Online Community for Authors

How Do I Approach Books Are Fun If I Don't Have A Buyer?

For smaller companies that publish less than 30 titles a year, BAF often prefers to work with brokers, or commissioned sales reps that reps books to BAF for a commission paid by the publisher. This can be much more efficient representation. With the volume of books that BAF receives, books can get lost in the cycle. It is just like an unknown author submitting a manuscript to a large New York publisher.

Working with a broker can work to your advantage. I will use a recent trip that I made to visit with the vice president at BAF. We have known each other for over seven years now and I have a good idea of what he is looking for. Between July 1st and September 15th, I evaluated more than 300 books from 100 different publishers. Out of those books, I picked 50 books that I thought would have the potential to be tested by BAF. I then made the trip to BAF headquarters in Fairfield, IA. I only passed two buggies on the way. One was two horsepower and the other was one horsepower.

Fifteen of the 50 potential titles qualified for and are being tested today. Everybody wins in this situation. BAF does not have to receive 300 books that they have to catalogue, evaluate, assign to a buyer and then start the explanation process to the publisher while at the same time the publisher is being represented by someone that has extensive experience in the process. What a great savings of time and resources for the publisher and BAF.

Generally I ask that if a person feels that their book is a fit for BAF (if you still are not sure you can see some of the books that they carry at www.Booksarefun.com) that they send two copies of the book to Tim McCormick, P. O. Box 27672, Tempe, Arizona 85285-7672. You should include a one-page summary or sell sheet on the book. Other facts that are help are number of books in print, first print run quantity, date, most recent print run, quantity, date, and the cost from the printer from each, how many books you have in stock, any special sales in quantities of over 200 you have for the title. I welcome calls from authors and publishers, at               480-838-4309        Arizona time, if I have a copy of the book in my hands to look at before they call. It is best to allow about 7-10 days for me to look at the book before making any follow up calls. Please do not send me a URL and ask me to go look at your books.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to being the publisher of Greentree Publishing -- whose first book was the New York Times bestseller How to Behave so Your Children Will, Too! -- Tim McCormick continues to function as a scout for Books Are Fun. Over the last seven years he has worked as a broker for several hundred small to medium-size publishers negotiating orders between 25,000 and 250,000 copies to BAF and other special markets.