Research Materials On Finding A Publisher

Published on June 30, 2020

When I was doing research on finding a publisher (this was for The Sun Aegis), I came across a lot of useful research materials.
Here are some of great sources that I came across.


So, to start with, there are a lot of things out there about traditional publishing VS self publishing.
These two videos are the most succinct pieces of material that I've found on the subject.

Self Publishing a Book: What are the Pros and Cons? by Jenna Moreci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtPn9oPqnmk

Traditionally Publishing a Book: What are the Pros and Cons? by Jenna Moreci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOybmhBvz_U

Those two videos are great starting points, for helping with if one should choose the traditional publishing router or the self publishing route.
More research has to be done, of course, but these two videos helped me a lot by putting a lot of information in a concise and straightforward manner.


A good article on the traditional publishing route, finding a publisher VS finding an agent, and a bit of info on the self publishing route:
https://www.janefriedman.com/start-here-how-to-get-your-book-published/

Another good article on traditional publishing VS self publishing:
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/self-publishing-vs-traditional/


To send your manuscript to a publisher, it has to be formatted properly.
The following are really good sources on how to format your manuscript.

Manuscript format:
https://www.shunn.net/format/introduction.html
Direct link to novel format:
https://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html
Direct link to short story format:
https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html


I don't remember if the articles above say this explicitly or not, so I'll just make a note here.
For the traditional publishing route, from the research that I've done, big publishers will only accept solicitation from agents.
Getting an agent will help with navigating the publishing world. However, one also has to choose the correct agent for them, and that requires research as well.

Article on finding a publisher VS finding an agent:
https://www.novel-writing-help.com/finding-a-publisher.html

Articles on querying agents:
https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/1012/preparing-for-submission/how-to-find-a-literary-agent/
https://dianaurban.com/tips-authors-querying-literary-agents
https://tinhouse.com/how-to-stay-sane-while-querying-literary-agents/

Article on creating query letters for querying agents:
https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/

Article on when an agent offers representation:
https://www.agentquery.com/writer_or.aspx


How royalties work:
https://rachellegardner.com/how-book-royalties-work/


And that's all I have for you today.
Hopefully, you found this article useful!

I also did a video about why I decided to go with self publishing, for those of you interested:
https://youtu.be/JVIrQrDthgY