Anatomy of a Book… Submitting to a Commercial Publisher… READ BEFORE YOU LEAP

Okay, so you’ve written a book. Okay, so you want the book published. Okay, you’ve decided to submit your work to a commercial publisher. So what do you do? The first thing you should do is read the publisher’s submission guidelines.

In recent blog posts, I discussed the three main roads to getting a book published (commercial, indie (or self) publishing and vanity publishing) and what authors need to know about the process of publishing before you decide which road you take.

If you’ve decided to submit your work to a commercial publisher before trying the indie publishing or vanity publishing routes, the first thing any self–respecting writer should do is check out the publisher’s website. It’s the first thing I did before I decided to go the indie publishing route. I did it before I even finished writing my first novel.

Why? Because I wanted to know whether the publishers I was considering published the type of work I was writing. And I wanted to know how I would go about putting a submission together. A submission that would be what the publisher wanted.

All of the major commercial publishing houses have submission “guidelines”… the “rules” for submissions… the way they want authors to submit their work for consideration. Even smaller publishers (the mid–list publishers, and independent publishers, like BDA Books) have submission “guidelines”. Some don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts direct from authors (and require work to be submitted via an agent). Others accept submissions by email only once a week, on a specified day of the week, during a specified time on that particular day. More variations include accepting by post or by email, with the material posted or emailed to be in a specified format.

Many top notch literary agents also have submission guidelines for the very same reasons as publishers have submission guidelines.

Publishers and literary agents, large or small, have submission guidelines for a reason: it’s a “job interview”! Or, most times, it’s what they’re looking for in a business partner: because publishing a book is the venture or partnership between the author and the publisher of publishing the book! Just like applying for a job, or working out a business venture agreement, in the “real world”, authors should treat submission guidelines the same way.

Proposals submitted in accordance with submission guidelines help publishers sort through the proposals they receive, just as employers would sort through job applications. They help publishers identify those who are not serious about the business of writing, i.e. the publishing process.

The material publishers ask for, and the way they ask for it, gives publishers what publishers need to a) track your submission (your “job application”), and b) make a decision.

Just as an employer can’t base a decision on a “I want a job” statement, a publisher can’t base any decision on a query about querying – the sort of “I have a [x genre] novel that I’d like to send your way; may I query you”. Just like any other job interview, why would a publisher consider publishing your work if you can’t be “bothered” reading the job advertisement and following the application requirements. But you expect them to invest effort reading and evaluating your work?

Submission guidelines, like job descriptions, help publishers find authors with work that is the “best fit” for the type of work they publish. You can’t be bothered to invest the time researching the people you might do business with, but you expect them to invest effort reading and evaluating your work?

And it works the other way too: Just as an author should be bothered to invest the time researching a company they may wish to work for outside the writing industry, writers should also be bothered to invest the time researching the people they might do business with. Does the publisher you want to submit to publish the genre in which you’ve written? Et cetera. Et a. And all the rest.

Brian Evenson, a professor of literary arts at Brown University (located in Rhode Island in the United States), recently put together this definitive 11-point list, Advice for Future applicants of Brown’s Master of Fine Arts program on his Facebook page (which was referenced in the LA Times). This list of guidelines should also act as a reference when submitting to publishers!

Submission guidelines work as a two way street.

Authors, what do you think of publishers’ submission guidelines?

Acquisitions editors, what do you think of the responses you get to submission guidelines?

Tell me about your experiences!