This episode is to help scholarly authors find the best press for their manuscript and discuss how to contact editors.
Hi writers!
In the last episode I talked about when you should start reaching out to scholarly presses and setting up meetings with acquiring editors to talk about your book project.
The moral of the story is that there is no one-size-fits-all model to getting your book published.
As I’ll tell you about later in this episode, even my own two books had vastly different journeys to publication.
As a first-time author, I was so frustrated with how tough it is to find out accurate information on what you should do and when, as well as by how shielded this info seems to be from the general public.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably just relied on asking the published authors you know for advice —including people like your mentors, colleagues, and peers.
The problem with this approach is that you are likely to receive conflicting advice because their recommendations are based on their own personal experiences or anecdotal evidence.
Even your advisors likely don’t have a wide range of knowledge about this topic.
And I don’t know about you, but the thought of pouring my precious time and energy into writing a 200+ page manuscript and not finding a publisher is truly terrifying!
Therefore, today’s episode builds on the last one, by answering another set of pressing questions that first-time authors often have:
How do you determine the best press for your manuscript? And, once you decide that you are ready to contact editors, how do you actually do it?
So let’s start by talking a bit about how to identify the best place for your book to be published.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you’ll just publish with whatever press just seems interested in your work.
No! You have important things to share with the world, so your book should find a home with the most appropriate place.
And unlike other parts of scholarly publishing, this is an area where you actually have some agency, so do your research and make it count.
In basic terms, there are two main types of scholarly publishers — university presses and commercial academic presses.
University presses may be considered more prestigious and have a wider reach, but both publish high-quality peer-reviewed work.
Before you contact editors about your project, it’s super important to get a sense of the current publishing landscape.
Here’s a three step-process you can use to choose a press that will be a good fit for your manuscript:
#1: The first step is to ask yourself what you want to achieve by publishing your book and decide which type of press better suits your needs.
For example, consider where you are in your career.
Junior scholars such as postdoctoral fellows or assistant professors have much more to gain professionally by publishing their book sooner and with a higher-tier press than someone who already has tenure.
Also check in with yourself about what you want your book to achieve in terms of reach.
Would you like it to be read by a broader population of non-expert readers, or would you be happy with your audience being primarily comprised of students and specialists in your field?
That’s because some presses primarily publish hard cover books at a higher price point, which will limit the general public’s ability to read it.
#2: The second step is to check your bookshelf and journals in your discipline to see who has published your favorite books from the past few years.
Make sure to go back no further than five years because presses really want you to be staying up-to-date with current debates.
This will be true for when you write about the broader market in your book proposal as well.
As you’re looking, keep an eye out for books that are similar to your own. These could be in terms of topic, research methods, and/or theory.
Think about what you specifically like or admire about each book. Is it the author’s way of writing? The subject matter? The innovativeness of the argument and ideas?
#3: After doing this, make a list of 3-4 potential presses. Go to all of their websites and read their author submission guidelines.
What they each ask for may differ, so it’s a good idea to record this information onto a spreadsheet.
Press websites typically list editors’ contact info along with their areas of specialization.
On your spreadsheet, make note of which acquiring editor would be the best person for you to reach out to at each press and record their contact info.
As a side note, developmental editor Laura Portwood-Stacer has a lot of great ideas about how to and when to contact editors in her book about academic book proposals.
It’s called The Book Proposal Book, which was published recently by Princeton University Press.
It also includes a handy list of questions you can ask acquisitions editors when you meet, so check it out.
So once you’ve done this legwork—and you ideally also have a polished book proposal and 1-2 sample chapters to share—you are ready to contact editors! Here are three main ways to go about doing this.
#1: Reach out to people you know in your field or a similar one who have published books with the 3-4 presses on your list.
Ask them about their experiences and whether they would be willing to introduce you to their editor over email.
In the case of my first book, I asked a senior colleague whose work I admired if she could introduce me to her editor at one of my dream presses.
She obliged and sent a lovely email to this editor playing up the strengths of my work.
The editor responded quickly and offered to read over my materials. In the end, the press wasn’t interested in my book, but it was a nice experience.
#2: Email editors a few weeks prior to any major conferences in your field that they would likely attend based on their listed interests.
I used this approach often, as I had preliminary conversations with various acquisitions editors at probably three different points in time.
My emails always included a one-paragraph-long description of my project, my book proposal, and CV, as well as a request to meet at the conference.
Editors usually responded quickly to set up a meeting, or, as in one case, to convey that their press wasn’t a good fit for my project. What’s nice is that they suggested another instead.
#3: The third thing you can do, which might be what most people do, is to send a cold email with all of the materials you have ready.
However, because there’s nothing pressing in terms of time, you might not hear back right away or at all.
This isn’t a problem.
Maybe the editor is traveling and your email got buried. Just wait a few weeks and then send the exact same email again with your materials.
If you receive a positive response (and I really hope you do!), I recommend arranging a phone call or Zoom meeting with the editor rather than relying solely on email correspondence.
Because acquisitions editors are the public faces of their presses and they handle so much of the process, they can be in contact with literally hundreds of different authors at any one time.
Therefore, like anything in life, it always helps to have a human connection.
As I talked about on the last episode, these are relationships that build over time, so it’s great for them to have a face to connect with your work.
I also wanted to mention that a lot of times editors actually contact you!
Editors are constantly on the lookout for new ideas and they might reach out to you if you are presenting your work at conferences.
This was the case with my second book.
An acquisitions editor at Rutgers University Press reached out to me to meet at a national conference after seeing my panel topic and paper description.
It turned out that two of the people on my panel had already published books in an Asian American Studies series that she oversaw, and she thought my book would make an excellent addition.
What’s interesting is that I had decided against turning this project into a book awhile earlier.
It was something I had started as a side passion project while I was finishing up fieldwork for my first book. I had published two journal articles from it and planned to publish two more before moving onto something else.
However, this editor was very convincing. She assured me I could write a really short manuscript and she would push it through quickly.
And that’s exactly what happened!
This was totally different to the path of my first book. For that, I met with then acquisitions editor at Stanford Press.
She read the three chapters I had ready and liked what she read.
However, she wasn’t willing to send it out for review until I had the full manuscript ready—something that is a standard policy for a lot of presses when it comes to first-time authors.
She then met with me several times over the course of the next nine months to talk about my progress while I finished the second half of the manuscript.
At that point, she sent it out to two people for external review.
My manuscript was very polished, which was due to a few different factors.
The first was the fact that I had been working on it non-stop for the five years I had spent out of grad school.
The second was the fact that I was an insufferable perfectionist who found it impossible to let things go.
And the third was that I had worked with an awesome developmental editor who helped with the argument, organization, and flow of the manuscript.
(As a side note, I can hear you asking—what is a developmental editor, and should I hire one? Tune in for a future episode where I’ll address this question!)
All the work I had put up front paid off in the end with a contract followed by publication in fairly short order.
So all of this brings us back again to the one truism about academic book publishing: there’s no one way to do it!
Because you’ve never published a book before, it’s not easy to navigate this process by yourself.
If you’d like some help, check out the “Work with Leslie” page on my website.
Find out more about my signature coaching program and how I work with new authors to ensure you’re completely ready to dive into the publishing world.
I hope you’ve found my advice about determining the best press for your manuscript and contacting editors helpful!
Keep moving forward with your writing one step at a times, and I’ll see you next time.
If you enjoyed this episode, also check out:
Episode 6: When Should You Talk to Editors?
Episode 24: Should You Submit to More Than One Press at the Same Time?