I'm doing a beginners' writing course and in my final module I've been asked to research three publishers I could potentially submit my ms to. I then have to write a covering letter to one of them. And I have to address the letter to a named person.

Do I ring the publisher and ask for a name? They might just give me the info. on the website, which doesn't specify names!
Is there anywhere that lists names of editors/submissions staff?
It's only an exercise, but I could be doing this for real soon and I want to get it right!

Good luck! If you've been looking at publishers' websites - especially the bigger ones - you've probably already got the message that the last thing they want to see are new books. The common wisdom you'll be given about this is that you can't submit direct to main publishers; you have to go through an agent. There are some smaller publishers who invite direct submissions.

However, it is possible to at least query larger publishers direct. You should only do this, though, if you know your book is publishable. If it is, and if you go the query route, you'll need to find names/email addresses of publishers' editors you can submit to. There are various ways to do this but essentially you have to use your ingenuity and that, in my view, will be directly linked to the degree of confidence you have about how good your ms is - really is; not wishful thinking. A legitmate way to get contact details is to attend conferences, talks, etc, and talk to editors there. There are other ways too.

If you send a query letter to a publisher, it will need to be a very good selling document, basically, e.g. cover letter plus pitch, including a sentence summing up the book, synopsis, marketing points, etc, and perhaps the first few pages of the ms.

I think what I'm saying is there are no simple rules. Publishers want good books but they don't want tons of slush. They're happy enough for agents to deal with the slush and pick out the good books for them. They will also however, under certain circumstances, be happy to look at queries directly sent to them. You have to make the judgement call, which when you think about it is the way it should be.

Terry

Thanks Terry.

I realise hardly any publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts. In fact, so far I've only found a few for my genre (children's).

I suppose my first thought on what you've said about obtaining names of editors is that by the time I've been to a talk, managed to get a name and prepared the book, the editor might have left!

What are these mysterious other ways you talk about? It sounds like cloak and dagger stuff.

What's a query? Is that the same as sending three chapters, a synopsis and covering letter?

If you're writing children's fiction a good move is to join SCBWI. They run lots of events where you can meet editors and agents. Their weekend retreat is very popular and worth going to, but book early.

Another way to get names is to a) get the generic email address of the publisher then b) search blogs, etc, to find editors' names (this can be useful in that you can refer to their blog/talk, etc, in your cover letter). You could also join Publishers' Marketplace ($20 per month) which has loads of US and a fair few UK editors' addresses (no reason you can't submit to US publishers anyway). You could also try: http://everyonewhosanyone.com/index.html where there are lots of editors' email addresses - but I'd double-check them first since this isn't a totally reliable source.

Cover letter/synopsis/three chapters is the traditional submission package, e.g. what publishers used to ask for and what many agents now ask for. A query is shorter: as said, it's more of a selling document. If the publisher is interested, they'll probably then ask for the first 3 chapters or the whole ms. The good thing about a query is it gives you the chance to show you can be professional. Which is the key to all this, i.e. publishers are professionals, therefore any approach you make should also be professional and display you have an understanding of how the industry works (regardless of how artistically brilliant your book might be!).

you usually sub three chapters and a synopsis with a covering letter, exactly the same as you would for an agent. But maybe push the book's USP - is there a gap in the market for just such a book as this? There are quite a few publishers that take direct subs, and some people on here have got deals this way. Certainly it's how I got the commissions for the books I do for younger kids.

Thanks Terry. Sounds as if I've got some research to do.

Some publications mention when people have taken up new posts or moved jobs.
If you look at the Hot Key books website, they list their personnel. http://www.hotkeybooks.com/

Thanks all!

Love HotKey's blog, Leila!