Angela Broyles was the guest speaker, from Blue Water Publishing Company. She has owned the company since 2001. Angela self-published a book, and in this process, became acquainted with William Lindsey McDonald, a historian in Athens, Alabama. Deciding to set production aside temporarily, She studied marketing for two years. Blue Water currently has 80 books in print. Angela speaks to many genealogy groups. Some of her key points were:
.> Write down what you think.
.> A good editor makes a great difference.
.> There are differences between editors, agents, and publishers. Agents market YOU. Publishers market the BOOK.
.> Please send your manuscript to the correct department at the publishing house.
.> Don't tell the editor how GREAT your book is and how ALL your friends love it.
.> Respect the editor's time and do follow ups to them after a few weeks.
.> Angela believes in multiple submissions being OK.
.> John Grisham self-published A Time To Kill after being rejected by 38 publishers. He sold out of the trunk of his car.
.> Blue Water prefers paper submissions. It is easier for AB to review the manuscript and pass around.
.> There is a need for clean, wholesome books for YA (young adult) male readers, written by men.
.> If you send AB partial manuscripts, please send her a table of contents.
.> Many publishers won't return your manuscripts, so keep a copy. Do not send your original/only copy.
.> Publishers don't want arrogant writers because they are a pain to deal with.
.> AB strongly suggests that her writers create a MySpace or FaceBook web page.
.> Services they provide are: custom covers, indexing, editing, transcription service, various book layouts, bound books, hardback books, ISBN numbers, barcodes, paperbacks
.> They have national and international distribution
.> Each manuscript is edited 4 times.
.> Their printers are located in Tennessee.
.> Their web page is BLUEWATERPUBLICATIONS
.> The cost of printing varies from book to book. Color is very expensive.
.> She has an illustrator on staff. Most publishers charge per picture.
.> They spend 120 hours indexing a book.
.> They make $2.00 profit/book. They look for volume sales.
.> New York Times best seller list books sell 5,000 books per week.
.> Publishing "free reads" of short stories on your Web page is a good idea.
.> She does radio interviews over the telephone with her writers. Great marketing!
.> Bluewater books sell on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
.> Most publishers pay 5-15% royalties. She pays 10% off retail sales.
.> She does not prefer racy or suggestive writing. However, she will work with the writers on their preferences.
.> Twitter is hot on marketing right now.
.> Bluewater might hold a 2-day conference soon on publishing. The tentative location/date might be
in Huntsville at the end of July or beginning of August.
