Book-Publishing Wisdom

I've published five books (nonfiction & poetry) with NYC houses and university presses, with several more in the works.  As a working writer and scholar, I'm not really keyed in to academic publishing.  But there are some general things that make a book more attractive to a publisher.

1.  A well-defined subject and a title that captures it.

2.  A concise, focused proposal (1 page) and chapter outline (2-3 pages).

3.  A sample chapter that conveys the essence of the book.

4.  Familiarity with similar works in the field and the range of opinion.

5.  Some idea of the potential audience, be it post-colonial ecofeminist scholars or dog groomers.

6.  Being open to editing and reasonable advice (with prayers for a competent editor and editorial assistant).

7.  Helping to sell your book.  For an academic work, this would mean sending out pre-publication excerpts, making a list of potential reviewers, lining up speaking engagements at conferences, and thinking about human-interest approaches to your scholarship that might get your book a spot on NPR or local public radio stations, in local newspapers, or in other general interest media.

8.  Doing your own drudgework as far as getting addresses, making lists, lining up appearances, etc.  Commercial presses devote 95% of their promotion to bestsellers.  University presses tend to have entry-level promotions people who are overloaded with work.  If you count on them to line things up from scratch (not knowing your field), you'll be disappointed.  If you can supply lists of reviewers, potential awards, appearances, etc. they'll love you.

9. Trusting that your work will find a worthy readership.

Sometimes fate plays a hand.  My partner, environmental law scholar Debra Donahue, published THE WESTERN RANGE REVISITED: REMOVING LIVESTOCK FROM PUBLIC LANDS TO CONSERVE NATIVE BIODIVERSITY (U. Oklahoma, 1999).  A scholarly book with 85 pages of notes, it didn't seem like a hot sales prospect.  But the livestock interests and right-wing political hacks were inflamed (presumably by the title, since none of them bothered to read it).

Whereupon the president of the Wyoming Senate drafted a bill to close the University of Wyoming College of Law in retaliation.  (So much for academic freedom.)

Not only was there a red-hot controversy in the local press, but the story was picked up by USA Today, national press syndicates, and several radio networks.  The hardcover edition sold out in a flash and the paperback is still selling.  She'd done very little by way of promoting the book and was hurt by attacks, some of them vicious, from the Republican ranching establishment.  Who with their crazed (and foolish) reaction, lent her book national publicity.

So perhaps #10 is:  Tell the truth (and to hell with the powers-that-be).

-- Chip Rawlins