A Story Worth Telling, Again
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 20th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
This story comes from an author who was gracious enough to share with my readers in hopes it will help others…
This whole publishing thing has been very frustrating for me, as I am sure it is for many, many of the unknown authors in our society.
My story is not unique.
I wrote this book for which I have a great passion.
About 10 years ago I met a couple who were in the process of publishing several books. And they promised me an inside track with their publisher. They offered to review my book and in two installments I gave him $10,000…. And also gave his girl friend an additional $6,000 at 500.00 a month for a year…. As I looked at them as a couple influential in getting my book published. They seemed to believe it had great value.
After about 4 years of patiently waiting, they advised me to simply put my book out there in POD format. Needless to say, I was greatly disappointed.
From some source I learned I needed a literary agent. I went on line and searched through the listing for literary agents I came in contact with a man that I thought was a literary agent. He offered to review my book for $125.00. He promised to read it through and evaluate the manuscript. He thought the book “should be in the bookstores.”
He offered several services and I took the one in two installments of $4200.00 each to completely go through the manuscript making type corrections, offering suggestions for shortening the manuscript…. Giving me Chapter titles and writing a necessary query letter to Literary agents. So I realized he was not an agent, but he promised to get me the needed help and so I went for it.
At the completion of his work…. He sent me a copy double spaced of the manuscript along with CD’s of the script, plus a goodly stock of literary agents that he suggested I query with his letter about 3 a week. I did 10 a week for quite some time… Rejected time and time again. I did receive some comments that were encouraging, stating from time to time that the material was compelling.
I knew at the outset finding a publisher would be difficult.
…This story is not unique, I come across these writers on a regular basis. If you gain nothing else from my newsletter please understand that it’s a buyer beware business. There are never any guarantees!
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
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