<Congratulations on finishing your book.
Most publishers welcome ideas and synopses for books. All they
initially need to see is enough information to decide whether or not
your book is going to make them money.
You need to put together a proposal which should contain the following elements.
1. A covering letter with your contact details.
2. A brief overview of your book. What it is about, how many words,
who will want to read it, why you are the person to write it, what
competition it has, why it is better than the competition.
The reader.
A description of the target reader of your book, including the number
of potential readers, age range, income range, magazines/newspapers
they may read.
The competition.
Make a list of books directly competiting with yours. Include title,
author, publisher, date of publication, price, number of pages, size
and format.
3. A brief description of what each chapter contains.
4. A sample of your writing - as you have not had anything published,
one of the chapters of the book will be sufficient.
5. Your curriculum vitae.
Make a list of likely publishers - those that already publish books
about dogs. Performing a search on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/002-9986249-6973635
will give you a list of likely prospects. Send your proposal to each
of the publishers. Include return postage. It usually takes 6-8 weeks
for a reply. If the publisher likes your proposal they will offer you
a contract.
I recommend that you read the Writer's Handbook.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871162008/qid=1071821889/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-9986249-6973635?v=glance&s=books#product-details
The non fiction book proposal.
http://www.writing-world.com/publish/proposal.shtml
Going it alone.
If you decide to self-publish, there are numerous companies offering a
whole variety of deals.
Self publishing links.
http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/trafford.html?3535822-18507aaa
http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/New/PublishWithUs.asp
http://www.iuniverse.com/jahia/jsp/index.jsp>
Writers weekly.com has a blacklist of publishers. It's worthwhile
checking that any companies that you intend to do business with are
not listed.
http://www.writersweekly.com/whispers_and_warnings.php
<Additional links:>
<Book - The Self-Publishing Manual.>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568600739/002-9986249-6973635?v=glance>
<Self-publishing hall of fame.>
<http://www.bookmarket.com/selfpublish.html>
<Top independant publishers.>
<http://www.bookmarket.com/101pub.html>
<Search strategy:>
<"self publishing">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22self+publishing%22>
<Hope this helps.> |
