Making It Happen – Networking To Get A Book Published

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Resource Box: Sue Stockdale at BookShaker.com

Making It Happen – Networking To Get A Book Published

- By Sue Stockdale

(c) Sue Stockdale. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.missionpossible.co.uk

Imagine the situation – spending two years coming up with an
idea for a book, carrying out research, writing up the
notes, formatting the text and preparing it ready for
publication then not being able to find someone to publish
it.

There is nothing more frustrating for a would-be author when
no-one seems prepared to accept your work. Although I was
already a published author of Kickstart Your Motivation,
which received positive reviews, none of the mainstream
publishers were interested in my idea for a book on
successful women entrepreneurs.

“Too specialist,” they said, “it only caters for 50% of the
population”. I began to think about all those books I have
seen on trains, cars and technical gadgets in bookshops all
over the world and wondered how the authors had convinced
the publishers of the viability of their idea.

Fed up at seeing rows of books about successful male
entrepreneurs and very few about women (Anita Roddick was
the exception), I was convinced that other people – men and
women, would be interested to learn about how ten of the
UK’s leading women entrepreneurs had transformed a good idea
into a successful business.

Undeterred by all this rejection, I thought carefully about
who I knew in my personal network that might be able to
help. After all, if networking is the most effective way to
get new business, I thought it might also work to find a
publisher.

So I contacted my friend who is a role model for effective
networking. She always “knows someone who knows someone” and
could put you in touch with almost any mover or shaker in
the UK!

Amazingly she told me about a small publisher, Lean Marketing
Press, run by a women entrepreneur Debbie Jenkins and her
brother Joe Gregory. She knew that they often considered
business books that appealed to a more specialist audience
than some of the mainstream publishers and suggested I get
in touch with them.

I sent off my outline and waited for a response. An email
reply came back by return. Yes the idea was of interest to
them and could they read a sample chapter? This is the sort
of response I had been waiting for. Not just a reply but a
positive reply which is something that lots of publishers do
not even bother to do.

A few weeks later, I met up with Debbie Jenkins. She turned
out to be exactly like many of the women featured in the
book – energetic, enthusiastic, focused and determined. We
struck up a good working relationship and my intuition told
me that our values were similar and that they indeed wanted
the best for their authors and would work in partnership so
that we could both achieve success. We agreed the terms of
the contract and immediately got to work. Six months later
“Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs” appeared in the
shops.

So what did I learn?

1. To trust my instinct and not give up not matter
how much rejection I received.
2. To work with someone who you can get on with
as a person because you share the same values.
3. To apply the principles that I had written about
in the book to getting the book published.
4. To trust in the power of networking!
Sue Stockdale is a motivational speaker, successful
business woman and record breaking explorer. Buy
her latest book, “Secrets of Successful Women
Entrepreneurs” at BookShaker.com http://www.bookshaker.com/product_info.php?products_id=111

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