A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Types of Publishers and Choosing among Them (Excerpt from Publishing for Smarties)


 


Types of Publishers and Choosing among Them

Excerpt from Publishing for Smarties

Publishers differ in size and readership. Some of the ways in which size and readership cause publishers to differ include the following: 

  •  advances; 
  •  royalties; 
  • financial investment; 
  • author discounts and complimentary copies; 
  • editing of books; 
  • Books in Print (Bowker/ISBN); 
  • Library of Congress (LOC): copyright and the LOC number; 
  •  book reviews; 
  • wholesaling & distribution;
  • bookstores; 
  • advertising; 
  • marketing & sales; and 
  • keeping books in print. 

Small presses will handle many of these items differently from large presses. Vanity publishers take a very different approach; of course, with self-publishing much does not apply because you are on your own. 
The question as to how long it will take from the time you contact a publisher, get a contract, go through the preproduction and production processes, and end up with a book in hand is answered in so many different ways that it is not really a matter of comparison and choice. Large presses can be surprisingly speedy when it comes to a “hot” topic. Indeed, in one case, one of the two largest academic publishers, with whom I was publishing a first book (with that publisher), so badly wanted to have the seminal work in the field represented by my book that it sent the book out for quick turnaround typesetting, resulting in a book in hand less than six months after I delivered the manuscript, and that was less than a year after the contract was signed. Needless to say, that book did, indeed, become the seminal work in that field.

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 (Publishing for Smarties: How to Find a Publisher available from MSI Press LLC; discount of 25% with coupon code FF25; currently on sale for $5, but that offer will not last forever).



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