Publishing tip 

Getting Published: What Do Publishers Look for Most?

by Diane Eble

I was talking to an acquisitions editor the other day. (The kind of publisher who pays to publish you, and also pays all the upfront costs. As opposed to a self-publishing company.)

"What do you look for most in a publishable author?" I asked.

"Platform," was his quick answer. "It's all about platform."

Platform is industry speak for an audience. People who are already in your "tribe." People who are already following you.

That's what publishers look for, first and foremost.

"Do you look for authors who have self-published and are already successful?" I asked.

"Usually those authors don't need us," he answered. "But if they are successful and they want us to publish them, we'd certainly consider it."

So there you go. If you're an aspiring author seeking a publisher, work on your platform. It's more important to work on getting known than on going to endless writing workshops to improve your writing. Another editor once told me, "We can fix the writing, polish it up. It's harder to create the platform."

Sometimes, the first editor told me, a publisher will work to help an author create a platform, if they really believe in the author and the message and that a large market exists. He told me of a case in which they sold 20,000 books by two relatively unknown authors, in the first year. But they published the book because they knew a particular group--pastors--would be interested in this book. They marketed heavily to pastors at conferences and their hunch was right--pastors want the book.

It all comes down to one of the very first questions you must ask yourself: Who is my audience? How can I find them? (For more about the crucial questions you need to answer, preferably before you write your first word, check out Write Your Book Right: 12 Questions Successful Authors Always Answer.)

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