Tanya Sousa's Blog - Posts Tagged "publishing-advice"
Serendipity and Publishers
I know we've all been brainwashed to seek publication in the "normal" ways -- seek out publishers who fit your subject, genre and style, carefully read the submission guidelines, then do your best to send what they want with hyper-vigilance to crossing your i's and dotting your t's. HA! Did I catch you there? Of course I meant dotting your i's and crossing your t's. However, the entire process is just so formal and nerve-wracking it can throw anyone off.
I've gone through this process of submitting many times over the almost thirty years I've published, and I am happy to report that I've had reasonable success with magazines and anthologies but the books -- oh the books! It's been a different process there, and that's what I want to tell people:
Writers, look outside the box.
I'm not speaking of usual self-publishing here. I'm talking about paying attention to serendipity. I'm talking about talking your literary project up to people who might be passionate about things you are. I'm talking about not being afraid to walk the walk a little differently.
I have never landed a publisher traditionally.
For instance, my first nonfiction title was called "Can Dogs Read? Starting and Implementing a Literacy Program". I wrote it because I had a passion for working with my dog as a reading dog in schools and I wanted to provide a comprehensive "how-to" that was cheaper than any materials I'd found. I also thought it would be lovely to donate this book to any library in Vermont that wanted it.
I knew a lovely woman who worked with therapy animals and called her to see if she knew about any grant funding that I might apply for to fund the project. She said, "I have money. What is it you want to do?" She had published something before under her business, and after reading my manuscript and observing my own reading dog program, she took it on under her Cairn Terrier Publishing label. We donated almost one thousand copies to libraries and now they are selling.
My latest project was a novel -- environmental fiction titled "The Starling God". It was a bit different, and I knew it would be hard to place, but as I was talking with an acquaintance, I learned he was branching his own business into environmental publishing. Forestry Press is brand new, and this businessman's original goal was to publish books about forestry. As we shared what we'd each been working on lately, I told him about my own book. He mused, "Why not have an environmental fiction section of Forestry Press?" Shortly after I landed a publishing deal.
Don't just seek the obvious sources, folks. Keep your eyes wide open for other connections that may work. Don't be afraid to suggest a connection between your manuscript and your goals and the goals of another person or company. You never know where it might be the perfect match.
I've gone through this process of submitting many times over the almost thirty years I've published, and I am happy to report that I've had reasonable success with magazines and anthologies but the books -- oh the books! It's been a different process there, and that's what I want to tell people:
Writers, look outside the box.
I'm not speaking of usual self-publishing here. I'm talking about paying attention to serendipity. I'm talking about talking your literary project up to people who might be passionate about things you are. I'm talking about not being afraid to walk the walk a little differently.
I have never landed a publisher traditionally.
For instance, my first nonfiction title was called "Can Dogs Read? Starting and Implementing a Literacy Program". I wrote it because I had a passion for working with my dog as a reading dog in schools and I wanted to provide a comprehensive "how-to" that was cheaper than any materials I'd found. I also thought it would be lovely to donate this book to any library in Vermont that wanted it.
I knew a lovely woman who worked with therapy animals and called her to see if she knew about any grant funding that I might apply for to fund the project. She said, "I have money. What is it you want to do?" She had published something before under her business, and after reading my manuscript and observing my own reading dog program, she took it on under her Cairn Terrier Publishing label. We donated almost one thousand copies to libraries and now they are selling.
My latest project was a novel -- environmental fiction titled "The Starling God". It was a bit different, and I knew it would be hard to place, but as I was talking with an acquaintance, I learned he was branching his own business into environmental publishing. Forestry Press is brand new, and this businessman's original goal was to publish books about forestry. As we shared what we'd each been working on lately, I told him about my own book. He mused, "Why not have an environmental fiction section of Forestry Press?" Shortly after I landed a publishing deal.
Don't just seek the obvious sources, folks. Keep your eyes wide open for other connections that may work. Don't be afraid to suggest a connection between your manuscript and your goals and the goals of another person or company. You never know where it might be the perfect match.
