Sometimes an author has a great idea for a book, but can’t get a nibble from a publisher. What’s he supposed to do? The first step involves risk. Either the author invests a great deal of time looking for an agent to sell the idea to a publisher, which cuts into any future royalties the book might generate, or the author buckles down and writes the book.

Spending time with an agent to sell the idea before the book is written may clarify whether or not the book should be written in the first place. After all, the market may already be saturated with books about how to cook frogs and other potential road kill. The time spent marketing the idea is well spent if the author discovers that and avoids one more of such books. Then again, the author might find a publisher that is interested enough and encouraging enough to start the author writing.

The alternative is also risky. If the author starts writing the book because he has a passion about foraging and using everything that he finds in the wild, he takes the risk that the book won’t sell even after it’s written. How many Euell Gibbons’ can the book industry support? (My personal opinion is that the world could use more like Mr. Euell. I can’t count how many times I’ve read his books. If you aspire to be like Mr. Gibbons and are having a difficult time finding a publisher, drop me a line.)

The variant on the basic book model is that the author takes the risk and writes the book before searching for an agent or a publisher. This is the path most new authors must take unless they are well published in venues such as newspapers or magazines. However, there are many instances when a person is recognized as a leader in their field. The publisher might approach such person to write a book, giving assistance at all stages of the book from planning to print.

After the author finishes the manuscript he starts looking for an agent. The agent takes the manuscript in hand and starts shmoozing it up. A good agent has many contacts throughout the publishing industry, each specializing in particular fields; a good agent knows to whom the book should be directed. Phone calls, meetings, lunch, calling in favors all go into the pot. The more the agent believes in the book, the harder the agent works to find a publisher.

For the sake of this model, the book gets accepted by a publisher and the cycle becomes identical to the basic book model. Revisions are made, the manuscript is proofed, typeset, proofed, and published. We’re still dealing with printed matter and one author. Next I’m going to look at ebook creation and collaboration.

Notice that I haven’t said anything about publicity in either model. That’s deliberate. Publicity and marketing of books opens up many possibilities today. This is going to be addressed in later posts.