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17 Full Grown Elephants?
That’s a Lot of Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Dee Power or Brian Hill
480-837-9590, authors@brianhillanddeepower.com

(Fountain Hills, AZ – June 27, 2005) 2004 saw a record of 195,000 new books released in the United States, a growth rate of 20,000 per year for the last three years. 195,000 new titles, what does that mean?

If the books were shelved side by side one would need three miles of shelving. If the books were stacked one atop the other, they would reach nearly ten times higher than the world’s tallest building, the Taipei 101, which measures 1,671 feet. To transport one copy of each title, the vehicle would have to be capable of hauling 73 tons or 18 full grown elephants. Laying the books down in a straight line would require nearly 27 miles of railroad tracks.

And most interestingly of all, if one author wrote all these books, consecutively, he or she would have had to start writing during the time of Neanderthal Man, nearly 100,000 years ago. 195,000 books is almost 10 billion words.

How difficult is it to get a book published by a commercial publisher? Well the odds are better gambling in Las Vegas. It has been estimated that 25 million people in the United States consider themselves writers and only 5% have been published anywhere. Ready for another dose of reality? Only 1% of manuscripts submitted to publishing houses are accepted for publication.

Most major publishing houses, and many small presses, will not accept submissions that aren’t represented by a literary agent. During the research of The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them, the authors, Brian Hill and Dee Power, asked literary agents how many unsolicited query letters/proposals/sample chapters, they receive. For the typical agency it is close to 5000 per year. On the average these agents accepted only 11 new clients, that’s about 1 out of every 500 submissions.

If 99% of all manuscripts submitted are rejected, by any standard, a writer whose book has been published has achieved a major accomplishment. However you look at it, 195,000 is a lot of new titles and a lot of happy authors.

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About the Authors:
Brian Hill and Dee Power were inspired by their own publishing experiences to research and write The Making of a Bestseller. Hill and Power have also co-authored Inside Secrets To Venture Capital and Attracting Capital From Angels. Besides nonfiction books on the exciting subject of ‘success,’ they write novels and screenplays in the suspense and action/adventure genres. Both authors have Master of Business Administration degrees. Power has been interviewed as a publishing industry expert from the author’s point of view by the New York Times, Washington Post, ,Associated Press and Publishers Weekly. Contact them through their website www.BrianHillAndDeePower.com or call 480- 837-9590.

About the Book:
The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories from Authors and the Editors, Agents, and Booksellers Behind Them ($19.95, 256 pages, 6 x 9, softcover, ISBN: 0-7931-9308-7) is available at neighborhood and online booksellers or by calling 1-800-245-BOOK.