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Leader, Do You Have a Book in You?
Back when I was in high school living two miles outside of Washington, D.C., my parents took me to visit The Library of Congress. As I stood eyeing walls of books, millions of them from floor to ceiling, it occurred to me that a whole lot of people publish. And that number has continued to skyrocket. Today the Library of Congress contains more than 74 million manuscripts—about one for every five Americans. So why in the world would you want to add to that stack by writing a book of your own? Write because you have better data. Maybe you’ve taken a look at all the books on the market…
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How to Break into Publishing
Want to break into publishing? If so, I suggest you begin by going down to your local Half Price Books or Powell’s and see if you can find an old copy of one of the annual Writer’s Market books. You don’t need the most recent year. For example, you could buy the 2006 Writer’s Market. It’s about two inches thick. In the beginning pages of this annually published book you’ll find instructions for how to write a query letter and how to format a manuscript. Following some preliminary articles about writing, the text consists primarily of publisher listings and submission requirements. It’s a great resource. When I teach my master’s-level…
