Weekly Writers: Big 5 Publishing Contracts

It's good to have choices

Here’s the Weekly Writers Monday post. This post is for paid subscribers only.

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How To Get A Big 5 Publishing Contract

Last time I promised to give some tips on approaching Big Five publishers and their imprints. Here you go. :-)

The first thing to realise is that, in general, acquisitions editors for one of the imprints at the Big Five publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts from authors. If you hear otherwise, or have personal contacts, then by all means go ahead. Otherwise, you are likely wasting your time.

In most cases you must have a literary agent who submits material to the publisher on your behalf. So, before even attempting to climb the mountain of a Big Five publisher, you must first climb another mountain and all the obstacles entailed in order to get an agent. (I’ll discuss that in more detail next time.)

A literary agent’s role is to submit work that they think is sellable to big publishers (generally mainstream and commercial literary works), and negotiate as good a deal as possible. They can also often deal with foreign rights, film adaptations, and give general advice. They get a cut of the deals they negotiate, called a commission, which is usually 15%-20%.

Being taken on by a literary agency does not guarantee your book will be published. I know authors who have had agents who were unable to sell the manuscript to a publisher. That isn’t necessarily the agent’s fault: it could be related to the manuscript, or the current market situation, or changes at publishers and their requirements. This is why agents are picky about who they take on. They want books they can sell. And even though a literary agency may have a number of individual agents, each one only has so many hours in a day, and so much time to give. So there will be a limit to how many clients each agent has. And if their list is full, then they will be closed to submissions until that situation changes.

An agent wants to work with people they get on with. But there are other things that can tip the balance in terms of acquiring an agent.