Researching publishers

My best advice would be to contact the marketing department of a publishing house, even the big ones, and simply ask what you want to know. Not only do they keep records of all their marketing performances but they usually have media kits with a lot of information already packaged that might be useful to you. Even the big publishing houses aren't (usually) the conglomerate monsters we sometimes take them for and will be very helpful. Hopefully this helps. Good luck.

Kindest Regards,

Dylan Emerick-Brown
Editor-in-Chief, Splash of Red; FreelanceEdit.com

I've decided to look into sending to Publishing houses that fit my work even though I'm still looking for a literary agent.
I know absolutely NOTHING about sending to a publisher.
If I was to e-mail the marketing department, what should I be asking? And while I'm on the subject (I can't find any posts on this), where should I be looking to find information on things like what a cover letter is as opposed to a query letter, and all the other questions I'm going to have to figure out before I start deciding on whom to send my material to???
And what exactly would I need to know if I decided to pursue sending to publishing companies?
Thanks loads!!!

Go to the library. Go to the 808 section that has all the books about writing and publishing.

You make that aisle your 2nd home. Read every book you can find there and get to know how the business side works. Almost every one of them will have information you can use.

You look for a book like this that will have most of the information you'll need:




It's not enough to have a book to sell, you have to know how to sell it and avoid the bad guys of publishing. If they want money from you, RUN.

You're in the right place. This board will have just about everything you need except an acquisitions editor.

Go through these threads:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26126

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152587

Read and bookmark this blog:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/05/victoria-strauss-learning-ropes.html

And never look for a publisher online by googling "book publisher." It's easy and fast, but 99% of the results will be scams or time wasting pay to publish operations or self-pub outfits, none of which can get your book into a store or an advance check into your bank account.

Bookmark and read everything at this website. Doesn't matter if you don't write in that genre, it has info you can use.

http://www.sfwa.org/category/business-of-writing/

Good luck!

Thank you!
I had no idea where to start!

talkwrite said:

How can I research the success publishers are having with sales of the books they market? Outside of purchasing Publishers Weekly, that is... My idea is to measure how well they perform their marketing. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Sales can be a tough thing to determine. But often publishers will put little blurbs in their catalogs (usually downloadable on their websites) next to book titles to encourage stores to order certain books. eg, "title x: over 50,000 copies sold." I think this is good b/c it points to what a publisher has done for a title. Not necessarily what your book will do, but it would be indicative of an active marketing department.

Publisher blogs can also be a good source of information on sales. They'll often announce when titles go to second printings, or when titles hit certain benchmarks: eg. "Bestseller" which, depending on where you are, can have different meanings, so be sure to qualify what the publisher is saying by "best seller." In Canada, for example, a "Canadian Best Seller" requires 5000 units sold. Not saying that's a huge number, just that you need to know how the term is being used.