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Text File | 1994-04-07 | 13KB | 248 lines

                                 MARKETING TIPS


                           What Should I Write About?

     The answer to that is just about as unlimited as the number of stars
     in the sky.  If we look around us we will quickly see an entire world
     waiting for someone to write about it, whether it be in a fiction form
     or non-fiction form.

     Something useful for learning about the conventional markets is to get
     your hands on a copy of a book entitled "Writer's Market."  It's
     revised each year and available in most bookstores during the fall.
     It's best to get the most current edition, but even a copy which is a
     few months old is very useful.

     Writer's Market lists a two inch volume of just about everything you
     can imagine having to do with who's who in the way of publishers and
     subjects that they publish.  It also lists many literary agents who
     are eager to read your manuscripts and submit them to publishers, if
     they find what you write suitable for the marketplace.


                               Do I Need An Agent?

     This depends upon what it is you have decided to write.  If you write
     computer programs, probably not, but this is not to say that an
     appropriate agent couldn't help you.  If you write fiction novels or
     non-fiction documentaries and want people to read them, it would be to
     your best advantage to have an agent.

     One thing is for sure in the world of manuscripts.  With the volume of
     material being written these days in the competitive and rapid age of
     communication in which we live, publishers want to spend their time
     reading only the best.  Most publishers will not even open an
     unsolicited manuscript if you send it to them without their
     permission.

     This is where an agent can be of a great deal of help to you.  Their
     job is reading manuscripts to find what is the best, then submitting
     the best to the publishers.  There are a lot of agents.  Some of them
     are better than others, but they all have one thing in common.  They
     all want to find a manuscript they can sell to a publisher.  This is
     how they earn most there money, and they have a vested interest in
     helping you to improve your writing.


                          Will I have To Pay An Agent?

     Not necessarily.  I have used several literary agents or agencies in
     the past seven years.  With the second two of them I paid a reading
     fee, and with the first one I didn't.  One charged $100.00 for a
     100,000 word fiction novel, and the other charged $400.00 for the same
     fiction novel.  From all of them I received good constructive and
     helpful criticism.

     The difference was that the one to whom I didn't pay a fee, well this
     agent, as good as his advice regarding my writing was concerned, it is
     certain that he did not have nearly as many good contacts with
     publishers in the event that I had written something that would sell.

     The agent to whom I paid the $100.00 reading fee had sold a few
     manuscripts to publishers, and the agency to which I paid the $400.00
     reading fee sells an average of 8,000 manuscripts of all kinds each
     year.  The latter agency is the Scott Meredith Agency on Third Avenue
     in New York, which has been around since 1946.

     Speaking purely economically, the best agents or agencies make most
     there money on the commissions they receive from book sales to
     publishers.  The reading fees they receive only help cover part of the
     cost of their time and overhead.  An agent or agency receives 10% to
     20% from book sales, and with a successful agent or agency this
     percentage far surpasses anything they get in the way of reading fees.

     It has been said that no one should have to pay an agent, but this is
     not necessarily true.  A fee is sometimes necessary because of the
     cost of logistics, or the amount of time they have to spend on reading
     a manuscript, discussing it with their editorial staff, writing a
     helpful review for the author and submitting an acceptable manuscript
     to the publishers.


                               Are Agents Honest?
                            Will They Steal My Story?

     Most agents are very honest, and piracy on the literary high seas is
     almost unheard of.  Of the dozen or so agents with whom I have had
     contact, there was only one which made me suspicious.  Rather than
     anything along the lines of stealing anyone's story, with this
     particular agent it seemed apparent that he was attempting to snag
     quick reading fees.  It made me wonder whether the manuscript would
     ever get read or not.

     This agent was located in New York, where most the best agents are
     located, near the large publishing houses.  I talked with the agent by
     telephone after answering a solicitation by mail for him to see one of
     my manuscripts.  During the telephone conversation the agent explained
     to me the amount of the reading fee, and put in terms of so much per
     page.

     I thought that was odd since other agencies base their fee on so much
     per word.  Putting it in terms of so much per page makes it sound like
     a considerably smaller fee, which it really isn't.  Then, the agent
     asked if it would be okay if they had Federal Express pick up the
     manuscript from me at my door in about an hour.

     That's when I got suspicious and told him I wasn't interested.  Be
     careful of anyone who asks you to make needless, careless decisions
     without first getting all the facts and thinking the entire process
     through to the end.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, there are some
     shysters around who will pick your teeth for the gold, if they think
     you'll let them.


                          What Is A Subsidy Publisher?

     That's a good question and something to which you should have the
     answer if you plan on publishing something.  A subsidy publisher is
     one which will help you get your manuscript published when the
     literary agents are not able to sell your book.

     A subsidy publisher helps you self publish and shares in the cost of
     self publishing, if they like your manuscript.  I have had contact
     with subsidy publishers when an agent has rejected a manuscript, but
     decided not to use the subsidy publishers.

     The reason I decided against it is because there is risk involved.
     With a subsidy publisher the author is essentially paying for the
     publishing of their own work.  Some subsidy publishers offer
     financing, but the element of risk is still there.  If your book
     doesn't sell you stand to lose your investment, and the investment can
     be many thousands of dollars, depending on how many copies of your
     book you want to start with the first printing.

     Most regular publishing houses assume all the risk, advance the author
     an amount depending on what the publisher predicts the sales will be,
     and there is no risk to the author.  If you write a manuscript, submit
     it to an agent and it's rejected, you will likely be contacted by a
     subsidy publisher at some time in the future.

     None of this is to say that some people have not made money by using a
     subsidy publisher, because many of them have.  It's just the differ-
     ence of the risk involved that you want to be sure you understand.


                                 Another Avenue
                               And A Fun One Too!

     Of course, it is probably no secret to you, or it shouldn't be, that
     there exists this exciting Electronic Computer Highway, through which
     you may publish something with little or no cost to you, with hundreds
     of Shareware Distributors looking for something new.  As to how much
     you earn from your publications is dependent largely upon exactly what
     type of marketing you engage upon.

     Putting Shareware on bulletin boards and sending samples to
     distributors has another fun element to it.  Because of this exciting
     age of computers we are experiencing, it is possible to have a great
     deal of fun by illustrating our writing with art and music, or make it
     into a tutorial.

     As you can see by the illustrations in this book, I have by no means
     achieved perfection as an artist nor a musician.  The illustrations,
     however, do make the point, are very colorful and a great deal of fun
     to create.

     This entire volume was created, by the way, using Writer's Dream and
     Multi-Media Workshop which was written by Jeff Napier of Another
     Company.  Shareware samples of those two programs are likely available
     from the same BBS or Shareware distributor through which you obtained
     this book.  Commercial versions of both those types of software are
     available through Gary Smith at O.E.C. Systems, 4646 North Shallowford
     Road, Atlanta, GA 30338-6304.


                           How Much Money Will I Earn?

     If you establish a relationship with a literary agent, make some
     improvements in your writing as a result and get a book published, you
     would be in a group of a very few among the many thousand who try and
     fail.  But don't let that discourage you if this is what you want to
     do.  Your success and your abilities are only limited by your
     imagination.  It is possible.

     If you happened to be the President of this country, and you published
     a book on just about any subject, you could automatically expect an
     advance of about a million dollars.  But that's ridiculous, isn't it?
     You and I are not the president.

     Well, maybe you are someone else who has already achieved a great
     degree of success and fame.  But if you aren't, what you would receive
     on your first-time published book would be somewhere between two
     thousand and ten thousand dollars.  That's the average.

     That's an advance the publisher would pay you against future
     commissions of about 15% to 25%.  It doesn't sound like a great deal
     of money for something on which you have spent maybe a year or so
     working, does it?

     Then again, should your published work become popular enough to arrive
     on the best seller list, it is almost certain you would receive
     commissions of a million dollars or more the first year.  There are
     some very successful authors who have been putting out best sellers
     for maybe five, ten or twenty years.

     There are cases where some of these pros will get a several million
     dollar advance from the publisher before one of their manuscripts is
     even completed.

     In comparison, as many Shareware authors have told us, there are a few
     Shareware millionaires, but only a few.  And it is a long-term venture
     as well as far as when the money starts to come to us.  But the very
     good potential is still there with many people getting better and
     better at their writing and marketing strategies.  And let's not
     forget that it is still relatively a pioneer activity and a very
     rapidly growing one at that!


                             Can I Do It Part Time?

     Take it from someone who has done it that way.  It can be done but it
     isn't easy.  After you have spent eight hours at a job the amount of
     energy you have left at the end of the day is not unlimited.  However,
     we are all different people.  Some of us have more energy and time
     than others.  There have been people who have written best selling
     novels on their lunch hour, but not many.

     If you happen to be one of these high-energy people, someone who is up
     at four in the morning, writes a couple chapters until the kids get
     up, feeds the kids, drops them off at school, goes to work, plays a
     couple rounds of golf at lunch, picks up the kids after work and hacks
     out a couple chapters on your novel after you have put the kids to
     bed, then maybe you have a chance.  Personally, that's not me.  I
     don't have that much energy.  If you do, please let me know where you
     get it.

     If by now you have found something you want to write about, you have
     decided to write something and market it, or improve something you
     have written and market it, do yourself a favor and plan your market-
     ing strategy well.  A little time well spent in advance can save you a
     lot of time later.


                               --- End Of Tips ---