Author Guide

Your writing can sell—getting published today is possible!

Have you tried to get published—and failed? Do you realize that less than 2 percent of the manuscripts submitted to publishers are accepted? It may not be your book that’s at fault.

We are willing to publish good writers that the large publishing houses must turn away. We encourage you to submit your manuscript!

Why should you take the time? (See Getting Published as well as the info below.)

Acquisitions editors often dismiss excellent writing simply because of poor construction, careless grammar and punctuation, or unattractive layouts. You may have worked on your manuscript so many times that you are now unable to spot simple errors in your story.

Consider having our experts cast a professional eye over your work and give you an honest and helpful opinion. If we don’t accept it, we may be able to tell you the best place to send it. We may also pass on to you some “trade secrets” in the process.

Every craft has its inside knowledge...

If you have ever thought, even half seriously, that you would like to write a book about your favorite subject, then you probably can. Moreover, given the proper editorial and publishing support, you can probably write a successful book. It’s all a matter of doing the right things in the right order. And it helps a great deal if you have a publisher willing to do everything in its power to help you along.

Your Book Production & Sales

Here’s an overview of the publication process, from beginning to end:

You submit your manuscript to us. (We ask you to use Microsoft Word, and we provide you instructions.)

We will evaluate it, perhaps talk it over with others who are experts in your topic. At this point, we might reach a simple decision, or else we might enter into a series of exchanges with you, asking for further information, seeking your opinion about problematic aspects of the book, inviting your response to criticisms, and so on. Eventually, this all leads to a go or no-go decision.

Should we decide to run with the book, we offer you a contract. We like to think of ourselves as more flexible than other publishers—able to accommodate the peculiar needs and conditions of a particular author or project.

A specific editor will be assigned to your book. He or she will provide editorial guidance as needed, and you will be expected to make the necessary revisions. When you and the editor are satisfied with the final product, the book is transferred to our copyediting department and our design and production departments.

Our production and design people prepare the book for printing. This includes designing the final format, bringing the text and graphics together, and final copyediting. You will have an opportunity to review the book before we send it to press.

Meanwhile, our marketing people will be getting out the word about an exciting new American Book Publishing™ title. We inform the media and book distributors of upcoming releases of our titles. We have developed an elaborate in-house Author’s Guide of over a hundred pages that we provide to authors to help them understand how to successfully perform their author promotional tasks such as acquiring book reviews, author appearances, and interviews.

After you have identified your audience and you know what problem you are trying to help them solve, it remains only to “put the right words in the right order.” Of course, this is the challenge, and it’s more work than most people imagine.

All that remains, we fervently hope, is a long and successful sales run for your book!

The following is a description of the writing, editing, and revision cycle we expect your book to go through.

 Working with Your Editor

At many other publishing houses, your proposal is evaluated and your contract is negotiated by an “acquisitions editor.” Not so at American Book Publishing.Ô

At American Book PublishingÔ, your editor will be intimately involved with every step of the process. When your contract is sent in, your manuscript is edited by one of our professional staff editors. Then you and your editor work together on rewrites until your manuscript becomes complete and ready to go to print. 

Here are some of the things to consider in your final preparation, before you submit your manuscript. Editors give authors high regard when such manuscript elements are well done:

·        Does your book tell the reader what he or she needs to know? Is it accurate, complete, and useful? In sum, does it work?

·         Is the treatment appropriate to the audience? If it assumes prior knowledge, does it tell the reader clearly about those assumptions?

·         How readable is each chapter? In a well written book, the words seem to disappear, and the reader is gripped directly by the concepts. In a poorly written book, the words are an obstacle, and comprehension is slow and painful. In short, the book must be engaging and interesting. (To a technical reader, of course, “interesting” most often means that the book tells me what I need to know as efficiently as possible.)

·         How well organized are the chapters? One of the nicest things that can be said about one of our books is: “Every time I had a question, the answer was in the next paragraph.” If the author has done the work of thinking through the subject and put everything in the right order, the reader finds even difficult concepts easy to understand. Proper organization may mean eliminating unnecessary detail, clarifying assumptions, or identifying the most direct “flow” through the required information.

·         Are there alternate, more effective ways to present material? For example, a topic that is interesting but breaks the flow of the narrative might be recast as a sidebar.

·         Are there common grammatical mistakes that can be caught early (so they don’t need to be fixed later by a copyeditor)? Are there infelicities of style that the author should be vigilant against?

·         Does the chapter use its terminology consistently? The editor will teach you “style sheet” techniques used by copyeditors that will help you to remember how you’ve used various terms.

Tools

We review manuscripts that have been sent according to our submission instructions. Please send us an e-mail requesting our instructions, including your name. Send your request to

info@american-book.com