ISBN 978-1-59433-340-8
eBook ISBN 978-1-59433-341-5
Copyright 2012 Evan and Lois Swensen
First Printing 2012
Second Printing 2013
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form, or by any mechanical or electronic means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case not without the written permission of the author and publisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Introduction
Evan and Lois Swensen
More than three decades ago we wrote and published Bringing Your Book to Market, a small book describing how we create books and treat authors. We have not updated the book since. It has stood as the outline for our book publishing business. A few months ago we realized that we needed to remodel the book and bring it current with the times and include things like eBooks, which were not even invented when we first published Bringing Your Book to Market.
We determined that wed include a few published authors experiences to illustrate some of the publishing procedures employed to create a book and bring it to market. The more we talked with authors about what we wanted to do, the more we realized that Bringing Your Book to Market was pretty sterile, like most business plans. We also came to know that thats the way it should be, but there was a great need for a book with real experiences about becoming a published author. A book that would tell unpublished authors about the agony and ecstasy of writing a book.
We asked some of our author to write their story. The story they would like to have read prior to their journey to becoming a published author. Authoring and publishing a book is a daunting experience. Bringing, and keeping, a book before potential readers is a challenging and taxing undertaking. Almost everyone has dreamed about writing a bookbut few there are that have what it takes to do it. Those who gave us their story had a vision of being a published author and had what it took to make it happen.
Becoming a Published Author: Agony and Ecstasy of Writing a Book contains the stories of real writers just like you. Its not the details. The details are written in Bringing Your Book to Market. Becoming a Published Author is the human side of publishing. Its the heart and the soul of authorship. Its the thrill of holding your newly published book and smelling the drying ink. Its the heart beating experience of seeing your book on a bookstore shelf. Its the dark day when you receive your manuscript back from the editor dripping in red ink. Its the agony of rewrites and rewrites; of book signings where no one shows up; of the morning you took all day to correct one sentence, only to take all afternoon changing it back to the way it was in the first place; of the Friday you gave up and declared yourself a writing failure. Its the ecstasy of the following Monday when youre energized with a breakthrough idea that propels you forward with vision and determination; of the fan mail from a perfect stranger telling you they read your book and loved it, and compared your writing to a famous authorpast or present. Becoming a published author gives you celebrity status with both writers and readers; but, particularly among published authors who share your agony and ecstasy.
If youve written a book, if youre writing a book, or if youre thinking about writing a book, contact Publication Consultants. We invite you to become a published author with your own agony and ecstasy story.
I Had Given Up Hope
Douglas Anderson
Publishing a book is easy. You make copious notes, collect all sorts of data, and finally sit down to write. The ideas pour forth faster than you can assign the words to paper, and soon you have your manuscript ready to submit to a publisher. You are convinced its destined to become a bestseller. Its all so easy. Or is it?
In 1977 my company moved me from Montreal, Canada, to Alaska in support of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. For several years, I traversed the pipeline in all seasons from Prudhoe in the north to Valdez in the south and viewed lots of wild and spectacular country. I was certainly hooked on Alaska. Eventually I started flying, hiking, and gold prospecting with a very good friend. For a few memorable years we embarked on wilderness adventures that few ever have a chance to experience. Then, in 1985 my friend went to pursue a degree at the University of Hawaii and, shortly thereafter, my company relocated me to Atlanta, Georgia. Unfortunately, along with relocation, my adventurous lifestyle underwent a dramatic change for the worse and I was unsettled and none too happy at having been coerced to leave Alaska.
In my new position I traveled extensively and spent many hours on long flights and lonely nights in hotels, motels, or less desirable accommodations in unfamiliar places. To pass away the time and to alleviate my feelings of homesicknessand sometimes angerI started to write about my Alaska adventures. Initially, I had no thoughts of writing a book. It was simply therapy and my way of reliving the experiences of flying, hiking in the wilderness, and the excitement of prospecting for that elusive gold. Sometimes I found myself laughing at a particular situation I was writing about occasionally shedding a tear or two as well. Over a period of years I added more to the manuscript and it finally dawned on me that I had the makings of a pretty interesting book. I therefore set about word-processing my rough tome into a more logical form with chapters and headings.
I began to research ways to have my book published and very quickly realized it can be both complicated and expensive. Many publishing companies will not even consider looking at your manuscript simply because you are an unknown writer. I became disheartened and decided that my writing had served its purpose and it would go no further than my own bookshelf. The manuscript began to gather dust, though I picked it up occasionally and tinkered with it as a reminder of more exciting times.
Happily, in 1995having spent ten years in GeorgiaI found a way to return to Alaska. I felt I was returning home and also was happy to be back in support of the pipeline. Within a few months I became aware of Publication Consultants and was introduced to Evan Swensen. Evan appraised my manuscript and encouraged me to shake the dust off it once and for all. Maybe it could be turned into a real book if I could tidy it up just a little more. Of course, it was already organized and had been honed so many times I believed it was pretty near ready for the printing press.
My manuscriptword-processed to the best of my abilitywas passed to the Publication Consultants editor then returned to me a couple of weeks later. I guess, up to that point, I thought I was a pretty fair writer. However, all of the cryptic red squiggles, dashes, punctuations, and deletions of superfluous words and even entire paragraphs, convinced me I had a long way to go. Its one thing for us aspiring authors to put ideas to paper but it takes a professional to turn that into something others can read and enjoy. Formatting deems there should be no long dragged-out sentences. There can only be so many lines to a page, so many pages in the book. All those
