John C.Littlefield- Author

Due to some computer glitches and life in general, I am late posting this final day of the virtual book tour for John C. Littlefield, author. I appologize for this and hope you enjoy the post he has written for the tour.

Please join me in welcoming, John C. Littlefield, author of Meet America: Stories of the Great American Culture as he takes us for an awe inspiring glimpse into his writing life!

Writing tips from Author John C. Littlefield

If I knew the secret to getting published I wouldn’t tell you; that information is too valuable to give away. But I obviously read a great deal about the subject. The most appropriate suggestion is similar to the one Steve Martin poses regarding getting a million dollars: “You first take a million dollars.”

Here are some of the approaches I’m attempting: contacting a published writer who is in your genre and ask for their advice/recommendation on agents/ publishers to contact(None of the authors I’ve contacted have responded.); carefully study the agents/publishers working with your type of story and use that as a lead to approach a contact (This requires as great deal of research.); do a Willy Loman (Death of the Salesman) approach and get out there and sell the product on the street, book signings, parking lots (Celestine Prophecy author started selling from his car in shopping centers); demonstrate your efforts to market your product for agents/publishers to notice (Do you remember Willy’s last words: ‘I paid-off the mortgage today’.); hook-up with a national organization which feeds into your story and illustrate (cogently) how your story will enhance their image (I may have struck ‘paydirt’ with this one; we’ll talk later).
As the population distribution curve moves to the right, more and more competition is turning to the pen as a final attempt at personal accomplishment and recognition. There were about 400,000 books published in this country last year. There can be no more competitive activity in the universe. This situation calls for very unique marketing. My approach has been to couple the story with video, an expensive add-on which works with my genre of story. My best recommendation is for all of you to stop cluttering the market with your wares so mine will have a better chance. You will be rewarded for your abstinence, if not in this life …

Thanks for being here and we wish you the best for your book and your writing career. I for one will be one of those trying to clutter the market with my words with whatever rewards that will bring in this life and the next.