So, you have a book proposal (or a complete draft manuscript), and you’re ready to submit it to a publisher. With thousands of publishers all proclaiming that they can help a book find success, how do you know which is a good fit for you?

Drawing on my experience with scholarly and trade publishers, I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions to find the best home for your book.

• Who are you reading for books on a similar topic? Consider who publishes the books you cite in your own work and who’s publishing the leading voices in the field. That’s a good indicator of the publisher’s interest. Publishers are strategic; it’s safer to market to their captive audience—an audience that trusts their reputation—than taking a risk on a first-time author writing to a new audience.
• Who is the target audience? Many academic presses publish for scholarly readers; these books tend to be niche and written to advance the field of research rather than entertain the masses. Academic presses consider proposals from academics who have the credentials, resumes, and unique perspective to contribute to the field. A commercial trade publisher, however, generally caters to the general interest reader. While they still consider the author’s expertise and unique perspective or story, they often consider author platform and whether the author has an agent. When acquiring in a scholarly press, for example, I didn’t look at a prospects number of followers; but I definitely do as an editor for my trade publisher. In the latter case, I want an author who can promote their book to their followers while I support my publisher pitching the book to our retail partners.
• What business model complements your platform and objectives? There are traditional publishers that take on the responsibilities of book production, marketing, and so on and pay authors royalties but rely on authors to help promote their books. Others offer to publish the work and book an author for professional development, which might be great for an author with a small profile and limited reach. Those with thriving businesses or consulting services might bristle at this arrangement. And of course, there are self-publishing models that charge an author for all expenses incurred or leave it to the author to arrange cover design, developmental and copyediting, and so on.

As an author, you have to know what your bottom line is. Once you generate a list of publishers that are a good fit, send your proposal to them all according to their book proposal requirements.  

Here’s a bonus for the academic author:  Visit the Association of University Presses (https://bit.ly/3X91dXI) to access a subject-area grid that lists academic presses and the subjects they publish in. The list is usually updated yearly.

Good luck!