Publish Your Nonfiction Book: Strategies for Learning the Industry, Selling Your Book, and Building a Successful Career [Paperback]

Sharlene Martin (Author), Anthony Flacco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2009

Publishing Your Nonfiction Book

In Publish Your Nonfiction Book, successful literary agent Sharlene Martin and noted novelist and nonfiction author Anthony Flacco draw on their years of experience to provide you with an in-depth understanding of what the publishing industry is really like and how to successfully navigate it in order to ensure a long-term career. You'll learn:

• Techniques for writing a strong query letter that hooks agents and editors right from the start
  
  
• Strategies for putting together a stellar proposal package that successfully pitches you and your book
  
  
• Methods for creating a respectable author platform - before you start pitching your book
  
  
• Tips for getting an agent and building a lasting working relationship
  
  And much, much more!

Plus, the authors examine actual query letters and proposals that worked, so you can see firsthand exactly what catches an agent's attention and why.

Publish Your Nonfiction Book is the one-on-one agent consultation you need - but seldom get - to learn the ropes and seal the deal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I highly recommend this book to any writer of nonfiction looking to get published for the first time as well as those authors preparing for a second or even third book. --Huffington Post-Geri Spieler

"Publish Your Nonfiction Book is a useful, accessible, and timely resource that provides excellent guidance and insider advice for prospective authors. Perhaps most importantly, it demystifies the often mazelike publishing process, making it possible for writers with talent and ambition to get their work into print." -- Jason Prince, VP, Publisher, Sterling Publishing

"Sharlene Martin and Anthony Flacco have used their considerable experience as a successful literary agent and widely published writer respectively to demystify the publishing process for nonfiction books in a way that any writer will find to be informative and enlightening. PUBLISH YOUR NONFICTION BOOK clearly explains the process unlike any other book that I know about. I'll be recommending it to writers that I work with." -- William Shinker, President & Publisher, Gotham and Avery Books

"PUBLISH YOUR NONFICTION BOOK is practical, straight-forward, helpful, and tells the truth about publishing! This is the perfect guide to go from dream to reality on your publishing journey. Highly recommended." -- Joel Fotinos, Publisher, Tarcher/Penguin

"If getting published is your plan, take note of a few things: Mere talent isn't enough. Neither is tenacity. You need tools. In this insiders' guide, Martin and Flacco open up their specialty kit of wrenches, calipers, and pneumatic nail guns. You'll find all you need here to get started with building your literary career." -- Joel Miller, Vice President of Editorial & Acquisitions, Thomas Nelson Pub.

"For every aspiring writer--even for authors with a book under their belt-- Publish Your Nonfiction Book will prove an essential guide through the entire publishing process. Sharlene Martin and Anthony Flacco cover all the bases--sizing up today's media landscape, how to write and submit the best queries; and dissecting book proposals that publishers acquired, and why. I have published many books on books, and this is one of the most useful handbooks I've ever seen. I will recommend it to all my authors." -- Philip Turner, Philip Turner Book Productions

About the Author

Sharlene Martin is the founder of Martin Literary Management in Seattle. Sharlene is a frequent speaker at writers' conferences throughout the country, and she has published articles in Writer's Digest magazine, Guide to Literary Agents, and Publishers Weekly. This is Anthony Flacco's sixth book as a writer of fiction and nonfiction. He has also written articles on a variety of subjects for such diverse places as Reader's Digest, Stars and Stripes, and numerous literary websites and blogs. Additionally, he is an experienced public speaker who frequently gives seminars on writing. He serves as an editorial consultant for Martin Literary Management.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; Original edition (November 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582975787
• ISBN-13: 978-1582975788
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best information on the market, February 10, 2010

By 

D. Goldsmith (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publish Your Nonfiction Book: Strategies for Learning the Industry, Selling Your Book, and Building a Successful Career (Paperback)

The path to publishing is a miserable hike.

Writing the first draft, attending literary conferences, creating the dreaded proposal, attempting to build a "platform" and sending the crackerjack query letter. Each step seems more formidable than the last. Scratch the surface of a " yet to be published" author and you will uncover an assorted bundle of resentment and jealousy for authors whose published books they deem less worthy and a modicum of encouragement from tales of those who were finally published after receiving hundreds of rejections.

There are many, many good "how to get published" books on the market including Judith Applebaum's, "How to Get Happily Published," Jason Shinder's, "Get Your First Book Published," Paul Brown's "Publishing Confidential," and of course Michael Larsen's, "How To Write a Book Proposal."

However "Publish Your Nonfiction Book," by Sharlene Martin and Anthony Flacco gives the best advice about landing a mainstream publisher. They also cover the essential basics but offer an additional element about the realities of sending out a query letter or book proposal. The reader gets to be inside the head and behind the desk of a literary agent. It's quite the ride.

While other guides to publication only offer advice on the basics, Martin and Flacco entertain its readers with genuine examples of truly wacky queries and real life examples of effective letters and proposals that sold both the agent and the publisher.

Where this book takes a major turn in differentiating from the others is in Chapter 1 under "Psychological Preparation." Martin and Flacco extract and examine the crucial element of rejection.

In the highly competitive world of getting published, rejection is the chief annihilator of first time authors. If one can learn to deal with rejection that comes from agents as well as publishers, they may feel less victimized. As well, by heeding the advice in this book, the would-be author may well survive emotionally as well as achieve success. The self inflicted damage from real or imagined disrespect will affect not only how a writer perceives his or her work, but quite possibly result in a damaging response to potential agents or publishers.

Another incandescent piece of advice is a dose of reality and the power of patience. Understanding what goes on in the agent's world and putting that professional advice to work will take a prospective author a long way towards dealing with rejection as well as a much better relationship with a literary agency.

The book also does a good job of delineating the legal literary issues of rights, the many different forms of nonfiction, preparing the book proposal and creating the crucial platform or the credentials by which the author is known in the market for which the book is written.

I highly recommend this book to any writer of nonfiction. There is much more information here that is useful than others.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for academic and community library Writing/Publishing reference collections, July 16, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publish Your Nonfiction Book: Strategies for Learning the Industry, Selling Your Book, and Building a Successful Career (Paperback)

Writing a book is only the beginning of the process of getting published. When the manuscript is a work of nonfiction, the author should give a careful reading to "Publish Your Nonfiction Book: Strategies for Learning the Industry, Selling Your Book, and Building a Successful Career", a 296-page compendium of practical commentary, advice, tips, tricks and techniques on getting published. From recruiting an agent, to dealing with editors, to preparing proposals and delivering pitches, to contract negotiations, to the option of self-publishing, "Publish Your Nonfiction Book" is comprehensive, detailed, superbly well organized, and thoroughly 'user friendly'. Enhanced with an appendices of relevant resources, "Publish Your Nonfiction Book" is highly recommended for academic and community library Writing/Publishing reference collections, and critically important reading for anyone non-fiction author with a manuscript in need of publication.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped me to build a strong book proposal to present my work to agents, April 25, 2010

By 

Daun Richert-Slagle (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Publish Your Nonfiction Book: Strategies for Learning the Industry, Selling Your Book, and Building a Successful Career (Paperback)

I first bought this book to get a clear picture of how to write a book proposal. The thought of trying to write one without a guideline was completely overwhelming. This book addressed so many different areas of the publishing process, and most of all gave me a step-by-step overview on how to create a thorough, and professional query and book proposal. It offered insight from other agents and publishing companies, on what they are looking for regarding queries and submissions. It covers the entire publishing process. I found it to be very interactive and easy to understand, as well as informative. Sharlene Martin owns her own Literary Agency/Management firm and Anthony Flacco, is a well established Author. Together they share a diverse amount of information from both sides of the spectrum. I would suggest this book to anyone starting out, that may have any questions or doubts about how to present the best introduction to your work to an agent, or anyone who may just want to have a better understanding of the business, from start to finish. Building your platform is a crucial step in moving your work forward. This book allows you the skills and suggestions to launch your non-fiction book, into a challenging market. Excellent presentation of your work is vital. That first impression may be the one and only chance you have to land that perfect agent and/or book deal of a lifetime. This is a very smart investment.