Publishing a book, part two

Dear Bob …

I really appreciate the advice on writing/getting published.  It’s been one of my goals for quite some time. Unfortunately, I have spent more time thinking about it than doing it. I do have a few follow up questions for you:

1) Where do you find publishers?  I know there are many and don’t have a clue about where to begin to select one (or a few) or how to best contact them to initiate the process.

2) Once you find a publisher, what do they offer in the way of help or resources?

3) You mentioned that you had written 8 books, but only published 4.  You stated that it was best to make a proposal to a publisher first, and then write the book. What happened with the other 4?

4) I always thought that before writing a book, a good strategy was to try to get something shorter, like an article, published first.  Any thoughts on that strategy?

5) I’ve also toyed with the idea of launching a website where I could post some “chunks” of ideas or material that could ultimately be re-used and tied together into chapters of a book.  I guess someone could steal my material easily, but it might offer some insight into whether there is a captive audience.  You talked about marketing… If you can provide some data to a publisher that you already have a faithful following, isn’t there a better chance of getting them to publish your work?  Once again, any thoughts on that strategy would be appreciated.

– Looking to publish

Dear Looking …

In order:

1. The easiest ways to find them are either through a book, updated annually, titled (this year) the 2005 Writer’s Market (Brogan and Brewer), or by visiting your local bookstore, finding books aimed at the same audience you’re targeting, and writing down the publishers of those books. How to contact them? These days, nearly every book publisher has a website that includes the submission process.

Of course, the submission process is nearly worthless. It isn’t all that different from a job search. You can use the standard submission process and you have a chance, or you can view this as a sales process, dig in, and fire rifle shots rather than shotgun blasts. Nothing will give you good odds, of course, but then, the ratio of authors to published books is pretty high. It’s the nature of the game.

2. When you get a book contract, a good publisher will always copy edit and handle layout, production, and distribution. Even better, some will provide a fact-checker. Indexing is a negotiated item.

3. What happened to the other four? Three I wrote without a publisher. One was fiction (universal response: “Loved the characters. Loved the writing. If this had a plot, we’d publish it in a heartbeat!”). One I wrote before I had any credentials (universal response: “Loved the writing. Liked the content. If you had a shred of credibility with the audience you’re targeting we’d consider it.”) I wrote one about managing PCs in the days before Windows; no publisher would go near it – they all wanted technical how-to books back then. And the fourth was yanked by the publisher a week before it was to hit the presses due to the financial reversals that followed the dot-bomb days.

4. Absolutely. It goes back to the credentials issue – if you’ve published a few things successfully, a book publisher at least knows you’re capable of writing something and that some other publisher thought you were worth ink and space. If you’ve published quite a few things, it tells a book publisher some readers find you credible.

5. Absolutely again. The more you can demonstrate to a book publisher that there’s a market for your writing – an audience who likes what you say – the more credible your proposal. The challenge here is to make sure you haven’t damaged the publisher’s ability to copyright the work. It isn’t insurmountable … it isn’t even difficult … so long as you plan for this before posting to the website.

Of course, now you have to successfully market the website, but that’s a different subject, about which way too much has already been written.

One other point: Quite a few correspondents asked about or suggested self-publishing. If your goal is to write and print a book, it’s an outstanding alternative, assuming you’re willing to handle the layout as well as the writing. Many of the companies supporting self-publishing will handle the arrangements with the online booksellers, too.

If your goal is to get your book into actual bookstores, though, you need the distribution channels that are available to publishers.

– Bob

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