How to Get a Book Published

I am the worst about doing things slowly. Also I think all people should see my immense talent and immediately do what I want. Or give me incredible amounts of money.

It has taken me quite awhile to accept that this ain't going to happen, this is not the way the world works. The tortoise really does beat the hare--I always hated that fable or cartoon or whatever it was. Just don't fall asleep, you stupid rabbit.

But hard work and little baby steps do pay off. For over the weekend I found out my book is going to be published. Not we think so, we plan to but it is, there, in the publishers catalog. To make sure I went to Barnes and Noble, typed in my name and the book came up to be available in March. Went to Amazon, the same thing.

Kind of makes you feel good. I am convinced that this book has no chance of being on the New York Times bestseller list. But it is another baby step in getting somewhere though I am not sure where that 'somewhere' is. As somebody told me once, Becoming an overnight success takes a lot of time.

Life is a series of singles, not homers, to be built on one by one. Boring, frustrating, and slow but hey, it keeps you humble.

Here's how this one worked so you can see the progression. Thought about writing a book but soon realized that if you haven't written anything, then nobody is going to take a chance on you unless you are an already famous person or killed somebody or killed somebody and then said you didn't.

So wrote a couple of articles that got published in small magazines. Even got paid for two--lifetime earnings of $1,000. Went to a writers group in town which was filled with people that wanted to write poetry, the great American novel from their point of view or biographies of themselves which nobody else on the planet cared anything about. But nice people if a bit strange. One night we had a guest speaker--the author of "The Redneck Night Before Christmas" (I'm not making this up) who told us he 'composed' the book while knocking off a twelve pack one night.

Sent it in to some publishers and one picked it up. I just saw it again a few weeks ago at Borders surrounded by other knockoffs like "The Fireman Night Before Christmas" and "The Librarian Night Before Christmas." (I'm still not making this up.) Anyway, he gave me the name of his editor but said not to use his name. Huh?

So one day, sat down, looked at the publisher's web page and started putting a little corporate analysis to work. Regional publisher, lots of travel and cookbooks, specialty books like the 'Night Before Christmas' genre. Some history. Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Since I'm in Texas what is the biggest historical event here--killing Kennedy, yech. Dallas Cowboys--not after Troy retired. The Alamo--that's it. The most visited site in the state. But it's been done to death, no pun intended. Have to find an angle.

Walk into any bookstore, especially in Texas, and there are row upon row of books about the Alamo. They are all about the same as there is not a lot new information since the Alamo fell in 1836, twice. Once to the Texans and once to the Mexicans. The latest development, which happened about 20 years ago, was the 'discovery' of a Mexican colonels 'memoirs' where he claimed old Davy Crockett didn't go down swinging but actually surrendered and then was executed. Doesn't mean much to you but to Alamo nuts, Them are fighting words.

So trying to write a book to get published to launch me into a writing career and have found a publisher that needs authors. What is the angle? The curse of being a history major is the 'ability' to retain useless facts. Helps in board games but that is about it. I remembered an event that happened about the same time as the Alamo where twice as many Texans were done in by the Mexicans. Goliad. Down to the libary and look for books on Goliad. One. Written by some junior college guys in 1983. Last checked out in 1985. Hmmm.

How about a book about Goliad? Not much interest if the last book was written in 1983. Also, not much interest because the guys surrendered and then got shot, stabbed and killed. Except for about 30 who ran away in the confusion. But still not the stuff of legend and herorism. And not about the Alamo.

But kind of was so what is the hook? Tie 'em together because if you put Alamo somehow on a book cover, the Alamo nuts (the built-in audience) will buy the book. If I figured that out then I thought an editor would figure it out so the title became Goliad-The Other Alamo.

Wrote a short note proposing a book about Goliad, hit her with the title and threw it over the transom. Nothing. For a month. Then got an e-mail asking for a proposal (market, length, scope, audience, marketing) and three sample chapters.

Do I invest the time? The effort? Sure, because I wanted to be "published." But there is always a nagging little voice back there saying 'watch out for what you ask for, you just might get it.' Writing a proposal isn't easy and three chapters. A lot of work--try it sometime.

But the challenge was there so I took it. Did the proposal and wrote the chapters. Checked the spelling and stuffed the stuff in an envelope. Mailed it off and NOTHING.

It took me quite some time to find out that I was a Hurricane Katriana victim.

Never once did I connect Hurricane Katrina with the fact that my publisher was located in Louisiana. I merely thought the worse--I sucked as an author and the editor couldn't bring herself to waste her time writing a rejection letter, or e-mail.

Actually, they are, or were, right next to New Orleans and got whacked hard by Katrina. Knocked out. So much so that it was seven months after I sent in the proposal that I flipped on Outlook Express one night and saw an e-mail saying Sorry, got hit by the hurricane, want to publish your book, details and contract to follow. Best regards. Editor.

That will get your attention.

Then the contract came in the mail that I barely paid any attention to since I was not exactly in a position of bargaining strength. Actually I did check out one thing in the contract pretty carefully--I made sure that I didn't have to pay them for anything. That's called vanity publishing where you get it published but you pay for it. No thanks.

The other parts of the contract I paid attention to was the part about length--250 pages-- and timing, due in three months. Three months--what idiot put that in there? Going back through my notes I found the idiot was me. In a macho display of stupidity I had put in my proposal a turn around time of three months. They grabbed hold of that so now I was on the hook for a 250 page book due by July 3. Since it was by now the middle of April I actually had less than three months. 79 days to be exact.

So do the math.

14 Chapters. 250 pages divided by 14 chapters equals 18 pages per chapter. I already had three chapters so eleven to go or 198 pages. An average page (I did a statistical sample) has 300 to 400 words so let's say 350 words per page for a total of 69,300 words.

So, 69,300 words in 79 days equals 877 words per day. What about weekends? No sweat. Leaves me with 56 days which means 1,237 words a day. Nothing to it. Piece of cake.

And it was. Kind of.

Thinking stuff up is hard. You have to have characters, action, thoughts, sub plots, and so on. Get the hero up in the tree and then get him down. Sounds easy which is why everyone goes to the movies and thinks they can do better. But rarely do.

Non fiction is easier and much easier due to the Internet. You just have to make it interesting and not bore the reader to death, the old "and then they did this, then they did that" school of writing.

But readers and publishers assume the author spends hours, days in libaries or searching through trunks looking for something new. Well, here is the dirty little secret--there is nothing new. You are not going to trip over Davy Crockett's diary lying wide open on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Somebody already found it. And put it on the Internet.

The key is finding it and, again, not boring the reader to death. The University of Texas and Texas A&M made my year when I found their sites and their first hand accounts, all without leaving my study.

Just go through the stuff, find the timeline, find the characters and put it in your own words. Find little facts that amuse you and hope they amuse the reader. Maybe it will work and maybe it will not but the fact that the leader of the Texas forces at the battle of Gonzales came to Texas because he didn't want to take Latin in college intrigues me. Or that Santa Anna invented Chiclets.

But so what you say? What does this have to do with personal finance? Getting rich? The lesson is that you have to get the small things done to achieve great things. To get rich, you have to spend less than you make, start to save a little, then invest a little, then invest wisely. Get started and keep going not matter how small or trivial something seems NOW. It will grow. The only way for it not to grow is to not get started doing the little things.