Re: Agent of the times

**"* M* <B*@verizon.net>**

Lois, I wish I had the answers! But here is my take on things.

Sad news. Most publishers are not looking for anything at all. The market is 
bad. But there are successful books out there now and more to come.

If you are a writer and you have a valuable book idea for which you think 
there is a major market, try to get an agent and a big name publisher. 
Protect your valuable rights. If your book proposal gets shot down multiple 
times, rethink it. Change its name and maybe its underlying concept and try 
again.

If you are a writer and you have a book for a special niche market and you 
don't expect thousands of copies to sell, you probably want to work with a 
small publisher who can give you attention, and be good about sharing 
whatever income comes in. You can expect your money to come partly from 
royalties on sold books, partly from fees you collect for doing lectures and 
events related to its subject, and partly from book sales you make when 
giving lectures. Such a book may add to your credentials if you are an 
academic. Your publisher should give you a very good discount on your 
purchases of your own book.

If you are a good writer, editor, and designer, you should look into 
print-on-demand and publish yourself. But you have to market yourself, too.

I only publish a book or two a year. I am never looking for anything. I 
always dream that I will finish doing everything on my list and write my own 
book.

My first book was small and self published. Then I was given a chance to 
write a book for Macmillan via a book packager. I did and I gave away all 
the rights (except electronic!!! haha, they didn't care back then) and 
collected my little work-for-hire fee. I don't even have a horticulture 
degree. The book was unbelievably successful ("The Gardener's Home 
Companion") and it gave me a big name but only pennies per hour of labor. I 
was totally unknown in 1988 when I signed the contract and I knew it was a 
bad one, but I didn't see any other opportunities to get published in a big 
way, so I made the tradeoff and gave that book all I had.

At the end of that seemingly endless process, I did another book for a  NY 
publisher and packager. It was successful in the end but they had made me 
unhappy so I went all the way into independent publishing. I love computers. 
I hate it when different levels of supervisors give you contradictory 
directions.

I have never made a big pile of money so for advice on that you must look 
elsewhere. But I'm having a fine time and have a career that suits me.

Betty

www.mackeybooks.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <loisdan@juno.com>
To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [GWL] Agent of the times

> I'm finding this discussion very interesting, since I worked first with
> an agent who was unable to sell my book concept, The Transformational
> Power of Gardening
> http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/08/transformational-power-of-gardeni
> ng.html . I'm doing the rounds now by myself, because agents basically
> cannot make enough from their fee when an author is doing either a short
> run, or is going with a small press. And that's where I'm at now.
>
> I asked around when I first started shopping my book and found that the
> garden writers I knew were all over the map as far as agent/no agent.
> Later, I realized what a specialized area garden book publishing is. My
> own experience with aquisitions editors is that you have a good chance at
> a big publisher as long as someone on staff is really, really interested
> in gardening, or gardening books. My book did make it into a handful of
> aquisitions meetings, but no brass ring. Because gardening books have so
> many photos, the publisher has to feel confident that they can sell a
> large press run.
>
> Smaller presses are reluctant to commit to books with a large number of
> color images -- they just can't afford it.
>
> I disagree that agents cost money. Mine cost me nothing, I learned a lot
> from her, and we parted on good terms. I would go with an agent whenever
> I had the option because I'd rather be writing than selling, it's hard to
> be your own advocate, and a good one will cover all the bases and get you
> a better deal.
>
> How about Betty Mackey or some of the publishing reps weighing in on this
> topic?
>
> Regards,
> Lois
> Visit: http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com
> Visit: http://loisdevries.blogspot.com
>
> On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:47:36 -0400 TC <tc@thewritegardener.com> writes:
>>
>> For those of you who've published books: Did you have an agent for
>> your very
>> first book?
>>
>> TC
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