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A word to prospective authors ...
Is your work a classic?
(Or simply a book with something to say.)

Either way, has it even been given a chance? Are editors asking to talk to you about it? Do literary agents want to know more?  If not, something is missing from your manuscript.  Want to know what it probably is?

A great editor!
If that's the case, all you need is professional manuscript assistance from The Orphanage Press!


    The history of writing is littered with literary Titanics.
    Great ideas by the thousands have gone down simply because of bad mechanical decisions.
    Potentially superb books (with messages that matter!) fail to have their day in print all the time.  The reason?  It's simple.  Editing.
    Publishers in the past often devoted time to helping writers with potential.  People like Ernest Hemingway received that kind of help.  But, no more.  Today's publishing world is a frenetic, insane, market-driven battleground.  It's dog eat dog out there.
    If you don't host a national radio or television talk show, work for the New York Times or the Washington Post, or have a job with the Clinton Administration, your chances of finding a publisher are about the same as your chances of being struck by lightning.
    Most big publishing houses won't even look at manuscripts that don't come from a literary agent, and most literary agents have about one minute to consider work from a new author.
    If your book doesn't rivet their attention in that first minute, you're sunk.
    And, if the rest of your book doesn't maintain that magnetic hold on a reader, as well, it's down to the bottom you go.

                                 Two Ways To Go.

    What, then are your options?  The first is the hard way.  Start attending writer's conferences.  Join a writer's group.  Take a few classes from a local college.  Keep writing and sending your work out.  That's how the late  Walt Morey , author of the famed children's book, Gentle Ben, did it.  The process almost drove him crazy. (Click on his name to get the full story.)
    There is value in doing all of these, but unless you are another Shakespeare, a natural, the distance between you and success is between ten years and eternity.
    The second way is to find a mentor.
    We're not talking about an academic mentor, here.  Higher education is an excellent place to gain a background in literature.  It is a terrible place to gain the knowledge you will need to sell.
    No, what you need is a professional mentor.
    Somebody who has done it.
    While having that sort of help doesn't guarantee you will sell a book, it guarantees you will have a chance to sell a book.
    So, since you have read this far, why not ask yourself a question?
    You see nothing wrong in paying a plumber to unstop your sink, a mechanic to start your car or a college to open up your mind.  Do you want to publish your book badly enough to pay for help?  Is giving your book the chance to see print worth what you would pay for a ten year old used automobile?
    If the answer is "yes," click on the classic car and we'll explain in more detail just what The Orphanage Press can do for you.

                                       (Click on the photo to go on.)

                                                  1951 Ford convertible
     (The top three are: 1940 Ford coupe, 1936 Ford coupe, 1934 Ford 3-window coupe.)


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