|
|
Dear Coach:
I've recently written and published a coaching CD called "GRASSROOTS RUGBY" which I'm selling on the internet.
Why don't you do the same?
In fact, this is my invitation to you to take advantage of the
experience I've gained in publishing "GRASSROOTS RUGBY" to find a much
wider audience for your coaching philosophy and experience - and to profit financially at the same time.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alan Hutchinson and as well as being a publisher I'm
an assistant rugby coach at Ards Rugby Club in Newtownards, County
Down, Northern Ireland. (Feel free to contact the club or ask me to
provide other references.)
I have 12 years coaching experience and I've maintained a rugby coaching website called "Rugby Coaching Notes"
on the world wide web for the past 8 years. Over time this site has
become fairly popular to the extent that it appears on the first page
of results when Google searches for "rugby" + "coaching."
This link will take you to the GRASSROOTS RUGBY sales website which will give you some information about my CD. I wrote and published it for two main reasons;
first because I believed I had something to say about coaching and playing rugby at grassroots level, and
second because CDs really deliver coaching information
and they're, well, cheap!
...or at least they're a lot cheaper to produce that conventional books especially when
you consider that they can contain such a wide range of content: coloured photographs and diagrams, animations, sound and video, for example. In
addition, as people become more and more used to reading material on
the internet, they appreciate hyperlinks for easy navigation through
complex text. Visiting the GRASSROOTS RUGBY site will give you an idea of some of the value
that can be added by using CDs as a publishing medium.
(Just for background; I decided to write GRASSROOTS RUGBY because I realised that although
most of my day-to-day coaching was solely concerned with our 1st XV
there were lots of players on our 3rds and 4ths who weren't being
coached on any sort of a regular basis but who could benefit greatly
from some basic rugby knowledge. Perhaps you feel the same way about
the junior members of your club or organisation? Or perhaps you have a
very different objective or market in mind?)
What would accepting my invitation actually entail?
Well, obviously my objective is to encourage you to publish your
coaching ideas. This will take time and effort on your part, of course, but the result will be that you will have the satisfaction of seeing your ideas in tangible form and instantly available to everyone. You might then choose to market your CD to the general public world-wide. Alternatively, your CD might be used as a basic or advanced coaching manual in your organisation, club, or school. Just think of the hours of introductory coaching this might save you every year!
There are a wide variety of ways we could work together to achieve
this. First and foremost, however, I want you to be assured that under all circumstances you would always retain the absolute right and ownership of all your creative product. I certainly wouldn't be interested in giving up the rights to my ideas and I wouldn't ask you to, either.
As for how we might work together...
At one end of the publishing spectrum I might act as a traditional
publisher - I would develop the entire product package from your
manuscript, publish it and market it totally at my own expense. In this case you
would receive a royalty payment for every copy sold.
At the other end, you might decide to become involved in every stage of the
development and publishing of the CD including the marketing effort.
(My belief, by the way, is that your involvement in the marketing is
likely to provide a major advantage!) In this case the financial
arrangement we would make would reflect the extent of our respective involvements.
Given these possibilities my proposal is that we spend some time
getting familiar with each other before we take any decisions about how
we can (or can't!) proceed.
Of course, if I make an offer to you to publish your material I'll
expect to be properly recompensed for my work on your behalf - or to be
more accurate on behalf of your coaching CD.
You've never tackled anything like this before?
As a coach you are continually putting your ideas forward and I'll bet that you have constructive ideas about your sport that deserve a much larger audience than they currently receive.
I'm also betting that you've written game plans and coaching notes as
well as match reports and player and team evaluations. If need be I can
help you organise your thoughts - I may not know much about your sport
but I do know a bit about writing English - but remember, the CD is
going to be your work and it's only going to transmit your point of
view properly if it's in your 'voice.' By the way, if the idea of having to write everything down seems like a daunting task we could work together to construct a manuscript from your ideas recorded on audio tape.
How many CDs might you be able to sell?
I have no earthly idea. The minimum production run is usually 500
copies so that's a good place to start. The more copies the
smaller the unit cost.
eurekastreet.com would, of course, be available to provide a website to publicise your work and promote sales plus a complete marketing package.
What's the next step?
Well, if I've managed to get your interest perhaps you'll give some thought to how you
might want to go forward and, crucially, to how long it will take you
to get your ideas down on paper or on tape. I'll want to see (or hear!) a few chapters and a general outline of the rest of the work to be satisfied that we're
going to have a viable product before I spend too much time on the
project. Once your writing or taping is complete things can move fairly
rapidly.
me if I've sparked your interest and let's get the ball rolling.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Hutchinson
eurekastreet.com
|
