by Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator
Publishers that ask the author for no money do exist, and they are the majority of the ones that matter: they publish little, they choose a great deal and they reply in their own time. The ones that ask for a contribution are a different thing, and the difference takes five minutes to see if you know where to look.
Money moves towards the author, not away from the author. In traditional publishing the publisher invests: it pays for the editorial work, the printing, the distribution, and it keeps the larger share of the revenue because it took the risk. If the flow reverses, you are no longer facing a publisher betting on you: you are facing a service provider. That can work perfectly well, as long as you know which of the two you have in front of you.
The first is timing: if an enthusiastic reply arrives in two days, nobody has read the manuscript. The second is the catalogue: open the website and look at how many titles come out each year and whether they have anything in common; a huge catalogue with no thread is a catalogue that does not select. The third is being asked to buy a package of copies, which is often the contribution in disguise. The fourth is distribution: ask which bookshops and which distributor, and see whether you get a name or a generic sentence.
It is not a rejection in itself: for some niche books it is the only way they ever come out. But four things have to be in writing: exactly what the figure covers, how many copies are printed and who distributes them, who keeps the rights and for how many years, and what happens to the unsold copies. If one answer stays vague, the problem is not the price: it is the contract.
You send the manuscript and you wait. Months, not weeks, and very often no answer arrives: it is not rudeness, it is the sheer volume they receive. What counts more than anything is sending the right thing to the right person: a publisher who publishes that genre, a clean file, a synopsis that reads in a minute. And it counts that the text really is finished, because the first page decides whether there will be a second.
We are not a publishing house and we do not behave like one: you are the one paying us, and we say so up front, not in a clause at the bottom. In exchange you keep the rights, you keep the revenue and you decide. If what you want is a publisher's stamp, try that road: it is a legitimate one, and nobody here will tell you it is wrong. If what you want is for the book to exist, done properly, by a date you choose, then let's talk.
Not compulsory, but some publishers are glad to read what comes from an agency because it has already been filtered by someone they trust. A serious agency earns a percentage when you sell: if it asks you for a reading fee, it is not an agency.
Ask them yourself, in writing, with your first reply: "does your contract involve any contribution or purchase of copies by the author?". Anyone working in the open answers in one line.
From two months to a year, and silence is the most frequent answer. Submitting to several publishers at once is normal and accepted, unless their site says otherwise.
Not automatically. Being orderable is one thing, sitting physically on the shelves is another, and it depends on trade agreements you should ask about by name.
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