Book Proposals, Rejection Rates, and Financial Compensation of Authors: Trade vs Academic Publishers

Today there are 100s of publishing houses. In fact, some of them use “house” in their names. After the previous bloggorino, you should have some inkling on whether you need a trade or academic publisher. Let’s probe these options in a little more detail.


TRADE PUBLISHING

Commercial trade publishers, such as Random House, For-Sale House, and Fore-Closed House, require only a detailed prospectus of your planned book to make an initial decision. I recommend checking individual publisher prospectus requirements.


The biggest problem is that most of these publishers rarely consider unsolicited manuscripts, unless your name is Tom Wolfe or you wear white suits. You need to hire a literary agent or secret agent to promote your submission. (Note: If Jack Bauer wasn’t preparing episodes for the spring season of 24, he would be an ideal choice to persuade a publisher to publish your masterpiece, if ya know what I mean. Wink. Wink.) Rejection rates are typically greater than 90% (kinda like the best journals). If you’re not Stephen King or Dave Barry, find another band. If the publisher is interested in your work, it will request a more detailed or extensive “treatment” of the content.



In general, if your book is accepted and published, you will receive a “book advance,” in lieu of royalties, which is one lump sum to be determined by the publisher. If you’re a newbie unknown writer, that amount is usually less than $1 mill. That’s it. There are no regular life-long royalty payments. Instead of the advance, some publishers may offer a royalty of 10-15% of net sales until the book is dead.



ACADEMIC PUBLISHING



Commercial academic publishers, such as John Wiley and His Sons---Jossey Bass, Cliffs Notes, and Betty Crocker (Can you believe that John named 1 of his sons Betty?), and university presses, which are covered in lots of ivy on high towers, typically require a brief prospectus, including a content outline and a couple of sample chapters. Check individual publisher prospectus requirements. Rejection rates with these publishers are also extremely high with the exact percentage locked in a vault somewhere in Langley, VA.



Once your book proposal is accepted, you can negotiate a royalty, which is typically in the range mentioned above. Sometimes publishers will consider a graduated scale, such as 10% for up to 2000 copies sold, 12.5% for 2001-3500, and 15% above 3500. These escalating rates encourage the author to promote his or her book to receive the higher rates. The publishers usually only have to sell a few hundred books to cover all production, printing, and distribution costs. They’re already riding the gravy train while you continue to market your book. (Marketing will be covered in a future blog.)



I hope these options help to clarify where you need to direct your publishing efforts. The next blog will address one of the most popular choices for trade books and most dissed and evil option for academic books: self-publishing (aka “vanity publishing”). Keep on writing.
Please comment on your publishing experiences and any of the above.


COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC