End your Book Publisher Search with PubMatch

Publisher search could be a nightmare. Especially if you’re a first-time author. Finding publishers for new authors or unknown first-timers could be like trying to climb the Mount Everest for the first time.

Add to your publisher search agony, most of the publishers will clearly tell you “we don’t accept any unsolicited submission”.

So you’ll need someone to represent you to publishers for new authors and help you sell your book.

The Agent.

There are lots more what an agent does other than this though.

Well…

Now you have another challenge.

Finding a right agent! It's almost an exercise in finding a right life partner.
You need to know what kind of agent would suit you, how and where to get an agent.

Move with baby steps.

First, know what an agent will do for you. Apart from fixing a right publisher for you.

An agent will…

• Review book manuscripts.
• Help with the edit work to make your book saleable
• Give feedback to you
• Open and manage business deal between you and Publisher(s)
• Oversee licensing agreements
• Take care of your concerns, interests, profits
• Explain you on the terms of their contracts once a deal is made with a publisher
• Take care of royalty issues, copyrights

Now…
How to choose the right agent??

1. Check Sales Track Record- Review the client list and the publishers. Usually, you'll get these on the agent's website. Also, check if the publishers the agent sells are fit for your work.
Is the agent professional- whether the agent sounds enthusiastic about your work, responds to your emails on time, guides you on issues you don’t understand much.

2. Will the agent help you in improving your pitch/query proposal - A good agent will help you to improve the pitch/ query proposal ensuring that it is primed for success. This almost always requires at least one round of feedback and revision.

3. NO universal truth- The same agent may not equally be good for every book they might represent. What tends to be most important is the agent- author chemistry. That needs to fit.
Similarly, size does not matter. It does not necessarily correlate with the quality of the agent or the size of the deal you can expect.
What matters is the right chemistry between an agent and you-the-author.
Pretty confusing, eh?

Well, you need not go through all such exercises if you so wish.

The easiest way?

Use PubMatch.com, the world’s first international book rights network. It’s easy to run a literary agent search on PubMatch.

Simply create an author account and post your book, then search its database of publishers and literary agents searching for new titles or looking for fresh new talents to represent.

Joining PubMatch.com is a great way to build business relationships that can make your book accessible to readers from all over the globe.

Buy and Sell Book Rights Online with Pubmatch

Buying and selling book rights can be a lucrative, revenue-generating business. When you buy book rights, you get to publish the work of a foreign author in your own market and gain access to specialist content that may be unavailable from local authors—such as content in business, medicine, and many other subjects. Buying book rights is also a clever way to build your list of publications more quickly, and hopefully, publish more profitably. When you sell book rights, on the other hand, you earn revenue not only for your publishing house but also for your author—on top of the income you get from the sales of the edition your house first released. Selling book rights enhances the author’s reputation and helps you maintain the author’s loyalty to the publishing house. This also puts you on the map as a strong international player.

It is important to find the right avenues where you can buy book rights and grow the list of publications you release. There are online resources you can turn to for finding and previewing titles and content that match your criteria, which you can then purchase the rights to. These websites simplify and streamline buying and selling of book rights and give you access to thousands of titles with unreserved rights from different countries and originally published in different languages. The same websites allow you to sell book rights for titles so you can generate more revenue.

Interestingly, a number of foreign markets—including the UAE, Turkey, and Tunisia, among many others—have national funds that support the purchase as well as the translation of foreign books and corresponding rights. Below are interesting facts about different countries and markets you can explore as you consider buying and selling book rights online:

• Since 2010, China has acquired rights to more than 13,000 foreign books each year.
• 17 percent of titles that are published in Finland were first published in foreign markets and languages.
• 75 percent of ALL Dutch books that are published in the Netherlands were originally released in other languages.
• Books originally published in the US are among the most sought after when it comes to rights transactions, with more than 8,000 individual rights sold to one country each year.
• Russia translates and publishes 14,000 books annually.

The life of a book shouldn’t end once you’ve successfully published locally. Exploring how to buy and sell book rights will open up great opportunities for you to publish elsewhere and enter markets that rely on buying and selling rights to grow their reach.

International Book Publishers: Be Careful Before You Sign with a Book Publisher

Before you even begin talking to book publishers who are interested in your work, you have to understand how to protect your interest as an author. Publishing agreements can be complex and slightly tricky—especially for first-time writers. Plunging into book publishing uninitiated about international book publishers, publishing houses, and the many intricacies of the publishing process can lead to mistakes that may come back to haunt you.

So before signing on any dotted line, make sure to do your homework and get informed about the type of business you are entering with book publishers. Don’t let jargon and confusing publishing terms intimidate. The key is to arm yourself with solid knowledge before entering into any agreement.

Resist the urge to be overexcited when you are approached by international book publishers. Always proceed with caution as you finalise the terms of your agreement. Publishing contracts should never be taken lightly and there are certain things that you should examine before sealing the deal:

• Description of the work – If you are careless, it can be very easy to overlook work description, which can be a major cause for miscommunication (particularly between you and your editor). Avoid this kind of oversight by making sure that the work described in the agreement completely and accurately describes the novel or the book you have written or that you are being contracted to an author.
  
• Book rights – Intellectual rights can be especially tricky when working with international book publishers. While there are international standards that publishers follow, variations do exist when crossing international waters. It is important that you give book publishers only the specific rights they can and will actually use and make sure that you reserve all rights to your work that are not specifically granted. If making a compromise is inevitable, consider granting certain rights for a well-defined (and short) period of time so you can be protected.


• Royalties – It is also a good idea to have an agent look into the different terms and language that your publishing contract uses when describing royalties. This will protect you from accidentally giving away huge amounts in royalties and losing future income from your book.
  


• Copyright and advances – Just like royalties, tricky book publishers may also throw tricky language to describe copyright rules and agreements on advances. To avoid loopholes and traps, consider having an agent look over your publishing contract so each term in the agreement can be explained to you in detail.
  

Approaching a Literary Agent? Avoid These Common Mistakes

When trying to get a book considered for publication, your query letter is everything. Before any literary agency even flips through the first page of your manuscript, they will likely scrutinize your proposal—which will either make a good impression or cause them to lose interest altogether. Unfortunately, many authors fail to hook literary agents in with their cover letter not because they are bad writers, but because they use questionable tactics. Writing a query letter for new literary agents is a whole different ball game than writing a book. In fact, selling your work through a query letter may seem more challenging than finishing your novel in many ways. Here are some common mistakes you should avoid when approaching a literary agency:

• A cheesy rhetorical lead - If you don’t want literary agents to dismiss your letter right after reading the first line, ditch the rhetorical question and instead lead with facts about your story. After all, if your story is exciting enough, you shouldn’t feel the need to resort to clichés. Try to look at your proposal from the mind of a literary agent. If you can’t be interesting and original in a single-page letter, what more in a 350-page novel?

• Muddled blurbs - Don’t ramble on when writing your summary. As much as possible, bring the focus to your main character. Don’t spend too much time and energy trying to explain each and every personality. You can subtly hint at your secondaries, but it is more important to make the literary agency fall in love with your protagonist and the conflict he or she needs to resolve. Remember to never spoil a good ending and that plot always trumps theme when writing a synopsis.

• Too much information - Letting new literary agents know who you are is important, but not everyone may want to hear that you spend your weekends' cliff diving (unless a significant part of your book is about that).

• Too much modesty - For some reason, new writers seem to think that lack of experience is a selling point. Well, it isn’t. literary agents like confidence—give them that.

• Bogus publishing credits - Be careful not to list fake publishing credits. This can hurt you big time in the long run. And whatever you do, refrain from mentioning the pile of unpublished manuscripts you have, gathering dust in your attic. Not only will this make the literary agency wonder why they were never picked up—it might also make them worry that you’ll dump all those old, perhaps stale manuscripts on them once they sign you.

Book Publishers - Get Help from Professionals While Publishing your Book

Getting help from professionals can exponentially advance your insight into the world of publishing. The right people—from agents to editors all the way to representatives of book publishing companies—can help you gain industry-specific knowledge that you simply can’t get from reading online.

One of the professionals you should consider working with in your quest to get published is an editor. There are many benefits to seeking professional proofreading services. In fact, reliable editors can turn a good manuscript into a great one. They can perform structural editing as well copy-editing, spotting tiny errors that you’re too close to pick up. They are experts in obscure conventions, rules, and semi-rules that you might not know about, and can ultimately make your work cleaner and crisper. By the end of the process, you will have in your hands a flawless manuscript that you can proudly pitch to publishers.

Once your work has been edited and is ready, you can then sit down for a consultation or with book publishers. An appointment can drastically shorten your path to getting published. Even if your work gets rejected, a meeting allows you to hear feedback immediately, so you can address the issues and move on.

Do you live a broad or simply don’t have the means to travel? Don’t worry—meetings don’t necessarily have to be done in an office in New York. These days, you can get help from publishing professionals online, by email or Skype. Simply register as an author on a book publishing network if you want to be able to communicate with rights buyers and agents from around the world—people who can help your book get published, whether abroad or in your home market. As a registered author, you simply add your title to your profile to make it searchable by the agents and publishers who also use the network. Those who are interested can initiate contact. You can also search for agents and publishers in the network and begin contacting them. It’s a two way, win-win arrangement that makes it so much easier to meet the right book publishers and agents from global book publishing companies.

The great thing about these online networks is that it allows you to meet specific editors, agent, or publishers who are absolutely ideal for your book or genre. Be sure to choose a network that makes it a breeze to sell rights to your work directly from your profile, so that buyers purchase them based on your terms. This is a fantastic way to grow your income streams or create new ones.

What's Your Genre? Find the Right Publisher for Your Book

Times have changed, and this change has not failed to touch the corridors of the literary world. Authors now have the opportunity to self-publish without any stigma attached to the endeavor. Digital publishing has made authorship possible for many writers. In tandem are the boutique publishers, literary agents and other small-to-medium publishers who may be willing to take on the task of publishing your book. However, this scenario of ample opportunity does not necessarily mean easy publishing of your work. In fact, it’s a long haul, and you must put in all efforts towards finding the right publisher in your genre of writing. The right find would perhaps be the single most important step towards your success as an author that goes beyond writing a great book.

How to find the right publisher

Write a book that your publisher can sell

A book publisher will be interested in your story if he thinks it would sell. Therefore the first important step is to ensure that you have written a superb book that meets the tastes and aspirations of your targeted audience. While preparing to write your book, you must go through several books in your chosen genre. The bestsellers would unveil what made their books a hit while the others will show you what was amiss. So, incorporate the good ideas and avoid the blunders, to write a good story. Also, all genres—from romance to self-help to literary fiction—have certain conventions that you should be aware of as an author. Apart from these benefits of studying books in your genre, useful comparisons can also be made. For example, is your 25-year old protagonist behaving like a 12-year old in your story, etc.? If so, your publisher will reject your writing convinced that it won’t sell however great your writing may be. Avoid following trends in your writing as by the time your book gets published the fad would become passé as other writers would have latched on the ideas. Write uniquely and by all means, avoid writing a cookie cutter novel just to stay trendy. A good book would also have gone through several rounds of editing and formatting in agreement with industry standards.

Pick a publisher in your genre

You must approach a publisher or a publishing agent that is focused on your realm of writing. A sci-fi publisher will not be interested in your romantic novel, however, interesting your story may be. Literary agents who will showcase your work to the publisher operate in the same manner. Publishers and agents will not pick up your story if you provide them only the idea. You must write the whole book for them to consider publishing it. This rule may not apply to non-fiction pieces. With this genre, you can provide the agent with just the outline and some sample chapters. More than the writing in the non-fiction genre an author’s existing personal platform and connections will be advantageous. So the author would need to spend time developing important connections.

Writing, publishing and fame are slow to come. To meet with the success you need the right ingredients – a good story, the right publisher in your genre and good luck to a great measure.

Book Publishing - How to Collect Royalties

How to create royalties: An attempt to simplify and offer you a bird’s eye view on the subject of royalties for a first-time or young author.

For a writer, the economics of a book may be just as exciting as writing one. Particularly for newbies into the world of publishing, the terms “royalties” and “advance” are something they have heard of but are not aware of the intricacies, and would want to know about them. How does the royalty issue pan out? How does the author tackle royalties? Publishing agents will entertain writers by the book’s business potential. Here is an attempt to simplify and offer you a bird’s eye view on the royalty issue.

What is royalty?

• For every book sold, the author gets a percentage of the revenue of the book
• How much this percentage will be is dependent on factors like the size of the publishing agent’s business, whether it’s a CBA or ABA House, the author’s platform and marketability, and each publisher’s criteria (of which you may never be aware).
• CBA publishers’ royalties are based on the NET price of the book i.e. the price at which the publisher sold the book to the bookstore rather than the revenue of the book as is the case with other publishers.
• The publisher may also offer an advance against royalties which is essentially a sum of money given to an author upfront with the promise of more (royalties) as sales pick up
• Royalties differ from a flat fee, where a set amount of money is given to the writer upfront and it’s his to keep. The amount does not change no matter how well the book sells. For example, if your flat fee is $8,000, the amount remains the same no matter if the book sells 20 copies or 30 million.
• Royalty is calculated by the cost of the book, terms of your contract and how the expenditure incurred to produce copies of the work. If you write a hardback novel, you may get $3/book. If you write a niche nonfiction, you may get $1/book, and if you co-write a book or work on a picture book with an illustration, the percentage of royalty you will receive will drop.

A desirable royalty option to go with

An advance against royalty is a desirable option to go with and is the most sought after choice as you get an advance and more revenue as the book sells beyond the money you have received upfront from the publisher. A huge advance would mean a large sum of guaranteed money, but a small advance would mean reasonable expectations for you to meet, and a greater chance for your book to be profitable — making you “a valuable author” in a publisher’s eyes. So, go ahead and advocate your book on your author platform, social media, at a writer conference to increase your worth in the eyes of publishers and book buyers as well. Sadly, advances are no longer easy to get. But the cheering news is that if your book sells well, there’s lots of money to be made on the back end with royalties.

You must find a literary agent who will be responsible for ensuring that the royalty statements (payments) accurately reflect proper totals that take into account sales, returns, foreign territory, sales and film rights.