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All publishers, large and small, want one thing: a book they can sell. The most important thing you can do to improve the chances that your manuscript will look like a book a publisher can sell – is a kind of HOMEWORK.
By homework, I don't mean the standard advice about looking up publishers in Writers' Market and getting the editor's name right, although those things are essential. This homework won't be explicitly included in your manuscript or query, but whether or not you've done it WILL be apparent to the person who evaluates your submission. What I'm talking about here is the insight you've developed into your own motivations. · WHY do you want to be published? · WHAT do you hope to get out of it? If you think the answers to those questions are obvious – you want fame and fortune – then you have a fairly straightforward path to follow: find an agent who can help you submit to major publishing houses. If, however, you decide to move down the publishing food chain and seek a smaller publisher, you're going to be at a competitive disadvantage if you haven't done your homework; and paging through Writers' Market and submitting to any publisher that lists a specific genre may not be enough. For example, Content Connections presented a study on Women and Books at BEA last year. That study, which surveyed more than 1600 women on book buying habits, included a question asking if the participants had intentions of writing their own book. Of those surveyed, 43% said yes. That's a lot of potential competition, and it doesn't even include men! Now, I can only speak from my own perspective here, but part of the homework that will give you an edge with a small publisher is to learn what that publisher is about. There is one simple question that can help you determine whether you know enough about a publisher to submit to them: · Have you read any of that publisher's books? This should be a given, but surprisingly, it's not. If you haven't read a publisher's books, then why are you submitting there? You have no way of knowing whether your own manuscript will be a good fit. That places you at a disadvantage when you're competing against others who are more familiar with a publisher's preferences. You don't need to read all of their books; you don't need to buy any of their books – go to the library – but it will serve you well to get a feel for a publisher by reading at least one of their books. Here are a few other things to keep in mind when researching a publisher: Where does that publisher sell their books? Do you often see them on the tables in Barnes & Noble? Are they stocked on the shelves there? Do you mostly see them in independent bookstores? Online? At conventions? · What kind of publicity does the publisher normally do? · Are their books frequently reviewed? Where? You can't necessarily find the answers to questions like these in a canned publishing guide, but you can find them out on your own, and if you do, you can tailor your submission to highlight items that are likely to appeal to a specific publisher. Now I don't mean you should lie to make yourself or your book sound more appealing. If lying is required, your chances of success are marginal at best. What I mean is that you can use your research to identify publishers with whom you have the best chances of acceptance. You can then make a point of highlighting items such as related online articles you've written, conventions you've attended, or professional studies, etc. to be sure the editor notices them. I know this sounds like a lot of extra work, and it is, but publishing isn't a business with large profit margins, and the smaller the publisher, the less likely they are to treat your book as a commodity. When we don't publish many books; each one is inherently important and so is each author. Insight is also important because we are aware of our differences from big publishers and many of us want to be sure you're aware of them too. For example, I received a submission in which an author expressed expectations for a book tour with radio and television interviews. The book sounded terrific, but I had to reject it because the author's expectations were so clearly a poor match with mine. Finding a match is the key reason for all this research. And if you can do that, it'll boost your chances immeasurably. In fact, I recently signed a contract with a Scottish archaeologist whose email query arrived in my inbox just like all the rest. Hers stood out, however, because she conveyed the ways in which we were a match, i.e., she had read one of our books, she loved history as well as archaeology, she was not looking for huge payoffs, and she was willing to pitch in however she could to help. None of that would have mattered had the book not been terrific, but it opened the door for me to discover how terrific the book is. And before you dismiss my suggestion as being too time-consuming, keep in mind that my focus here is from a very small publisher's perspective. I, personally, am looking for books equal in quality to those we've already published. But if you haven't read them, then you're at a competitive disadvantage to anyone who has. |
