Stage One: Finding a Publisher

About four years ago, I found myself at a Chinese restaurant telling my wife that I had an idea for a textbook to accompany a college-level economics course. The idea was put on hold for a couple of years while we relocated, added a family member, and changed jobs, but after a couple of years the idea resurfaced and I began to work on it in earnest. Job one was finding a publisher for the thing.

There are enough people writing fiction that publishing houses find themselves with no shortage of completed manuscripts to read. But nonfiction is a different story, and academic work is even harder to come by. With a scarcity of new and original ideas in the economics textbook market, I didn't have to write the complete book before trying to find a publisher. Instead, I put together a shorter proposal with a few sample chapters of material. 

It is the proposal that sells the idea behind your work.The proposal (called the prospectus) outlines the nature of the project, including a tentative table of contents, and it places the proposed book in context with its competitors. It points out the shortcomings of competing books and informs the publisher how the proposed mansucript remedies those shortcomings. It also attempts to establish a viable market for the project. 

I sent publishers four sample chapters, complete with accompanying case studies and exhibits. I also sent descriptions of four in-class experiments, one to accompany each chapter. These experiments are one of the selling points of the manuscript--no other book in my market segment has active learning exercises to accompany the text, a point that I emphasized in the prospectus.

Before I sent out the packet, I had a well-trained formerly professional copy editor (who happens to be a good friend) carefully review everything I had written. I cannot overemphasize the importance of having a second set of eyes look over your work--especially if that work involves explaining things to other. Writing needs to be clear, concise, and comprehensible, and my editor-friend did an outstanding job of turning a decent manuscript into an excellent one. I paid her in booze, but truly the work she did for me was worth much, much more.

After a frantic couple of months putting the finishing touches on my samples, the time came when I could no longer think of any reason to wait. I sent my submissions and began to wait.