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
What type of book are you considering? Who is your target audience or niche market? College faculty in your discipline or research specialty? All college faculty? College students? K-12 teachers? Parents? Assorted livestock and small farm animals? Your answers to these 47 questions will determine whether you need an academic or trade publisher or one that distributes to both markets.
TRADE vs. ACADEMIC PUBLISHING
What’s the difference between trade and academic publishing? (Note: I know I’ve bombarded you with loads of questions, but you’ll notice that this one’s rhetorical. Just relax and listen up!) Think of the trade market as traditional “bookstoreland.” If your book would appeal to golfers, Oprah watchers, or other groups of seemingly “normal” people, then you need to think Trade-World.
Academic-World is the alternative. Academic publishers are appropriate if your audience is college faculty, K-12 teachers (most education titles are produced by academic publishers), or students. Books for students can also cross the line into Trade-World if they are self-help books related to S.A.T. and other test preparation, study skills, college survival, or even time management.
Trade-World and Academic-World publishers are very different in terms of manuscript submission procedures, author earnings, book distribution and promotion, and other aspects of publishing. These differences will be examined in the next few blogs.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Book publishing has been around since prehistoric times. Producing a book during those times was very time consuming and expensive. Each one had to be chiseled on stone tablets. Several tablets were required for lengthy books. They also became very heavy. A NYTimes best seller of 8 pages could weigh 50 lbs. You’d need a derrick to lift a John Grisham-type novel.
Fortunately, that production process has changed significantly over the last 9 billion years, give or take a month or 2. It’s become more streamlined and less expensive, especially with Print on Demand (POD). Now you can lift a Grisham novel even without a wheelbarrow.
WHAT IS POD?
It means printing books on a computerized press with lasers and toner like a monster laser or inkjet printer. It can efficiently and inexpensively produce just a single copy of a book. Previously, publishers would have to print several 1000 copies to keep cost per copy low. POD has been used to keep in print books whose sales have dwindled to a trickle. It can save on storage costs and tying up money on printing 12 copies that may take a year to sell. POD has also been applied to scholarly books that may sell 400 copies or less during their “life.”
Now POD is used by self-publishers and even major publishers for slow-selling books and urgent orders. How does the quality compare to books printed the old-fashioned way by offset or litho printing? They’re pretty close. In fact, most people can’t see the difference. That factor alone provides a compelling argument for its value to commercial publishers.
Whatta ya think, writers? There are more options for book publishing now than ever before. Future blogs will cover trade, academic, and self-publishing. Stick around.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: I gratefully appreciate the feedback from my publisher John von Knorring (Stylus Publishing) on an earlier draft of this blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
