by Donald Mitchell
“What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens” — Benjamin Disraeli
Within weeks of submitting our proposal to business book publishers, we had a contract for our business book, an advance check, and brimming confidence that the worst was past. After all, we had a great idea, a finished manuscript, and a great publisher!
We soon learned that publishers are often very tactful while wooing authors. Their reservations are shared after you cash the advance check.
Our book needed work: It needed a different title, a different structure, and better writing Other than that, we were all done.
And, by the way, we had insisted that the book come out on a fast schedule, which meant that we had little time to respond; that part was our fault.
We were happy to comply. While Carol Coles and I were off doing other things, Robert Metz began proposing titles and sending over revised chapters. Robert’s ideas for a title went over well; he came up with the idea that was accepted. My own contribution was far more modest: adding the word “exponential” to the subtitle.
But our draft chapters kept coming back with clear encouragement to rewrite the whole thing. We were also falling behind the publication schedule.
Robert, Carol, and I had a meeting with our development editor, and I began to see what she wanted. I started writing the drafts while Robert and Carol improved them But the process was slow. We fell further behind.
Publishers are often very tactful while wooing authors. Their reservations are shared after you cash the advance check.
Finally, it became clear that we had two weeks to pull the project out. Robert came to live in a hotel near our offices while the two of us settled in to write night and day.
A difficulty of distance had slowed our earlier progress. Robert had a Mac and we had PCs. The different types of machines didn’t exchange files very well over the Internet in those days.
In our offices, we kept PCs humming. At first, Robert would rewrite what I wrote, then I would rewrite what he wrote, while Carol improved both of our work. But time grew short, and the last 30,000 words were written by me in a period of about a day and a half with no time for anyone to edit or rewrite them.
Exhausted, we turned the manuscript in and crossed our fingers. Our publisher kindly agreed to accept the manuscript if we didn’t mind a heavy editing. We welcomed a heavy editing!
The book went into production. Carol and I headed off for a much needed vacation. As a last minute thought, we shipped off a copy to Peter Drucker for his comments.
It would take several books to describe all of the mistakes we authors made that are contained in that history. Let me list a few steps you can take that will help you avoid our mistakes:
1. Have someone who is a savvy business editor edit your material before you send it to any publisher.
2. If you don’t know how to write in the style that your publisher seeks, keep rewriting a brief selection until the publisher smiles with joy.
3. Write and rewrite material ahead of whatever schedule you have.
4. Negotiate for the longest possible schedule to prepare the manuscript.
5. Tell your publisher that you would like to have all of the development help and editing that the company would like to provide.
6. Have experts (especially best selling business book authors like Peter Drucker) look over the manuscript before you turn it in to your publisher.
Good luck!
About the author: Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at www.fastforward400.com
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