I'd like to continue my series on book publishing (see here and here) by devoting this short post to the topic of soliciting interest in your manuscript. Basically, there are two ways to solicit interest:
- Submitting a full book-proposal
- Meeting an acquisitions editor in person at the APA
Given that I have a bit of experience with both, allow me to briefly share my experiences and the processes involved with each.
The first, and easiest, way to solicit interest in your book manuscript is to submit a query letter and/or full book-proposal to different presses. Some presses (such as Palgrave MacMillan) tell you exactly what they would like: in their case, a filled out proposal form along with a CV and some sample material (a chapter or two) from your book manuscript. Other presses, on the other hand, simply instruct you to "contact the relevant acquisitions editor" with proposals. This, in my experience, can involve a bit of work, as you have to find scour the publisher's webpage for the editor(s) who focus on your discipline (in our case, philosophy) and contact them by email. In my experience, some presses have multiple editors in the same area, and it may be worthwhile to send an email to each of them. Typically, in this case, it is best to send (1) a "query letter" (on your institution's letterhead) introducing yourself and summarizing your book manuscript in a short paragraph, along with (2) a full 3-7 page (or so) book proposal following this template. Unfortunately, yes, your proposal does have to include a chapter-by-chapter summary. Which brings me to the following point that I mentioned previously here...you have to more or less have a complete book drafted before you contact book editors. If an editor likes your proposal, they will typically ask for a full-manuscript to send out to reviewers--so you really need a full manuscript ready to go.
Another way to solicit interest in your book--a way that does not necessarily require a full manuscript (but still does require a significant amount of work done, at least a few chapters)--is to meet an acquisitions editor at the APA. Such a meeting can come about in a few ways. First, or so I have been told, you can simply email an acquisitions editor in advance to see if they will be at the APA, or, if not, whether there will be another editor there with whom you might meet. Second, I suspect it may be possible to simply walk up to an editor at the APA, introduce yourself, make small talk, and ask if they might be willing to meet up for coffee. Finally, sometimes acquisitions editors may email you out of the blue prior to the APA asking if you might be interested in meeting (this is how my first--and only--such meeting came about).
In any case, these kinds of face-to-face meetings can be great. Typically, it is the acquisitions editor who sends your manuscript out for review and makes the decision, on the basis of the reviews, of whether to take it to the editorial committee to ask for a contract. Getting the editor "in your corner" from the outset can, therefore, be really important. If they feel strongly about your work, and like you as a person, they may be willing to "fight for" your manuscript later on in the process. As such, it is critical to come well-prepared. Don't just show up ready to talk about your book idea. Ideally, you should really bring along a full book proposal, including, yes, a chapter-by-chapter summary. Even if you only have a few chapters drafted, this will make it clear that you are not just "thinking about writing a book", but rather that you are writing a book. Indeed, I personally found it helpful to treat the meeting like a job interview. I practiced a bit prior to the meeting with my wife over Skype, with her asking me questions about the book, and so on, so that I wouldn't look like a proverbial deer in headlights when the actual meeting rolled around!
Truth be told, I don't even remember that much about my APA meeting. It was sort of a whirlwind. What I do remember is that we had something like a 15 minute conversation in which she asked me general questions about how the moral theory by book develops will stand out from the crowd, and what its audience would be (is the book likely to be used in undergrad courses? Grad courses?). I also remember her being happy that I brought a full, printed-out proposal with me.
So, then, these are the two primary ways to solicit interest. If you have a full manuscript ready to go, send off full proposals and/or query letters to acquisitions editors. If you only have a few chapters drafted, try to set up a meeting at an APA. Both are actually pretty easy to do. The hardest part is really just putting the proposal together (obviously, they need to be well-written and thorough). The rest, as they say, is a little bit of luck and a little bit of "selling yourself."
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