T H E F E A R L E S S
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ALTHOUGH most people still think of “getting published” as a process of finding an agent and landing an advance from a major New York house, the conventional route is increasingly difficult to navigate — and the contemporary publishing scene offers many alternatives. This page offers a basic summary of the routes to book publication available today (check back for frequent updates and improvements). Topics include:
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AGENCY REPRESENTATION
You can submit your work to agents in the hope of finding representation to major publishers. It’s the major publishers, based mostly in New York, who pay monetary advances. A good directory of literary agents is online at www.writers.net/agents.html, or you can search the database of the Association of Authors' Representatives.You can also check the current edition of Writer’s Market, available in most bookstores and libraries (www.writersmarket.com). The “bible” of directories, usually available in public libraries, is Literary Marketplace (www.literarymarketplace.com), a comprehensive listing of book publishers, agents, and other resources in the field. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents (The Writer Books) gives some specific information on selected agents and their subject preferences.
Try to choose agents whose field of expertise and/or interests match your work. After you’ve chosen ten or fifteen possibilities, prepare a presentation package for your work that includes:
- A ONE-PAGE cover letter succinctly describing your manuscript or project
- a ONE-PARAGRAPH biographical statement, focusing on your writing and publishing history (include a brief CV or resumé from another field if you have not been published)
- A self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for the agent’s reply
- No more than 25 pages of sample text
More and more agents are accepting queries by e-mail, but some still do not. In every case, it is best to know as much as you can about a particular agent before making a submission, and follow that agent’s preferences for submissions. Try to check agency websites rather than depending on printed directories for the most current submission requirements. One ironclad rule: NEVER send a large sample, or an entire manuscript, until an agent has expressed an interest in seeing it. The fact is that agents will often determine whether they are interested in your work from your cover letter, both in terms of how well it is written and whether your subject matter happens to interest them. (See the Fearless “Fast Assessment” page.) Beware of agents who charge “reading fees” before they have accepted you as a client; you will likely end up paying for a rejection that most agents will give you for free! Agents make a living from a percentage (the standard is 15%) of the sales they make; some of them may also itemize and charge office expenses in the course of representing your work.
Do not try to flatter or cajole agents in your cover letter, and resist the temptation either to praise or denigrate your own work. A factual statement of what you have to offer, and why you think it deserves publication, is enough. Finally, don’t phone or e-mail agents to find out their decision; that’s what the SASE is for. Agents can take weeks or months to reply, or they may never reply. Don’t waste your energy worrying about those who don’t respond. If you don’t get any positive responses from your first round of cover letters, do a second round and so on.
If you are writing fiction, agents who are interested in your work will request either a sample with a synopsis of the full work, or the complete manuscript. Nonfiction authors will be expected to submit a proposal. Two guides to proposal writing are pictured here: Michael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal (Writer’s Digest Books) and Moira Allen’s Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals (Allworth Press). Literary agent Ted Weinstein offers a free 90-minute “Proposal Boot Camp" seminar online. Other good references include Write the Perfect Book Proposal by Jeff Herman and Deborah Adams (John Wiley & Sons), Susan Page’s The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book (Broadway Books), and the YouCanWrite website.
Finally, you can advertise unpublished manuscripts to agents and publishers online at Authorlink: www.authorlink.com.
The Independent Press
Or you can research the rapidly growing field of the independent press, and find a publisher yourself who might not give you money up front but who is more likely to be loyal to your work over the long term. Agents generally don’t work with the smaller publishers because their advances are small or nonexistent, and agents live on their commissions.The leading association of independent publishers in the US is Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) at 627 Aviation Way, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, phone (310) 372-2732 (www.pma-online.org). Another national group is the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), P.O. Box 1306, Buena Vista, CO 81211, phone (719) 395-4790 (www.spannet.org).
Co-op or “POD” Publishing
A recent development in alternative publishing is the rise of co-op publishers, who charge authors fees for the production and publication of their works. This method is a step above traditional “vanity publishing,” in which authors bear the full cost of publication for a very small number of conventionally printed books.Some co-op firms let you retain your own rights as the publisher, others do not. Most of them arrange for the printing of books via print-on-demand (POD) technology, meaning that books are produced only in the quantities ordered, eliminating the need to maintain inventory. If you plan to produce a single title that is likely to sell in low quantities (less than 1000 copies) POD production may be the most sensible route. Some authors now produce POD versions of their own books in order to promote them to conventional publishers.
Co-op publishers vary in the amount and quality of production and publicity services they provide, so it is important to check out their offers and contracts carefully. Keep in mind that you will do the lion’s share of publicity work for your book (although that’s often true even if you have a mainstream publisher!). If you are willing to invest in your work but don’t want to get involved in all the technical aspects of publishing yourself, working with a co-op firm may be the right way for you. For a recent reference work in the field, see John Harnish’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About POD Publishing (Infinity Publishing).
Survey and compare the following co-op publishers to get a feel for this new approach:
Here are two websites comparing the costs and benefits of various POD publishers:
Problems & Benefits of POD • PublishOnDemand.net
Or see The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies—Analyzed, Ranked & Exposed (click on Amazon box, right)
Electronic Publishing
Paper-free publishing is a rapidly evolving realm that does not yet have wide public acceptance, but may well be the wave of the future. If you need ink, paper, and binding for your work in order to feel like a real author, then this option is not for you — but there have been some notable commercial successes in this field. Some e-publishers also produce POD books, and some do not; some may be here today but gone tomorrow. Thus, make sure you have a thorough and up-to-date self-education in the field before committing your work to any particular firm.Some online references about e-publishing include:
- EPIC: Electronically Published Internet Connection
- ePublishing Overview at Writers Write
Visit the following electronic publishers to get an education in this field:
Self-Publishing
If you have the determination and a little money to invest, you can become your own publisher. There are two leading reference works in this field: Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross (founders of SPAN). Online, a good place to start studying this field is Dan Poynter’s “ParaPublishing“ site at www.parapublishing.com. You have to be willing to become a businessperson and self-promoter as well as a writer, and to handle or hire out such necessary tasks as book design and production, accounting, warehousing and inventory management, publicity, advertising, and more.
Fearless Literary founder
D. Patrick Miller
served as the technical
editor for this recent title
from Wiley:
SELF-PUBLISHING FOR DUMMIES
by Jason R. Rich.
A Special Note to Poets
The most comprehensive guide to poetry markets is Poets Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books. Two of the leading “establishment” sites for poets online include the Academy of American Poets at www.poets.org and Poets & Writers magazine at www.pw.org. The print version of P&W is also available at many newsstands. The Poetry Society of America is at www.poetrysociety.org. One of the most venerable and well-funded poetry publications is Poetry Magazine at http://www.poetrymagazine.org/.
Poetry is a very demanding realm of literature in which you should generally not expect commercial reward or compensation for your work. Few poets have literary agents because there is not enough money in the field except at the very top for agents to receive a significant commission. To have a volume of poetry published by a major house, you must generally have a long track record of being published in literary magazines. There are countless thousands of unpaid poets, however, who write for their own satisfaction, share their work in small groups, and publish small editions and chapbooks on their own.
Screenwriting
Here are several reliable online resources for screenwriters. For expert critiques and consultations, click on the banner for Fearless Literary Associate Alexandra Leh, below..
- Break into Screenwriting (Lenore Wright)
- Creative Screenwriting Magazine
- Movie Bytes (screenwriting contests and markets)
General Reference Sites
The following sites offer good general information for writers:
Mystery Writers of America
www.mysterywriters.org/
Resources for Writers (Midwest Book Review)
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Romance Writers of America
http://www.rwanational.org
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
http://www.sfwa.org/
Writers Digest
www.writersdigest.com
Writers Net
www.writers.net
WritersWrite
www.writerswrite.com
Writing World
www.writing-world.com
