Ten Speed Press published two of my career books: "200 Letters For Job Hunters," and "The Job Search Time Manager." Oddly enough, they gave me the electronic rights to the books, and as you can see, I sold the letter book as software, then put it online.
My contract with them required me to offer new book ideas to them before shopping them around to other publishers. This letter fulfilled that obligation. Because I wanted to free myself to self-publish the books, I used an appropriate close. I did not hear back from Ten Speed Press, and published "The Resume Repair Kit" myself.
March 1, 20—
George Kanode
Ten Speed Press
PO Box 7123
Berkeley, CA 94707
Dear George,
As you may remember, I produced a software version of "200 Letters for Job Hunters" in 19—, and have used it to sell more books. Given the choice of $39.95 for software or $17.95 for a book, most people choose the book!
As a way of increasing sales of "200 Letters for Job Hunters," I am planning to display the software in America Online's career center, along with book ordering information. The career center is heavily traveled, and I believe this could generate substantial book sales. I hope you will keep a good stock of "200 Letters" on hand.
My contract with Ten Speed Press asks me to submit any book ideas to you first, before offering them to other publishers. Per this agreement, I have two book ideas:
- The Resume Repair Kit
I've spent 15 years developing this 200-page manual for our career clients, and it's been very well received. So far we have sold 10,000 copies without any particular marketing effort. The first half is text, nuts and bolts. The second half is examples of high-impact resumes. The resumes are mostly high-level, business-oriented, so we could re-title the book, Resumes at $100,000 or something similar.
- The Career Advisor
For the past five years I've written an expert column published in the Colorado Human Resource Association's ADVISOR, their monthly newsletter. The column touches on both job-search and career management issues. These columns could easily be compiled into a big seller for your list.
George, let me know if either of these book ideas interests you.
"The Resume Repair Kit" is ready to publish—I could send you the manuscript, and I could send sample columns from The Career Advisor. If I don't hear back from you within two weeks, I'll assume you are not interested in pursuing these ideas.
With best wishes,
William S. Frank