Publishing Panel February 26, 2013
Here are some notes, thanks to Deirdre Paulsen...
Chris Crowe BYU English Department,
has published over 100 articles and 15 books: “Editors
don’t publish what editors don’t publish.”
Be familiar with Writers Market
so can find out what publishers publish. Amazed that writers submit pornographic
material to Deseret Book!
Learn to
cut. . .the editor should never be the first one to see your work (and your
mother doesn’t count as a critical reader!).
“I’ve written one children’s book and doubt
that I’ll do another.”
Steve Cantwell vp “Writers-at-Work”: “Have fun with failure.”
Have a thick skin – eventually you’ll start getting nice notes rather
than nasty ones from editors.
Highly
recommends Poets and Writers – “pulls together all deadlines.” Also recommends all the “Best” books series.
. .like Best American Spiritual Writing. These books give the sites where the stories
were published.
Glimmer Train is looking for new writers (a lot
wind up in anthologies). Great place to
submit if just starting out.
Kent Minson BYU Academic Press: Talked about some of the dangers of
self-publishing. Usually when you self-publish
it will cost you $10,000 for 1,000 to 2,000 books – then you still need to find
a distributor and do your own marketing.
Most people wind up with a garage full of undistributed books.
BYU Academic
Press on the other hand offers a la carte publishing: cover design and editing for example. And there is no minimum on how many books you
have printed (you could submit a printed and bound copy of your work to a
publisher to impress them). You can also
purchase a Press Package for $75 to have your book on the BYU Bookstore list.
Deseret Book
publishes only 3% non-solicited manuscripts – they are looking for known
names. If your work is fiction, try Covenant or Cedar
Fort. The better you know a publisher,
it helps you get published and to understand why when they don’t publish. They want return on their investment.
Self-publishing
a children’s book is very expensive since they have so much color plus they’re
hard back. It’s a very difficult market
to break into – parents are very careful when purchasing childrens’ books. .
.much more careful than when they buy a paperback for themselves in an airport.
Marissa Widdison, Church Magazines, Friend magazine: Read the magazines you want to submit
to first so that you know what stories they publish and how the topics are
treated. (This seems simple, but there are lots of people who obviously don’t
do this before they send things to us!) The
Friend accepts the most freelance. The
other magazines accept articles from non-commissioned authors, but as donations
only. Commissioned authors are usually experts in their respective fields (like
the dean of a department at BYU).
For
guidelines specific to each magazine, visit that magazine’s website and look
for a link called “submit material” or “writer guidelines.” For the Friend, go to lds.org/friend and the
link is at the bottom of the page. If
you send a message to friend@ldschurch.org, we will send you a list of topics
that we are currently looking for. If
your work needs a lot of editing, or if you don’t have prior experience, we
will often ask for the work to be donated rather than purchased.
I see
success in this field as a combination of ingredients pulled from two wells.
First, the well of life experience. Get out there and enjoy adventures, big and
small! Look for stories in the world around you. Second, the well of knowing
how to write well. Increase your knowledge of styles, treatments, literary
devices, etc. Keep a journal where you practice sharing the stories you see
each day. If both of these wells are kept full, the time will come when you
will find a magic combination that someone will be thirsty for.
Come to
fairs and conferences whenever possible—like the upcoming Publishers Fair. It
makes a difference for editors if they have met with the authors.
Colleen Whitley author and editor,
established the BYU Publishing Lab in 1997:
Read your
rejection slips and learn from them.
Become familiar with all the books like Writers Market so that you know where to submit certain genres.
Among the
many opportunities facing new authors are some pitfalls, and as in every other
area, the digital age has expanded both. Among the resources to help writers
navigate these difficult waters is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of
America website: sfwa.org. It is not limited to Sci Fi and Fantasy, but
is open to the public, frequently updated, and offers a range of good sites for
writers at no cost. Their For Authors
page, sfwa.org/for-authors/information-center has information on preparing and
submitting manuscripts, contracts, and writing techniques. The Writer Beware section sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware alerts authors to publishers,
editors, agents, and outright scams that have a track record of abusing
writers.
When you are looking for places to publish,
consider short non-fiction works such as travel articles in Travel magazines.
