I took a course about how to sell a book to a publisher, and then crafted this letter. It produced an offer from a publisher who wanted to pay "royalties only," no advance fee, and my instructor said never to do that.
A year later, I wrote a similar letter to Ten Speed Press and sold them the manuscript for "200 Letters for Job Hunters." They paid a sizeable advance. That book sold 100,000 copies in print and online, and continues to flourish on www.cover-letters.com/. Bowkers is a publishing catalogue.
BOOK IDEA
Dick Bolles's "WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE?" is the best known career book in the world, selling between 18,000 and 90,000 copies per month. Yet few students actually finish the book. Many give up because it's too detailed. Too complex. They say either, "I can't finish it alone," or "I did all the exercises and still don't know what I want to do!"
I know Dick Bolles personally, correspond with him, and offer my own 6 week seminar called "What Color is Your Parachute?" Career changers race to sign up because his book by itself isn't enough. People need more. They need something, something faster, quicker, better.
Something simple.
HOW TO OPEN YOUR PARACHUTE . . . capitalizes on this need and has a ready made market, one which Bolles himself created. His established audience is our market. My book doesn't compete with Bolles' book. It complements his, adds the missing pieces:
- Real life success stories
- The psychology of the job search
- Right brain, intuitive ways to make sense of your life puzzle
- Guidelines for starting your own job club
- Lessons from advertising, P.R., sales and marketing, and
- Ways to battle FEAR and rejection (to name a few)
Bowker's shows many career related books. Most deal with resumes, cover letters, and interviews. Few sparkle. Most compete head to head.
No book even comes close to occupying the unique marketing position I am suggesting: linking with Bolles.
This idea is hot. It sizzles. It will sell, sell, sell.
Besides running my own career management firm, I act as Vice President of P. R. for The Rocky Mountain Career Planning Association.
Highly visible in the media, I speak at association meetings, appear on radio and T.V. talk shows, lead "The Executive and Professional Job Finding Club," and write three regular career columns including one for "The Rocky Mountain News," Denver's largest newspaper (circulation 300,000+).
I have some very convincing material: a brochure, a newspaper article and a prospectus. May I send them?
Sincerely,
William S. Frank, M.A.