![]() Just within the past few weeks, potential authors have made the following faux pas when approaching us for publication: I can’t begin to tell you the many mistakes that authors make regarding this process. Failure to do so significantly lessens the chance that a publisher will option your manuscript. They must educate themselves on the requirements and submission processes of the publishing companies to which they desire to send manuscripts. Therefore, authors must be knowledgeable in approaching Christian publishers. Sans the knowledge of how a publishing company works, they submit their manuscripts to the publishing company and then are surprised when the company rejects the manuscript or does not respond at all. Unfortunately, many new or inexperienced authors don’t know this (hence the purpose of this article). Since the staff member at the publishing company (“first reader”) who has the responsibility of sorting through manuscript proposals is a very busy person, your manuscript proposal may have only a few seconds or minutes to impress this person before she decides whether the manuscript merits further consideration, or whether she rejects it. Therefore, fueled by market data, experience, and keen knowledge of the mission and vision of their company, most publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts develop guidelines for the author to follow when submitting a manuscript or deciding whether or not to submit one. For this reason, the average traditional publisher will accept only a small percentage of manuscripts that are submitted to them out of the hundreds, or many thousands, that they receive each month. Given that cost, publishers need to be certain that the books they acquire will sell enough copies to recoup that cost and make a profit. The cost to publish a book-editing, cover and interior design, illustrations, printing, marketing and promotion, advances-can run anywhere from the lower to high thousands. They will submit their manuscripts to a traditional publisher and hope and pray that the publisher will find merit in their books and award them contracts.īecause of the aforementioned competitive challenges, traditional publishers have to be very selective as to the books that they publish. While the emergence of self-publishing makes it easier and more economical for the average joe to get a book into print, many desire to go the traditional route. That doesn’t stop the many writers in this country who desire to have their books in print. That figure doesn’t even cover the cost of quality editing.” A few years ago, the industry was buzzing when statistics revealed that the average self-published author earns less than $500 from her books. According to the Nonfiction Authors Association, “generally speaking, most self-published authors will likely sell around 250 books or less. Although over 1 million self-published titles flooded the market in 2017, many self-published authors will sell few books. It is especially tough for self-publishing. Consequently, there is more and more for the reader to choose from, leading to a strongly competitive U.S. Every year, there is more and more content on the market. Publishing in the United States has seen steady growth since 2013, largely fueled by the rise in self-publishing and the emergence of e-Books. Having been a publisher for over twenty years, I can certainly attest to the truth of that statement. Someone once said to me that publishing is a tough business. ![]() ![]()
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