I could pay an employee-agent $5,000 per month to sling manuscripts at the publishing community with only sporadic results, AND the negotiation is adversarial.
M'boy, didn't anyone explain it to you? Agents work on commission. If that employee-agent wants $5,000/month he's going to have to sign $33,333 worth of contracts that month. (Not at all impossible, especially if you have "depth off the bench" as you like to put it.) If he doesn't sell books, he doesn't get the commisssions, he gets a job in some other field. Really.
Meanwhile:
And, I Guarantee the Quality and Commercial Viability. I believe in these books and authors. ================================================ I'm guaranteeing it with my money, aren't I? Every book that I would support has been formally edited and is ready to go. Take a look at these sample bios and books.
* * * * * . The author is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh, and of Canada, and a Member of the American Societies of Hematology, Clinical Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the International Society for Cellular Therapy. For the year 2004-5 he was a scientific advisor to the Cancer Vaccine Consortium. He was a past recipient of the Elmore Research Scholarship of the University of Cambridge. * * *
* * * * The author was born in Baltimore, Maryland and is a Professor at a major university. She is an author and editor of 16 books and 12 proceedings and monographs. She has written 50 chapters and 100 papers, and given more than 150 presentations nationwide. She has graduate degrees in Music, Science, and Education. She and her husband are now living in the British Virgin Islands, where her time is spent sailing and writing. She has published scientific articles and written more than a hundred concert reviews as a freelance music critic. * * *
* * * * * The author is a retired veterinarian living in Bethlehem, South Africa. He was in rural private practice in various towns before settling down in Bethlehem where he practiced for 35 years. For ten years or more he had a monthly column in “Veterinary News”. He also was the script-writer for the SuperSport TV series The ABC of Golf. * * *
* * * * * The author has sold 4,000 of his motivational and self-help books through seminars and tradeshows abroad. The author is actively promoting his work in the UK and is looking for a partner to expand his work into the US. He will support sales with extensive travel and personal promotion. * * *
* * * * * This author has a definitive book on the people and history of Poland. According to the 2000 Census there are at least 10 million Polish-Americans in the US. We are test marketing to Polish-American clubs as we speak.
What do I notice about this?
In the cases where Fletcher gives the qualifications of the writer, he doesn't mention what the book may be about. In the case where he mentions what the book is about (a definitive history of Poland!), he doesn't mention the author's qualifications.
For all we know the books those eminent folks are hoping Bobby will sell are children's books:
The Adventures of Patsy the Poodle or some such thing. Or perhaps a 16,000 line epic in heroic couplets on the discovery of lactose, or a book proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that the works attributed to William Shakespeare were really written by William McGonagall. Who knows what pigs may be lurking in those pokes?
Isn't it odd that he didn't team the author with the book?
Qualifications don't make a book: The slush pile is full of unreadable manuscripts by PhDs.
Alas, the world is full of venal "publishers" who only ask that the check clears.
(Hey, Bobby, did you check with Doyle Publishing? You know, the guys who did Paul Anderson's books? I bet they'd take this deal. How about Lighthouse Press? Weren't they signing some kind of agreement with you? This deal was exactly the sort of agreement I expected to see. How about Tree of Life? I thought that you and the publisher were pals.)
