AMA Q&A
Is it ever too early to contact an editor about your book proposal? How can you follow up with a publisher you haven’t heard from in months?
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I‘m wondering whether it’s too early to contact a publisher about my academic book proposal. I’ve got a couple of sample chapters and I’m working on the prospectus. Is that enough?
(S.B.)
This is such a great question. My knee-jerk impulse is to say, ‘It’s never too early to contact an editor’. But I’m pretty sure some of the fine editors I’ve worked with might throttle me for saying that. And you never, ever want to annoy an editor, or make them feel like you’re wasting their time. (For more on how to approach editors in the wild, see this old PBP post.)
So, to be more precise, I’ll say that it’s almost never too early, but it depends on why you’re contacting your editor and what you tell them in your email. The two things you can probably contact an editor about no matter what stage your book is at are (a) whether they might hypothetically be interested in a book like yours and, (b) if so, how to submit a formal proposal. (Please note that this advice pertains to academic editors and publishers—different rules can apply when you’re approaching agents or editors about proposals for trade books.)
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