Welcome back,This week’s secret is a continuation from last week’s silly conversation with the caller. (If you need a recap, go to Secret #1)Writers have this crazy idea that they’ve written a book that deserves to be published. No! You’ve written a manuscript, a manuscript of a book hopefully to be published! In the publishing industry, contrary to popular belief they do not consider your book, a book until it is published! That thing you call a book is called a manuscript! At weekly meetings it’s Manuscript #205 or Manuscript BOW or whatever!In the publishing industry, a book is considered final. What you have written is not! It has yet to go through the final editing phase, if any editing at all! It has yet to have a cover designed for it; the book size decided; how it will be marketed, or who will print it. And we are missing the all important task of deciding who will publish it.My boss hates when people tell her they’ve written a book and when she asks who wrote it or where can she get it because it sounds good, they reply by telling her they wrote it, it’s not yet in stores, and that they are looking for a publisher. She always responds, “So, you’ve written a manuscript?” Not knowing what she’s talking about, they look at her funny eyed.So what do you do?Change your language, but more importantly, change your way of thinking!Remember, you have 7 seconds to make an impression. When you approach a publisher either in person or via writing, approach as follows:“I’ve written a potential book”“I’ve got a book idea, I’d love to pitch to you”“I’ve written a manuscript about xyz”Let’s repeat this again: You have 7 seconds to make a good impression. Approaching your potential boss correctly determines your next step career wise. it is the same for approaching a publisher. Remember, they get approached 500 times a day, mainly by clueless writers. Approaching them correctly is the difference between them actually taking your manuscript to read it or politely (and even in some cases) unpolitely, saying ”Thank you, but no thank you!”Let’s recap: Your book is not a book until it is published! We all know that’s your baby, but just like welfare doesn’t consider your baby a baby until it is born, the publishing industry doesn’t consider your book a book until it is published!Sounds harsh! I know, but I told you that the truth was going to hurt!Until Secret #3QP Signing Out!
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