7. It’s time to put black on white!

   It’s time to put words on paper! Write the first few pages and start developing a table of contents. Rough out these pages—you’ll have plenty of time to revise and edit later. Jot down all the ideas that come into your head. You can always discard them later. If you are hoping to write and sell a 48-page resource book for kindergarten teachers, you need to develop enough pages so an editor can get “a feel” for the whole book, even though it is not yet written. If the book is going to be divided into four sections or topics, we would write the first three pages for each section. We would also write an introduction and develop a table of contents. Now we have a fourteen-page proposal for our product submission. Do not develop and submit the complete product.

   Look at the pages in your proposal. Pretend you are a customer who just picked up that product in a store. Is it something you would buy? If not, you need to rethink and rework to make it more innovative, appealing and needed by the customer. We have a box labeled “Back Burner,” it is filled with folders containing ideas that lack sales appeal. Occasionally, we go through the Back Burner Box and ideas hit us on how to tweak something into a wonderful product proposal. Many of those ideas will never see the light of day because they do not have what it takes to be viable products.

   As you write, present ideas so they can work in virtually every classroom. Since teachers have unique teaching styles, different classroom setups, and different groups of children your idea must be adaptable. It has to work in varied situations with different teaching styles. Make it specific enough so teacher know what to do, but generic enough so it works for everyone.

8. What about artwork? What about page design?

   We are not illustrators, so we draw stick figures or bubbles indicating space for art. We can write in the bubble “art: show two children reading together.” If you are an illustrator, you may want to add illustrations to your proposal. Do not hire an illustrator to illustrate your proposal.

9. Develop a “sell sheet” for busy editors.

   When the editor opens your proposal, they are asking themselves, “What is this?” and “Will it sell.” We use a “sell sheet” instead of a letter to the editor. We call this one-page capsule a “sell sheet” because it is a selling tool for our product. Editors say they appreciate our “sell sheets” because they can quickly grasp what the idea is and the market for which it is intended. At the top of the page, we have our contact information and one sentence:

   “Please review this product submission for publication.”

   Include:

   Target Market: Kindergarten Teachers
   Type of Product: Resource Book
   Working Title(s): Create a temporary title or two. Titles should specifically describe products.
   Product Overview: Write six to eight sentences to sell editors on your proposal. Remember, editors are looking for products that are fresh, timely and will sell well. You must convince them that your ideas are what teachers want, need and are willing to buy at this time.
   Who are you? Tell about your expertise and experience that qualifies you to develop this product.

   Three other items we add to “sell sheets”:
   

   1. We are flexible and willing to change concepts in the proposal.
   2. If we do not receive a response within thirty days, please consider the proposal to be withdrawn.
   3. If you are not interested, kindly return our manuscript. Please let us know the kinds of proposals you are looking for at this time.
10. What about copyrights? Will your idea be stolen?

    We believe if you have fresh, original ideas that publishers know are going to sell well, they will be thrilled to have you write for them. Remember, you have not sent them the entire manuscript—they need you to write the rest of it. Keep in mind, publishers get hundreds of submissions; many are very similar even though they may come opposite sides of the USA. Also, your proposal may be similar to something the publisher already has “in the works.” Or, it may be similar to something they have considered in product development meetings and postponed for the future. We’ve had the good fortune, with one disappointing exception, of dealing with publishers who were ethical and trustworthy. However, there is an element of risk here. Yes, you can copyright whatever you send in but you have no way of knowing what the ideas are that publishers are already working on. The holder of the copyright must defend the copyright. How could you possibly prove they took your idea and didn’t already have that idea in the works?

11. Submit your proposal in a 9” x 12” envelope to the editor. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) so it can be returned to you. We submit proposals to one publisher at a time. Try to get the name of the editor from the publisher’s website. Keep track of where your proposals are and when they were sent. Give the publisher a four to six week deadline by which they must respond to you or you will submit the material elsewhere.
12. You must establish emotional distance from your work.

    Prepare to be disappointed. Unless you are incredibly fortunate, and come up with a truly hot idea that clicks immediately, you will get rejections. It is part of the business of freelance writing. After dozens of rejections, Barbara still remembers almost every word of a phone call in l975. It was from the editor at The Mailbox saying they wanted to publish her product. Once Barbara sold a product for payment, she was a professional writer. Thereafter, on all her submissions, she wrote “Submitted by a published writer” on the outside of the envelopes. She wanted her submissions on the top of the pile on the editor’s desk. To succeed, freelance writing requires writers to be resilient, resourceful and persistent.

13. Don’t quit your day job!

    If a publisher wants to buy your work, you will enter into a contract with them. Make sure you fully understand what you are signing. Authors are paid a flat fee or a royalty on each product that is sold. It is our understanding that most publishers pay a flat fee and buy works outright. In her early days as a writer, Barbara was paid a flat fee for a kit containing twenty-four reproducible math books for a “big name” publisher. As it turned out that worked in her favor—the kit was poorly advertised, they stopped publishing K-6 materials, and the product “died on the vine.” If she had been paid royalties, she would have earned far less. If you succeed in developing a “name for yourself” and a following of customers, then you can negotiate better payments from publishers.

As you can tell, we approach writing as a no-nonsense business. It’s not about seeing our names in print. It’s about creating products that sell well to teachers. We love working with teachers and developing products. Product development is challenging, creative and exciting. We have pulled “all-nighters” to meet deadlines and spent weekends consuming popcorn and way too much coffee while writing nonstop. We have sat and stared at blank computer screens thinking we will never come up with another marketable idea. And, we’ve been in the grocery store and had great ideas hit us in the produce department.

Have we encouraged you to “go for it?” Are you ready to get some of your original ideas on their way to publishers? Perhaps this information is exactly what you needed to start submitting your original ideas—we certainly hope so!

We wish you the best!
Barbara Gruber, M.A. & Sue Gruber, M.A.

» More Gazette articles...

http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm