Cat Book questions

Hi Mihoshi and welcome!

Mihoshi said:

I've done some bit freelance work in the past, but nothing major. I've recently been working on a cat breed book on a breed of cat that has never had a book on them in the past. This breed has just under 6,000 registered cats and several other breeds of cats developed from it (so the total count of a possible market would be approximately 30,000 people). Is this a big enough market for a major publishing house to take on? Or should I look into smaller publishers or possibly self publishing?

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First, congratulations on your book! It appears that you have already done some marketing research, which is something publishers look for. I don't know which major publishing house you had in mind, but it couldn't hurt to pitch your idea to whichever publisher most interests you. If they turn it down, approach the next one on your list.

Also, does anyone know of any agents who deal specifically with non-fiction animal related works? I've seen several that work with pet titles, but if the agent isn't going to go to a publisher who'll put the book in stores I think I could get it published by the same people myself.

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I can't help with any questions about agents, sorry. But there are others here who do work with agents and maybe someone will speak up. I do know that Barron's Educational Series, Inc. (my publisher) does not require that an author have an agent.

I'm also wondering if it would look better to publishers/agents if I have a section of the book published in the TICA Trend (a cat magazine) before attempting to submit it around.

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I had quite a few published credits (magazine articles, an online column) about conures before I wrote my book, and I incorporated some of those pieces into my manuscript. Those credits were helpful when I made my pitch--they showed that I was knowledgeable about my subject and also that I'd been previously published.

Finally, is it a plus if you are able to supply your own pictures to the book? I'm lucky enough to be a cat photographer, so I have tons of pictures in my copyright, but I'm not certain if many publishers care about that since they usually have their own connections for such things. Thanks in advance for the help.

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Check the photo credits in the books put out by the publishers you're interested in. If you see that the author also provided many of the pictures, then you might want to mention that you're a cat photographer in your query/proposal. There may be a separate contract for photos, with separate payment if you do this. Depends on the publisher.

Hope some of this was what you were looking for. If you have any more questions, please ask! There are many published authors hanging around here who will be happy to help.