Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35256 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-27
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
This is the insider's guide to getting published sucessfully. The secret to making money from your fiction writing is not only in the quality of your work but your approach to the publishing process: in this book an industry professional shows how to make the system work for you. Advice is here from almost the moment you pick up the pen - identifying the market for your work - to working constuctively with your author or agent, safeguarding your rights, negotiating and understanding contracts, and understanding how you book will actually be sold. "From Pitch to Publication" is the complete guide to presenting yourself effectively to publishers, and navigating the periods before and after publication for continuing success.

Customer Reviews

Informative but dangerous in parts.
Whilst this book contains a good deal of valuable information, aspiring writers should take care not to follow Ms Blake's submission advice too slavishly.
She may wish to recieve a four to ten page synopsis and character biographies but many agents do not. With up to two hundred manuscripts arriving every week they simply do not have the time to wade through this amount of information. It works like this; if your covering letter is inspiring enough they will read your synopsis ( industry standard one single spaced page ), if, and only if, this really catches their imagination will they read the chapters. Most unsolicited manuscripts are never read. Always check with the individual agent for their particular submission requirements.
It is hard to imagine that anyone is cretinous enough to tell an agent "My friends all think it's wonderful", "It's ideal for a Hollywood film", or "You'll be turning down a fortune if you let it get away" but this book will stop you making these, and many other less obvious mistakes. Should you manage to get an agent or publisher ( and it does happen, new writers are taken on all the time, they have to be or else the whole book world would stagnate ) you will find the "Publication" section invaluable.

Lots of Information - Excellent Resource for Writers
Written by a leading literary agent this book is a valuable source of information.

This book covers everything which a writer should know before they submit their work to an agent – Carole Blake lays it down as it is – agents are busy people, they have stacks of submissions to go through – make sure yours is the best it can be, make sure you comply with agent guidelines etc etc.

But this book also goes further than providing general information on submissions to agents; it provides writers with information on publishing contracts, rights, publicity, royalties and more. The book covers everything that aspiring authors should want to know about having their book published.

The occasional personal story adds even more interest to this book, including snippets of letters of correspondence that Carole Blake has received as an agent, some of which are humours and others make you shake your head at the nerve of some people (but then again writers need nerve right?)

Everything is covered in this book and I found the money aspects particularly interesting. There are a lot of articles in newspapers and magazines about huge author advances but this book shows more of the real story – it provides information on what many authors can expect – and it’s not an advance which is big enough to buy a large house in the country.

Valuable guide, occasionally too prescriptive
This authoritative guide, by an experienced literary agent, contains advice for would-be authors on how to get books published. This is good, nitty-gritty stuff, including what to include in a submission, how to present your work and how to write a synopsis. There is also much about the book trade, including an excellent section entitled "Does an agent need you?"

I'd give the book top marks except for the fact that the author is rather over-prescriptive. For example, she advocates very lengthy synopses, whereas many other agents prefer them shorter.

Summary: a fine book, but take a second opinion before sending off your precious manuscript.