Landing his first book contract, says recovering newspaper reporter and now-published non-fiction author Richard Whittle, was daunting and frustrating. Virtually nothing went as he had imagined it would. But despite the exasperation, he is pleased with the way his book The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey turned out, especially the artwork on the dust jacket.
In a friendly and informative conversation with members of the Rockville Writers' Group, Whittle said that his experience left him wondering if anyone in the book publishing industry really knows what they’re doing. Conflicting advice for writing an agent query letter and book proposal; agents and project managers who don’t return phone calls; agents and editors who heap praise on his topic and his approach, only to declare later that there just wasn’t any potential in the project.
As it turned out, however, The Dream Machine was well received and critically acclaimed. Eric Schmitt, terrorism correspondent with The New York Times, said Whittle “expertly weaves telling technical details with heart-stopping human drama into a riveting, fast-paced history of one of the military's most controversial war machines, the V-22 Osprey.”
New York Times bestselling author Brad Matsen called it a “gripping story of the quest for…an ideal flying machine that transfixed the aviation world and eventually cost billions of dollars and dozens of lives.”
Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and PBS Newshour political analyst, said, “In this compelling and important book a real reporter's reporter asks all the hard questions and refuses to settle for any of the easy answers.”
So, what are some important lessons Whittle learned from his quest for the authors’ equivalent of the Holy Grail? Not surprising, lesson number one is to never give up.
A second important lesson is that not all agents are created equal. An agent gets paid (usually 15 percent of what the author receives) only if the author signs a book deal. Just how much time and effort an agent will devote to shopping your project around to publishers depends on the potential he or she sees in it, so the author must first sell the agent. It is vital that an author learn which agents are appropriate for a particular genre, then craft a compelling query letter and project proposal. Fortunately, Whittle knew someone who knew someone and found an agent who ultimately was able to sell a publishing house on the project.
Then there is the book deal itself. Typically, an author’s advance is based on how well the publisher thinks a book will sell. It is in fact a payment deducted from future royalties. An advance traditionally is intended to support the author financially during the process of writing the book. Whittle received his advance in three installments; one-third upon signing the contract; a third upon delivery of the manuscript; and the final payment upon publication. While certainly welcome income, Whittle said the advance alone was insufficient to support his family and cover his research and travel expenses. And since seven out of ten titles do not earn back their advance, Whittle says he doesn’t expect to get any more money from the publisher, even though The Dream Machine seems to be selling well since its release in April 2010.
One final lesson I’ll touch on in this entry is that Whittle’s experience has taught him that authors have to do their own marketing these days. Publishers rarely sponsor book tours or promote authors and their work anymore. Whittle admits that landing a coveted interview about his book on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was nothing more than a stroke of luck. Stewart was just one of several talk show hosts and reviewers to whom Whittle sent copies of The Dream Machine. And since then, Whittle has been traveling around the country setting up book signings at book stores and speaking with small groups where he sells a few copies.
As for any future book publishing endeavors, Whittle has another book project in the works and hopes what he has learned will make him be more savvy and, maybe, more successful. In the meantime, he has to earn a living and has taken on some contract and freelance writing projects.
So much for riches and fame…but that’s not really why writers write, is it?
--Dave Autry
