Inside the Book:
Title: Don Quixote Explained
Author: Emre Gurgen
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Genre: Literary Criticism
Format: Ebook/Paperback
Don Quixote Explained focuses on seven topics: how Sancho Panza refines into a good governor through a series of jokes that turn earnest; how Cervantes satirizes religious extremism in Don Quixote by taking aim at the Holy Roman Catholic Church; how Don Quixote and Sancho Panza check-and-balance one another’s excesses by having opposite identities; how Cervantes refines Spanish farm girls by transforming Aldonza Lorenzo into Dulcinea; how outlaws like Roque Guinart and Gines Pasamonte can avoid criminality and why; how Cervantes establishes inter-religional harmony by having a Christian translator, on the one hand, and a Muslim narrator, on the other; and lastly, how Cervantes replaces a medieval view of love and marriage―where a woman is a housekeeper, lust-satisfier, and child begetter―with a modern view of equalitarian marriage typified by a joining of desires and a merger of personalities.
"AN ERUDITE EXAMINATION OF THE THEMES AND IDEAS IN DON QUIXOTE. I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE WRITING AND EXPOSITION OF THIS WELL-REASONED CRITIQUE. BUY IT AND STUDY IT. GERALD J. DAVIS, AUTHOR OF DON QUIXOTE, THE NEW TRANSLATION BY GERALD J. DAVIS" WWW.DON-QUIXOTE-EXPLAINED.COM
The Benefits of Agent
Representation
Though it is possible to win a contract with a traditional
publisher without a literary agent, if you are professionally represented, your
chance of securing a book deal greatly increases
If you represent yourself to publishers. If you eagerly mail unsolicited query letters
directly to a publisher the likely outcome is that these houses will place your
letter directly in a slush pile, often times unread, never to be looked at
again. If you are extremely lucky, however, and somebody does read your letter,
this person is usually a novice reader, a student just out of college, who
rarely knows what they are doing.
Though, perhaps, intelligent, this person is extremely untested. Thus, they read your query letter to gain
experience. That’s it. Nothing less.
Nothing more.
But let’s say, for arguments sake, that this person, though
junior, likes your book and tries to help.
You may find that they lack the authority to get you represented. Even if they bring your query letter to the
attention of a more senior editor, this person usually dismisses you, and your
book, offhand, in favor of an established author. So you lose anyway.
Though, occasionally, you hear of the strange case of an
author winning a contract directly from a publisher against all odds, the
probability of this happening is slim to none, since most publishers will not
even consider a new book unless it comes from a reputed agent. Getting a book
deal without an agent hardly ever happens.
It is the stuff of legends. Usually,
what happens is that publishers want to make fast money on a safe bet. So they
go with agent represented manuscripts, even if they are horrible.
Unless publishing houses are desperate for new leads, they
will not even consider non-represented manuscripts, despite what they say in
their submission guidelines.
Big box publishers, to repeat, rely on literary agents to
make wise manuscript choices. Not authors shopping their wares. This is because publishers generally believe
that agents will only pitch a new book to them if it is viable in the
marketplace.
Commercial publishing houses, sadly, rarely consider manuscripts
from inexperienced writers. And if the
nature of your work does not synergize with their list. Forget it.
You have no chance.
Furthermore, even if your proposal is a good one, it will
probably get lost in the clutter, since traditional publishers receive tons of
junk mail,
Penetrating the old boy network of publishing professionals
is very hard, since agents and publishers enjoy reciprocal relationships based
on a lengthy track record of success. Because
both sides think they know what is sellable in the marketplace, they pass on
many great books. Mine included. The cold reality is that many publishers will
not even consider manuscripts that do not have an agent, since they want to
back a book they think will succeed. To
them, manuscripts that have a chance of success have already been vetted by
literary agents. They have passed an initial
screening round. Most publishers, alas,
will only ponder manuscripts forwarded to them by literary agents, because they
believe that an agent will not jeopardize their reputations by advocating less
than impressive books.
So, if you want to avoid having you query letter go directly
to the dreaded slush pile—the final resting place of many
novels—I encourage you to get a literary agent.
Yes, you can win a contract directly from a publisher,
without agent representation. But doing
so is the exception, rather than the rule.
If you think you can do it, by all means, be my guest. Congratulations if you do. But if you receive one rejection after another,
as most of us do (or, worse yet, no response at all) try hard to get a literary
agent, since agent representation helps.
How to Get a Literary
Agent
Query Letter
Gaining and sustaining the interest of a literary agent so
they sign a contract with you is easier said than done. The first step is writing an effective query
letter.
Address your query to the right editor or agent with the
right title. Format your query according
to industry standards. Spell the
agencies name correctly and get its address right. Pitch a great lead. Tailor your query to the specific
agency. Offer a fresh idea. Be creative in your presentation. Tighten your query angle. Sweeten the pot with photos, graphics,
illustrations or renderings: with sidebars, sidelights, and giveaways. Follow the submission guidelines of the
agency exactly. Ensure that your letter
begins with an opening hook, provides supporting details, links your qualifications
to the book being pitched, and includes a self-addressed stamped envelope
(SASE).
Book Proposal
Once you have hooked a literary agent with a good query
letter, the next step is to send them an outstanding book proposal.
A book proposal is written for one purpose only, to convince
an agent that investing their time and effort in you, and your book, is a wise bet,
one that will pay off. To get an agent,
then, you have to persuade them that your book is capable of making real
money. If they do not believe that,
expect a polite brush off, at best.
Here are a few basics of a good book proposal. A clear book proposal consist of:
·
a
cover page, with the name of your
book, and a table of contents;
·
a
short description of your book (4 sentences);
·
a
more detailed synopsis of your book,
with a brief chapter-by-chapter summary;
·
a
marketing plan, stating how you will
sell and brand your book;
·
an
author bio, connecting your
occupation and life experiences to the nature of your book;
·
an
audience section detailing who will buy
your book and why;
·
a
competition section differentiating
your book from the dozens of other books out there on identical, or similar,
topics .
·
a
description of follow-up books you
are writing in a series, so they can make money from you again and again.
To reiterate, a strong book proposal should have a cover page. The cover page should
have: the name of your book at the top;
a by-line with your name; your manuscripts word count; the status of the
manuscript (i.e. complete) and a numbered table of contents with the following
sections: I. Description; II.
Synopsis; III. Marketing Plan; IV. Author Bio; V. Audience; VI. Competition;
VII. Follow-Up Books.
·
On
the cover page include your contact
information, such as your office and e-mail address, your telephone numbers
(i.e. office phone, cell phone, and home phone), so agents can correspond with
you by snail-mail; e-mail; by phone; etc..
·
The
description section is a succinct
three sentence description of your book noting its topic and theme. Generally,
it attracts an agent’s immediate attention by noting how your topic is timely,
original, and significant (i.e. why anybody would care).
·
The
next section of your book proposal is a more elaborate synopsis of your book which breaks down, in short paragraphs, each
major section or chapter. Agents read
this part to correlate the theme of your book to a hot topic extant in the real
world. A good synopsis answers the “so
what” question to literary agents. So
what? Why should I read this?
·
Then,
comes your marketing plan. This
section should detail, in bullet form, not only what you have already done to
brand your book but what you will do in the future, too. Things to write in
this section include participating in professional conferences, preferably as
the key-note speaker. Any book signings
you have completed or have scheduled.
References to the URL of your personal author website (if you have one) which
is stronger if it has: high-traffic; a
blog with high-quality, viral, posts; an online store with a high click through
rate; and an impressive CV. If you have
a Face Book fan page connected to your website with thousands of genuine (not
purchased) likes, mention this. If you
have a dedicated twitter account linked to your book, especially one that fans
are tweeting about incessantly, mention this. If you have a distinguished
career connected to the subject matter of your book talk about it. If you host a radio show, with many
listeners, discussing issues related to your book, tell them this. If you have
professional, or social, networks in place that you can use to sell your books,
highlight this. If you host a popular pod-cast centered on a relevant topic linked
to your book, preferably a forum that can reach thousands of subscribers, let
an agent know. In brief, the marketing
section of your book proposal is the most important section to literary agents,
since they want to pitch a book that will sell quickly and well. That’s it.
They only care about you and your book if they think they can make money
from both.
·
Then
comes an Author Bio section. Here is your opportunity to emphasize how
your occupation, education, life experiences, and social connections, position
you to have written the book(s) you have.
This section should describe why people will listen to you? Are you an expert in the field? Do your life experiences qualify you to write
about a certain topic? Why are you
credible? Explain this.
·
Then
comes a competition section
emphasizing how your book is different from, or better than, recent books on
the same, or a similar topic. Be careful
here. Emphasize the strengths of your
own book, in relation to the marketplace, rather than criticizing the competition.
Differentiate your work and convince an agent why it will sell, especially if
the topic has already been done, many times over. If you are in the fortunate position to have
written an important book on a topic that is little explored, or underexplored,
but also has a large audience, definitely emphasize this. Then pat yourself on
the back. This is rare. If you write a
strong competition section that conveys the originality, timeliness, and
relevance of your book in relation to what has already been done on the subject,
agents and publishers will want to acquire your book. In short, if your book explores an old topic from
a new angle, or pioneers a groundbreaking analysis of a new hot topic,
congratulations, you deserve a book deal.
Hope you get one. If not, go back
to the drawing board. Start again.
Maybe, you can get a book deal with your next novel
·
Then
comes an Audience section detailing
who will read your book and why. The wider the audience the more likely agents
and publishers will sign you. Since
publishing is a risky business, a gamble that produces frequent flops, publishers
need to be reassured that your book has a chance of success. (One friendly word of advice: be realistic when evaluating your audience.
Give specific statistics about who will buy your book and why. Not vague promises. Typically, literary agents have built in BS
detectors. So, whatever you do, do not
jeopardize your credibility with ridiculous claims. After all, most literary agents only
represent books if they think they will do well in the literary marketplace. If you make sweeping, unrealistic claims, you
can do more harm than good by shooting your credibility).
·
After
this section comes a follow-up books
section. In this section, outline how other books can flow from, or spin-off of,
your proposed book. Since agents want to
pitch introductory novels to publishers with the promise of more books to come,
it behooves you to pitch your book to agents as part of a larger narrative, so
agents do not view your novel as a one-hit wonder, or a no-hit flop. The truth is that agents are more likely to
represent you to traditional publishers if you are able to deliver popular
follow-up books. So, if you have written, are writing, or will write follow-up
books, speak-up. Remember, the first
billionaire author, J.K. Rawling, wrote 3 Harry Potter books, in trilogy,
before she even approached publishers.
Learn from this woman.
If all this is too
abstract for you, and you want to view a sample of a decent book proposal, please
visit my personal author website at www.don-quixote-explained.com and click on the book proposal tab.
Marketing Plan
A marketing plan, in short, will tell an agent what you will
do to sell your books. How, put simply, you
will attain and maintain readers’ attention.
A well-conceived marketing plan consists of many things. A lecture circuit helps. If you have delivered, or will deliver,
speeches in prominent forums. Talks that have established you as an expert. Mention this.
Also, if you have driven around the country, selling your self-published
books, like John Grisham did, speak-up.
Agents love hearing that your book is already on store shelves. If you are a reporter, a journalist, a
regular columnist, a magazine editor, or a writing professional, mention that
you have a potential network of colleagues you can call on. Agents want to know how you plan on getting
publicity / reviews for your books. If
you have a popular blog, with a high SEO, that is highly ranked by google
algorithms and has an impressive click-through rate as well, broadcast this
immediately! If your blog posts have
gone viral, or are commented (not spammed) mention this. Agents are interested in getting people to
talk about your book. If you are ready
to put your money where your mouth is by buying your books tell a publisher
this. If publishers believe that their
print-runs will be bought by you, that there is no downside risk for them
whatsoever, because you yourself will be their main customer, sure, they will
publish your book, since they have nothing to lose and the world to gain. If you are ready to fulfill consignment orders
to book stores from your private supply of books, mention this. It may help.
If possible, tout positive book sales before you even ask a literary
agent asking to represent you. If you
can, they will probably sign you.
Write Books in a Series
Big name publishers sign multi-year contracts with writers,
not just because they have written one great book, however stellar, but because
a writer can consistently produce best sellers, at the rate of one book a
year: Follow-up novels that are as good
as, perhaps better, than the original.
In other words, big box publishers often form contracts with writers
based on them authoring multiple books in fairly rapid succession. Thus, if you write one book, then another,
then the next, and so on, building a larger and larger audience with every
publication, just like John Grisham did, eventually, you will be in the enviable
position of having publishers approach you to publish your books, not the other
way around.
Meet the Author:
Emre Gurgen, the author of Don Quixote Explained: The Story of an Unconventional Hero, has a Bachelor’s degree in English from Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he lives in Germantown, Maryland, where he is writing a follow-up Don Quixote essay collection and study guide.
Tour Schedule
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