Book Publishing From A Book Publisher’s Point Of View
Many writers aspire to write books. Writing a book is a long, involved, difficult process. Book publishing is harder. A writer may submit his book repeatedly only to be turned down. The writer may eventually succeed. Wouldn’t it have been easier to get published the first time? Is that possible?
You can improve your chances of a publisher accepting your book manuscript if you understand more about what happens at the publisher’s desk. Book publishers are busy people with several projects bombarding their desks every day. They must decide quickly about what will sell. They must also delegate their time efficiently to keep the business running. Only occasionally do publishers actually seek out work. Let’s look at a typical work day of a publisher to help you understand book acceptance and book publishing.
PERSIST AND PERSEVERE
Writers must be persistent. Regardless of how many times a publisher rejects your book manuscript and throws your ideas in the trash, you have to keep going back for more discouragement. Eventually you’ll make it in the door. If you can get all the way through, you will finally get to a place where publishers accept more of your work. When working with a book publisher, the rule is the same. If you have a book that you know will sell, you must persevere to get the publisher’s attention. Most likely, you will be sending excerpts of your book, not the entire book, to a publisher. As you continually send your manuscript or book excerpts to publisher after publisher, you should try to market it in different ways. Publishers seek a particular kind of writing; they will dismiss anything that doesn’t meet their criteria and high standards. Variation in your marketing techniques may turn a rejected book into an accepted book.
WHAT DO BOOK PUBLISHERS WANT?
Book publishing is a strange business. People’s tastes are somewhat fickle. A book publisher has to keep up with what kinds of books will sell. It seems mysteries will always have a place on the bookshelves. Crichton and Grisham may tie up the book market until they are finished. That is just one example from one genre of books. Publishers have to keep track of what is selling in all areas of literature. The best way for you to get your work noticed is to make it look similar to what is already selling in the marketplace. Be careful not to imitate style or voice of another author. Write with your own unique words while imitating the use of popular public opinion. Another way to improve your chances of getting published is to find out who’s publishing what.
ARE YOU MARKETING TO THE RIGHT PUBLISHER?
Some publishers specialize in a certain kind of writing. If you are writing a novel, you’ll look stupid (and get rejected) if you send it to publishers who publish technical manuals. How do you find out who is the most likely candidate to publish your work? There are reference manuals, such as Writer’s Market, at your library that will tell you who’s publishing what and what publishers are seeking. It will contain valuable information leading you to children’s book publishers, novel publishers, and textbook publishers. If the handbook at your library is not up to date, your next option is to check out the new releases and best sellers rack at the bookstore. Buy a few books and read them. You’ll have a much better feel for the book market as a consumer first, and book writer second.
Book publishing is difficult to break into. It can be helpful to approach the issue from the direction of the publisher. Before you submit your manuscript again, improve your chances of acceptance by following these tips:
1) Change your marketing style so that you grab attention;
2) Make sure you are a book consumer yourself. You’ll get a better feel for what’s selling and what a publisher will buy. You’ll also find out who is publishing which types of books.
3) Finally, by buying the product you are trying to sell, you will improve the book economy all together. Publishers need to see people buying books before they can commit to publishing more.
Many authors begin their careers with the single goal of getting their book published by a reputable publisher. Book publishing is difficult to accomplish. It takes many months of work and extensive preparation. Writing a book involves intricately woven ideas. A book is a project, and it may contain many other projects that involve research, development, and marketing. Most authors are disillusioned about the intensive process of creating a full, coherent book. Writing a book and finding a publisher is like nothing you have ever done before. It will take extensive and intensive work and development. It will also probably include much of everything you know, and more.
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What’s the process in publishing a book? Can someone give me the step by step process?
I have a manuscript that I’m almost finished on & I don’t know how to get it out there. I’m not the best in english language but the story is there. Publishers do edit, right?
1 – don’t handicap your manuscript.
Publishers (editors, actually) do not have time to correct every little mistake you, as the author, should be able to correct yourself. If you’re not the best at spelling and grammar, find someone to help you edit it. If you send in a manuscript with too many problems, they will never finish reading it to see if the story is any good.
2 – research publishing.
You need to know more about the process than just writing the story. You need to know how to format a manuscript, how to write a query letter and synopsis, the difference between traditional publishing and vanity (self publishing) presses, how to spot a scam before it bites you, what the benefits of having an agent are, and a lot of other stuff. You can start by getting a copy of the Writer’s Market or Author’s Yearbook.
3 – research agents and publishers.
There is no point in blindly sending your work to agents and publishers who do not handle the type of work (genre) you write, and, there are a lot of scams out there aimed at new writers. You can check the reputation of any agent or publisher with sites like writer beware of preditors & editors.
4 – select appropriate agent or publisher.
Visit their website and follow their submission guidelines.
5 – wait for either an offer (contract) or a rejection (and lots of good books get rejected many, many times)
I’m curious about the publishing process in a novel?
How does a publishing house publish the submitted books? And the submitted book is submitted in what form? Is it in handwriting or in computer document?If it is in a comp. document, how do writers submit them?
How long does it take to get your book published?I heard something about agents?And what’s a manuscript?What is the content of it?
Just curious. I’m 13, writing a book and I don’t know if I’m planning to publish it.
Well, when you commercially publish then you don’t have a choice. You have to write the best book you can and hope the publisher likes it. Most teens don’t write well enough to be published. The standard is very high and even very few adults can get a publisher to buy their work.
You can pay to have your book publish, but any fool can pay to publish and you won’t make money off it and no one beyond your family and friends will read your self-published book. Commercial publishing is when a publisher pays you for your work. Self-publishing is when you pay to have your book published. Completely different.
A manuscript is your book. No publisher will ever take a hand-written manuscript. They must always be typed. Authors and writers do not hand-write their manuscripts. I’m not talking about teen writers, I”m talking about professional writers. Teens are a whole different matter and usually don’t write well anyway. If you ever want a publisher to pay you for your work then your manuscript needs to be very well written. You can’t have any plot holes. Your characters and plots must be well developed. You have to have nearly perfect grammar and sentence structure. Many manuscripts get rejected for having bad grammar alone, so it does matter how well you write. Nothing’s stopping you from sending in a horribly written manuscript, but realize that you will be rejected and all you’re going to do is confirm to the agent or publisher that teens can’t write to save their lives. Publishers can spot bad writing from reading only the first few sentences of someone’s work. So, just remember that you’re young and you’re still learning the English language. Most people your age aren’t good enough with grammar to even get their foot in the door, which is why you see very few young authors. Most authors are adults and that’s because it takes years to hone your writing skill. So, it’s probably best to write for fun and worry about writing to be published when your writing is on the same level as the authors who’s books you admire. The exception is if you parents self-publish you, but any book that you put out there for the public to read will get criticism and self-published books are rarely good books, so you will get some harsh criticism about your writing and if you can handle that then maybe your parents will self-publish you – if all you want is to see your name on the cover of a book. But, self-publishing isn’t a publishing credit you can use to get a real publisher to buy your other work.
I did a course a few years ago and may have some helpful tips, I found that telling people that you want to write a book is like telling them you just grew a head out of your bum. You get the same look anyway.
Best way to write a book, is to write it. It won’t write itself. Even if you only do a few pages a week you’ll be surprised how fast you’ll have 100 pages or so. Don’t waste too much on on the mapping out the plot. I found if you keep the plot simple at the beginning and flesh out your characters in takes on a life of it’s own.
Have you work corrected, doesn’t have to be a professional maybe a friend or family member. If you can’t do this I found the best way is to not look or read you work for at least a month then go back and correct it yourself.
Do your research on publishers, what have you written and who is more likely to publish it. If you have written a kids book then you don’t send it to “biker monthly” Also check if they have had something similar published, they won’t want it if they already have it.
Check if they take unsolicited manuscripts. You will not need an agent if they do. Many do some don’t.
Some agents will not touch you if you haven’t had any work published but you sometimes need an agent to get published, catch 22 I know it sucks
Keep you cover letter short, only a few lines. they don’t care why you wrote it or who you are. Don’t annoy the editor with useless information. You should state the name of your story, how many words it is (not pages) your name and if you want the manuscript back (never ask for it back, let them keep it). include a stamped self addressed envelop. it can take up to 6mth to get a reply, do not annoy the editor with follow up questions. Try http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_write_a_cover_letter
Always submit manuscripts double spaced and with your name and the title on each page. don’t staple anything, put a rubber band around it. before you sent it to the publisher, send a copy to yourself and DO NOT open it. make sure the date is stamped on it by the post office. this is just as good as a copy write if someone ever decides to steal your work. Publishers have better thing to do than steal work, it would be like you stealing a chocolate bar when you have 500 at home for free.
Get a recent copy of the “Australian writers marketplace” about $50 but so worth it. May have something similar for the country you live in. Also get a ‘style manual’ (for authors, editors and printers)
Good luck and don’t let anyone tell you, your crazy or it’s a waste of time. Its good fun too
How do you publish a book? very broad but could anyone tell me the process?
I want to write a book and get it published but I don’t know anything about it. Like, how do you find an agent? How do you write a manuscript? What does a manuscript look like? Could anyone just explain the whole process to me? from writing and planning it out to actually publishing it.
Does publishing your own book means a big sum of initial investment?
Want to understand how publishing process works. As the author, after writing a manuscript, passing it to a publisher, is payment to publisher required? What are the common amount of royalties? Anyone knows good publisher for first-time writers?
So long as somebody other than you yourself publishes the book, it’s not expensive. In the old days writers would simply mail their manuscripts (or a query letter and a couple of chapters, seeking an advance) to publishers, and negotiate deals. The addresses were in a thick book called Writer’s Market – now there’s a web site:
http://www.writersmarket.com/
For most new writers the major expense is what economists call the “opportunity cost” of spnding time on writing as compared with spending the same time doing something else that could be more profitable. If you enjoy the time spent writing and are not short of money that you might be earning doing another thing, then it’s not expensive. If you’re forcing yourself and would rather be doing something else, or could make more money doing something profitable that you have better training and connections to do, maybe change focus and use the better opportunity..
I am fifteen and I’m working on my very first novel, can someone explain the publishing process?
I have the book in manuscript form but how do I get an editor and things like that when I am done with the story?
Here’s one of my previous answers:
Publishing can be a grueling process… though it really depends. If you’re a first-timer it may end up being harder than say a writer who’s written at least 1-2 books.
Steps:
1. Make a list or find out which publisher you plan on using.
2. Write a query letter. (Information provided in link 1#)
3. Hire an Agent (Optional, though makes your job a lot easier) (Information provided in link 2#)
4. Be patient, once you’ve gotten a publisher you need to wait for a response, considering all the possible query letters waiting for review it may take time. Don’t give up hope though. Perseverance! If one publisher denies you, try another.
Or perhaps edit your story, there’s always room for improvement.
Good Luck publishing!
I’ve asked a few publishing/writing related questions perhaps they may help answer your question further. Each or placed in a specific category:
Regarding the income of a writer:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjPlmiAm0at0MVWtfLMocg_sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080502060002AAVUFxX
______________
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkHoLfsfDBybWMlIyLPvROnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080418055722AAnomeK
Regarding Publishers:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aj7GLJUCuSaq5nW.gW7Cgq_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080507170937AAaRtwq
Regarding Story Length:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlYHwTrC.K_X7eWEiGdNASnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080425124148AAZOnHL
I hope this helps, and once again Good Luck!