That is, how finished should you be before submitting a book proposal?

Greg Britton (Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press)

My favorite story like this is, I was once at an academic meeting and a graduate student came up to me. She said, I'm trying to decide on a dissertation topic. I have these two topics that I eventually want to be a book. Can I tell you what the book topics are and you can help me decide which one I should pursue?

I thought it was a brilliant question. What it was that she was thinking all the way down the chessboard that she wanted a book published and she wanted an editor's advice early on. I honestly don't think in any field that it's ever too early to at least engage in a conversation informally about the question, is this publishable?

So many times someone will send me a full manuscript and say "I've been working on this and now I'm done so here it is", and I think, "why didn't you maybe talk with an editor a little bit halfway through?" I often think that the manuscript is really good, but if you had rotated it about 8% it would be so much better.

Or if you had thought through who is the real audience for this book, it would be so much better. It would go from "probably not interested in publishing" category to the "absolutely yes I would like to publish this" category. Editors are their own form of expert in a field. I think you should use that expertise as best you can as you develop your work for publication.

Anne Savarese (Editor, Princeton University Press)

I think if it's a first book and you'll have a complete manuscript ready for review within the year, or within the next few months, then I think it's good. I think if you're sending out queries, whether just brief emails or a full proposal, and you know that the book is still several years away from completion then that's a little bit early to contact us formally. Because even if the editor is interested, if you're not really planning to have anything to review for some time, then you don't know what will happen and what will change in the intervening time.

I think it's perfectly fine to contact an editor with questions or some people have even scheduled a brief meeting to talk about either just the process. I don't think there is a definitive answer but I just think that once you start contacting publishers, you should be fairly far along in the process.

So that, if they say "yes we're interested, we'd like to see more", you can say, "well, I'll have a manuscript in a few months, or I have a couple of sample chapters, I can send you right now". If I say "I'm really interested" and you say, "well it's going to be a couple of years until I can send you anything" that's not as helpful.