To Prospective Spark Press and She Writes Press Authors: A Note of Encouragement and Gratitude

I finished writing my book Quiet The Rage: How Learning to Manage Conflict Will Change Your Life (and the World) in January 2016. At the time, I had no idea how the publishing business worked. I didn’t understand the different options then, I just believed that in order to get a book published, you had to work with a traditional publisher. I began researching the process and learned that many publishers don’t accept “un-agented submissions,” so the first step it appeared, was to find an agent willing to represent me. As such, I crafted a “query letter” and sent it out to 116 agents. I was pleased that I had 7 interested agents who asked me for a “book proposal.” As I didn’t have a book proposal (I had a finished book), I offered to send the book for their evaluation. I received strong replies indicating that finished books were not acceptable, a book proposal was required. As I had written the query letter myself, I did my best at creating a book proposal and forwarded it to the interested agents. Two immediately replied that it wasn’t nearly good enough and that I should revise it and send it again. Not wanting to blow my chances, I hired a professional editor to work with, and over about a two-month period, we created a sophisticated business plan and case for the book. As soon as the final version was complete, I sent to the agents, one of which offered to represent me within minutes of receiving it. I subsequently signed with that agent for the period of one year. There was very little activity for 6-8 months. As this was my first experience working with an agent, and being told that the book business is notoriously slow, I was patient. During this time though, a number of people who knew I wrote a book asked me to read it. I probably had 50 -60 people in total read a pdf version. The initial responses were unbelievably positive, and many of them left me speechless. Six separate people told me the book changed their lives. In the last four months of my agent agreement, a flurry of activity took place. Two traditional publishers offered to publish, both with the same caveat: they wanted the book to be a straight business book. That meant they wanted the memoir part removed to eliminate any confusion with respect to genres. Initially, I gave careful consideration about how to do that, for the sake of following a traditional route. But with the encouragement of my wife, and after asking a number of my “beta-readers” which parts of the book they would NOT want to see removed during the publishing process, and them replying unanimously that the memoir parts were essential to the flow and the story, I declined the offers and decided to go forward on my own agent-free. My beta-readers gave me the confidence that there was an appetite in the marketplace for the book and balanced the feedback that I was getting from the “professionals.” I characterize my book as an “emotional experience,” and unfortunately my agent and prospective publishers were only interested in the book proposal, which converted that emotional experience into a rational one. If that happened to the book I thought, I’d be left with something no one wanted to read. Free to proceed on my own now, I began researching self-publishing options. I reached out to a few people who marketed themselves as freelance book producers, “general contractors,” of sorts. They each had a loose network of people who collaborated with authors to produce books. Their advice was the same. The book first had to be thoroughly evaluated and then almost absolutely required both a line edit and a content edit. “The biggest mistake debut authors make, is they put too much of themselves in their books,” they lectured. At its core, I had no problem with the advice and guidance I was receiving, but what was craziest to me, was to that point, no one had read the book yet. When I made the mistake of suggesting that they read the book prior to offering an opinion of its needs, that idea was summarily dismissed, much like it had been by my agent and traditional publishers. “We can’t read every book,” I was told. Frustrated now, I damn sure wasn’t going to pay someone who wouldn’t honor the book in the way I thought it should be, and I had little to no confidence that we would give the book its best chance of success. As I continued my research, I learned about a new “hybrid” option, essentially a partnership. Whereby the author has much more editorial control of the book, and an opportunity to receive a greater share of the proceeds from sales. The tradeoff is that the author also funds the book’s development. I liked the entrepreneurial aspect of it, as much as I did the additional editorial control. I submitted my book for an initial evaluation and within weeks received a reply inviting me to proceed with publishing. I then proceeded through what was largely a painless process, start-to-finish. I found everyone involved to be capable, professional, and responsive. The thing I liked most; I felt like all parties had one goal: produce the best book. Of course, there was some editing, and yes, I ended up changing the cover from something I liked, but no one else did. But in the end, their guidance was critical and necessary, invaluable really, and they respected and supported my vision for the book. I believe we are all proud of the result, and I’m not so sure I would have been, had I proceeded down a traditional or self-publishing path. I just recently received my Kirkus Review. The review validated my instinct to straddle genre’s in the attempt of delivering a powerful message, and it reinforced the decision I made not to adapt it suit a traditional publisher. I’m grateful to Brooke Warner and Spark Press for creating a platform that made this book possible in its current form, and I encourage my fellow writers to remain steadfast to their vision, particularly when receiving advice from professionals with great conviction, who by their own admission, haven’t read your book.

“The book flows well, presenting a readable narrative that effectively weaves together memoir and self-help guidance.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Burke skillfully uses his life story to illustrate his points and principles, which may help readers to more easily access difficult topics, such as triggers, abandonment, rejection, and letting go of things that keep one from accepting and forgiving.” –Kirkus Reviews

“The book’s most powerful moments involve the author’s epiphanies about taking control of his life. Readers will be able to connect to these and understand his difficult but rewarding journey toward self-awareness.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Overall, this work successfully tackles a complex subject that’s relatively uncommon in self-help titles.” –Kirkus Reviews