Any tips for pitching a book?

Mr Trick

Mr Trick

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This is something I'm currently working on. Now the book ideas I have are going to be film/TV based or cultural. But any generally ideas would be useful. Thanks in advance.
 
Pitching a book to whom? A publisher?
 
Do you mean ideas for a topic?

It's notoriously difficult to get a book published, or make money from it. My partner is a really talented writer, I'm always at him to write his book. 😛
 
I'm going to be trying to finish my novel next week, in the hope of actually getting it seen by a publisher one day, but to be honest I know I'll get rejected - a lot. So this may be an experience I go through soon too! Here's what I know so far from speaking to other author friends, one of whom has been published:

The first thing to do is finish the work. Edit it. Read it. Edit it again. Keep editing it. Find a trusted beta reader; someone who'll be honest about your plot, characters, writing style and setting. Go back and edit it again. Find another beta reader; get their opinion. Edit, edit edit. (Get the gist about editing?!) Invest in the services of a professional editor if you can afford it.

When you're happy with it, you have a choice between self-publishing or using an agent/publisher. Plenty of people self-publish and it's a quick, cheap and easy route, however it is seen as a lesser route in the author community. It'll get you out there but it'll potentially lose you respect of other authors and future publishers.

Research publishers for your genre. There's no point sending a World War 2 novel to a romance publisher.

Agents aren't cheap, but they'll do the leg work for you. Most large publishers will only accept work from agents and never from the author directly.

Publishers are notoriously easy to get in touch with, but difficult to get a response from. Expect to send to possibly hundreds of publishers. Expect to hear nothing back. Be persistent. Don't give up.

You should write a query letter to send out with your proposal, keep it brief and snappy. Include plot details and word count. Use the first paragraph to entice the publisher to read more.
 
@Athena Thanks for the tips. I will keep those in mind. In my case the book is going to be a spin-off from my radio show like an introduction to film (and maybe TV) in genre. And I also have a idea for a book on the new Twin Peaks. Am hopeing there might be a market for those. Thanks, and good luck with your book I would like to read some of it🙂
 
I think the non-fiction market is very different to the fiction market. All the above was for fiction (as I write fiction), so to be honest I think Google is your friend for the non-fiction way of doing it 🙂
 
Mr Trick
Mr Trick
I guess. Thanks.
TriBel said:
How academic? General readership or university?
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I am aiming to make them more general readership. Though I suppose the Twin Peaks one will be a bit more academic. But even that because its covering the new series mostly, will be my own fresh ideas. I might use some reviews as a reference point.
 
Mr Trick said:
I am aiming to make them more general readership. Though I suppose the Twin Peaks one will be a bit more academic. But even that because its covering the new series mostly, will be my own fresh ideas. I might use some reviews as a reference point.
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I asked because most academic publishers just ask you to submit a proposal on line. It's not too arduous. Twin Peaks might appeal. Have a look at Palgrave's site. I'd tend to avoid the University Publishers - Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester etc. (although Manchester's form is very user friendly) - if it's undergraduate level. There's probably a lot of competition from established academics because there's kudos attached to the publisher. The site will ask you what level you're pitching to - what the competition is etc. There's also the dedicated film/TV publishers such as BFI. Bear in mind I know about the forms - I'm notoriously bad at sending anything in. 🙁 They might want an affiliation with a Uni - although some of the stuff I've seen (the BFI BtVS for example) was written by freelancers. Good Luck! Don't expect to make any money!

Afterthought - a colleague at work is writing a novel and she was talking about publishing with Amazon. Not sure how that works. Might be worth having a look at their site.
 
TriBel said:
I asked because most academic publishers just ask you to submit a proposal on line. It's not too arduous. Twin Peaks might appeal. Have a look at Palgrave's site. I'd tend to avoid the University Publishers - Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester etc. (although Manchester's form is very user friendly) - if it's undergraduate level. There's probably a lot of competition from established academics because there's kudos attached to the publisher. The site will ask you what level you're pitching to - what the competition is etc. There's also the dedicated film/TV publishers such as BFI. Bear in mind I know about the forms - I'm notoriously bad at sending anything in. 🙁 They might want an affiliation with a Uni - although some of the stuff I've seen (the BFI BtVS for example) was written by freelancers. Good Luck! Don't expect to make any money!

Afterthought - a colleague at work is writing a novel and she was talking about publishing with Amazon. Not sure how that works. Might be worth having a look at their site.
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Thank-you. That is very helpful. Yeah because I am discussing the new Twin Peaks I thought it will be good to strike why the irons hot🙂 From what I understand it is very hard to get get academic work published. But I will look into the options you mentions including the Amazon one. Thanks🙂
 
Mr Trick said:
Thank-you. That is very helpful. Yeah because I am discussing the new Twin Peaks I thought it will be good to strike why the irons hot🙂 From what I understand it is very hard to get get academic work published. But I will look into the options you mentions including the Amazon one. Thanks🙂
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There's a Buffy book (something about Myth) on Amazon Kindle that, IMO, is far better than the BFI book on Buffy. That said, I think their "Classics" range is hit and miss. 🙁 Definitely go for it. To my shame 😳, I've never watched Twin Peaks - I've got the original on the shelf somewhere - alongside all the unopened European/World Cinema box sets I don't remember buying. I've vowed to become an out of the closet Philistine and proclaim to the world that I don't like Alphaville; Man with a Movie Camera gives me a migraine and I'm only watching Herzog if it has a bear in it!
 
TriBel said:
There's a Buffy book (something about Myth) on Amazon Kindle that, IMO, is far better than the BFI book on Buffy. That said, I think their "Classics" range is hit and miss. 🙁 Definitely go for it. To my shame 😳, I've never watched Twin Peaks - I've got the original on the shelf somewhere - alongside all the unopened European/World Cinema box sets I don't remember buying. I've vowed to become an out of the closet Philistine and proclaim to the world that I don't like Alphaville; Man with a Movie Camera gives me a migraine and I'm only watching Herzog if it has a bear in it!
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Thanks again. Oh yeah Man with a Movie Camera is pretenious shit watched it in film history😛
 
Find out all you can about the industry first. Subscribe to some of the websites that put out monthly or weekly information on publishing. Hope Clark and Beth Erickson have good ones that will introduce you to all the ins and outs of publishing and one of the sites has a downloadable query guide. The non-fiction market is different from the fiction market in that there are objective criteria the publishers use when they are considering a book. And as @Athena said, edit, edit and edit some more. There are a lot of types of editing:

1. Spelling
2. Grammar
3. Factual e.g. if you say a show aired on a particular date, make sure the date is correct
4. Structural: Do you start with an overview of the previous show? Do you start with your impressions? Do you start with reviews? Do you start with the data of what episodes aired when? You have to be organized.
5. Continuity: Do you offer an opinion and then modify or reverse it later?

This is not a complete list.

Let your first impressions be your guide: if something doesn't seem right, look right or read right, it isn't right. You may not know how to fix it, but persevere and figure out what is causing you to "write wrong".

Always have more than one writing project on the go at any time. When you are stymied on one, move to another. When you come back, you will be able to look at it with fresh eyes. Or just leave it for a while and see what seems "off" to you when you return.

Most important: if the publisher's website has instructions for submission, follow them to the letter. If you don't, you will automatically go into the discard file.
 
Im probably not understanding correctly, sorry, is this a fanfiction thing or an original idea?

In the time of Twific - HEAPS of fanfic got pulled off the internet and eventually published. (50 shades of Grey was the big one), so it didn't seem like it could be that hard, when there is already an audience base for it. There were definitely spelling and grammar mistakes in Twilight too. But I guess the authors still got the big bucks.

There is a lady here who published a book and spelt Queen wrong, so now her followers are known as Quenns. She made enough money off her fans to live in a very expensive coastal town, and leave her husband for a man in a skatepark called "Denim". It cant be too hard to get published can it?

Are there different qualities of publishers?
 
OccaQuokka said:
It cant be too hard to get published can it?
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I think it depends on what's "big" at the time. When Twilight went big, it was all the supernatural romance stuff. When 50 Shades (as you said, ironically a fanfic of Twilight) went big it was all the erotic romance stuff.

Basically, if you want to write romance fiction I think you're quids in 😉😛

Saying this, I think romance, or chick lit or whatever you want to call it is very over-saturated with the same sort of stuff. Boy meets girl. They separate because of X. Girl finds boy 10 years later. They can't be together because of Y. Z happens and they can be together. The End.
 
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