Tài liệu Writing for Publication part 10 docx

Publishers, proposals and contracts

Okay, you may have got to the point where you have decided that

publication in some form of book is the right thing for your work. What

do you do next? It’s an obvious thing to say, but books are published

by publishers. This means that you have to engage with these strange

beasts if you want to get a book into print. As part of the partnership

there will be two key documents – a book proposal and a contract. The

proposal is the document that you send to the publisher which describes

your proposed book and in which you set out the case for why they

should publish it. The contract is the legally binding agreement between

you and the publisher concerning your book.

You need to treat writing a book as a publishing project from the

outset. Your book will be a collaborative venture between you and your

publisher, meaning that it is important to get a publisher on board as

early on as possible. It is highly inadvisable to delay contacting publishers

and obtaining a contract until your book is written. The publisher’s

deadlines and guidance will give you something to write to, both in terms

of time and the nature of the book.

We will now consider publishers, proposals and contracts in turn.

Publishers

Publishers are people who are in business to make money. However, it

would be wrong to assume that this necessarily stops them from being

nice people with a commitment to the production of good books. An

author’s relationship with a publisher should be a genuine partnership.

If you can find a publisher who has good business skills and shares your

values about books then your partnership will be sound and mutually

rewarding. Above all, remember that they need good authors as much as

good authors need them. Try to make it a mutually advantageous and

successful relationship.

That said, you will almost always have to take the lead in finding

a publisher for your book and developing this relationship with them.

A variation on this theme is that, sometimes, a publisher may agree to

have a whole series of books around one general theme. They will

appoint a series editor (who is likely to be a senior academic) who may

come along and ask if you would like to contribute a book. We mention

this route into publishing throughout this chapter, but here it is sufficient

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