I want to write a non-fiction book - part 5 - finding a publisher (or agent)

By Brian Clegg

The quick version of this part of the non-fiction book journey is ‘do your research’. I have a friend who runs a small publishing house that specialises in certain kinds of memoir and self-help. Every week, she receives novels, and non-fiction proposals that are way outside her scope. This does not make her happy.

Traditionally I would have said the best thing to do would be to buy a copy of one of the publishing guides, but now it’s easy enough to go through a good number of books aimed at a similar readership as is your own in an online bookshop, noting down their publishers. Build a list of, say, ten likely publishers then visit their websites and explore them in detail. Look at how they describe themselves and what ranges of books they publish. Take a look at any guidance they have for authors. As mentioned in the previous part, try to find an appropriate contact (a commissioning editor, usually) to send a proposal to for each publisher. (Linked-In can sometimes help with this.) Only then send off your proposal.

Some worry about sending out a proposal to more than publisher. There’s no need to be concerned. In the olden days, some publishers might have regarded this as ‘bad form’ – but they are more commercial organisations now and recognise that this is going to happen.

A number of publishers don’t take direct submissions from authors, requiring you to have an agent. This is typically the really big publishers, such as Penguin Random House. We’ll come onto agents in a moment. But most of the smaller publishers do take direct approaches – and they may well be better to start with than a big firm. With the big companies you are a tiny fish in a huge sea and may well get very little support even if your book is commissioned. I’ve almost always get more post-publication marketing from small to medium sized publishers than the big names.

An agent, of course, takes some of the pain of hunting for a publisher away, in exchange for typically between 10 and 20 per cent of your earnings. They can seem appealing – I’ve worked both with and without an agent. The biggest plus from having an agent was being made more visible to the publishing business at large. He also got me the biggest advances I’ve ever had (interestingly, for book that would not be my bestselling ones, in part because of that lack of marketing). But the downside of having an agent, apart from giving up that percentage of my earnings, was that I had to fit my publishing timetable to him, often leaving me with weeks or months without anything happening. It can also be harder to get an agent than to get a publisher direct. In the end I preferred the hands-on control of not having an agent and we were mutually happy with the parting.

If you want to find an agent, again research them well. Some specialise in different types of books, or different markets. Because agents are less visible to the public than publishers, you will get more benefit here from getting a copy of something like the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook to help develop a contact list.

So, you make contact, a publisher likes your proposal and makes you an offer. Brilliant. But they will also send you a contract – and that can have plenty of pitfalls, so that will be our next consideration.

To finish, here’s an outline of the topics this series of posts will cover.

1. Is my idea a book?
2. Outlining
3. Other parts of a proposal
4. The pitch letter
5. Finding a publisher (or agent)
6. The contract
7. Self-publishing

Image by Jaredd Craig from Unsplash

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.