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Getting Started |
| The basic information I (and any editor) will need:
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| 1. |
A statement of what the book is intended to
achieve, i.e., what it's about and the key, core point(s) it
will make. You should (in theory) be able to state this in one
short paragraph. Theory doesn't always translate to literal
practice, but the longer the statement, the harder it is for an
editor to focus on the core of your intent. |
| 2. |
An outline, which can be quite rough, of the
key points and the sequence in which they will be made and
discussed. If you're far enough to have a chapter-by-chapter
outline, it should show the progression of points you expect to
make, leading to the final chapter where you wrap it up and
drive the point(s) home. |
| 3. |
Who you expect your buying audience will be.
(And their needs, as you perceive them.) |
| 4. |
How you plan to market the book. Whether you
intend to market to an agent or publisher or self-publish, you
need a marketing plan, preferably in place before you start to
write. (Remember--as San Francisco agent Michael Larson says,
"Books don't sell books; marketing sells books!")
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| 5. |
A sample chapter, preferably the introduction
and first chapter, which will give me an idea of how you write,
what you want to say, and how much work I'll need to do to
achieve your goal in the book. That helps me in planning time
and helps you by giving you a better ballpark estimate of the
time and costs needed to bring the book to the point where it's
ready for the copy editor.
This does not have to be perfect--striving for perfection is a
common cause of writer's block--and can be a transcription of a
talk you've given or of you dictating your thoughts onto tape
and having the tape transcribed. The idea is to get your ideas
into some kind of basic form and on computer disk so I can work
with them. It saves me time (and you money) if you or your
transcriptionist cleans up some of the language which is normal
in speech, but can be very awkward on a printed page. |
| 6. |
A computer disk of files I'll work with,
preferably in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word (either Windows or
DOS versions are readable) . Any file I can convert to
WordPerfect with one of those programs is usable. Mac files may
require a trip to a copy shop that has facilities for
conversion, if you haven't made the conversion before sending me
the disk.
I have ConversionsPlus, an upgraded and more extensive version
of MacOpener, which solves most conversion problems, but not
all. I recently had a major problem with a client who worked on
an older Mac, in Word 6, which, the DTP people tell me, is a
nightmare program for them--either Mac Word 5 or Mac Word 98 are
much better and the file conversions are far easier, whether
going cross-platform to the Windows side, in which I work, or
just to go into Mac page layout programs like PageMaker,
Illustrator, or Quark Express. (My client decided it was time to
get a new computer and new programs.) |
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