Welcome to Issue 23 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!

As a book editor, I get approached by a lot of authors who dream about having their books published by a traditional publisher. The truth of the matter is that finding a traditional publisher is extremely difficult and becoming more and more difficult with each coming year. More and more authors are turning to self-publishing after receiving rejection letters from publishers and agents, and often not because their books are badly written, but because they are not “marketable”—meaning they won’t reach bestseller status, often considered as sales of 35,000+ copies. But self-published authors who work hard can still sell thousands of copies of their own books. Nothing matters more, however, for a book’s success than how well-written it is.

The authors seeking traditional publishers who approach me often only want me to proofread their books. They tell me, “Don’t bother about the plot, characters, or moving around words because the publishers have editors who do that and I can’t afford to pay you anyway to do editing; I just want proofreading.”

The sad thing is that if the plot and characters need development or the sentences need rewriting to be more concise, the publisher is not going to be impressed enough with the book and the writing to spend the time trying to improve it. As it’s often been said, “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” Even if you are going to send your book to a traditional publisher, you want it to be the best piece of writing possible, so it will be well worth your time to pay an editor to make it as well-developed and as error-free as possible. As for those authors who only want me to do a substandard job, I have to turn them away because I take pride in my work and don’t want to do a mediocre job—and publishers don’t want to see a mediocre manuscript.

Thank you for reading and best wishes!

Tyler R. Tichelaar

New Books

Just in time for the 10 year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, “Pursuing Your Destiny” is the true life story of Michelle Rosado, who was in Tower Two of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit Tower One, and so her dramatic journey on that historic and terrifying day began, a day that had been prophesied for her, that she had even had a vision about, never knowing quite what it meant until then.

Like a good movie flashback, following the dramatic opening of “Pursuing Your Destiny,” the reader is carried back into Michelle’s past as a child of divorce and her visit to a sage who foresaw her escaping from death. Michelle’s future husband Randy also tells his story of growing up in New York, his anger issues and the many fights he got into as a young man, and eventually, how he became an entrepreneur. Destined to become soul mates, Randy and Michelle Rosado would come together as a result of the 9/11 events and soon share a life together.

To read more, visit Pursuing Your Destiny

Kristopher Walton, long-time clinical social worker and psychotherapist, knows from personal experiences and the many clients he has seen in his practice, that life is filled with losses, not just in terms of losing loved ones to death, but also broken relationships, lost jobs, miscommunication with others, and multiple other disappointments. That said, Walton firmly believes, based on scientific fact, that our experiences are colored by how we choose to think about and react to the painful events we have, shaping our present and future.

Far more than another book about positive thinking, “Navigating Your Mind” goes in-depth, with easy-to-read explanations, into the scientific evidence for brain neuroplasticity—how we can bring about our own changes in our thought-patterns, thereby changing our lives and our outcomes. He provides numerous processes that apply this scientific evidence to individual situations, realizing no one process will work for everyone.

To read more, visit Navigating Your Mind

Mark Elswick, aka “Padman,” has overcome the hurdles of fatherhood and lived to write about them in this humorous collection of short stories based on his own experiences as a man dealing with women, especially his daughter. Whether it’s having to go to the store to buy those...um, feminine hygiene products for his daughter, worrying over the older man his daughter wants to date, or just accepting that he’s reached middle-age and is becoming an old man, readers will smile with familiarity at the incidents, sympathizing with Elswick’s feelings and admiring his pluck to keep going in the face of what often threatens his manhood or at least his masculine self-esteem.

But Elswick also has a serious reason for writing. He is the survivor of a Traumatic Brain Incident (TBI) and sprinkled through this collection are tales of TBI survivors to raise awareness about TBI and also raise money from the book’s sales.

To read more, visit Padman

James Donaldson, former professional NBA All-Star, has a heart as big as he is tall—and at 7’2” he is taller than most. His heart, his concern for others, and his desire to encourage the next generation to succeed are all evident in his newly published book “Standing Above the Crowd.”

Donaldson provides us with two books in one in this part motivational, part autobiographical book that reflects Donaldson’s own quest to be the best, how significant people in his life supported and motivated him to become an athlete, and how the values he learned from being an athlete can be applied to succeeding in business, politics, and life. Furthermore, his intriguing stories of playing against such household names as Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are sure to interest everyone.

To read more, visit Standing Above the Crowd

Upcoming Events

Join me on Saturday, September 17^th at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee, Michigan for its Storytelling Festival. I’ll be telling stories of Marquette, Michigan’s history from 1-2p.m. To find out more about the Iron Ore Industry Museum, visit www.michigan.gov/ironindustrymuseum

Thursday, September 22^nd you can catch me at the Marquette Beautification & Restoration Committee’s monthly meeting and luncheon in the downstairs of the Landmark Inn in Marquette at Noon where I’ll be giving a presentation on “Marquette’s Beautiful History.” For more information about the MBRC, visit http://www.mqtbeautification.org/

On October 1, 2011, the annual members-only U.P. Publishers and Authors Association meeting in the Shiras Room at Peter White Public Library in Marquette, MI will be held. For more information or to join, visit www.uppaa.org