by Alvin Ramirez August 22, 2013
In this post, we review Dr. Angela Lauria’s Book Journeys interview with author Marcy Twete, author of You Know Everybody! A Career Girl’s Guide to Building a Network That Works.
For the first ten years of her professional life, Marcy Twete worked as a marketer and fund-raiser in a non-profit company, where she learned how to network, as doing so was vital to her work. Her expertise in networking was tested when she moved to Chicago from Minneapolis, as she knew nobody in Chicago and needed to create a network from scratch.
It was when she started her own company, Career Girl Network, that she decided to write a guide to networking, as she intended this to become an adjunct to what she intended with her company. In anticipation of this, she wrote out a book proposal, which included an outline of the chapters and their contents, as she originally intended to go through the traditional publishing route. A lot of literary agents she got in touch with told her that her idea was a great one for a book but told her to get back to them once Career Girl’s readers numbered in the millions, and Marcy was willing to wait for that until she met another entrepreneur who told her that she had the same experience, and when she attempted to get a book deal once her website had ten million viewers she couldn’t get one.
Marcy then went ahead with writing out the book through self-publishing. An editor, who would become the editor for her book, recommended Mill City Press, and after visiting them and meeting with their owner, then coordinated with them regarding the schedule for her book. She wrote the chapters out from September to December of 2012, interviewed several highly successful female managers and CEO’s for case studies and integrated these into her chapters in January and then submitted her manuscript to her editor in February 1, 2013. The finished version of the book was then given to the publisher on March 15, 2013, and the printed version of the book was out in the last week of June, 2013. The e-book took longer to bring out, as it needed to be submitted to e-book distribution companies, which took their time okaying the books for publication on their sites.
Marcy noted that eighty percent of book sales (apparently in the United States) are e-books, and she also noted that her process was faster than most authors. She also mentioned that real-time monitoring of actual book sales was a myth, as book companies give sales numbers out only quarterly; thus, the only way for an author to keep track of sales in real time is to sell the books personally or on the author’s own website from where people could purchase the book.
Marcy recommends that authors over-research and over-plan, as well as to actually write their book out. She also recommends authors get a team around them to help them stay on track, and also to set a schedule and let the team know what it is.
Listen to the Marcy Twete Interview on Book Journeys Radio
DOWNLOAD Book Journeys Author Interview – Marcy Twete – Aug 22 2013
Watch out for Angela’s interview with another exciting author.