Andrei Codrescu

Exquisite Corpse

American Book Review

New Delta Review

Mark Spitzer

Matahariette

LSU Creative Writing Program

WRITER'S INTEREST

Below I present some lists of presses that might publish your book, with the caveat that I do not necessarily endorse the publishers you will find. You may, however, find a gem in the lists. WARNING: There are some pitfalls to avoid. There is a lot of scum running small (and large) presses, and there are a few things you should avoid. Especially avoid vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is when the deal to publish your book involves, in any way, you giving them money. Don't buy their (or your own) rationalizations for why you should have to pay them or why, if you do pay, it is somehow not vanity publishing. If you pay them anything -- anything -- it is vanity publishing. There are, however, arguably a few good reasons to turn to a vanity press, which I will acknowledge a little later.

Be aware that we are in tough times for publishers, and that many small presses, including the one that published my book, have at least partially turned to vanity publishing to stay afloat. (For the record, Creative Arts Book Company signed a standard contract with me; Toast was NOT co-published, NOT subsidy published, and NOT vanity published, but I do NOT suggest getting involved with Creative Arts Book Company!) There are two categories of vanity publishing: subsidy publishing and self-publishing. Subsidy publishers expect the author to cover a large percentage, if not more than the whole cost, of publishing a book, and generally include some promises to promote and distribute the book and give you royalties from sales should your book be successful. Self-publishing is when you give a press some money to send you some boxes of your book to sell. In most cases, it seems, presses that help you self-publish are exactly the same as subsidy publishers except honest. The contract a subsidy publisher sends you may say they will promote, distribute, and pay you royalties, but what will you do if they don't? Lawsuits are loads of fun, but let's say you spend a year or two fighting for your $1000 in royalties and you finally get your judgment against them. Yay! But now how do you collect? Here is some advice. Don't get involved with them and expect to be happy with the results.

The most smarmy kind of vanity press will send you a glowing acceptance letter! And you're like, "Woo hoo!, I got published!" But then at the bottom of the letter they tell you that it is going to cost you $7000. You ignore the letter. Then they have the nerve to call you on the phone to try to talk you into it! Why should they have to shoulder the burden of taking a chance on an unpublished author? That kind of crap. Here is a way to try to avoid this humiliating series of event. Consider adding a polite passage to all of your query letters that says something like, "I am not interested in subsidy or self-publishing at this time. If you are prepared to publish my book on this basis, I thank you for the opportunity, but there is no need to reply with such an offer, and please do not add me to any marketing call lists you might maintain. Thank you." I will be adding this kind of passage to my query letters in the future.

There are, however, possible good reasons to self-publish. For instance, if you do a lot of public speaking and you just need to have something to bring with you to sell, that would be a legitimate reason to self-publish. Most other reasons involve psychology, and, if they are your reasons, your money will be better spent on therapy. There are, likewise, good reasons to consider a subsidy publishing deal. For instance, if the press is squandering its good name and contacts to survive by subsidy publishing, you can arguably benefit from its residual good name and standing while it benefits from your $7000. However, I strongly object to this practice. This economy will get better, eventually, but, by then, the surviving small publishers will be so corrupt that they will never give up their evil ways.

But they did not necessarily start out as evil people. Several blows have fallen on the small presses, or even large adventurous presses, since the Reagan tax reform era. Tax reform changed the rules on how publishers pay taxes on stock. Before tax reform, a publisher would pay tax on a book once, and then could let the book sit on the shelf while it developed respect in the literary world over the next ten years or so. However, thanks to Reagan's tax reform, publishers must now pay tax on the value of their stock, so they would have to pay tax on the same book ten times over ten years to give it the same opportunity. So, you can see how it does not pay them to take a chance on a book that might take a while to find its level.

In recent years, the corporate mega-booksellers, with their overpowering market shares, have also developed an ingenious strategy for dealing with the small presses. They simply don't pay. The elegant simplicity of this rivals using box cutters to down tall buildings. I think you will quickly realize that not paying for books has distinct advantages for retailers, and what is the small press going to do, sue the mega-booksellers? "Maybe," he said, betraying lack of conviction. Let's assume they win their cases and they get their judgments. Now, how do they collect? So, you can see how publishing in America is a microcosm of the factors that have made American business practices so loved and trusted the world over.

Also, consider a surreal experience that I once had. I had a long conversation with a top-notch New York literary agent, back when I was trying to sell Toast, who was considering representing me because he thought I had a genuine voice. But, he informed me that there are only seven people in New York who decide what gets published by the major houses. He knew them all, and knew he couldn't sell Toast to any of them. Then he proceeded to ask me, "Do you have anything more middle class?" I thought it was funny at the time. Then I attended a high-powered panel of New York agents and publishers and was amazed at how they complained that nobody reads literature anymore. I wanted to shout out, "Then why don't you publish some?" Next time, I'll have the courage.

The problems with literature don't come just from the publishing world, though. The MFA programs churn out MFAs in creative writing, who write quiet, well-crafted, sensitive work that is so boring as to age you ten years if you even touch the book cover. After being suckered in by these academic types enough times, many publishers will not even look at manuscripts from MFAs anymore. The bums can't even tell a story, and they moan that non-fiction has become so popular. Newsflash: People like a good story as much as they ever did, but millions of adult readers have had to turn to Harry Potter books to find one. (I do not mean to suggest that getting an MFA is a bad thing. I just think you should find a program with vigorous authors on staff.) Publishers also have to contend with a mountain of bad submissions. Many of them are from profoundly insane people, especially paranoid schizophrenics, who send a manuscript and then become convinced that everything the publisher publishes from that point on is stolen from his manuscript. Frivolous lawsuits follow. So, if you want to know who to thank for publishers not accepting "over-the-transom" submissions, thank your fellow nut-job writers. Some more or less sane authors refuse to look at submissions guidelines, curb their egos, or finally respect a publisher's requests to not be bothered again. Then there are those who have some radio hit stuck in their head about always following your dream. You can thank the songwriter/singer for that one. This is why many publishers only look at manuscripts represented by agents.

But agents are picky about where they get their manuscripts, too. How do you break in? First of all, you have to write a good book, and that is a book that has some respect for the reader. You have to look at your book objectively and ask, "Are those first hundred pages there for me or for the reader?" If the answer is "for you," you cut them and don't cry like a baby about it. I always suggest that you write the book you want to read, not the book you want to write. This is a semantic difference, but it points to the idea that when one writes, it is often easy to write reflexive neurotic stuff, like talking to one's self, and nobody could possibly be interested. However, if you ask yourself what kind of book you would love to read, then that motive will produce a much better book. If you have the quality, I think the idea of finding a small press to publish your novel may be your best opportunity. After the first novel, successive opportunities for publication or agent representation will arise more easily. Here are a couple of thoughts. Don't be stuck up. If you get a deal that offers to pay you for your novel, and nobody else has offered, take the deal. If you get an offer, consider finding an agent who is a good fit for your writing, and offer to let him or her finish the deal. You've already sold the book. All you are trying to do is get the agent to accept 10%. How could s/he turn you down? Then, you have a relationship with your dream agent. Another idea: Pick up a short fiction anthology that you think your short story would fit in, and have a look in the back at the list of publications the anthology reads. This will be your list of publications to submit your story to. If you have an anthologized short story, that is likely to help you get a novel published, not to mention the fact that movie producers have lately realized that the short story format translates better into a screenplay than a novel does. There are Hollywood people reading the short fiction anthologies, too. (By the way, if someone makes a movie out of your short story, agents and publishers will like you.) What about contests? They are a good way toward recognition, and many include a publication deal, but they are almost all scams. It will cost you $20 for each one you enter. It is like going to Las Vegas, only the odds are a lot worse, unless your fiction is going to be palatable to the particular judge. You can save yourself a lot of money if you can find out who the judge will be, and then research whether the judge could possibly like your book. Personally, I think my chances of finding an academic judge who will like my work is not great, and the idea of a prize just sounds a bit academic and silly to me. A prize is for the bottom of the Cracker Jack box. I want a paycheck. Welcome to the publishing world! Now, here are those links I promised you:

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

http://www.pma-online.org/pmalinks.cfm

http://www.newpages.com/npguides/bookpubs.htm

http://www.writersmarket.com/index_ns.asp