In her usual style, Tracy has been unwilling to tell any details about her “book deal”. This is par for the course; she never gives even her closest friends more than hints about anything, let alone a super-secret book.
There are many things that aren’t making sense about this book though, just from the little she’s divulged.
#1. The actual publisher. Yes, she says the name Wiley in that blurb on another blog, but notice she says “a publisher FOR Wiley” – which doesn’t make sense.
#2. When she signed this deal with “Wiley”
#3. When the book is slated for publication
This is significant, as we shall see.
If you know anything about the current publishing world, you know that nonfiction book proposals by non-celebrities are very hard to sell. For instance, if you are Joe Schmoe, and you want to write a book on “Advice for Veterinarians on the Treatment of Horses“, it’s not enough to be a veterinarian. That won’t get you a book deal. You have to have something known as “platform”. This means that you are famous in the veterinary world, and that you regularly travel the country for paid speaking events, and could go on Oprah for publicity. If you are just Joe Schmoe the Veterinarian from Ann Arbor Michigan – chances are you’re not getting a book deal.
There are only about 5 or 6 bloggers that have gotten book deals so far, and they’ve got huge blogs with hundreds of thousands of hits per day, such as that guy from www.waiterrant.com (The Waiter is actually a creative writer as well, and has a gigantic devoted readership who love his stories.)
So in a nutshell: Tracy Coenen likely didn’t get a book deal based on her website, blog, or the fact that she’s a CPA –unless of course she highly exaggerated her importance or her audience.
And why all the secrecy? If she managed to land a book deal with Wiley, that’s a major accomplishment. So big, in fact, that there’s a website where the publishing industry announces their deals – www.publishersmarketplace.com. This is where authors, agents, and publishers list their latest deals. I searched the database, and there’s nothing listed under Tracy Coenen.
I finally emailed Wiley, and asked them when this book was slated for publication. They replied “March 2008″. Why wouldn’t she be advertising this? In publishing, publicity and marketing are everything, and knowing Tracy, if this were really her book she would be writing press releases about it.
As with all things regarding Tracy, there’s an element of truth in her claims…but it’s all the stuff she’s leaving out that paints her in a very different light.
Stay tuned for Part 3…
*EDITED TO ADD*
Apparently Tracy is telling people that I’m trying to “torpedo” her book deal. This is silly. I can’t possibly hurt her contract to write for Wiley, just by pointing out that she is, in fact, writing a book for Wiley. I’m only pointing out to the uninformed how she is throwing around the words “book deal” in a deceptive manner. I’m just pointing out the facts. There shouldn’t really be any outrage over this. But of course…there is. hmm.
