Help looking for a publisher

This is a tough one. Being a holiday novel, many publishers won't consider seasonal books until the particular holiday. You may want to approach pubs who do Xmas anthologies and see if your piece can fit their bill.

Well if you want it published next Christmas, I would say starting this early is a good idea (I'm actually doing the same thing!). But start with publishers in the genre other than the Christmas theme. Is it a children's picture book? Then look for children's publishers. Is it a YA novel or a romance? Same thing - just look for publishers in your genre.

kelliewallace said:

This is a tough one. Being a holiday novel, many publishers won't consider seasonal books until the particular holiday.

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Completely erroneous. For a seasonally-oriented book, any publisher needs to get the manuscript well in advance of the season.

caw

Hi Mason,

Holiday books for children are very hard sells. The competition is every classic and every holiday title with a well known main character (think Elmo) or by a well known author or artist (think Jan Brett).

I know nothing about the market for novels and short stories, but I am hoping you are using the term decent out of modesty. Only the truly spectacular stories get published.

Perhaps give us a little more info on the genre and target audience for your story.

1. One types into a search engine 'children's publishers'
2. One finds publishers and lists of publishers
3. One starts checking out the publishers and their submission guidelines.
Here are the first two lists that came up
http://www.everywritersresource.com/childrensbookpublishers.html
http://myperfectpitch.com/book-publishers-accepting-submissions/
Good luck

kelliewallace said:

This is a tough one. Being a holiday novel, many publishers won't consider seasonal books until the particular holiday. You may want to approach pubs who do Xmas anthologies and see if your piece can fit their bill.

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No this is far from true. Most publishers would want a holiday book well in advance for editing and to fit into the schedule. I submitted my Christmas themed novel in November 2011 it was accepted in January 2012 and came out in ebook December 2012.

dondomat said:

1. One types into a search engine 'children's publishers'
2. One finds publishers and lists of publishers
3. One starts checking out the publishers and their submission guidelines.

Click to expand...

People should be warned typing queries like "find a publisher" into google is very likely to lead to a variety of scam vanity publishers using Black Hat Search Engine Optimization techniques. It is better to type in "submission guidelines." picture books or YA or whatever. Google ads that come up with publisher are mostly a bunch of very terrible scams.

You could start here at the Children's Book Council members list. It has children's book publishers who belong to the CBC and if they take agented or unagented submissions, and what each publisher is looking for.

You know I have no clue if your Christmas story is a children's story or a novel or whatever, but if it's a little children's story and you've never been published, you may want to consider children's magazines too. Highlights has been around for years and they pay good flat fees. I published in the "Our Little Friends" magazine (it's Christian themed so they may be interested) and they pay good rates too.

Granted, that's only if your story is for children and the word count would fit for the magazine. Just another avenue.