RAW TRANSCRIPT

MISSOURI INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
SIXTEEN SURE-FIRE WAYS TO PUBLISH YOUR PSYCHOTHERAPY, MENTAL HEALTH, OR SELF-HELP BOOK
PRESENTER:  HOWARD G. ROSENTHAL
DECEMBER 5, 2014
1:30 P.M. CT

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	>> From St. Louis Missouri and the home of the Missouri of mental health, good afternoon.  My name is Tom from MIMH.  Thanks for taking the time to join us this afternoon for Sixteen Sure-Fire Ways to Publish Your Psychotherapy, Mental Health, or Self-Help Book.  I will introduce our speaker, Dr. Rosenthal, to you in just a moment.  
	Describe the screen real estate of what you are looking at right now.  If you look off to your right, you will see a chat box.  That's where you would submit any questions or comments, other concerns.  Submit your questions at any time during the program.  We will hold off to the end of the presentation block to actually ask the questions on your behalf.  But you can go ahead and submit those questions anytime.  
	First time you type a question, you might have to give a screen name, but you should never have to actually log in.  
	Underneath the video window, you will see we are providing open captioning.  For those folks who need it.  We welcome our captioner, and thank you for your good work.  
	Below that you see a couple of links.  One is to purchase a couple of CEUs.  It's $15 per person.  You can purchase through that link.  We will send it to you after the program if we have your email address as well.  We will keep that link active.  
	Below that, a link to Dr. Rosenthal's website, where you might be able to find a book or two of his.  It's entirely possible.  That would be my guess, anyway.  
	Why do we have Dr. Rosenthal talking about book publishing?  He is the author of the bestselling exam prep book and author of all time, special 15th anniversary special edition of the encyclopedia of counseling.  Special anniversary edition of the Vital Information and Review Questions for the NCE and CPCE.  He also authored the first ever Human Services Dictionary.  
	In 2010, all three of those titled were listed in Rutledge Counseling and Psychotherapy top ten hot list for U.S. and overseas, with the encyclopedia taking the number one slot.  
	Some of his other popular books include not with my life I don't, presenting your suicide and that of others.  Before you see your first client.  55 things counselors and mental health providers need to know.  And his therapy's best, practical advice and gems.  
	But also his book, encyclopedia of human services, tutorial for the board certified human services practitioner exam, also just recently released.  We are very glad, try today do this program about a year ago, and we are very glad Dr. Rosenthal is able to join us today.  We welcome you to our floor today.  Thank you.  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Thank you, Tom.  It's great to be here.  When  I lecture to audiences, the first thing I usually say to them is how many of you out there would like to write a New York Times best seller, and usually the hands go up all over the place.  Well, I tell you something.  Then I disappoint the audience thoroughly by telling them I'd like to write one too, but I don't have a clue how to do it.  It takes a lot of luck, a lot of talent, and it helps if you are dating Oprah, as in Winfrey.  
	But I do know a tad about book publishing, including the fact that I've published right now, approximately 10 or 12 different things, many of which are the leaders in the field.  
	When we talk about book publishing in psychology, psychotherapy, human services, social work, self-help, the first thing I usually here is, oh, I've got a great idea.  I am going to write a general counseling and therapy book.  Yeah, that's what I'll write.  Folks, out of all the topics in the entire world, the general counseling, psychology, self-help social work book is probably the least likely to get published.  The only book that is even worse is when people come to me and say, oh, I know what I'll write about.  I had a real interesting life.  I grew up in south St. Louis.  My mother was an alcoholic.  My mother always liked my sister best.  They always do.  In other words, you are going to tell your life story.  
	Well, guess what, folks.  You can publish a book like that, but it is by far the hardest type of book to get published.  
	Now, today, here's what we are going to do.  I am going to teach you more about book publishing than 99% of the population knows because practically everything that neophyte authors do is wrong -- dead wrong.  
	First, let's look at what topics cell and what topics don't.  
	If we go to the board here, I have the word "positioning."  And I want to talk about what changed my book publishing career.  The thing that had the most impact on me was not a book on psychology or psychoanalysis or human services or even book publishing.  It was a marketing book that came out in 1980 called Positioning:  The Battle for Your Mind by Al  Reece.  The hypothesis of the book -- I am being simplistic here -- was the days of trying to create a product -- and a book is a product -- for everybody is the kiss of death.  If you try to be everything to everybody, you are going to be nothing to nobody.  
	So I want to give a few examples here of a bad idea and how to turn it into a good book idea.  
	Let's take an example totally outside of our field so we can be totally unbiased.  Let's say you were going to write a book on cars.  That's right, cars, automobiles.  Do you think that book would sell?  Probably not.  Total loser.  
	Let's say you were going to write a book on Chevys, Chevrolets.  Mmm, not a good idea, but a little better than cars.  
	Let's say you were going to write a book on classic '57 Chevys.  Slightly better idea.  
	Best idea:  1957 Chevrolet Belleair convertibles.  Best idea.  
	The more specific your idea, the greater the likelihood you are going to get the book published.  
	So let's take a look at our field.  Say you decided to write a book on rational emotive therapy.  Not bad, but probably not going to get published.  How about a book on rational emotive behavior therapy -- REBT, for counseling teenagers?  A little better.  How about a book on REBT for counseling African American teenagers who have a disability?  Best idea.  The more you can fine-tune your idea, the better.  
	Now, of course, you are cutting down on your market, but you are fine-tuning the market.  Of course you can get it too small.  It's actually hard to do.  If you want to sell sticks to vampire hunters, that's probably too small of a market.  But for most people, the ideas that they come up with are way too broad.  Fine-tune it.  Look what's going on in society.  Okay?  We used to have razors.  Now we have razors for men and razors for women.  We used to have deodorant.  Now we have deodorant for women and men and athletes.  We have walking shoes.  We have jogging shoes.  We have sprinting somehows.  The more specific you can be, the greater the likelihood is you will sell your book.  
	Take my book, the encyclopedia of counseling, which Tom just told you has actually made it to number one on the counseling charts.  Okay?  What is the intent of the book?  Well, guess what.  All it does is prepare you for one exam.  Okay?  Originally it just was geared toward the NCE, a single exam, and now it's geared toward a second exam, the CPCE, and comprehensive exams, which are based on that too.  
	So here it is, the bestselling book in the field, and it's only hitting one or two areas.  
	So make sure your idea is new.  
	Now, what's the next thing you want to do?  One thing you want to do for your book is to create a USP.  That's USP, not UPS.  This has nothing to do with delivery services.  USP means unique selling proposition.  What is different about your book than anybody else's book?  If you cannot explain to me in a sentence or two what is different about your book, guess what.  You don't have a book idea.  
	I will use the analogy I use to here in business.  They say if you get on an elevator, the elevator closes and you are going one floor, if you can't explain how your business or your product is better in one floor, shouldn't be selling it.  
	Book publishing is the same way.  I will give you a great example.  I wrote the first-ever human services dictionary.  You say what's so unique about that?  Glad you asked.  What I did with that book was I said that most dictionaries are too hard to understand, so I made the explanations real simple, and the ultimate unique selling proposition was I took all the definitions and tried to gear them to the questions that teachers and comprehensive exams are most like to ask -- or most likely to ask you on an exam.  So when you read my definition, yeah, it's probably going to help you on a test.  All right?  
	Okay.  Now you've come up with a book idea, and you want to make sure it's different or better than anybody else's are, something that hasn't been done in 50 or 100 years.  That will work too.  
	Let's talk about titles.  Neophyte authors have all kind of misconceptions about titles.  Number one, you do need a good title.  Number two, will the book publisher use your title?  Probably not, and that's a good thing.  All right?  Book publishers are much better than authors are at picking titles.  
	
	So you have to have a good title to sell your manuscript, which we are going to talk about in a minute, but will the book probably have that title when it comes out?  It might, but probably not, and again, that's a good thing.  
	Also, you cannot Copyright a title.  I have a book called the encyclopedia of counseling.  So do three or four other people.  There's a new one coming out now.  So yes, people can steal your title.  
	Here's what you need to know about titles.  If you have absolutely no clue what to call your book, there are several words that have been researched, and they are terrific.  Okay?  How to.  How to improve your relationship with your spouse.  How to eliminate anxiety.  How to be a better rational emotive behavior therapist.  How to has stood the test of time.  Also the word "secret."  If it's for the general public.  The secret of living without depression.  If there's a way you can get the words "how to" or "secret" into your title -- in fact, there's actually a multimillionaire by the name of Melvin Powers, and Melvin Powers was actually the guy that helped put Albert Ellis onto the map with his self-help book Guide to Rational Living.  Some of the editions are called New Guide to Rational Living. 
With the exception of he will list's book, which was very successful, practically every book that Melvin Powers has made millions of dollars off of has the words "how to" or "secret" in the title.  
	Another really effective method, especially if you are going for the general public, but even for other therapists, is to use a number in a title.  What am I calling this lecture today?  Six teen sure-fire ways to blah, blah, blah.  Publish your psychology and counselor book.  Am I really going to give you 16 ways?  Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.  I wanted a number in the the title to pull people in because I know it pulls people in, and I also know that 16 is more believable than 15.  The strongest number to use according to research is 7.  Nobody knows whether it's biblical connotations or what.  They've looked at this for years.  But if there's a way you can legitimately get 7 into your title -- seven ways to live a happier life, whatever it is. 
Even chapter titles.  Do you know these seven secrets of avoiding panic disorder?  Very good to use a number.  All right?  
	Now, let's talk about the next thing.  You've got an idea.  Don't be afraid to go after your dream.  All right?  There's an old saying that the best book ever written in is somebody's desk drawer, and that's probably true because they didn't go through the process of trying to have it published.  
	The next thing is -- this is really the most important part of the lecture -- it's not writing the book.  It's how you are going to sell it.  Again, it's going to sit in your desk drawer if it's in a format you cannot sell.  
	All right.  Let's look at what I call the three types of publishing.  Here they are, folks.  The first one is called self-publishing.  This could be as simple as walking over to the copy machine in your office when your boss isn't looking, making 22 copies, and stapling them, and there's your book.  
	Now, when most people talk about self-publishing, that's not what they are talking about.  What they are usually talking about is there are companies that will publish your book for a very low price per copy, and you can usually find them in the back of magazines, like Writers Digest, or you could look on the Internet for self-publishing books, and a lot of companies will come up.  
	Now, do I really believe -- get this off the floor here -- in self-publishing, for most people watching me right now, regardless of where you are, the answer is an unequivocal no because here's the problem.  I only recommend it for a select few people.  Very small group.  One, if you are one of the top direct marketing people in the nation, self-publish.  Go for it.  Okay?  But that leaves out probably everybody that will ever see this.  All right?  
	Number two, if you give hundreds of lectures a year in mental health or social work or human services or counseling, then you might -- underline might -- self-publish.  All right?  Or, last but not least -- I am not going to kid you -- this is a very tough business.  You want me to tell the truth, so I am going to shoot from the hip.  Most of what you try will not work.  Let me say that again.  Most of the things I try don't work.  Most of the things you try will not work.  You will not sell your book.  
	So the third category of self-publishing is if everything I teach you today fails, self-publish.  Okay?  
	Now, what's the problem with self-publishing?  I will tell you what it is.  You have to do all your own marketing.  A Publisher might send out a catalog with 100,000 copies.  Sit down and figure out what 100,000 pieces of paper printed with a stamp on it are going to cost you.  You could take a full page in Counseling Today, but where will you get the $2,000 every month?  Okay?  So the problem with self-publishing is after you give a copy to your mother, the kid at the fast oil change who told you he is taking psychology next semester, okay, and your best friend, what are you going to do with the other thousand copies you bought?  Good question; right?  
	Now, the second type of publishing is what we call vanity publishing.  All right?  I would avoid this one like the plague if you can.  These are companies that will print your book for you, and they do make the books look beautiful.  They look better than most of what you would see on a bestseller list.  But the problem is -- and even places like consumers reports and other watchdog agencies have said steer clear of these vanity -- they also call them subsidy publishers.  So watch out for that.  
	The problem is they usually do almost no marketing, and there's all kind of options.  It's like buying a car.  You pay extra for a four-color cover, and you pay extra for your picture, and you pay extra for more expensive paper to bind the book with.  
	So it's very easy to spend as much as you would actually spend buying a car or something like that.  
	I know a lady who told me at a workshop, I think she spent over $20,000, and they sold 64 copies, as in 6-4, 64.  So that's not the way to go.  
	The third type of publishing is what I recommend.  It's called the real thing.  Has nothing to do with Coca-Cola.  By the real thing, what I am talking about here is they pay you.  You don't pay them.  Okay?  They pay you.  And let me say this, too.  Steer clear of this.  I am seeing this a lot.  Don't get nailed on this one.  
	Sometimes you will be reading a magazine or something on the Internet, and it will say "agent looking for authors," and you are like oh, my God.  You are reaching nirvana.  You are so excited.  
	Folks, if you see an ad like that, here's what I want you to do.  I want you to press your gas pedal to the floor, kick it into passing gear, and take off like a scared rabbit.  Reputable agents have so many authors hounding them, they might get a hundred manuscripts a week.  The last thing they need is another author.  And here's the other thing.  Reputable agents -- they used to, years ago, but now they don't charge.  So if somebody wants to charge you, guess what.  It's a scam.  Steer clear of it.  
	I will tell you what the scam basically usually is.  They are going to charge you an arm and a leg to proofread your book, change some periods to commas, commas to semicould he lons, and it's going to cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, and they won't get your book sold.  Okay?  
	So now let's talk about how do you sell your book?  And to introduce you to this topic, I have come up with what I call my tuxedo on the beach theory.  Here is my tuxedo on the beach theory, folks.  
	Let's say you saw a guy on the beach.  He is dressed in a tuxedo.  He is not getting married.  
	Now, let's assume the temperature is like 110 degrees on the beach in the shade.  What would you say to yourself about that person?  You would say he doesn't know squat about beach attire.  Well, the same thing goes for the publishing business.  In our field, the publishing business, you have to look -- your image, which is through your pencil and paper, usually, or your computer screen and your paper -- your image has to be right.  Every day aspiring authors go to their mailbox, and they send a manuscript to an agent or editor.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, and -- well, you know what I am going to say.  As soon as an agent or an editor receives a book manuscript, they know you are an amateur.  Tuxedo on the beach theory.  They know you don't know what you are doing.  And penalty for that is -- don't be impressed by this -- they will send you a letter, very often in the trade we refer to this as a Dear John letter. 
And here's how it goes:  
	Dear, Dr. Rosenthal.  Thank you for your wonderful manuscript on reality therapy.  It's a very good idea, but it just doesn't fit in to our publishing plans.  We hope to see your new book on reality therapy on the shelves very soon.  
	Let me translate that for those of you who are new to this.  Here is the brutal translation:  
	Rosenthal, we have absolutely no interest what -- sometimes they call it a dear John letter -- we have absolutely no interest in your book.  Do not bother us again.  Thank you.  Okay?  And even if they do tell you what's wrong -- a lot of times they will -- don't say to yourself, oh, this is exciting.  I can just add a chapter.  No.  Usually when you are rejected by an agent or publisher, you are rejected.  You get one chance, and that's it.  They are not sending you the letter so you will redo it.  
	Now, what's the other thing that kills new authors?  I will tell you what it is.  I call it my second theory, the psychology of the pinball machine.  Let me tell you what that is.  If you are old enough to remember the old pinball machines, there were two ways you could win, two ways you could beat that two-arm bandit, two ways could you win a free game.  Now, the first way is very hard.  The machine would say something like if you amass a million points, you win a free game.  Well, the problem with that is it's really almost impossible.  You can do it, but it ain't easy.  The second way is by something the machines used to call matching.  So they will put a number at the end of the game up on the screen, so say the number was 8.  Let's just say that.  And let's say you played absolutely terrible. 
You only got 18 points.  Guess what.  It ends in 8, so you matched, you get a free game.  The guy next to you scored 100,000 points but didn't score a million.  He lost.  
	What does that have to do with book publishing?  Everything.  Absolutely everything.  I don't care how good of a book you have written.  All right?  If you send it to the wrong publisher, you will be rejected.  And what most neophyte authors do not understand is in this day and age, publishers are so incredibly picky about what they take.  
	Give you a great example.  A guy came to one of my workshops on book publishing, and he said to me I wrote this self-help book, this psychology self-help book, and I did exactly what you said.  I sent it to a psychology publisher.  And I said, okay, did you realize that that psychology publisher only publishes textbooks?  You wrote a self-help book.  And he said, oh, okay, no, I didn't notice that.  So he came back about two weeks later, and he said I am even angrier.  I did what you said.  I sent it to a self-help company, and they reject it had.  I said let me ask you a question.  That particular company only sells spiritual books.  Does the word "spiritual" even appear in a chapter, a page, or in the index?  No.  Well, guess what.  No chance they are going to publish your book. 
He went to a third publisher.  They specialized in grieve counseling.  He didn't even have the word "grieve" in his book.  
	So what I am saying, folks, it is absolutely imperative that you match your book to the publisher.  They are incredible, folks.  Some only take books on psychoanalysis.  Some only take books on grieve.  Some only take books on -- on grief.  Some only take books on addiction.  Some of them it has to have "social work" in the title or they won't take it.  Some of them it might have to have "counseling" in the title or they won't take it.  Some only take it if it fits under the auspices of human services.  
	If you pick the wrong company, doesn't matter what a great job you did; you have no chance, zero, zip, null, nada, not going to take your book.  Okay?  So you have got to research these publishers on the Internet and in the bookstores very carefully.  
	Now, let's go back to the tuxedo on the beach theory.  How do you submit your work?  Simple.  You always do the same thing.  One, you do not send a manuscript.  Did everybody get that?  You do not send a manuscript.  
	What you will be doing is you will be send ago thing called a query letter, sometimes called a cover letter or covering letter.  You will submit a book proposal.  You will submit two chapters from your book, usually the first chapter and the chapter you feel is the strongest.  And a CV, a curriculum vitae.  
	Let me talk about these documents just very, very briefly.  We are not going to have time to go into them in depth, but we can talk about them.  
	First of all, the query letter.  What is it?  I'll give you the best definition you will ever see in your whole life.  A query letter is an advertisement to read your proposal.  Your proposal is an advertisement to read your book manuscript.  Okay?  Simple as that.  
	So what do you put in a query letter?  Well, usually they are very short documents, a page, page and a half.  I like to stick to a page.  All right?  
	If you have stationery, University of Missouriate St. Louis, St. Louis Community College, Harvard, use your real stationery.  Never stupidly write something like Howard Rosenthal, nonfiction author.  They know right away you are a bozo.  They are not going to respond to you.  
	And I say that because I get people that show me their stuff, and they do it.  
	Okay.  If you work for an agency, that's great too.  You might put Marty Smith, Texas Marriage and Family Counseling Center.  That's good.  Okay?  
	If you've got agency stationery, hospital stationery, that's a plus.  That's a plus.  
	Now, what do you want to do in this letter?  First of all, it's a sample of your writing.  So if you have a lot of grammatical errors, spelling errors, that type of thing, you have no chance because they're trying to see can you write?  Do you know how to write?  So what I recommend is in the first sentence you hit them with a zinger.  Okay?  This is the first book on reality therapy to stress gerbils in counseling.  Okay?  I humorously tell my students, if you've got an idea for a book -- say it's a weight loss book.  Forget about our field.  And if your book entails fruits and vegetables or Atkins, you don't have a book.  
	Now, if you've got a way they can lose weight on dairy queen dilly bars and no exercise, you've got a book.  Now you've got my attention.  You need something different.  How is your book different?  This is the first book on gestalt therapy that tells how to use it with panic disorders.  I am sucking this out of thin air.  You want to show this is necessary.  You might say this book is on suicide prevention, and last year suicide killed over twice as many people as homicide.  Worldwide it kills more than wars and land mines and accidents.  Okay?  So you want to hit them with something dramatic.  You want to tell them what the book is about.  Very rapidly get to the point.  Don't keep secrets.  All right?  
	The other thing you want to do in this query letter, never be modest.  Okay?  Never.  And most of you watching this, you don't realize what an advantage you have.  You know, if your next-door neighbor wants to write a golf book, okay, chances are he's never played on a PGA tour, he didn't caddy for Tiger Woods, and he has never been a golf pro.  Your other neighbor wants to write a book on cooking.  Well, you know, she has never worked at a restaurant as a chef, and she didn't even win the St. Louis Chili contest cook-off.  
	Almost everybody watching me today probably has a degree, like an MA, an MED, a psyd, an MSW, a PhD, whatever, LPC, LCSW.  Those credentials are going to help you get published.  They like it when you are an expert in the field.  Okay?  
	Also, if you've done lots of extracurricular activities, I call them, if you've studied with Albert ellist, Jay Hailey, Gregory Bateson, drop the lug in the letter.  This is no time to be modest.  
	Now, your book proposal, we don't have time to go into this in depth, and I guarantee you are not going to like what I say now, but here it is.  There are authors on the best seller list -- you are going to think you heard me wrong, so listen closely.  There are authors on the best seller list that will admit to you they spent more time on the proposal than the entire book.  Why?  This is what sells your book.  
	So in this document, you are going to have to tell us chapter by chapter what you are doing, what the tone of the book is, is it humorous, serious, whatever.  And you are going to tell us how your book is different than the competition.  Usually we recommend that you mention three other books by name.  
	Now, please do not misquote me here.  This could get you in a lot of trouble.  You do not want to trash the other books.  For all you know, folks, these publishing companies are all buying each other out, the book you are trashing is run by their company under a different imprint.  So what you want to do is you might want to say something like Carsini's current psychotherapies by Dr. Danny Wedding is an excellent book, but my book includes blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.  Okay?  You do not want to trash the other books.  You just want to tell how yours is different or better.  
	Also, do you have any marketing experience?  Are you willing to get on a talk show or a radio show to talk about your book?  Are you willing to do something like I'm doing today?  Okay?  Do you give workshops for the American Counseling Association or NASW?  Have you ever done that?  Have you ever been a keynote speaker?  All right.  They are going to ask you stuff like that.  So if you have, that's another feather in your cap.  
	Now, what I am going to talk about now I think a lot of you are not going to like, but I need to be honest.  All right?  There's a lot of people watching today that really should not be writing a book, and I don't mean that to be critical or in a bad way.  It's very hard to get a book published.  I want you to get some publishing credentials.  So if you can write maybe a little column for your throwaway paper, it will give you some small writing credentials.  Maybe you've written a refereed journaled article.  That's writing credentials.  You would be shocked how easy it is to get these little writing jobs sometimes.  You know, there was a brand-new newspaper opening up in my town, and I saw the sign, and all I did was I walked in and I said hi, I'm Dr. 
Howard Rosenthal.  I want to write a counseling column for you.  I think we called it Dr. Rosenthal's counseling connection or something like that.  And in five minutes, the guy said bring me some samples.  I brought him 12 samples the next day, and there I was in the newspaper for the next 12 weeks.  
	Okay.  So it's not always that hard to do.
Maybe you work for a college.  Maybe you could write something small for the college paper.  Even if you have written something outside the field, that old article you wrote on Roosevelt to Roosevelt history is probably not as good as having something in our field, but it's a lot better than nothing.  
	So if you can get publishing credentials of any sort, that is going to help you.  
	Okay?  Now, I want to just close for one or two things, then I'll see if we have any questions.  I want to answer the two most asked questions I am asked.  
	Number one, Dr. Rosenthal, how do I get an agent?  I need an agent.  
	Let me ask you a better question.  Does an agent need you?  Most of you out there, if you are writing a book for teachers, therapists, troubled teens, not only do you not want an agent, it might kill your chances.  The only way you need an agent, if you want to see your book in the window of books a million, okay, and you want Brian Williams talking about it on the nightly national news, yes, you are going to need an agent for that.  But for most psychology counseling books, they don't want you to have an agent.  They won't even talk to you if you have an agent.  All right?  
	And now to hit you with the zinger.  Statistically speaking, it's as hard, if not harder, to get an agent than it is a publisher.  And if you don't believe me, research it.  Most agents on their websites will tell you how many people they reject.  Remember, most of these people are pros.  They know what they are doing.  And they usually reject between about 90 and 98% of all submissions of query letters and proposals.  Now, what that means is 100 manuscripts come in this week, 98 get the ax.  So it's not easy to get an agent.  
	Question number two, I get this one all the time, Dr. Rosenthal, excuse me.  You forgot to cover this.  How do we get a copyright?  Actually, it's very easy, but I suggest you forget about it.  
	Most publishers in this genre do not want you to retain copyright.  And should you have it, they will probably change it a little bit and take over the copyright.  Okay?  
	You know, there are exceptions.  One thing I forgot to say earlier that's just so key to this whole thing.  Top name people in the field and celebrities do not do what I am saying.  But on the other hand, you could write the exact same book as Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura, right down to the period, and you couldn't give it away.  When they publish those books, they are buying notoriety, they are buying a name.  Okay?  You are -- the rules for people like me, people like you, here's the rules.  For celebrities, it's totally different.  Okay?  
	All right.  Tom, do we have any questions before I go -- 
	>> We have a question here.  We do encourage people to use the chat box alongside the video window.  A question comes in:  What is the difference between agents, publicist, and publisher?  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Oh, that's a good question.  
	A publicist is somebody you hire or the publisher hires to get you publicity.  So they might get you on a radio talk show or they might get you on Rachel Ray show or something like that.  They are getting you publicity.  Okay?  
	An agent, when you hire an agent, his job -- you are still going to do these two documents.  His or her job is to sell that to a publisher because some of these trade publishers that sell millions of books, okay, they will only buy through an agent, not through an author.  Okay?  
	Now, an editor, which I call it an editor.  It's really the publisher.  The publisher will have different editors.  So there might be one for social work.  There might be one for counseling.  There might be one for psychoanalysis.  Some have all of the above and more.  
	You can send it to all of them.  So that's the person that decides will they take your project and turn it into a book.  All right?  
	And what a lot of people don't know -- in fact, I am doing this right now as we speak -- usually what happens if they're really interested in your project, they will send it to three other book authors.  Like I say, I am doing one now for a high-profile book -- and they will ask us do you think this book would go?  Do you think this is a good book to publish?  And keep in mind that you have to be able to delineate your audience.  Is it eighth grade girls that are having relationship problems?  Is it PhDs that need to write a journal article to get tenure or get -- you know, a raise to professor?  Okay.  Who is your audience?  You have to be able to target that audience and fine-tune it.  
	All right.  Tom, anything else there?  
	>> What's the biggest piece of advice you would have for beginners or first-timers, first-time writers?  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Be humble.  You are probably going to be rejected.  All right?  I could give you so many stories where books on the best seller list were rejected 40, 50 times.  If you believe in your product, go for it.  
	But here is my real answer to piggyback on that.  That's an answer, but here's one that's a corollary to that.  
	Make sure you understand how is your book different, how is it better?  
	Now, for example, a lot of people come to me and want to write a book about their own life, and I made fun of that at the beginning.  There is a way you can get around that.  If you can relate your life to some psychological principle, like maybe this was my life and I overcame hair pulling or this was my life and I used this unusual strategy, awe now I am panic attack free.  Or this is how I got out of intimate partner violence.  Then you might have a book.  But you can't just say I grew up in south St. Louis, my mother liked my sister best.  Everybody thinks their life is interesting, and the publisher really doesn't care about that.  Keep in mind, publishers and agents are interested in one thing:  Making a profit.  
	
	>> Are you ever afraid when you are giving a talk like this that you are actually encouraging your own competition?  Why are you doing what you are doing now?  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: That is a terrific question.  Whoever asked that I want to commend.  I want to commend.  
	The reason I am doing this is when I wrote my first book, I had lectured to 30,000 people on suicide prevention at the time.  Now I've lectured to over 100,000 people.  Every time I would go speak in front an audience, I was asked the same question.  Where's your book?  Where's your book?  Well, I didn't have a book.  Okay?  So I wanted to write a book.  And somebody knew a psychologist that wrote a book, and I called this guy, and he didn't give me the time of day.  He said to me, look, you are not going to get rich off of it.  Why do you want to write a book anyway?  And I made up my mind on that day that if I ever cracked the the system, if I ever beat the system, if I could ever get a book published, I would share everything and anything with everybody to try to help you get your book published. 

	In fact, interestingly enough, at the same time an attorney who is a friend of mine was writing a religious book, and he went everywhere.  Everything was secretive.  Nobody would tell him anything.  And so we kind of were in this a little bit together, and we both got our books published and since then have had several books published.  
	>> Are there samples of the query letters or the proposals in any of your books, or where can you find samples?  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: No.  You can find some samples on the Internet, but you know, people are really secretive about this.  You probably will find more out about their sex life than their queries.  All right?  That's how it goes.  
	There are some books that are good.  A guy by the name of I think it was Jeff Herman wrote a book called something like 11 proposals that sold and why, and it's excellent.  It does have some of the top books off the best seller list.  
	You know, I'll tell you what.  If you read your letter and your proposal out loud and it's not intriguing, it's not captivating, you know, somebody else -- if I am reading mine to Tom, Tom should be saying, Howard, I want that book.  I want it now!  If Tom is saying I don't care if it ever comes out, then you probably don't have a very compelling proposal.  All right?  
	Here is another insider secret.  I am probably the only person to ever reveal this.  Celebrities do this.  I have never done it.  But celebrities do it, and you can do it.  It's perfectly ethical.  
	Let's say you have a little money bank rolled and you decided maybe you don't want that trip to Cancun after all.  You can mention in the query letter something like for the first $10,000 in advertising, the publisher does, I will match it.  That's what a lot of celebrities doing.  Okay?  
	>> We don't have any more in the box at the moment.  Did you have another couple of issues, common questions for you?  
	>> I have questions that I get at workshops all the time, so do you mind if I just answer a few of those?  
	Okay.  After I write my book, should I hold out for a big advance?  Yeah, when the moon turns to green cheese.  Okay?  
	First of all, in our field, folks, I heard the saddest story once, a lady was at my workshop, and she said they offered me an advance of $1500.  I laughed at their face.  Now I can't find another publisher.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, and dumber.  
	Yes, people like Bill Clinton get $10 million.  Chances are in our field, you will get nothing.  I have written over ten books, I've done videos, CDs, you name it.  I have done a phone app.  Okay?  I've only got one advance in my whole life, and it was for $500.  And did you know if you do get an advance, it comes out of your first royalty check?  Did you also know that a lot of book publishers -- here's something you don't hear even in most books -- they want to recoup the cost of printing this book, so not only won't you get an advance, usually if you read the fine print in your contract, it will say something to the effect of for the first 400 books -- or maybe 600 -- you don't get paid anything.  So your first royalty check could very easily be a big zero.  
	Here is the other thing I humorously say to audiences, how many of you think you will get rich off your monthly royalty check?  Then I chuckle because most big publishers in our field pay you twice a year.  I had one only paid once a year.  
	>> We did get a couple more questions that came in here.  So how should the pricing of the book be determined?  Do you have any say in that?  
	>> Oh, my God, I love that question!  And if I had an answer for that my mood would be through the charts.  
	 Yes, we do make suggestions, but that said, they change the price of our book without asking us.  Translation usually increases the price.  I know when somebody writes me to complain or he mails me or calls me, you can make suggestions, and sometimes they will listen.  So I will say to them -- say my book, the encyclopedia of counseling, I have said this to them, we should keep it under 75 because I have a competitor that charges 75.  All right?  And they've done it.  But they don't always listen.  So good question.  
	>> Then do you suggest a co-author contract, and if so, what key things should be included?  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Okay.  The co-author, when the moon turns to green cheese a second time.  All right?  
	I only had co-author -- I had Dr. Joe Hollis for one of my books, which was called help yourself to positive mental health, but Joe owned the publishing company, so that's different, and was a world-renowned counselor.  
	The other coauthors I have had have dropped out.  Most people do not realize how rigorous it is to write a book.  So my coauthors thought they were going to write three pages and be coauthors.  No, that's not the way it works.  
	Now, what you can do -- what you can do is you can write a book -- and I have done this on several occasions -- where you are author as editor.  
	What you do -- for example, I have done it on several occasions.  I wrote a book that was a publishers best seller called favorite counseling and therapy techniques.  What I did is I had people in the book, like Albert Ellis, William Glasser, dick Boles for career counseling, Ed Schneidman.  I got the top people in the world to contribute.  All right?  They are not coauthors.  They are just contributors.  And they usually do have to sign a piece of paper saying that you can use their work.  
	Now, if those people charge, generally you're responsible for that, not the publisher.  They are pretty frugal, folks.  
	Also, if you use a graph or something -- I will give you a simple example.  You all had to stake statistics in school.  In one of my books, I have the normal curve.  You can't put the normal curve in your book.  You can if you want to pay for it like I did.  It's owned by ETS, Educational Testing Services.  So practically everything right down -- seriously, not being facetious -- to the Mickey Mouse jingle is owned by something, and again, don't count on your publisher to create it.  
	Also, if your book requires an index, you can either create it yourself or the publisher will create it and charge you in most cases.  
	All right.  Now, let's see what else I have on this list.  These are -- oh, here is one of my favorite ones.  Do authors ever get a raise?  Believe it or not, they kind of sort of do.  
	What most publishers in our market do, in the psychology counseling type market, is they will say something like for the first thousand -- first 8,000 copies, something like this, you get 8% royalties.  The next 10,000, you get 10%, then 12%.  So in a way, you do get a raise, but realize this, folks.  This is the thing about the publishing business that I've been the most disenchanted with.  They put almost all the effort into your book the first year.  If it doesn't go in the first year -- my encyclopedia counseling is the distinct exception.  It took a long time to get going.  
	But most of the time they put all this power into it the first year.  If it doesn't go, I kid you not, you'll be lucky to find your own book in a catalog.  It will have an ISBN number this big, and maybe the at the same time.  It won't even have a description.  So a lot of authors are very disappointed in how little publishers do to publicize your work.  
	Okay?  Any more, Tom, before I go on?  
	>> No more.  Probably got time for one or two more.  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Okay.  All right.  Let's see.  Oh, here is a good one.  I can't see you guys through the Internet, but I know a lot of are you going to raise your hands.  How many of you teach at a college or grammar school or university, and you how you have these book wraps come in trying to sell you on the latest textbook?  Guess what.  They can be your best friend.  It's never worked out for me, but it has for a lot of people.  They actually kind of have a bounty on your head.  If you are writing a book and they sign you up, they get a bonus and it's pretty big, like 500, a thousand, 1500.  Even if they don't get a bonus, they get a pat on the back from their boss.  
	What I am saying to you, the next time your friendly sales rep comes in to tell you about this hot new psychology textbook, you tell him -- change the subject, even if it's rude, and tell him you're writing a book.  And so the good news is he or she will probably push this -- you still have to do this.  There's no way around it.  Those are the rules.  Always has been, pretty much.  But he'll -- he or she will push it through, and you will probably at least have it read.  And he's got a dog in this fight because he gets money if you get it published.  Okay?  
	All right.  Let's see.  Just one or two more.  
	Well, let's see.  May I create a website and sell my own book?  If so, should I sell books by check or money order, or shall I take PayPal?  
	I do this all the time.  You see my site at the bottom.  Answer:  Of course you can create a website because the book publisher will sell you the books at a wholesale rate or you could just link your site to something like BNN.com or Amazon.com.  
	Now, let's talk about whether the people that order, if they order through you -- say it's you and not Amazon -- should you take checks or should you take online payments?  Ideally, both.  But the market has totally changed.  Just in the last couple years.  All my orders in the past were checks and money orders.  People were scared to pay online.  Now, total opposite.  Total -- do you know for one of my products on my website, I give something like a $13 discount, $13, same product, if you order by check or money order.  Almost nobody does it.  This is the age of click and check out.  So I would definitely recommend if you have a website, use PayPal payments because that's -- you know, unless you link it to Amazon or BNN, they will have your book, because that's how you are going to make your sales. 
Okay?  
	>> All right.  Well, I think we are hitting the end of our hour together today.  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Tom, can I say one tiny thing?  
	>> Absolutely.  
	>> HOWARD ROSENTHAL: Folks, I am often asked after a lecture like this, everybody you have said sounds so negative.  Does anybody really want me to get a book published?  Actually, no.  They want you to publish several.  They make all their money when you publish a book.  They want you to publish a book, they want you to be tremendously successful.  They want you to write sequel after sequel.  It's a rough and tumble business.  Hang in there.  Believe in yourself, your idea, your book, and I will see your name on the best seller list.  
	>> That sounds great.  Thank you, Dr. Rosenthal.  Thanks, thank you for taking the time to join us this afternoon.  Keep your eye on our website or emails for any of our future Web conferences coming up.  Make sure you and your colleagues are on our email list.  You will be hearing from us.  If you knee CEUs, that link will stay active, we will kick it to you in an email later on today or first thing Monday morning we will kick that out to you.  
	Again, we thank you for your time this afternoon.  Dr. Rosenthal, thank you for your time and expertise.  

 
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