Getting Your Book Published for Dummies - Paperback

by Sarah Parsons Zackheim (Author), Adrian Zackheim (Author)

There's never been a better time to be an author!

Books like the Harry Potter series create a media phenomenon, with people lining up and camping outside bookstores to purchase newly released titles. Yet book sales overall - not just those of mega-sellers - are on the rise, as more and more people seek knowledge and entertainment through reading. The Library of Congress currently registers about 60,000 new titles for copyright each year. 60,000 books by 60,000 authors. Imagine yourself as one.

Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is your complete guide to realizing whatever gem of an idea you've been carrying with you. If you've ever thought, "this would make a really good book," be it the next great American novel or a guide to naming babies, here's your chance to put pen to paper and find out! Written from both sides of the editor's desk - by a widely published writer and a HarperCollins veteran publisher - this guide puts in your hand the advice you need to:

• Pick an idea
• Approach the publisher
• Craft proposals and queries
• Work with agents, or act as your own
• Self-publish
• Negotiate a contract
• Create the actual book
• Sell your published book

Full of examples, proposals, query letters, and war stories drawn from the authors' extensive experience, Getting Your Book Published For Dummies shows you how to clear all the hurdles faced by today's writers - freeing up precious time for you to refine your manuscript. You'll get the inside scoop on:

• Titling your book
• Major publishers, smaller houses, niche publishers, university presses, and spiritual and religious publishers
• The 12 elements of a successful nonfiction proposal
• How editors read queries
• Submitting fiction
• Publishing outside the box
• And much more

Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is the clear, A-Z handbook that makes the entire process plain and practicable. You don't need to be a celebrity. You don't need to be some kind of publishing insider. All you need to do is write.

Front Jacket

This book is the clearest map to book publishing you'll find.
--Scott Adams, creator, Dilbert

Find out how to draft attention-getting proposals and queries

A must read for any aspiring professional writer.
--Peter Maas, author, Underboss and The Terrible Hours

Consider this friendly guide your tour of the publishing industry - from understanding the business and its players to the art of negotiating advances, options, and rights. Take advantage of industry insider Sarah Parsons Zackheim's decades of experience and find out how to refine your book idea, submit winning queries, get an agent, and more!

Praise for Getting Your Book Published For Dummies(R)

Dig your well before you're thirsty, and before you write your first book, don't just read Getting Your Book Published For Dummies . . . study it!.
- Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks: Without Being Eaten Alive

An excellent common-sense guide filled with inspiring anecdotes.
-- Vicky Bijur, President, AAR, Association of Authors' Representatives, Inc.

Discover how to:

• Choose a book idea
• Get inspired to write
• Find a market for your work
• Choose a publisher
• Act as your own agent
• Negotiate your contract
• Self-publish your book on the Web

Back Jacket

This book is the clearest map to book publishing you'll find.
--Scott Adams, creator, Dilbert

Find out how to draft attention-getting proposals and queries

"A must read for any aspiring professional writer."
--Peter Maas, author, Underboss and The Terrible Hours

Consider this friendly guide your tour of the publishing industry - from understanding the business and its players to the art of negotiating advances, options, and rights. Take advantage of industry insider Sarah Parsons Zackheim's decades of experience and find out how to refine your book idea, submit winning queries, get an agent, and more!

Praise for Getting Your Book Published For Dummies(R)

"Dig your well before you're thirsty, and before you write your first book, don't just read Getting Your Book Published For Dummies . . . study it!."
- Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks: Without Being Eaten Alive

"An excellent common-sense guide filled with inspiring anecdotes."
-- Vicky Bijur, President, AAR, Association of Authors' Representatives, Inc.

Discover how to:

• Choose a book idea
• Get inspired to write
• Find a market for your work
• Choose a publisher
• Act as your own agent
• Negotiate your contract
• Self-publish your book on the Web

Author Biography

Sarah Parsons Zackheim has worked at William Morrow, Doubleday, and New York Times Books. She is the author or coauthor of three books, including Dress Your House For Success.