For those authors desiring to publish with a traditional book publisher, the ever-present question will be, “What do they want?”
We maintain detailed overviews of Christian publishers for agency use that are constantly updated, and you would be surprised by how often updates are needed.
It is better to answer today’s question with things that are consistent across all publishers and editors, rather than focus on specific book topics since the latter can change without warning.
What do publishers want?
Well-written manuscripts from authors with a strong, growing marketing platform
Nothing cuts through the fog of traditional publishing like these two things. It doesn’t mean they will immediately make an offer to publish, but a good writer with a strong platform always lands at the top of the list of proposals to consider.
The same is true with agents, which is why we talk about these things all the time as we search for potential clients who meet the publishers’ requirements.
Determined by each imprint
Most publishers publish across several categories and often assign a different team to handle each. Imprints are common in publishing and have been for a long time. Each imprint focuses on a certain type of book. The larger the publisher, the more imprints it has. Each one will have a slightly different focus. Publishers are really the sum of their imprints’ acquisitions.
What makes this an even greater challenge is that a publisher sometimes changes its focus, adds an imprint, or closes one. What was true a year ago may no longer be true.
Books in a category that they sell well
Maybe this is obvious, but not every publisher is as adept at publishing every kind of book. This doesn’t apply only to nonfiction, fiction, and children’s books. In each broad category are more specific subcategories, such as apologetics, historical fiction, and illustrated board books.
There are dozens of subcategories to track and navigate, which is why a single book proposal might interest a small number of acquisitions editors.
Theological fit for their mission
Just as theological differences characterize churches, so, too, do book publishers and their various imprints. Getting to know the general theological perspective of each company, imprint, and acquisitions editor is a challenge, but a very real part of the Christian book publishing industry.
Like churches, there are publishers who are very conservative theologically, others who are not-so-conservative, charismatic or noncharismatic, denominationally focused or more broadly Christian focused, and the list goes on. This is why agents ask theological questions of our clients if their perspective is not immediately evident.
Interesting to a broad audience
You might be surprised that a group of hundreds of thousands of potential readers would be considered a tiny niche market and that publishers are unlikely to be interested in a book aimed at it. A small percentage of any group will buy a book, so publishers are hesitant to publish where the potential audience isn’t large enough.
So there you have it, an attempt to explain the great mystery of traditional publishing. You are fortunate that I didn’t list all the other things publishers want in books and authors. There’s only so much space on this blog.
