How not to sell your book
by Rob - December 7th, 2009.Filed under: Publishing, RJS Books.
This showed up in my inbox this evening, in my role as editor of Robert J. Sawyer Books, the science-fiction imprint for Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside. It violates two of the cardinal rules for trying to sell a book to a commercial publisher. The first is: don’t query until you’re ready to submit; she queried me years ago, and had nothing to submit after I expressed interest. What possible point is there in querying a publisher if you don’t intend to immediately follow up with a manuscript submission if you get the go-ahead to send on in?
The second rule I address in my response.
Hello Robert,
A few years ago I sent you an email to see if you were interested in publishing my first novel. You were interested but I did not follow up because I was still working on it. Finally it is complete, and I will soon have it posted on Amazon.com.
If you would be interested in reviewing this work for me I would be extremely grateful. If you would be interested in publishing it, I would be even more grateful.
My response:
No commercial publisher is going to be interested in picking up a self-published book unless you can show massive sales in the self-published format. So, sorry, but no; no way I can even consider it for my line now that you’ve published it yourself. Other publishers will feel the same way, I’m afraid.
Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com