Why You Should Use a Team Approach to Get Published (Part 1)

There is a way-too-common, new-author misconception about book-publishing. Many – maybe most – want to write a manuscript, throw it over the fence and have publishers throw money back at them. Some even join writer’s groups or communities and try to self-print … alone … but it bogs down … and they quit.

 The good news is, you don’t have to do it all – alone – and you shouldn’t even try. Frankly, the manuscript is only one, early step along the real road of creating and marketing success – a winning book takes a team of specialties working the process with the author. Consider:

American Historian and Author Barbara Tuchman says,

I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end. This is accomplished only when the narrative moves steadily ahead, not when it comes to a weary standstill.

Steven King adds:

When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials, but it must be done.

LEARN MORE

Moving the narrative ahead and getting rid of the fat is best accomplished with the help of others. When we sign a new author client here at Leadership Book, we let them know right away they’ll be working with professionals on both the editorial and marketing sides of their book project. On the editorial side, their team includes:

Your Editorial Director – who oversees the overall plan for the book, helping the author develop their idea (their message, voice, and intended audience), coaching and directing these into their book to ensure the reader will be excited by the content.

Your Copy Editor – who helps fine-tune your manuscript into your book’s story – told the way your audience reads, the way your author-voice would tell it, with the ‘reading-experience-distractors’ removed – its grammar, punctuation, wording, phrasing, plot-expression, storyline (and much, much more) all re-made to be consistent with your message, your voice, and the reading needs of your audience. Because this ‘tear apart and reassemble’ makes the book accessible by your readers, most writers grit their teeth and don’t take it personally, as the goal is producing the best-possible reading experience within which your audience can get your message.

 Your Peer Review group – This single-most-overlooked step ‒ even by professional publishing companies ‒ puts the developed manuscript in front of 10 to 12 selected readers to get their honest impressions and feedback to catch content or expression issues that need fixing. At times, authors – especially new authors, but even seasoned editors – get so close to their story (or veer off its track) they fail to make their main point! Peer review catches these and their comments force the author (and editors) back onboard. These reviewers know that the editors may take some, all, or none of their suggestions, as the trends in their comments are the key to what may need accommodating. Peer Review is a big investment, but a very important protection for the author’s message fidelity, voice authenticity, and audience experience.

Your Full-Team, Re-editing – In this step, the full author-editing team reviews the peer review suggestion trends to implement any needed changes – from rewriting major sections to simply tuning-up certain passages that slow or interrupt the story’s progress.

Your Cold Reader – Finally, the manuscript gets its independent cold-read – for grammar, punctuation, spelling and for formatting, all done by an experienced proofreader not previously associated with your project to ensure the independence of this review. (One caught a Table of Contents with two ‘Chapter 9s’ listed, but not found until this read!)

The Bottom Line: The good news is that with a team of professionals helping you, you deliver a sharper, more-focused, and polished work. But that is just on the Editorial side. Next time, we’ll look at the other side: Marketing – connecting your book to your audience.

At Leadership Book we help you navigate the publishing process and remove from you the stressful parts of book-writing, publishing, and sales. As in sports, winning takes all the team players, each fulfilling their roles, working in coordinated effort. Just like this, our project team gathers around you to produce with you a “winning” book. Contact Leadership Book today and let us bring you a pro-team to help you turn your manuscript into a sales winner in the marketplace – and a treasured winner with your audience – in their hearts.

 

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If you have a story to tell, let Leadership Book help you tell it!

Leadership Books Publishing is an emerging powerhouse in book publishing. We’ve joined the two worlds of traditional and self-publishing into one company that can help do it all. Our capabilities and relationships allow us to create targeted and integrated book campaigns that mobilize high-profile contacts in your niche, capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing through social marketers, and extend your reach into the most prominent media publications. Our authors have the unparalleled service of an Executive Editor, one who will work with you in putting your story ideas into book form. Once that’s completed, our professional designers will work with you to design the cover and interior to make your book ready to sell.

Leadership Book markets your book by distributing to every major book seller on three continents.

About Michael Stickler

To set up an appointment to speak to a Literary Agent:
Email: Alfredo Baguio
Call: (702) 605-4354