What is a good process to follow when pitching ideas to publishers?

May 24, 2004 8:28 AM

I have what I think is a great idea for a web / design-related book that I'd like to shop around. Can anyone who has been published before offer any advice, links, or a good process to follow when pitching ideas to publishers? (more detail in comments)

A rough list of the publishers that could publish this book (to give you an idea of content): Peachpit, New Riders, GlassHaus, Wiley (professional division), maybe others I haven't though of yet.

The book idea is more of a theory book than a technical overview, so O'Reilly isn't really a possibility. Oh, and I have writing experience, but more of the newspaper / magazine kind than with longer formats like books.

posted by theNonsuch to writing & language (16 comments total)

glasshaus went tits-up long ago, and Peachpit do horrible production jobs. New Riders do good single-author web pro books (they were certainly my #1 enemy when I was brand manager of glasshaus), or if you're thinking of a real *designer* inspiration book (Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator) that isn't a how-to-use-the-software book, try friends of ED. Disclaimer: I go drinking with staff from the latter.
posted by Pericles at 8:59 AM on May 24, 2004

Don't.
posted by joeclark at 9:02 AM on May 24, 2004

Hey joeclark, you're the dude with the Goatse book cover! You rock my world.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:15 AM on May 24, 2004

Pericles: didn't glasshaus get purchased by Springer-Verlag? Or was that just the rights to glasshaus' books? I thought there was a 2nd edition of the Costelle / Champeon / Briggs / Patterson CSS book recently published.

Joe: Knowing and having read your fine book (Building Accessible Websites, for those interested), I have to ask: why? I'd like to hear more detail (if possible).
posted by theNonsuch at 9:20 AM on May 24, 2004

glasshaus was bought by Apress, yeah, but they don't publish with that imprint any more. The CSS book was re-published under the friends of ED imprint (I was "editorial consultant" tho I don't work for them). The gh accessibility book was reissued by Apress, and I believe that other ex-glasshaus books are being reissued by Apress/ friends of ED.
posted by Pericles at 9:39 AM on May 24, 2004

correction:Apress bought the rights to the books and the names friends of ED and glasshaus, they didn't buy the companies
posted by Pericles at 9:41 AM on May 24, 2004

Having just finished two books, I would never say, "don't." I would say "do" unless you're doing it for the money. It's really hard to make any real money via a book. Unless you're lucky enough to write a best-seller. Do it because you like to write.
posted by grumblebee at 9:41 AM on May 24, 2004

First the bad news:

1. grumblebee's right, don't do it for the money. There is none.

2. As I understand it, the publishers are currently shying away from "theory books". Nuts-and-bolts how-to is what sells in a down economy. (Moreover, based on what I've seen, tech publishers don't really know how to market theory books anyway.)

3. It's hard, hard work -- exponentially harder than writing short-form.

All of that said, if you still want to do it, the key is to have a really good, detailed outline of the book in your proposal. What they want to see is that you've thought your idea through. Beyond that, all you really need to do is give them a concise pitch that will convince them that this is a book they'll know how to sell.
posted by jjg at 10:46 AM on May 24, 2004

i recently wrote in to HOW magazine, they sent me a little bit of information on how to present my book idea to them.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:02 AM on May 24, 2004

a former instructor of mine has a daughter that has written a couple of photoshop/illustrator books...and he said that she had basically lost money on every one.

However....it was great for her resume, teaching, etc....and she has been able to charge more $$$ for design work.

[i think this thread is a great example of the sort of expert advice you can get here at metafilter. you guys realize to a web geek you are *like*, famous, you know.]
posted by th3ph17 at 11:25 AM on May 24, 2004

All the money I've ever made writing books, on an hourly basis: about $10/hour

It's a crazy amount of work, basically you will spend every night for six months grinding out crap you used to love to write about, and in the end you won't get paid much. I could go on and on how the editorial departments of major publishers are morons and how tech books are basically sold by the pound, with no care given to the quality of prose.

I'm self-publishing my own ideas in the future, on my own schedules, with total control of how things look in the end, and I'll continue to own the rights to my own stuff. I doubt I'll make more than $10/hr doing it, but I'm sure that I'll be happier going that route.
posted by mathowie at 12:14 PM on May 24, 2004

btw, Bruce you and the gang at glasshaus were fantastic, all my sour experiences were with other outfits.
posted by mathowie at 12:15 PM on May 24, 2004

I lost money on my books too (well, they just came out, so I guess it's possible that they COULD make money), but I got an advance from the publisher. I took the advance and bought a laptop with it. I used the laptop to write the book. Then I claimed the laptop as a tax-deduction (since I used it in my work).

Which wound up getting me a tax refund this year. So I didn't make any money, but I left H&R Block with a smile on my face for the first time.
posted by grumblebee at 12:37 PM on May 24, 2004

If you still want to write, and your book is not a no-brainer (eg, "beginner's PHP5" which all the publishers will have thought of by themselves, you'll need to
a) have a relatively detailed proposal: what's in the book, what isn't? It's good having things left out of a book (pages cost money) so you need to be selective
b) understand your market well. If there are pre-existing competitors, write about each and say *why* they aren't as good as yours. Cite reviews on Amazon, groups etc. Show the sales curve from junglescan. If there are no pre-existing competitors - why not?
c) show why *you* should write the book. What's your credentials?

This doesn't need to be a hugely detailed, formal doc, but tech publishers get a lot of "I want to write a book on .NET" from A.N.Other emails, so you need to show that you mean business. And, if you can't be bothered to make a decent analysis and proposal (the thinking goes) you're unlikely to be able to stay the course of writing hundreds of pages to deadlines.
posted by Pericles at 1:34 AM on May 25, 2004

Hm. Thanks for the feedback, everyone - it's super helpful, and appreciated. I long ago realized that writing books was not the fastest route by any stretch to fame and riches, but like phil mentioned, I'm hoping this will help out my freelance career and be a great addition to my resume. Maybe this could also open other doors, such as invites to speak at conferences, etc.

Besides financial rewards, and the reward of actually finished the damn thing, has the published folks here found the other benefits worth the effort?
posted by theNonsuch at 9:24 PM on May 25, 2004

old authors of mine, especially freelancers, have found that slapping a copy of your book down on a desk at an interview can help you net the job, or increase your rates. usual benefits: potential conference gigs, kudos, good on the resume etc
posted by Pericles at 3:12 AM on May 26, 2004