I had the great honor of getting to pen the inaugural Ask and Editor advice column over on the Chronicle Books blog last week. Folks wrote in with questions about book proposals--how best to submit them, how we choose which ones to publish, how to get feedback, and so forth--and it was my privilege to answer their questions (as best I could!). People have said it's a helpful piece, so I thought I'd go ahead and re-post it here in it's entirety. Happy Publishing Wednesday!
Ask an Art Book Editor
You’re a creative person and you’re sitting on a pretty great book
idea. So how do you get it out of your head and into the world? Editor
Bridget Watson Payne has been helping authors do just that for over 10
years, and now she wants to help you. Email your toughest editorial
questions to askaneditor@chroniclebooks.com and they could be answered in the next column.
A lot of people who are already well-known seem to get book deals. Do you have to be famous to pitch something to Chronicle?
Absolutely not. For certain kinds of projects, of course, having a
“platform” (which basically means being well-known enough to have fans
and followers you already connect with, and who will be interested in
your book) is a huge plus. But there are plenty of other kinds of books
where it really is all about the distinctiveness and awesomeness of the
content—AKA your work. Humor and pop culture books are one great example
of that; art, illustration, and curation can be as well. If what you’re
doing is super witty, or clever, or drop-dead gorgeous, or just makes
me say “yes! exactly! of course this should be a book!” then I am not
going to get hung up on your level of fame or lack thereof. There are
all different kinds of projects—some are author platform-driven, some
are content-driven—and there’s no better or worse about that, they’re
just different.
How much does your personal taste factor into which books you choose to develop?
This is a tricky one. I’ve been doing this for over a decade and some
days I’m still working it out. It took me a long time to really
internalize the fact that just because I love something personally, that
doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a fit for Chronicle’s list. I don’t have
to make every single project I personally like into a book because we
can only make so many things, and also I (like everyone) have some weird
pockets to my own taste—things I might be super into but that maybe not
very many other people would dig, or where perhaps it’s for an audience
that may indeed be out there but we’re not sure how to reach them. If I
took on those projects, knowing on some level we weren’t the right home
for them, I would be doing everyone, especially the authors, a
disservice. However, there is also something to be said for honing an
awareness of when I myself am indeed the ideal consumer for a particular
project—if I love something, and I can envision us reaching lots of
other people like me who will also love it, then that’s when my own
personal taste can be really useful. So it really just becomes a
question of having gradually learned over time to distinguish the parts
of my taste that are super weird and niche from the parts that are more
readily applicable to a wider audience.
What’s the weirdest proposal you’ve received that’s actually become a book or product?
That would probably be The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.
It’s a design book about the lingerie industry in Syria, which included
undergarments that lit up, played music, and were adorned with all
kinds of amazing decorations. It was one of the very first books I
acquired way back when I started doing the editorial gig, almost ten
years ago, and I just fell in love with the project—how strange and
amazingly creative this kind of fashion design was. In retrospect I’d
say this was definitely before I learned to do the thing I was just
talking about—separating the very weird part of my own taste from the
more widely applicable part. But in that case, hey, it worked out! I’ve submitted a few times to Chronicle Books but nothing has worked out yet. How can I get truthful feedback about what would make my proposal stronger?
There
are actually a few different questions to consider here. The first
thing to think about is that not every project we do, not every
author/publisher relationship we have, was an instant hit the very first
time we were pitched something. I have a number of authors—both
big-name ones and lesser known rising-stars—who sent in as many as half a
dozen ideas that didn’t quite work for us before nailing the one that
totally did. So to a certain extent the answer is just grit and
persistence. One idea doesn’t work? Come up with another idea, and
another. The great thing about being a creative person is that (barring
creative blocks—and we have a book to help overcome those!) there is always more where that came from. Just keep going!
The second part, of course, is the question of how to make a book proposal stronger. I’ve got another blog post over here full of tips and tricks
that might help with that. But the third aspect of your question is
perhaps the most interesting of all—the part about getting truthful
feedback.
As editors we try to be as truthful as possible when writing decline
letters to folks about the reasons a particular project isn’t going to
work for us. But we do get a ton of proposals and we don’t always have
the time to give the level of detailed feedback people might like. When
you’re in the situation of feeling really confident you have a great
book idea, but suspecting it’s your pitch or proposal that could use
some serious reworking, I would recommend talking to a literary agent or
creative consultant. This is someone who can really take the time to do
a deep dive with you into the pros and cons of your proposal—what’s
working and what could be improved. Here are a few Chronicle alumni who
could help you out:What’s the one piece of advice that you think could most help those who dream of being published?
Don’t be discouraged by rejection, and don’t take it personally. Nearly every person with a great success story, if she’s being honest, also has dozens of rejection stories. I might almost go so far as to say that the only sure way to be told “yes” about anything (not just book proposals!) is first to be told “no” a whole bunch of times. I decline great projects all the time—not because they don’t merit publication, but simply because they are not a good fit for what Chronicle does. And I always really hope that those people will take my decline letter, not as a roadblock or a major disappointment, but as motivation—either to research more publishers and find the perfect homes for their ideas, or to cook up new ideas to send back to me. I hope they think “I’ll show her!” and then I hope they do! Grit, tenacity, and the awareness that although, yes, you probably have poured your heart and soul into your project, it is not your heart or soul that is being rejected. A decline is simply a business decision and not a reflection on the intrinsic worth of either your project or your self. A consciousness of that is invaluable.
Get more personalized guidance from Bridget on July 30th at her Makeshift Society SF workshop: Publishing for Creatives.
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