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What the best way to get a business (advertising) book proposal in front of the right people?
And...who are the right people? Any suggestions of particular agents or publishers greatly accepted. (btw: this is for a proposal for a book that I want to write)
Answers (8)
Dyanna L
Owner, Ink Think - Freelance Editing & Writing
Best Answers in: Personnel Policies (1), Guerrilla Marketing (1), Public Relations (1), Non-profit Management (1), Starting Up (1)
Start with basic research. WHO are the best people to get it in front of? Go to Amazon or a large chain bookstore and look for other books catering to the same market yours is aimed at as well as other books on the topic. If you want to go really in-depth, make a list of each and see who is on the first list (publishes for your market) and NOT on the second (already has a book in the same vein) and target them first.
Check out the Writer's Market for appropriate contact info and call to make sure it is current. You might also want to check out one of the guides to agents since agented manuscripts generally receive more/better attention.
Links:
Reid H
Entrepreneur. General Manager. Product Strategist.
Best Answers in: Starting Up (6), Venture Capital and Private Equity (3), Web Development (3), Using LinkedIn (3), Distribution (1), Business Plans (1), Enterprise Software (1)
There are the obvious traditional answers: find an agent, find a co-writer who has established relationships, publish some articles in periodicals and build off that, and use your "offline" network to see if you have a connection to get a response.
There are the obvious on-line answers. Develop and utilize a blog to create awareness and brand; contribute to such sources as www.venturebeat.com, www.gigaom.com, and www.techcrunch.com for similar impact; unusual promotion vehicles like myspace pages, youtube videos, etc.
Using Linkedin, you can mix and match at least three types of search. First, search for "literary agent" (yields at least 157 results), "publisher advertising" (500+ altuough messier), etc. -- this allows you to browse their profiles and see if one is particularly valuable. Second, search for the company names of literary agent agencies -- "William Morris", CAA, "Janklow & Nesbit". Third, run some combinations of this search, and sort by degrees distance -- so you can get introduced to someone who may help you find the right person.
Gary - Why not speak to Ed about it based on his experience with "The Influentials"...
Best,
Laura
Write the TOC and at least a chapter. Make sure the proposal differentiates from competitive books on the market. Non-fiction is tough to get into. Contact Bryan Eisenberg...he knows several publishers and book agents. Also suggest contacting Michael Drew, www.promoteabook.com. He helped the Eisenberg's get both books on the bestseller list.
Sam D also suggests this expert on this topic:
First, make sure your proposal is fabulous. Mike Hyatt, President and CEO of the 6th largest publishing company in the world, has a great article on writing a winning proposal. Here's the link: http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/Downloads/WritingABookProposal.pdf.
Second, research similar books and find out which agents helped those authors to start compiling an agent contact list.
Third, use resources like Publishers Lunch (a website courtesy of Cader Books that gives tons of info on the latest deals) or Publishers Weekly, Literary Marketplace, etc. to help you add a few more select agents to your list.
Having the right agent is a big first step. Another way to go about this would be to watch the news media for books like yours that are getting coverage, and then research to find which p.r. firms represented those titles. Sometimes, a p.r. firm can be used to assess an idea, help put together a sample mktg proposal or otherwise flesh out the proposal to help it along.
Hope this helps!
Links:
Steph M
Historic preservation & heritage education consultant
Best Answers in: Public Relations (1), Business Plans (1), Starting Up (1)
Michael Larsen's book, How to Write a Book Proposal, has been suggested by numerous agents and publishers at writers' conferences that I've attended. If you're interested in business publishers, many of those have submission guidelines online and do not require an agented submission. However, they do expect that you'll have a terrific marketing plan and that you have some kind of expertise or credibility in the area that you're writing about. Your plan to sell the book, since publishers' marketing budgets are getting smaller all the time, is going to be really important. Also, do your homework; understand and be able to articulate who your audience is and why your book (a) is different from all of the other advertising books out there (with specific examples) and (b) why your audience needs this information.
Chris C
Director, Acquisition Marketing at American Greetings Interactive
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1)
Find out what their biggest problems are thru mail/email/phone calls. Start at the top, CEO or VP level. Once you get your answer ask them who would be the follow-up person in their organization. Produce your proposal that hopefully can solve the problem and present it to the follow-up person. Send a simultaneous message back to the senior exec letting them know you sent a solution to their problem to the contact they indicated.
EXTRA CREDIT: If you want a hint for breaking thru to senior execs...create a 3-dimensional direct mail package and tie it to their business. Example: I work for American Greetings...send our senior exec a Valentines Card and Candy.
DOUBLE EXTRA CREDIT: Ask someone lower down the totem pole you find thru LinkedIn(?) for an org chart so you know the lay of the land. Build a relationship with that person and turn them into your "coach". (Strategic Selling by Miller Heiman tactic)
Links:
At Happy About, we don't need to review a full-blown book proprosal. We do, however, share six questions that help us determine if your book is right for us. If you're interested, please let me know and I'd be delighted to share them with you. The benefit of going with us is significantly quicker time to market and higher royalty rates.