From Fred
Hi All
Did you ever force yourself to so something even though you didn't feel like doing.?
That happened to me Monday when I went to Moundsville to hear author Patricia Harman talk about her book and about the publishing business.
I did not want to go. Too tired. Hungry. Wasn't interested in hearing about women's health issues. Probably nothing there for me.
Pass the humble pie, please.
Patricia Harman was great. She projected such a sweet spirit and a total passion for her book.
She hit on some interesting talking points that confirmed some things I already know and some things I was glad to learn.
* Writing a query letter is harder than writing a book.
* A non fiction book proposal should be about 100 pages (that includes three chapters of book or about one-half)
* You may want to hire a writing coach to help with your proposal.
* Most books today are 100,000 words.
* Expect lots of editing from more than one editor. She had to remove some original chapters and replace them with new ones.
* She had 85 rejections before getting published.
Finally - she said anyone seeking an agent should go to www.agentquery.com
Thank you, Fred, for taking the time to go see her and for typing up your notes for us. It still makes me giggle — the irony — to hear that aspiring, professional writers should consider hiring a writing coach to help them with their proposals. Speaking of humble pie ...
ReplyDeleteJason