A question about literary agents?

J

JamesTXSD

Active member
Perhaps not as off-topic as you might think. It's taken me a year to write the story of Molly the Cat. I've written plenty of articles for magazines and trade journals over the years, but never tried my hand at something that requires this kind of perseverance. As many of you know, Molly was an important part of our crew; integral in our cruising adventures.

After the holidays, I'd like to find a literary agent to give this a read. The depth of knowledge and experience here never ceases to amaze me; I was hoping someone might be able to start me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

Happy Holidays,
Jim B.
 
howdy howdy ... well no help from me, the book itself just wondering which market your aiming for ... easy read for adults or more for children .... Molly's got enough mileage on her to write a series of books for younger readers ... could end a JOB .. :o .. best of luck looks like the start of another venture for you ... wc
 
wailedcentipede":t6vvvy50 said:
howdy howdy ... well no help from me, the book itself just wondering which market your aiming for ... easy read for adults or more for children .... Molly's got enough mileage on her to write a series of books for younger readers ... could end a JOB .. :o .. best of luck looks like the start of another venture for you ... wc
Click to expand...

It's a manuscript. I'd consider it an easy adult read, not a children's book. Not Marley nor Dewey, but a look through our Cruising Adventures thread here will give you some idea of the style. I see it as something pet people will appreciate, as well as baby boomers with an eye towards "getting away from it all."

170+ pages. It took me a year to write. I couldn't write the end until very recently. It's the story of a cat who "dated us" for a year, became legally ours, and our travels.

I've made a couple queries, but this is uncharted territory for me... just hoping for a bit of "local information" to aid in the journey.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Since Spousal Unit became a published author as of 12/16/09, as her main support I can give you a few pointers we've gleaned from her 5 year odyssey. Just an overview.

As a first time author, investigate self publishing. A good book: Dan Poynter's self-publishing manual. If you do decide to self publish, as a standard issue Brat you have the skills to do it yourself without being taken by the many MANY outfits who are willing to charge you big bucks for little effort.

The four biggest "phases" are below.

1) Write the book and typeset it. (the easy part ;-) )

2) Create your own publishing company registered in your county complete with a simple web site.

3) Use a "demand publisher" We used Lightning Source. "Create Space," another demand printer, is an Amazon "partner".

4) Market the book (the hard part)

Your own publishing company will be able to get and issue ISBN numbers for your book and receive the necessary bar codes and there are many advantages to owning your own ISBN number. Not the least of which is that you can move from demand printers to other printers or publishing houses without any problems. You can also get your Library of Congress control number so you're good to go.

A small example: Create Space will gladly issue an ISBN number to you. Unfortunately, they keep the rights to that number and it is tied to Amazon. If they decide to sell your book for less as "used" books, you have no say. If you decide to move to a different printer, good luck. And the biggest down side is that marketing is virtually Amazon only since all the other bookstores are in direct competition and are loath to order Amazon printed books. Besides, there is a huge quality difference between print houses and Create Space sorta lags there.

If you expect to use color photos/prints, your book will be printed overseas. Usually China. There is a huge cost savings if you outsource. We deliberately chose to print in the USA and only the cover has color. The rest is b/w.

Essential: Learn and use Adobe Acrobat/photoshop or find an adept user. First book? Learn Word 2007 forward and backwords and learn how to convert the end product to a PDF and then insert the photos back into the document in 300x300 dpi and in CYMK color. There are other more sophisticated word processing software but this setup will get you there. Publishers want PDF and print using CYMK color. You can get by with RGB color but after the printers convert it to CYMK you may be VERY surprised at the result.

As an addendum, your "publishing company" will likely deal with the small booksellers. The big boys go directly to Lightning Source and the author gets paid directly by Lightning Source (or whoever you choose)

That should get you started for research purposes anyway, Jim. If I can help, PM me.

Don
 
Jim, back in the day when I was writing for professional journals I explored the book market thoroughly. Decided against writing one because the cost/reward for technical books mainly favors authors who use the books as publicity for their seminars and consulting.

But that is not what you are doing. What is the same, though, is that it is extremely difficult to get a book read at a name publisher if it comes in "over the transom." Most successful authors I know established a relationship with an agent first -- almost as hard as getting a publisher. But you are a personable guy, so you will have an easier time chatting up an agent than I would.

You should plan on being heavily involved in the marketing regardless of whether you self-publish or find a publisher. Several of the self-published books I have purchased recently were because of personal contact with the author -- e.g., Richard Cook on New Moon wrote a book about cruising Alaska that I probably never would have heard of had I not talked to Richard first, and then found he had a book out. One advantage of being published by a name publisher is that they get your book in front of big box buyers, which is harder to do with self-publishing.

Personally, I think self-publishing works better for niche books (boating, etc.) rather than general appeal (Molly.) So I would encourage you to start contacting agents.

HTH.
Warren
 
I have been through publishing books thru various presses with several friends. It can be a very daunting experience. One friend had 10,000 copies printed--and the books came out with all photos too dark to be usuable, although the proofs were fine.

Lulu on demand publishing is used by serveral of my friends currently, and they have the books on Amazon. Another source of distribution is West Marine--start in local stores. I suspect that there is a good, but limited market.
 
Couple locals have used Lulu, also. Not a bad way to get the book out there and in the hands of folks who will appreciate it.

I'm glad you're doing this Jim. A precious kitty like yours deserves it.
 
Sue and a friend wrote a workbook for organizing personal estates 12 years ago (and since revised twice). We chose to self-publish (for the reasons previously stated - control of our product) and have been selling it ever since. In fact, our first big check bought Steve! I'm sure there are a lot of ways to handle getting your own book out there but from my standpoint the silver bullet approach is not as good as the shotgun approach. We still work hard to market it although it has been listed in Amazon for years.
 
Francis Hamit went the self publishing route. Here is his website URL:

http://www.brasscannonbooks.net/

The website name appears to come from a passage in Robert A. Heinlein's novel, "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". The working title for that novel was, "The Brass Cannon". See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_I ... h_Mistress

------

While on Earth, Professor Bernardo de la Paz purchases a small brass cannon, originally a "signal gun" of the kind used in yacht racing. When Mannie asks him why he bought it when every kilogram of mass going back to Luna is so expensive, the Professor relates the following parable:

"Once there was a man who held a political make-work job like so many here...shining brass cannon around a courthouse. He did this for years...but he was not getting ahead in the world. So one day he quit his job, drew out his savings, bought a brass cannon — and went into business for himself."

------

Francis Hamit has also written some articles about self publishing that you may find to be of interest. This should get you started:

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/author/hamit/

Best of luck to you!!


Best regards,
 
Hi Jim,

Sorry we can't help with any publishing information, however Mr Grey wants a paw stamped copy of the book as soon as it is out. I think you have a bunch of orders in the C-Brat community.
Good Luck

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Fred, Pat and Mr Grey(the Cat)
 
I appreciate all the advice and suggestions. Lots to consider... and I thought putting the words down would be the tough part. :wink:

Thanks!

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Not sure how to advise you of how to find a literary agent - as a first time author, iimagine that would be about as difficult as finding a publisher.

What I can relate is my wife's experience as a author of several Spanish learning programs. She published her main program, Musical Spanish, and had another company publish others such as 101 Spanish Verbs. Her publisher also distributed her main program to Barnes & Noble and Borders among others. She would spend more than $10 of printing and packaging per unit (it included 3 CDs and a book). The distributer would sell it for $25 and the retail price was $49.95. The distributer took $5 for its distribution, which left a little less than $10 profit to her. But then each inventory season, the book stores would return any damaged or otherwise unwanted copies to the distributer for $25 credit. These returned copies were basically useless. After these credits were charged against her receipts she made about $5 per copy of a $50 book/CD set. She also had to advance the funds to print her inventory and package it. Although she sold somewhere between 10 and 15,000 copies over about a 3 year period, it hardly paid for the trouble. Her other products that were published by the distributer pay her a royalty of about 10% of wholesale for having authored the content. This was a better deal considering the hassle. She no longer dsitributes Musical Spanish through a distributer, and is pursuing a related online business at present.

If you want to just record your story and share it with like minded people, self-publishing is great, just don't expect to pay many bills with it unless you are willing to really work at marketing. And if you stop marketing it, the sales will not continue.

Good luck. It is a rare book that actually makes money. but if you write like Cormac McCarthy or Anne Proux maybe lightning will strike.
 
Jim: I do not want to minimize your issue, but, at the same time Brother, keep it simple... Go listen to Simple Kind of Man one or two time at sundown. Then, just get it out there man.

Too often, once ..."the pros" get a hold on something... it takes the real life "Jim & The Blond" ...and Molly effect out of it.

Just to reflect a bit on my thought process... not long ago, a lady burst onto the political picture...and I loved her...just as she was straight off the trail from Alaska, talking like folks do around me. Then, within a few days.... the pros got a hold on her...those politcal writers and we do it this way here folks.... and well... the rest is history... She was no longer who she was.. for now anyway. I think you get the point. And, no, I have not bought her book.

Don't let the pros screw up Molly's life and book. You just had the gran opportunity to be owned by her. Tell it like it was...un-edited. I can help you with the spelling. :cry :disgust :smilep

Just a thought.... and why do I feel Molly may be rolling her eyes a bit for you even asking. Just keep it real...and simple and just like plain ol boating folks like it :beer

To Molly....well...OK...and to you too Jim for attemptinig to capture it on paper for those who did not get to meet her on the docks. :beer :beer :beer

Byrdman
 
Ah Brother Byrd,

Not to let this get political, but I "went rogue" a long time before that phrase became popular last year. 8) And Molly loved everyone, regardless of the their side of the aisle... bi-partisan and firmly believed in "equal opportunity for allowing belly rubs".

I don't think we have to be concerned about anyone "changing" in this crew... although Joan may feel I could use some "sprucin' up." :mrgreen:

Happy Holidays!
Jim
 
Please do not miss the point Jim... it was not about politics or our political veiws... I care less, and less, and less about those each day....

My attempt at a simple point was... just let the book be Molly and do not worry about what the .... pros of printing a book think...
 
Not to horn in on Jim's thing, but I wrote a little book, a pamphlet really, called Using Your Cornelius Keg (scroll down and you can see it in the picture) about 15 years ago. Most shops don't sell the pamphlet, they include it in kits. Since it is a pamphlet, we just produced it at copying services, and the last few hundred we have done at home on our Sharp copier. Amazingly, the orders still trickle in from the shops that sell it for 50 or 100 a year. Most shops don't sell the pamphlet, they include it in kits. I know this wouldn't work for Jim.

But I also wrote a another book on brewing, quite a bit longer, that I had just dusted off a few weeks ago, had started editing again and was pondering what I might do with it, I was down to thinking that maybe it should just become web pages or something.

Now it seems Uncle Don has shown me the way! Of course, self-publishing (that is a given for me) and "on demand" printing in China! I will definitely look into this. I recently noticed that Amazon uses CD-R techology for "on demand" creation of a lot of the CDs it sells. And now I learn they do the same thing with books!

For me, the marketing is the easy part - with a very targed audience of a few hundred home brewing shops, they all get a sample copy, and maybe, just maybe they order. I know from the pamphlet that it will never pay the bills! But, you know, the creative urge!

Jim - looking forward to reading the whole thing!
 
Pat Anderson":3uuogbcw said:
Now it seems Uncle Don has shown me the way! Of course, self-publishing (that is a given for me) and "on demand" printing in China!
Click to expand...

Hold on there, young nephew. On Demand is a big advantage in that you can basically call your order in and receive it within two weeks, only ordering for current demand. I doubt if it will be quite that convenient when outsourcing to China. We did, however, investigate a few good old 'Merican print houses and even with orders as small as 1,000 units/books, the difference in color print price if printed here or outsourced was staggering. We did NOT check to see if our "on demand" printer or any other would do outsourced printing, simply because of our fundamental decision to not outsource anything. Mary's book lended itself well to grey scale illustrations so it was much easier to not be tempted.

Sheesh, you're just like your father.

Christmas hugs to you all

Mary, Don, and Joey the "Terrierist".
 
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