Midwifery © Longman Group UK Ltd 1988

Writ ing for publication: wri t ing a book

Sally Morris

M a n y midwives feel they w o u l d like to wri te a b o o k bu t do no t k n o w w h e r e to begin. I n this ar t ic le a pub l i she r p rov ides a useful s t ep -by-s t ep guide.

FINDING A PUBLISHER

The very first step, if you have an idea for a book, is to find a publisher who is interested. In the field of specialist professional books for mid- wives or others it is almost unheard-of tbr pub- lishers to accept complete, finished manuscripts which have been written without prior consul- tation with them. The publisher already has a good idea of the m a r k e t - - w h a t is wanted and what has sold in the past. Very often the pub- lisher has already identified a number of books which would be worth publishing all that is needed is for the right author to come along; it could be y o u !

First of all, therefore, contact a suitable pub- lisher one who is already active and successful in the field of midwifery books. (Do not, by the way, approach more than one publisher at a time; it is unfair to expect a company to spend time and money considering a publishing idea, only to find that another publisher is going ahead with it.) Identify suitable publishers by seeing who publishes similar books in the subject; the publisher's name and address will always be found at the front of any book.

Write to the chosen publishing company out- lining your idea for the book. I f you can find out the name of the person responsible for midwifery

Sally Morris MA BPhil MBIM, Journals Publisher, Churchill Livingstone, Robert Stevenson House, 1 3 Baxter's Place, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH1 3AF

Manuscript accepted 11 February 1988

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books, so much the better. Explain briefly what the book would cover and for whom it would be written; also tell the publisher what your qualifi- cations are tbr writing it_

At this stage only a brief outline of your idea is needed, in order to find out whether or not the publisher is interested_ I f your first approach meets with no success, do not be discouraged. Different publishers will quite likely take differ- ent views, so keep trying!

THE OUTLINE

When a publisher is interested in your idea, they will very likely want to discuss it with you either in person or over the telephone. They may have specific ideas and suggestions which they would like you to c o n s i d e ~ o r they may simply be able to help you formulate, clarify and improve your own ideas for the book.

Whether or not such a discussion has taken place the next step will be tbr the publisher to ask you to prepare a detailed outline of the book_ Individual publishing companies may have slightly different detailed requirements, but in essence they all want the same things:

- - A detailed, chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the proposed contents, with names of contributors if you are planning to involve other people. It is helpful to add section headings or other supplementary notes, in addition to chapter titles, this is helpful.

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The proposed length of each chapte r (in numbers of words) should also be shown. A s ta tement of the raison d 'a t re of the book wha t exact ly it aims to do, why you believe it is needed, who it is lbr. Facts and figures abouL the in tended marke t (e.g. the number of students) are useful here. A sample chapte r which is typical of the content , style and level of the whole book. The publ isher needs a reasonably long sec- tion of the text, in order to get the f lavour of your work. Ind ica te or, be t ter still, include i l lustrations in the app rop r i a t e places. Your own curr icu lum vitae.

When the publ isher receives your outline, it will be studied carefully by one or more experts within the company_ They will be looking for a book which fills a known need in the market . The idea must be well thought out, and clearly and logically s tructured. The sample mater ia l needs to be wri t ten in clear and accurate English, though not necessarily in a ' l i t e rary ' style; it also needs to be at a level of comprehension which is r ight for the in tended readership . If, in addi t ion, it is neat ly and accura te ly typed, in double spacing, on one side only of good white paper , this cannot fail to add to the favourable impres- sion. Since the publ isher will wan t to take photo- copies in order to consult outside advisers, the qual i ty of the original copy is impor tant ; it is wor th paying someone else to type it, if you are not a good typist yourself.

Once the publ isher 's own staff" have evaluated the mater ia l , they will send out copies to one, or several, outside advisers who are experts in the subject ma t t e r of your book, and in the specific needs of your in tended readership. Each adviser will p robab ly be supplied with a set of specific questions to answer, such as:

Is the book needed? W h a t is the competi- tion? Is the au thor correct in his/her assess- ment of the potent ia l market? Is the content accurate , complete, appro-

priate? - - Is the style good? Is it at the correct level?

In addi t ion to answering these questions the ad-

visers will be asked to make specific suggestions for addi t ions or improvements , if they feel these are necessary.

W h a t you will get back from the publisher , theretbre, after wha t may be a delay of several months while the reviewers produce their com- ments, will represent the views of the publ isher ' s own expert staff, plus those of the outside ad- visers. Do not be depressed if there seem to be lots of quibbles; the eventual book will have benefi ted from the combined expertise of qui te a large number of people.

SIGNING A CONTRACT

Assuming that , after receiving the advisers ' coin- ments, the publ i sher decides to go ahead and publish your book, you will now be offered a con- tract. The key poin t in this cont rac t for the au thor will, of course, be the money bu t for the publ isher it is the date the au thor agrees to deliver the manuscr ip t . I t is not just that the pub- lisher is wi th in his rights to cancel the whole thing if the manuscr ip t is late; he has a fixed schedule with the typesetters and printers and if you lose your 'slot ' you may have to wai t months to be fitted in again, even if the publ isher is agreeable. This could mean that you miss an im- po r t an t market , if your book was in tended to coincide with some related event; or mean t ime another au thor may publish on a similar topic.

The money you receive may be offered ei ther as an ou t r igh t fee or, more usually, a royalty. The royal ty will be expressed as a percentage (between 5% and 10% in most cases) ei ther of the cover price of each copy sold or of the ac tual amoun t received by the publ isher (which will be less than the cover price, because booksellers receive a discount) . The la t ter a r r angemen t is more common for specialist and professional books. You may be offered a royal ty which goes up after a cer ta in number of copies have been sold.

Unl ike a fee, a royal ty does not guaran tee you an exact sum of money. No one can tell precisely how many copies will be sold, a l though pub- lishers depend for their survival on be ing able to guess pre t ty accurately. I t is wor th asking how many copies the publ isher intends to print ; this

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probab ly represents the an t ic ipa ted sales over 2

or 3 years. Authors of best-selling novels can c o m m a n d

enormous advances that is to say, a certain amount of the royal ty is pa id in advance; this has to be ' earned ' by the book's sales before any more royalties are paid. Whi le it is unlikely that you will be able to negot ia te a huge sum, it is worth asking if the publ isher will advance you a certain amount (after all, you will have cer ta in expenses associated with wri t ing the book, such as typing, get t ing hold of i l lustrations, or t ravel l ing to l ibraries). As a rough guide, publishers may be willing to advance you the equivalent of 6-12 months ' royalties. In some cases the publ isher may be willing to contr ibute to your costs in addi t ion to this; but this is not automat ic , as many publishers feel that the author ' s costs are his or her own responsibil i ty.

The contract will say how often, and when, royalties will be paid. Most publishers pay once a year, and you should get a s ta tement at the end of the publisher 's f inancial year showing how many copies have been sold. The corresponding royal ty will be pa id to you a short t ime (up to 3 months) later. Thus you will not see a royal ty cheque until any th ing up to 15 months after your book is published. W h e n you do see it, it is un l ike ly~unless you have wri t ten a real b e s t - s e l l e ~ t h a t you will be able to ret ire on the proceeds; however, it m a y come in very handy for the gas bill. People who can earn a l iving ex- clusively from wri t ing books are extremely few and far between, and they are churning out several best-selling novels or school textbooks every y e a r - - s o do not give up your j ob jus t yet.

The length of the book is usual ly s t ipulated in the contract. I f you were to over- or under-wri te to any extent the publ isher ' s schedules could be d is rupted while the ma t t e r was being remedied.

You should also read carefully all the other clauses of your contract , to make sure that you are absolutely clear about wha t you are commit- t ing yourself to. You will, for instance, p robab ly be asked to under take that noth ing in your book will be libellous, obscene, or con t ra ry to the laws of copyright . This includes the quo ta t ion of any- thing other than very short (less than 100 words) extracts from other people 's publ icat ions. For

any th ing longer you must get the permission of the au thor and original publ isher (and you m a y have to pay a fee); and any quota t ion, however short, should always be credi ted to its original source.

The cont rac t will say whether you are ex- pected to supply the i l lustrat ions, and in wha t form; how the manuscr ip t should be presented and how many copies; and, as a l ready men- tioned, when you are to del iver the manuscr ipt .

WRITING THE BOOK

Do not underes t imate the t ime that it will take you to write a book, even a short one. I t is a rare book tha t can be wr i t ten in much less than a year; a major textbook can take considerably longer. I f you are involving co-authors or con- t r ibutors , it is realistic to expect yet more d e l a y s - - a n d the slowest cont r ibu tor will, of course, hold up the whole book.

I t is sensible to establish some kind of wri t ing routine. You cannot wri te every evening and all weekend, but it helps to p lan your 'wri t ing t ime' in advance. Try, too, to set yourself milestones a long the way so tha t you know you need to have completed, say, the init ial p lan by December , the draf t of Cha p t e r 1 by J a n u a r y , and so on.

Use your friends and colleagues unashamedly to read and comment on your work as you go along. I f you cannot type (and cannot get access to a word-processor) , it is wor th the expense of having your draf t version typed, and not just the final version. Somehow, your own words will look qui te d i f f e r e n t - - a n d you will be more crit- ical of t h e ~ o n c e they have been typed. I t is also obviously more realistic to ask other people to look at typed work, ra ther than your hand- writ ing. I f you are unsure whether the wri t ing is p roceeding on the r ight lines, do not hesitate to ask your publ isher for comments and advice. They would much ra ther spend time now gett ing you on the r ight track, than ask you to re-work the whole book later.

I f the publ isher agrees to a r range for i l lustra- tions or d iagrams to be d r a w n professionally, the author ' s ske t ch - -howeve r r o u g h - - m u s t be accura te in detai l e.g. showing the precise posi-

MIDWIFERY 89

tion of, say, feet or hands if these are relevant, or important details of equipment. I f X-rays are to be included it is essential to indicate which is the front, top, and the right and left hand side.

When the book is ready for the publisher, keep a good copy yourself and send the correct number (usually at least two), including the top copy, to the publisher. Make sure that the pages are numbered right through in all copies, as your manuscript could fall on the floor, or a gust of wind from an open window could cause chaos. Also if the publisher writes to you with a query about, for example, page 97, you can find the right place. I f you want to make last-minute changes to the typescript, write them in (clearly) if they are short; longer passages are better typed separately, with a note at the appropriate point (e.g. ' Insert A here').

THE PUBLISHING PROCESS

Do not expect anything to happen immediately. The publisher will first have to read the finished manuscript carefully, to check that it is exactly as it was expected. Then it will be passed to an edi- t o r - e i t h e r someone on the publisher's staff, or a freelance working from home.

Depending on the length of the manuscr ip t - - and the amount of other work in hand at the t ime- - the editor may spend between 6 weeks and many months working on your book. He or she will work through it in detail, editing at two levels. First, the editor will be checking that the book is logical and clearly expressed--both in its overall structure, and in the actual language used. I f there are points in the text which are de- batable, or difficult to understand, the editor will query these with you. At the same time, the edi- tor will also be making sure that such points as optional spellings, punctuat ion and so forth are in keeping with the publisher's preferred 'house style', and that the printer knows exactly what size and weight of print to use at every p o i n t - - bold for chapter headings, italic for sub- headings, or whatever.

When this process is complete, and any quer- ies have been resolved with you, the manuscript will be sent to the typesetter (who may or not operate within the same company as the eventual

printer). After an average of 6 further weeks (for a fairly short book), the typesetting will be com- plete and proofs will be produced. Few type- setters currently check their own proofs, so these will come to you and the publisher with almost inevitably, a few errors slips of the finger, mis- spellings, lines missed out. I t is therefore essential to read your proofs carefully and to check crucial material, such as figures, in detail against your original version. Most publishers will be doing the same proof reading themselves~-but even if they are, two pairs of eyes are better than one, so do not allow yourself to be any less vigilant. Do not, however, assume that you can make changes and improvements to the text at this stage. While the typesetter will obviously correct his own mis- takes at his own expense, any other a l tera t ions-- however desirable they may seem to y o u - - a r e disproportionately expensive, and this will affect the price of the book. Furthermore, if your altera- tions cause the typesetting cost to go up by more than a certain percentage, your contract may oblige you to pay the difference out of your royal- ties. In addition, the more corrections have to be done, the more the production schedule will be slowed down.

Depending on the size and nature of the book, you may see one (or more) further stages of proofs, in which the corrections have been done, and the illustrations inserted. I f you have been asked to provide an Index, this will be done either by you or a freelance at page proof stage (at which point the proofs have been divided up into the final pages, and numbered). Having marked the proofs (there are convenient stand- ard marks, which all typesetters understand, to indicate 'insert ' , 'delete' and so o n - - t h e pub- lisher will supply a table of these) you return them to the publisher and await further develop- ments.

Printing film will now be made from the final proofs or page layouts, and this will be sent to the printer, who may very likely be in a country other than your own, where paper and produc- tion costs are lower. The book then has to be printed, bound and despatched to the publisher's warehouse; the journey from a printer in Singapore to a warehouse in the U K can easily take 2-3 months. When the books do arrive,

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booksellers need a further 6 weeks notice of publi- cation, so that they can all have the book in stock on publ ica t ion day. Thus the overall process, from your del ivering the manuscr ip t to the book being published, will usually take at least 12 18 months, and in some cases a great deal longer.

PUBLICATION--AND AFTER

The publisher will have started p romot ing the book ahead of publ icat ion. I t will have been listed in their annual catalogue, and advance in- formation will be c i rculated to booksellers, and to the sales representatives who visit the bookshops. The publisher may decide to advert ise in the rele- vant specialist journals , or they may prefer to send direct mail brochures to their lists of appro- pr ia te individuals and institutions_ They may also be able to display the book at specialist meet- ings. Review copies will be sent out to the most suitable journals (a l though reviews may take some time to appear ) .

Do not assume, because you have not seen it advertised, or because your local bookseller does not have a copy, that the book is not being pro- moted. The publ isher will, quite logically, con- centra te effort and expendi ture where it is most likely to be effect ive--special is t bookshops, specialist meetings, specialist mai l ing lists and specialist journals . Needless to say, it is in the publisher 's interest, as much as yours, to sell the book as widely as possible and can be sure they will be doing all they can to ensure this.

One thing is certain you will s tart noticing

mistakes and lmperi~ctions in your book almost immedia te ly . Readers may even write to the publ isher point ing out errors. Do keep a note of these and of any mater ia l which would need to be changed to take account of other develop- ments. Who knows, you may be able to incorpor- ate these in the second edition!

A POSTSCRIPT ON PRICES

Authors often ask publishers why their books cannot be sold more cheaply. One factor, obviously, is that a book for a specialist marke t (such as midwifery) is p roduced in a fraction of the quanti t ies which can be pr inted for, say, a pape rback n o v e l - - y e t many of the product ion costs (typesetting, i l lustrations and so tbrth) are the same whether 1000 or 10 000 copies are being pr inted.

Most book-purchasers are not aware, either, of how the final price of the book is actual ly made up. Here, then, is a theoret ical example.

Price £10.00 Discount to bookseller 3_00 Received by publ isher 7.00 Product ion cos ts 2.00 Roya l ty 1.00 Publisher 's gross profit 4.00 Publisher 's overheads

(oNce costs, staffcosts, etc_) 3_00 Publisher 's net profit 1.00

Thus the publisher and the author are making exact ly the same at the end of the day.