Victor Prince (Author of The Camino Way)

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Victor Prince

欧宝娱乐 Author

Born

The United States

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Twitter

Genre

Business, Travel, History

Member Since

March 2015

URL

/victorprince

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Victor Prince is a leadership author, trainer, and speaker. His books include The Camino Way: Lessons in Leadership from a Walk Across Spain (AMACOM, 2017), Executive Farm: A Leadership Fable (DiscoveredLOGIC, 2016), and Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide their Teams to Exceptional Results (Career Press, 2015). He trains and speaks to clients around the world on leadership and strategy. He previously served as COO of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and strategy consultant with Bain & Company. He holds an MBA in Finance from Wharton. Learn more at victorprince.com.

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What does it take to get your first book published?

Victor Prince After I put my thoughts about this book down on paper, I got up the courage to share the book idea with a friend of mine (Mike) who had written a book鈥辞谤别After I put my thoughts about this book down on paper, I got up the courage to share the book idea with a friend of mine (Mike) who had written a book before. When Mike and I got on the phone to talk, my starting question was "how does this work?" He told me to buckle in for a few minutes while he walked through the whole experience. Here is what I caught from the fire hose of information that followed through the phone. (1) The process starts with a literary agent. There are a relatively small set (maybe a dozen or so) of literary agents in this niche of the business book world that hold the keys to the publishing kingdom. They have become experts at knowing what the publishers are looking for and being able to quickly tell if they see it. Because they have built a reputation for doing just that, publishers rely on them as gatekeepers between them and aspiring authors. If you can't get an agent interested in your concept, it will never even get in front of a publisher. For that service, agents typically take 15% of the money an author gets. (2) The pitch to publishers comes in the form of a Proposal, which has several parts. (3) First is the Precis, a word so new to me I can't even figure out how to type the foreign symbol on one of its letters. The Precis is a fancy name for a very short summary (one page) of the core concept of the book and why it is useful. The next part is a description of the author and the platform they can use to market the book once it does get printed. Could the author prove to readers that they know what they are writing about? And can the author advertise the book to a lot of people to help drive sales? Basically, their way of saying ?I need to know that you can both chop down the tree and there will be people there to hear it fall before I give your lumberjack-wannabe butt a lift to the forest.? (4) The next part is the chapter outline. You number and title each chapter and write a brief description of what they contain. This is the bulk of the work because you not only have to have your concept fully developed but you have to get the flow of the story right too in smaller pieces. (5) Finally, the last part is the writing sample. This is typically one full chapter of the book to show that you can actually write well. (6) Once your literary agent has a complete proposal, they present it around to the publishing houses they know are most likely interested in your topic. In the ideal world, one or more come back with an offer to pick it up that includes an advance on royalties, deadlines and other financial terms. (7) Financial terms center on royalty rates, which are set on wholesale, not list, price and are typically tiered based on volume. The first 5000 copies earn the author 15% of wholesale price, the next 5000 copies 17% and runs above that pay out 20%. You should note that your agent?s 15% cut comes out of all of those, so author?s net take is 12.75%, 14.45%, and 17%, respectively. And remember that the advance you get, maybe $10-20K or so is called an advance because it is just pre-payment of royalties you earn. If you don?t sell enough books, you won?t see any more. To sum up ? don?t quit your day job. (8) Once you sign an agreement, the real writing work actually begins and you will be on deadline. A whole new slew of people will be ripping apart your work ? the acquiring editor, the copy editor and at least one other type of editor whose label I cant read from my notes because Mike was talking so fast. This whole process took about 14 months for Mike with his book, which is pretty fast, and he signed with an elite publishing house. It took me a moment to notice that the fire hose of information had finally stopped. My hand was cramped from writing and my head was spinning. What exactly am I signing up for? Am I really up for this? Do you have to be crazy to do this? "Hello. You still there?" Mike's voice on the other end of the phone snapped me out of my stupor. I hesitated a moment and replied, "Well, we better get started."

If you are interested on getting more details about the experience of an aspiring first time author, I photoblogged along the way at . (less)

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What鈥檚 your advice for aspiring writers?

Victor Prince I was listening to a sports talk show podcast a few months ago and a caller identified himself as an aspiring writer. The show host, ESPN's Matthew Be鈥辞谤别I was listening to a sports talk show podcast a few months ago and a caller identified himself as an aspiring writer. The show host, ESPN's Matthew Berry, asked the caller if he had a website where he could check out his work while they chatted on the phone. Berry, who is a prolific writer as well as on-air personality, strikes me as a great example of a professional writer. He cranks out words by the metric ton in his regular columns and he has a book out as well. He is a writer's writer. So when Berry saw that the caller's website had very little content and had not been updated in weeks he challenged the guy. Not in a mean way, but more in a constructive way to help motivate the guy. Despite Berry's typical verbose style, he summed up his advice to this aspiring writer in just two words: "Writers write." I don't think I can top that as the best advice out there, pound for pound.(less)

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Victor Prince鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.95 · 341 ratings · 77 reviews · 6 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	The Camino Way: Lessons in Leadership from a Walk Across Spain 3.74 avg rating — 203 ratings — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results by Victor Prince (欧宝娱乐 Author), Mike Figliuolo (欧宝娱乐 Author) 4.25 avg rating — 132 ratings — published 2015 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Executive Farm: A Leadership Fable 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chameleon Leadership 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scaling to Billions: Mastering the Mindset, Strategy, and Grit Needed to Create a Billion-Dollar Empire 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scaling to Billions: Mastering the Mindset, Strategy, and Grit Needed to Create a Billion-Dollar Empire 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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50 Essential Business Leadership and Strategy Books

There are many books about leadership and business skills that can help people looking to learn in those areas. WorldCat.org is a wonderful resource that shows which libraries around the world have books in stock. Here is a list of useful books about leadership and business ranked in order of the number of libraries that carry them, according to WorldCat.org.

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From the CEO's Perspective: Leadership In Their Own Words

by Teri Citterman (欧宝娱乐 Author)

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Sep 17, 2018 03:29PM

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Los siete principios del Camino de Santiago: Lecciones de liderazgo en un caminata por Espa帽a (Spanish Edition)

by Victor Prince (欧宝娱乐 Author)

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Oct 17, 2022 07:47AM

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The 20-Minute Networking Meeting - Executive Edition: Learn to Network. Get a Job.

by Marcia Ballinger

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Apr 27, 2018 11:07AM

Quotes by Victor Prince (?)

“Welcome Each Day, Its Pleasures and Its Challenges 2. Make Others Feel Welcome 3. Share 4. Live in the Moment 5. Feel the Spirit of Those Who Have Come Before You 6. Appreciate Those Who Walk with You Today 7. Imagine Those Who Will Follow You”
― Victor Prince, The Camino Way: Lessons in Leadership from a Walk Across Spain

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“The better a leader tailors his leadership style to each individual, the more likely it is that true behavior change will occur.”
― Victor Prince, Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Victor鈥檚 Quotes

“Though [Abraham Lincoln] never would travel to Europe, he went with Shakespeare鈥檚 kings to Merry England; he went with Lord Byron poetry to Spain and Portugal. Literature allowed him to transcend his surroundings.”
― Doris Kearns Goodwin

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“If everything is important, then nothing is.”
― Patrick M. Lencioni

tags: life

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“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

tags: lies, lying, memory, truth

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“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders

tags: fate, life, misattributed-john-lennon, planning, plans

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“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein

tags: attributed-no-source, simplicity, understand