Spent the past week or so following up on the advice offered me by my senior colleagues as a part of my 3rd year, pre-tenure review (which wrapped up departmentally at the end of last month or so). The advice? Get off your ass and get the first book manuscript circulating.
And so.
It's not a great deal different from putting together application packages for the job market: each press wants basically the same information, but often configured in subtly different (perhaps they'd say distinctive?) ways. Like the job search, the process itself is shrouded in mystery--other than a rough set of hunches based on the past few years of catalogs, I don't know who will be interested or who will dump my package in the old circular file. And then there's the gnawing suspicion that I don't have all the information I need to be successful.
Like many of my friends (you know who you are), I tend to err on the side of perfection, when I know that my work is at least as good as much of what I read; even then, I have a tough time letting it go. Every year, we go to CCCC and tell each other to stop being so tough on ourselves, to send more stuff out, to let journals take responsibility for editorial suggestions, etc. And every year I vow to get more of my work out there, only to fall back into the same patterns less than a month later. Ahhh, but not so this year. Inquiry packages go out no later than Monday...
So wish my little manuscript luck...
Yeahhhh! Good luck, Collin! Your book is gonna rock. It's gonna rock AND roll.
Hey, C. Ya, get it out there. You know it is good. The question that came up a lot for me when I was doing this over the summer is sending out multiple copies. Like journal editors, book publishers like to know they are the only one's considering it. Some people say send out 5 at a time and put in the letter that you're sending out multiple copies. I couldn't bring myself to do that, so I made a top five list and put the publisher I thought I was most interested in and would be most interested in my book on top and sent it there first. Either way, get that puppy out there!!! :)
B.
Yeah, at least a couple actively frown on multiple submission, but I guess my attitude is that, unlike with submitting an article, I'm not technically asking them to publish what I'm sending. I don't kid myself into thinking that I'll have presses duelling over me or anything, but quite frankly, I think it's fair for me to have an expression of interest and some idea of how long they'll hold onto an MS before I send it.
I feel a little mercenary about this, but only a little.