Discovering Moving On Tips (for Writers) from Sarah Parsons Zackheim's 'Getting Your Book Published for Dummies'

Getting Your Book Published for Dummies by Sarah Parsons Zackheim

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I got my copy from the books left by a musician-composer good friend (born and raised in the Midwest) who committed suicide. I didn't really have any initial interest in reading this book and wondered why my friend would have a copy in his collection (he might have thought of writing or publishing a book or two). I was prodded to finally read it, after having kept it for over a year, when I thought there is nothing to lose from reading this. It's really a quick and easy book to read especially for writers like myself (I mainly write non fiction articles for the web).



I now understand why someone I knew (he died already) would prefer to publish his first book of poems by himself - the book got noticed by a major critic/writer/publisher in San Francisco (I forgot his name). He was, I found out later, a non-native English speaker/writer (his first language was German). Then he eventually wrote at least 6 more books which basically were published by small publishers & I wonder if he ever made a fortune or even earned from writing and publishing books. This realization was helped after reading the couple Zackheim's book. It's really a good, helpful introduction on what really goes on when one decides to write a book and to have it published - [s]he would like to be paid by publishers to get the book published (as it's very costly to get a book published).



I just wonder if the same would actually happen to writers who write in English but are not native English speakers (just like that other friend of mine). A lot of tips would not be as applicable as publishers and editors would rather not deal with the time-consuming trouble of correcting grammar lapses, mis-used words, difficult to tone to understand, inconsistencies, their own biases against these writers, etc - I can just imagine a lot of these publishers and editors do not have the patience to deal with non-native English speakers who write in English.



But on second thought, I think they're missing a lot on opportunities, the cumulative revenue potentials of the huge English reading market outside of the traditional ones (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland) - if only they would find out and understand how to cater to this untapped market, perhaps they'll find a mine field of treasure (from emerging markets) to explore and pioneer on. There's a huge but not-so-understood market made up of non-native English speakers who usually have strong reasons and the means to buy and read English books (as books are expensive commodities outside of those markets labeled as 'first world countries'). From my experience, they have special unmet needs and do not necessarily follow the tastes dictated by traditional markets.



I love the advice, tips, words of wisdom and narratives shared in this book. I also love the 'Moving On' tips somewhere on page 322. We writers have to make it our business to understand first the business of publishing before ever dreaming of having our books published. This is a very tough and risky business to get into, and that's why the players are very selective. It may have a glamorous veneer to it, as reading and writing books are very snobbish, elitist endeavors (who would find time to read them, when your main concern is to fill up basic human needs?). But praise God, there's nowadays the option of self-publishing & the publishing industry itself has been working hard (but still light years of doing so successfully, perhaps?) to make the internet phenomena work to its advantage. On a personal note, this maybe the route I'll pursue when I get to finally re-write the memoir I wrote (and have to update). Based on what I got from the Zackheims' book, I got a lot of homework to do.



View all my reviews