Non-fiction proposal question

Are you asking if a publisher will provide financial assistance in acquiring materials you need for your project? In my experience, that's a tough get, but the moment I say it's unlikely, someone will jump in with a Nuh Uh, I Did It, so I'll defer to someone who may have managed to do it.

In my experience, however (two nonfiction books, medium and large publishers), I've never gotten any financial aid for purchasing materials at any step in the process. I'm guessing that's what they thought the advance might go toward, if I needed such things.

I think it would be safe to say that is not normal procedure. Mostly they pay for the book. Making the book is not so much their problem. I have had them pay for rights to photographs but that is about it.

Another real bummer in writing non-fiction: you'll also have to do the indexing yourself, or pay someone to do it for you.

(. . . and yes, I know that some people have gotten the costs of this included in their contracts. I have not been so lucky, in multiple tries.)

Ditto

I figured that'd be the case. I have set aside $500 for research materials, but I was hoping that I might be missing something.

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During negotiations ask for $500 additional dollars. You don't have to reveal it's for research materials.

Indexing is expensive. At least the funds come out of royalties. Twice I had the "index clause" in my contract. Both times, after I finished the book, I decided the index wasn't necessary. After I explained my reasoning, both publishers agreed. There are some books that really do require an index, though.

What is indexing? Why is it needed? what type of books need it?

How to books, reference books, and the like have indexes. An index is a reference that appears in the back of a book.

Let's say I have fresh basil I want to use but don't know what dish I should make. I can go to the Index section of my cookbook and look up basil. Next to "basil" I will find a listing of pages that reference the herb. This way I don't have to flip through the entire book for said recipes.

Indexing costs about $1,500, at least for the books I wrote. I've heard some publishers do not allow authors to index their own books. Though I can't back this up other than a conversation I had with an editor who complained his company didn't have such a policy and many authors indexed the book wrong so he had to fix it.

TrixieBelden said:

What is indexing? Why is it needed? what type of books need it?

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Pull a biography or history book off the shelf and flip to the back. See that alphabetical listing of topics with numbers after them? That's the index -- your guide to locating topics in the book itself. For example, if I'm reading a book about the 1960s, and I want to read any pages discussing the Beatles, I can turn to the back where I'd see something like this:

Beatles, 34-36, 53, 70.

That tells me the Beatles are discussed on page 34-36 and page 53 -- and an italicized number usually means there's a picture on that particular page.

I view indexing as critical -- when I read non-fiction book that don't have them an index, I get frustrated. And if you're a researcher and the book you grab doesn't have an index, it's ESPECIALLY annoying, because now you have to flip through the book to find it yourself (taking the chance that you'll either miss it, or the topic you're looking for isn't in the book at ALL.)

Indexing is a skill set -- and it's one I don't have, so I have to pay for it. And as noted above, it's about $1,500 bucks to have it done.

1500$ for indexing. That's nice to know. Thanks.

Where does one find a reputable indexer?

Where does one find a reputable indexer?

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The publisher contracts one, pays, and the 1,500 is taken from royalties.

Paying for materials is a tricky one. Of course it depends on the book. I wrote a book on homebrewing and luckily its my passion so I already have all the equipment. If not it would have been a costly business. But as always I needed more, so I wrote a section on making your own.

I realised too that I'd missed a trick. There is always publicity with a book and most companies have a publicity budget. Therefore, why not approach the companines that make the materials you need before you write the book and ask if you can, "try them out". In return for a mention in the appendix or acknowledgements.

And a note on indexing, my (2) contracts have always stated that I need to pay for an indexer but I've never had to. Perhaps this is a UK thing, or I've just been very lucky. I 100% agree though no index can be enough to put me off buying a book. I guess though ebooks won't need them some much?