a series of books, and then pitch the
ideas to publishers. Certainly there are others more qualified for this assignment, we
thought. Happily, it turned out that we already knew most of the people we needed to
make this happen, and many responded favorably. With this newfound confidence we felt
emboldened to set up shop as a literary agency. And here we are.
This new frontier is exciting, and we've already seen a few small successes. But as we know, nothing in this business
happens quickly; waiting around for an advance check to pay the rent is roughly like herding cats: They come when
they're ready, not when you call. So for the foreseeable future, we will continue with the editing service.
Ruth Hutson is our fiction specialist. If you send us a novel
, either for representation or for
editing, she will be the one who works with you to make it the best it can be. She has been an
avid reader since early childhood, and won an honorable mention in a screenplay contest
sponsored by Reader’s Digest.
1- Dr Keith Barnes is the lucky WWMS client whose book Effective Management was recently 'picked up' by ASTD Press, but he clearly didn't need an agent at all - the publisher is a pay-to-play.
2- OakTara (formerly Capstone) has been featured on AW before (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54296). OakTara makes its lack of bookstore placement sound like a benefit:
3- Again, what does an agent have to gain by submitting a client's work to a POD publisher?
4- Astraea is an e-pub so you don't need an agent anyway
I suppose I should be flattered that you've taken such an interest in my work.
1- Nope. We paid nothing to get pub'd by ASTD.
Key to the publisher and author relationship is a willingness to partner with ASTD Press to ensure your book reaches its intended audience and that the investment made by you and ASTD Press pays off.
2- False argument. Bookstore placement is very rare these days. Only a small percentage of all books ever get onto store shelves. Successful book deals these days depend more and more on author participation.
3- It's called royalties, just like any book deal.
4- Another false argument. As with any book deal, an agent can negotiate a sweeter deal than the pub's boilerplate.
1- if the authors concerned don't have to pay to publish, what's this talk about investment?
2- Only a small percentage of all books have ever reached bookshop shelves, so this is not new.
3- She's right that epubs often don't require agents
That's good news. Because publishers and agents who charge authors anything for publication or representation aren't worth bothering about. That includes charging authors at the back end of publication, by requiring them to buy their own books, by the way.
However, I note that ASTD says this on its website:
My bold. This is standard vanity press weasel-wording and if the authors concerned don't have to pay to publish, what's this talk about investment?Key to the publisher and author relationship is a willingness to partner with ASTD Press to ensure your book reaches its intended audience and that the investment made by you and ASTD Press pays off.
1- Most publishers these days expect authors to participate in the marketing of their book in various ways. And serious authors do. It doesn't mean they pay the publisher.
The part in bold italics is the part you quoted. You replied,2) Bookshop placement is not rare for the books which sell in reasonable amounts, and for the sort of books which most people read.
3) Only a small percentage of all books have ever reached bookshop shelves, so this is not new. That's because only a small percentage of books have ever been appropriate for selling in bookshops: calendars and diaries have ISBNs and so are often counted as books, but most aren't sold from bookshops; some periodicals have ISBNs but aren't sold from bookshops; academic publications aren't sold from bookshops, but have ISBNs so are counted as books. I could go on, but I think I've made my point.
Well, yes--but there are all sorts of reasons for that; and it remains that when a book is published by a trade publisher in a print edition, if it doesn't hit the bookshop shelves at publication it's not likely to sell many copies.2- Exactly. Hence, shelf space is not a necessary measure of a legitimate publisher.
Again, bold and italic indicates the part of my reply which you quoted. Your response:They can, you're right. But again you're taking aliceshortcake's words out of context. She's right that epubs often don't require agents, and right that this throws WWMS's involvement in the deal into a new light.
You're right that authors with representation usually get better deals than those without. But once again, that wasn't the point that I was making and by quoting me in the way that you did, you imply otherwise; and that representation has to be good representation, otherwise the author is probably worse off than if she'd proceeded alone.3- Agreed. And just as with print, authors with agents generally get better deals.
I'd be far happier if they wrote,Separation of services. The editing side of our business is separate from the literary agency. This firewall is necessary because, under the generally accepted canons of the business, an ethical agent must not charge fees to his/her clients. We make money only when you do. For this reason, if you hire us to edit your manuscript, we cannot consider your work for representation until at least one year after the completion of your most recent project.
I note that neither of the two staff members mentioned on the WWMS website (one of whom is Steve Hutson, who is, I assume, the Steve H who has commented in this thread) appear to have any experience in publishing prior to working for WWMS. This means that they're very unlikely to have a proper understanding of how publishing works. And no matter how good their intentions, that's going to put them at a huge disadvantage when it comes to representing their clients.if you hire us to edit your manuscript, we cannot consider your work for representation.
I've had my say, Old Hack. I still don't understand why you have taken such an interest in my business, and seek to tear me down. If you want to know something about me, you can ask.
My clients are happy with my work, and my editor colleagues often request to see my clients' manuscripts.
I could boast more, but then you would accuse me of yet another crime. Not gonna go there.
I've had my say, Old Hack. I still don't understand why you have taken such an interest in my business, and seek to tear me down. If you want to know something about me, you can ask.
My clients are happy with my work, and my editor colleagues often request to see my clients' manuscripts. I could boast more, but then you would accuse me of yet another crime. Not gonna go there.
No, we are a traditional publisher. But we do view the relationship between the author and publisher as one of partnership, where both parties are working toward a common goal. The ‘investment’ made by the author is one of their time and expertise in writing the book, and then working hard to market it upon publication.
He wanted a specific format which involves embedding the entire proposal and both chapters with end notes into a single Word document. I had a problem with the Word endnotes and could not figure out how to add an additional chapter after the notes. This seems to be an issue with Word 2010 as per information I found online. Even after enlisting the help of numerous tech savvy friends, and even following online instructions, we still could not resolve this issue. Anyway, I ended up sending two attachments instead of one, and that knocked me out of the running with Steven.
Seriously? He worked with you to edit your manuscript, went through several passes with you, and then wouldn't help you because you sent him two attachments instead of one?
That seems a bit odd.
He made several other comments, most of which I found disconcerting.