What Are Publishers Looking for from Authors?

Are you an aspiring author? Do you keep submitting your book to publishers only to wait months and then receive a rejection letter? You are certainly not alone in trying to figure out just what it is that publishers want from you when it comes to publishing your book. One thing to keep in mind is that publishers, particularly the bigger names receive thousands of manuscripts a year. As much as they might like to, they simply don't have the manpower, or the time to read through every single manuscript. In fact, many of these manuscripts wind up in what is termed "slush piles." The chances of your book getting picked up from the slush pile are slim at best. I'm not suggesting it never happens because it does, but more often than not, that is not the case.

Now that we've got past the depressing part of submitting your book to publishers, let's move forward and find out what you can do to make your book stand out so that you can get published. So just what are publishers looking for from authors? While what publishers want may seem nebulous, it's actually very simple. Here are some of the most important things you need to do to make your book stand out.

Step 1: Consider publishing with smaller publishers. Since getting picked up by a big name publisher is difficult because so many are making the attempt, consider publishing your book with a smaller publisher. There are dozens of small e-presses available to choose from for example. Several big name authors started out at smaller e-presses and having a history of publishing with smaller presses increases your chances of getting picked up by one of the bigger publishers down the line. A few examples in the romance industry are Lora Leigh, who was published by Ellora's Cave before she got picked up by Berkley. Evangeline Anderson, another romance author, was published by Samhain Publishing, Loose ID, and Changeling Press before Kensington picked her up. And, she still continues to publish with e-presses! So, it's important to be willing to start out small so to speak.

Step 2: Read the guidelines for the publisher of your choice. This is key. If you don't bother reading the guidelines and finding out what kind of books the publisher publishes, who you should send your manuscript to, and how they want to receive it, for example, then you may as well stop now. I'm an acquisitions editor for a small e-press and one of the submissions I received, I instantly deleted. Do you want to know why? The author forwarded her book to me from an e-mail she had sent to another publisher. And she had not even bothered to read our requirements, so her manuscript was not formatted correctly either. She had not cared enough about our publisher to even send us a new e-mail and attach her manuscript. So, you can see how important reading and following the guidelines are.

Step 3: Format your manuscript exactly the way the guidelines request. Contrary to what some aspiring writers think, not all publishers want the same formatting. Some ask for double space, some single space, some only want your name, address, and e-mail on the first page at the top left, some want a cover sheet with that information. So be sure and format your manuscript exactly as requested, otherwise you run the risk of having your manuscript being deleted or winding up in a circular file.

Step 4: This brings me to the next step, send your manuscript exactly as requested. Most if not all of the small e-presses these days only take electronic submissions. That means even if they provide a snail mail address that they want you to send your manuscript as an attachment to an e-mail, not via a package they receive in the mail. Those manuscripts instantly wind up in the circular file and often are never even read. Oh, and be sure and save your document in the exact format requested. Because of the danger of getting a virus from e-mail attachments, many publishers are now requesting that authors save their manuscript as a .rtf or rich text file, rather than a .doc file. Finally, Microsoft Word is the standard these days so unless a publisher's guidelines say they will accept an Open.org, or Word Perfect file, do not send one.

Step 5: Don't rely on spell/grammar check to make sure your manuscript is free of errors. Word processing programs aren't infallible and they sometimes make some very nasty errors. These kinds of errors are the sort that can get your manuscript rejected so while you can use spell/grammar check, make sure you read through your manuscript one final time before submitting it.

Step 6: Consider having a few other people who are not related to you, or are your best friends read your manuscript before you submit it. There are lots of online and offline critique groups around and joining one is a great way to get some feedback and find things you may have missed before you actually submit your manuscript to a publisher. The reason for picking people who are not close friends or family is that these people will be less likely to be honest or tell you the truth about what they find, or think. You need unbiased viewpoints when it comes to having someone read your book. These will be the most helpful to you as an author and will help to increase the chances of your book being accepted by a publisher.

Step 7: If you're writing fiction, do not head hop. What this means is don't switch from one character's viewpoint to another within the same paragraph or even chapter. If you want to change the viewpoint then either start a new chapter or add three ***, center them and then drop down and start a new paragraph in the other character's viewpoint. Most publishers do not want more than one of these switches per chapter. While some of the bigger name authors such as Nora Roberts for example often do POV switches within the same paragraph and get away with it, most if not all publishers these days will not publish a book that has a lot of head hopping or POV switching.

Step 8: Make sure the publisher you want to submit your book to publishes the genre your book is in. In other words, don't send a romance manuscript to a publisher that predominantly publishes biographies, or political satire for example. It's amazing to me how some aspiring authors will choose a publisher based on their popularity and then will not even check to see if it publishes the genre their book is in. You simply must submit to publishers that publish your genre otherwise, you are guaranteed a rejection.

Getting your book published, even by a smaller e-press is a huge accomplishment, and when you get that first offer and contract it is a feeling like no other. If you submit your book to publishers keeping all these things in mind and following each publisher's guidelines religiously, your book has a higher chance of being accepted by a publisher than it would otherwise be