How Does One Become a Book Agent?

Alice wrote:

David,

My book has a great cover.

The trouble is who in their right mind wants to relax by reading a book about a disease?

Furthermore it is an obscure boring , rare disease. it is not a real inviting topic.

I would want to read it Alice. Many people who have loved ones with the disease would also read it.

Abe,

Such as-- HOW TO GO ON LIVING AFTER YOU HAVE CROAKED...

DK -your analogy is bad because Jay Leno didn't do all that promotion on his own. He was, and is, the frontman of a massively funded and strategized effort behind him. That funding and strategizing came from his studio. Same with all other celebs and authors who promote their stuff. When you reach the same level of market awareness with a freewebs site, signings in grocery stores and blurbs on free press release sites, then you can tell me which camp is out of touch.

Alice -from your posts, I gather your book is an uplifting sort of thing, a first-hand account of living with PD? If so, I don't see why this wouldn't be of interest to a niche audience. It needs to be uplifting, I think, to be most saleable, and I really can't tell what the book is about from the title. Why is "pills" in quotes with an apostrophe?

As a side note, I've actually tried buying books from the PA site from some authors here. I must say that that site is terrible! The bookstore link is almost always down, other links are broken, and the links that do work (new releases) show no way to order them.

dmondeo wrote:

LC yes you are right but it is a starting point that puts you on a more level playing field. I'm sure there is more we can discover together to do. Free is all we have when we dont have a vast financial budget at our disposal. If howling in the wind is all I can do then I'll take my chance and howl till the moon sets.
That way at least I can say I did everything I could.
This is the fun part seeking out new ways to crack the old egg.

If you see it as fun and a challenge, then great, and I mean that! I would just find it unproductive. I don't see free press release sites and free websites as leveling anything. I see them as scraps thrown by people who are trying to sell services to people looking for free services. Not a great strategy on their part, either, judging by how here-today-gone-tomorrow so many of them are. But some hang on and sell to even bigger sites, claiming they've got all these "aggregated eyeballs."

My analogy works for me. Once again, LC, your cutting remarks directed at a specific individual (me in this case) are not very kind nor do they contribute to a positive discussion. He's still out front whether his organization is setting the schedule or he is. I'm not stupid like you seem to intimate. Being out front is a personal committment whether it's a gas station or NBC.

Many celebs started in lowly, unknown clubs and promoting themselves. A recent NPR program focusses on recording artists who have switched to hawking their own work on the Internet from relying on their recording studio. It's all promotion. If a person wants to sell a few more books, then they will need to step up their promotional efforts. That's my only point. There is room in this world for small businesses too that have a magnet sign on their car door. They are no less important than Target, especially when you need their service.

Tmes are changing. It's not demeaning to set up your automobile at a gas station or flea market with the trunk open; what's demeaning is to label only one way to success as "right" and tell others that their way is "less than."

I was enjoying posting here until LC just couldn't continue without pouring a little acid. I have sunshine outside, I don't need acid.

Alice, thank you for starting the thread. I hope you see that your words have value and that there are ways to spike your sales a bit if that is what you are seeking. Of course, every new author could just throw in the towel when MacMillan doesn't come to call because anything else is inferior and worthless. That's not how I live my life, and I know it's not how you live yours.

DK, you're viewing my remarks through your own self-defensive filter. They weren't meant to be "cutting," I was giving my input on the value of free press release sites. In fact, I found YOUR "forum expert" comment to be the initially insulting one. You've set your own self up as a "forum expert" except that everything you advise hasn't done diddly for you. And I never said promotion wasn't needed. I said that promotion on free websites with no backup from a more knowledgeable, heavily funded source is largely futile. Sorry I'm not telling you that freewebs is in the same category as Jay Leno's backup.

And your examples of clubs, small businesses and Barack Obama are just ...random.

<< Of course, every new author could just throw in the towel when MacMillan doesn't come to call because anything else is inferior and worthless. >>

What a drama queen you are. Yes, that's exactly what I said. If MacMillan doesn't come calling, everything else is worthless.

No, not everything. Just freewebs and free press release sites. Until you can show me a success story from this strategy, I'll continue to think this.

You want a success story, LC? When one of the presenters on Preston FM community radio contacted me, it was because of a thread on the Leyland forum. The thread has received over ten thousand (10,942) views. This is the post (top post on the page) asking me if I would be interested in a serialisation of my book:

http://forum.leylandtown.info/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=644&whichpage=11

Two years ago, I sent a copy of Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine to RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) for consideration as an audio book. Yesterday, I sent an email reminding the society that I had sent a book and suggested contacting the radio station for an audio copy of the serialisation. If this is accepted it will be because of the thread on the forum. This may not be financial success and you may see it as not having any value, but I am very happy to know that my books are being used and providing entertainment even if they are not generating an income for me.

Shelagh, that's great, and it all comes down to one's goals. I perceived Alice's OP as including financial rewards and large-scale recognition, maybe I'm wrong. If one's goal is to be "local color" (as DK's posts about her efforts seem to imply, again, maybe I'm wrong), and one achieves that goal, then who am I to call it worthless? I don't care what goals people set for themselves.

So if these discussions are simply about getting some local recognition, perhaps they could be clarified as such at the outset.

dk tries. I don't think what she is doing will work but it might. If she doesn't try, it damned sure won't work.

I've tried a lot of things in life and most didn't work but some did. If I hadn't of tried some things nothing would have worked. I have often looked at something and said to myself, "I don't think this will work but if I don't try it I can guarentee that it won't work."

Successes at what dk is trying to do are few and far between but there are some so why discount her? Discount the process but not her.

All authors start with local recognition. On the same forum you will find posts by members who, in the sixties, attended local gigs with that up-and-coming band the Beatles:

http://forum.leylandtown.info/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2919

Shelagh, I don't get the bands-playing-in-clubs analogy. They're presumably being paid for their performances and hoping they'll eventually get booked in bigger venues. If you're going to post your book at various internet sites and get paid for it, maybe I'd see the analogy.

And I disagree that all authors start with local recognition. It's not a requirement. When you get picked up by a commercial publisher who is able to put your book on retail shelves, you start with national recognition. People in your hometown may not even know you.

Are we arguing?

The analogy was about bands being remembered after they become successful. They are not overnight successes.

John Grisham is still quoted as an example of a self-published author. JK Rowling lived in a two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh while she wrote the second Potter novel (the initial print run of the first Potter novel was 500 copies). It was only after his second novel, Kane and Abel, that Jeffrey Archer received a six figure advance.

Just three examples but there are many more. Mid-list authors may start with reasonable advances, but they don't progress and they don't give up their day jobs. We hear little about how they started writing. Successful authors receive a lot of media coverage and journalists want the rags to riches stories.

Dear LC,
Talk is cheap.

Show what you have done and how you did it.

Love,
Betty

Shelagh wrote:

Just three examples but there are many more.

Examples of what? I wasn't discussing midlist authors or six figure advances! I was discussing the practice of selling and promoting one's own book on free sites, coupled with NO publisher backing. I don't believe there is such a thing as effective free, lone-wolf promotion (outside one's local circle). I haven't seen anything that indicates this is a productive strategy.

Yes, Grisham is quoted as a self-published success story -by those who don't know better. He was never self-published. His first pub went out of business and he bought the remaindered copies and sold them himself. Re JK Rowling, did she sell her stuff via free internet sites and get the eye of a big publisher that way? I don't think so.

Oh well, folks do what they want. No skin off my nose.

Oh dear! I go away have a sleep and come back to this thread and what happens? Just the usual predictable negative attacks.

LC your comments would carry more weight if they were coming from someone other than two letters of the alphabet.
Your profile indicates you are no one.

Most of the people on this forum have a profile and are not afraid to air their views openly, they do not hide behind anonymity.
It is starting to become obvious what the initials LC might represent. Loads of Crap, Loves Conflict, Lurks Cowardly, Lost Credibility.

I realise it maybe fun to play devils advocate and find a negative argument in the guise of spicing up a thread, at least do it as a real person (get a real life ), Get a real profile.
Nuff said.

Better yet, dmondeo, why don't you show us all the success you've achieved with your advise? I realize you have your picture and all your personal info up, but I can't seem to find your book anywhere that matters, which is what this thread is about.

300 of the 500 copies of the first Harry Potter novel were placed in school libraries so that children could read them FOR FREE. I have eleven copies of my book available in Lancashire libraries and one in Luton library. That's 4% of the number of copies of the first HP book. If I were to amass 4% of JK Rowling's present wealth, I would be more than happy.

It's a credit to you Shelagh that your books are available for checkout.

Many libraries won't accept donated books. If they do, they often end up at bargain sales to raise money. However, I figure that's advertising

LC wrote:

Better yet, dmondeo, why don't you show us all the success you've achieved with your advise? I realize you have your picture and all your personal info up, but I can't seem to find your book anywhere that matters, which is what this thread is about.

Who said that?...............oh! .............no one.

LC,

David's book is on Amazon. Where is yours?

We know he lives in the UK and has six children.
He is a poet and very witty.


We like him.

He appears to e a very longsuffering sort so--"Beware the wrath of a patient man."

Shelagh wrote:

300 of the 500 copies of the first Harry Potter novel were placed in school libraries so that children could read them FOR FREE.

And this means ...what? Did JK pay out of her pocket to donate the books to the library? How does this tie in to anything? If you're trying to make the point that promotion is necessary to sell books, when did I ever say otherwise?

Alice wrote:

David's book is on Amazon. Where is yours?

It's on various free sites. I'm waiting for it to take off.