Okay, you've got the greatest book idea -- the bestseller everyone is waiting for. Now you're ready to sit down and pen the perfect manuscript, then get a gazillion copies and mail them to every publisher you can find. But wait! Before you spend all that money at the post office and the corner copier store, don't waste your time.
Before you lick one envelope, research. Go online. Look at each publisher's website first. Is this a publisher that might publish your book? There's no point in mailing the manuscript to a science fiction publisher when yours is a business book. There's no point in mailing to a publisher that has already published the same book angle by another author. Roll up your sleeves and do the work. Find the right fit.
So, now you've compiled a list of five or six publishers (sure beats mailing 20) that have a direct fit with your project. And no, that doesn't mean you mail out those boxes of manuscripts. Not yet. If you check their websites for submission requirements, you'll likely see they don't accept unsolicited manuscripts -- by anyone, no matter how brilliant you think the book is.
Now what? Well, first, you have to realize nobody cares you wrote a book. Really. Publishers don't care YOU wrote a book. What they want to know is WHY should they be interested in putting up the thousands of dollars they would have to invest to publish your book. What's in it for them? In no more than three Word pages (10 pt text at the smallest), you must be able to convince them your book would be a good fit for their firm. You might cite other books in the same flavor that you noticed they have published in the past. You might mention, because they publish ..., your book falls into that category.
You make your cover letter all about them and why you approached them. You show your book fits with their catalogue. You convince them you are qualified to pen this book. You show them you will be hands-on involved in marketing the book -- not just by saying it, but by sharing your preliminary marketing plan.
If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. It comes down to how badly you want your book published. The slush pile for traditional publishing is quite high. It may be no exaggeration to say there are over 6,000 people vying for maybe 200 spots every year PER publisher. Most authors send out pitches indiscriminantly without having checked to see what the publisher publishes. (Don't worry, we've all done it.) Those that do the due diligence and actually research the firm will put themselves in the top 10 percent of the slush pile. That's still about 600 names, but 600 is better than 6,000, and your letter has a better chance of being read.
