Pitching to book publishers
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- martinadolfsson
I'm in the process of sending out a book proposal to a few art publishers (Steidl, hatje cantz, Taschen etc). I'm almost done with the project and thought this would be a good time to start contacting potential publishers.
Does anyone have any advice on how to best approach a publisher that doesn't accept unsolicited material?
What's the best way to get their attention?
A pretentious e-mail, a nicely layout PDF, blurb book Hard cover, mail bomb?This is my project
http://www.suburbiagonewild.comThanks!
- boobs0
Get an agent. A lot of publishers will only look at work brought to them by proper literary agents.
- questine0
font is bad choice. it isnt champagne.
- martinadolfsson0
However this is a photo project, the literary agents I've been in contact with only deals with literature because the photo book market is to unprofitable in general.
- utopian0
Nice photos, and BTW there is a huge shift of people moving back to the city...
- lambsy0
i love the concept from a sociological standpoint.
- cannonball19780
Send the letter on paper, directed to the correct person at the publishing house. Start with a query letter explaining your premise, the status of your project and any notable people or work you have involved (I'm assuming its a design book). Although you would reserve this info for the proposal, I would add in some competitive analysis or at bare minimum what is provocative and compelling about your book.
- cannonball19780
Get the agent only after a publisher has expressed an interest. The right agent will be able to seal the deal with proper publishing rights and compensation secured.
- i really really hope you're speaking from experience and not conjecturebigtrick
- clearThoughts0
get rid of that font. It put me off the whole thing straight away.
- bjladams0
nice pics- but dont know if it warrants a publisher investing money into it- not cause the work isn't good, but as said above, there's not a big market for it.
you should look into self-publishing if you're really wanting to pursue it- and if they sell, then take one to a publisher
- lukus_W0
Photos don't expand properly in chrome.
- martinadolfsson0
I don't think many photographers have any intentions to make any money out of their books, it's simply a way to show your work to a wider audience.
This book will have a circulation of perhaps 2000 copies which is the number were the publisher breaks even.Thanks for the heads up on the technical issues and the font comments, I've used it as it resembles the font used in the sales material for these model homes.
- how did you come up with that 2000=break even number?bjladams
- From a publisher who is interested in the project.martinadolfsson
- i've had books published from runs of hundreds to 10,000 - i've just never heard of this before... i'd like to know more
bjladams
- identity0
fund this yourself...
- martinadolfsson0
Fun that you mention it, I'm about to launch a campaign next week to finance my last two trips to Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
The problem with self publishing is the distribution, it's really hard to convince the small independent book stores (a hand full around the world) to take on someone who doesn't have a established distributor in the back.
I've done a pretty thorough research on the different aspects of the publishing world vs self publishing. What I really need to know is how to really catch the attention of the publishers when the e-mail lands in their inbox?
- bigtrick0
martin -- when pitching a luxury cocktail book to publishers last year, we ended up printing a small set of promotional 'teaser' books through blurb that we sent out to publishers, which contained our proposal package as well as some sample content. we had our agents tell the publishers to expect to receive it. we used the same set of a dozen or so books for several dozen publishers - if a publisher rejected the proposal and sent back the book, we'd have it sent on to the next publisher on the list.
it definitely worked as far as getting their attention - every single publisher paid us notice. as for interesting them enough to give us a go... that was not so effective (: so your mileage with this approach may vary.
- martinadolfsson0
Thanks this is very helpful. Your approach sounds similar to what I had in mind, too bad it wasn't successful.
Did you approach both the traditional houses (Random house, Hachette, etc ) and specialized art publishers?
- bigtrick0
our agents know the food publishers so we approached all of them (including the relevant division of random house, dono about hachette). pretty much anyone who had ever put out a cookbook was on our list.
- i_monk0
bigtrick - Good idea. I'll be working on a cookbook in the spring.