On his Publishing Spot blog, Jason Boog did one of his five questions mini-interviews with prolific author Duane Swierczynski. Duane talked about placing one of his books (about drinks):
"For my Perfect Drink pitch, though, I did work hard to give a feel for the resulting book, with sample pages and an enthusiastic pitch. This was a hard sell--every publishing company and their grandmothers have a dozen drink books on the backlist already. But I lucked out because Quirk was a new publisher, with no backlist; hence, no dozen drink books on their backlist."
There's a great strategy for writers in that quote: always be on the look-out for enterprises that are just getting started. It could be, as in this case, a publishing house, or an agency, or a magazine or newspaper. That's when they will be most receptive. I've mentioned before that my newest book, Focus: the Power of Targeted Thinking, came about when I read that Pearson had a new line of self-development book. I pitched it to them, and it hits the shops next week. They've also offered me a contract to do another book for them. So it pays to pay attention!
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