Book Advice for the Rest of Us
Investigative reporter Allen Salkin has no grievances to air right now: his book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us is selling quite well this holiday season. He shares with you some of what he learned publishing the book that you could use in your endeavors.
A good idea breaks down every barrier. When I sold my book, Festivus, The holiday for the rest of us, I had one thing that a lot of authors tying to sell a book don’t have – an easily understood, obviously marketable, fun idea. The book came out in November 2005 from Warner books and is selling well already. It is about how people in the real world are actually celebrating the holiday most people believe was invented for “Seinfeld.”
Warner bought the book in January 2005, a very short turnaround time between first purchase and publication. But the idea was obviously
hot. I had written a story on Festivus for the New York Times that ran in December 2004. The story was one of the most emailed stories of the year for the Times. This popularity–I know I am very lucky to have stories run in the New York Times but trust me, it takes a lot of hard work and a long time to break into those hallowed pages and I am secure in saying I paid my dues–enabled me to have something immediately presentable to publishers, so that I did not need to write a full, fleshed out book proposal. What I put together was a package with the Times story, a three page proposal outlining my idea for a book about Festivus based on real people’s ways of observing the holiday, and some of my clips of magazine and newspaper stories. I handed this to two friends at two different publishing companies and both made offers. These were friends I knew for years from non-work related social occasions.
Once I had these offers I contacted an agent I had met years before
and liked, Jennifer Unter, of RLR Associates. Jen and I had talked
about different book ideas but nothing had ever gelled before. She
brilliantly negotiated with the two companies and we went with Warner books. They were very excited about the idea, and importantly to me, they waned to publish it this year. As a veteran of newspapers, the
idea of waiting two years seemed impossible.
One piece of advice I’d give to others with book ideas is not to
follow trends. Many people have asked me why I, an investigative
reporter, put so much effort into something that seems as silly as
Festivus. First, I am personally sick of books about the mafia, the
Kennedys, royalty, and ex-presidents. There are many fine journalists who have spent their time on these things and I don’t feel that one more voice s going to contribute much. But from the word go, with Festivus, I felt like I was discovering a subculture that no one had ever written about before. It was gold. It was like I was writing in 1975 and had discovered punk rock and people with mohawks and no one had ever written about it before. This gave me a feeling, a sort of burning in the center of my ribcage, that is my personal signal that I’m onto something good, it’s that feeling that keeps me in journalism–that and the occasional free lunch bought by an editor.
One other thing. Sometimes the hardest thing to do in New York is
survive it. I’ve been writing stories for publications meek and
mighty, chasing ambulances, being pushy to people who don’t like
pushiness, relentlessly pitching editors, going to media bistro events and making friends, teaching at NYU and mediabistro, and, basically, doing what I need to do to survive in this brutal town as a writer. Festivus is a helluva fun moment and I hope there are many more. I’m not saying I’m the greatest writer ever, but I know I’m a dogged one.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online 
