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How do I connect with book publishers?

I am an aspiring author looking for publishers, editors, and agents for my upcoming books and I would love to know how to get connected and into the publishing world. #writing #author #publishing

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Bobby’s Answer

Connect with indie writers on social media. Get to know the indie world before trying to swing for the fences with Big 5 publishing. They reject 90% of what comes across their desks. But, with indies, they're smaller run operations with a lot more time to work with an author.


Now that said, you still need to work on your chops. Keep plugging away at getting good. But, be a part of the indie lit community and don't jump in all, "LOOK AT ME, I WANT YOU TO PUBLISH MY BOOKS," cuz, ain't no one gonna want to deal with that. It's about mutual support and growing. A lot, if not most writers to land in the Big 5 waters played ball down in the indies for a while.

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Graham (Rusty)’s Answer

Helana,
I suggest you connect with published authors in your area and pose this same question. You may have better luck with a local or regional publisher first. Once your work is published and receives some attention, seek out larger publishers.
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Susan E.’s Answer

Do you have any works that you've already written? Have you joined any writing communities to help give you initial feedback? Have you connected with online communities? Those might be some good leads and ideas for you.
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Simeon’s Answer

To catch the eye of a traditional publisher starting out, you'll need to prove your ability to draw a large readership. Some of the modern ways of doing that are starting a blog and social media presence where people follow you. Draw a large online audience and build your digital footprint and you'll be more likely to be accepted by a potential publisher.

While you are waiting, find a good editor that you trust. Having professional eyes look over your work is worth every penny you can get. Be careful about posting your work online as you don't know who might try to repurpose it as their own work. Get the first edition of your work completed as quickly as possible and work on being a ruthless editor of your own work. If this is your first book, you might need to develop an online audience on YouTube, social media, or with a blog to prove to potential publishers that there is a market for your book. If you end up not being able to line up a publisher, you can use Amazon.com to self-publish. Amazon offers the service of being able to print off your book one copy at a time, so you don't have to worry about printing them off in batches.
Thank you comment icon Hi Simeon! I think the student is looking for some information on connecting with publishers, as opposed to editors. Do you have any insights on publishers as well? Thanks also for mentioning self-publishing! Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
Thank you comment icon Howdy, thanks for the feedback. I added some information related to traditional publishers at the beginning of the comment as well. Simeon Snow
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Sen’s Answer

Hi Helana,

I am delighted to answer your question! Although I have published a book named "Naga Movement: Longest Surviving Insurgency in Asia" recently wherein I didn't have to face any problem to find a publisher as I was in touch with this publisher (Manas Publishers, Delhi, India) since long and being a famous publisher on this kind of subject (written by Military and civilian officers, politicians etc) in India, I had no issues to go with him.


Well, now I am looking for a different publisher (with a global presence/reach) as the subject is different and thereby readership is much wider and from a different age group. Thus I was thinking to carry out my own research work for global publisher.


After seeing your question, I immediately picked up five famous books from my mini library and did some research. Let me tell you that I have got my first list of publishers whom I think you can also approach provided your work falls on their domain. I shall name here five of the publishers in order of priority:

  1. Simon and Schuster Inc. It has offices in almost all the continents/major countries but HQ is USA.
  2. Hay House Inc. Carlsbad, CA, USA and many other coutries.
  3. Sage Publishers.
  4. Canongate Books: UK
  5. Piatkus Books (part of Little Brown Group) : UK

But in case, you are working on novels, fiction or short stories then you should consider names like Harper Collins, The Atlantic or Virginia Quarterly etc. So you have to do some kind of assessment/segmentation of your work and go to the net. I am giving one site where you can find decent publishers from USA:

www.publishersglobal.com/directory/united-states/publishers-in-united-states/


A word of caution: Please don't get disheartened by rejections by big publishing houses. I hope you know that JK Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers before success, so search for a good publisher in your domain and don't fall prey of shady publishers.


All the very Best!

Sen recommends the following next steps:

Once they agree to publish, make sure that you have a legal contract with them and get it vetted by a lawyer/attorney or an experienced person who has domain knowledge of publishing etc.
Find out mail id/addresses of publishers, then connect with them along with your rough draft of book or proposal as the case may be. You might have to do for couple of publishers.
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