More From Acqustions: Previous Published Work

I may come under criticism for this and be accused of snobbery/insensitivity/etc, but it really needs to be said.

If you have a previously published book, either by a commercial house or a vanity publisher, that you would like to submit to a new publisher, please, please, please really think about it before hand.

Yes, Mundania is known for our reprints. However...these are typically books by Piers Anthony, Louise Cooper, Anne Logston, Don Callander, Robert Adams...people with a huge fanbase and huge demand for reprints of their back list. These are also books that are completely new to the ebook market, as they've only been in print before.

Easily a third of what I receive in slush are books that have been previously published (mostly self-published).

I *know* how much work goes into a book. Really. I've written thirteen full length novels myself. A lot of time, energy, tears, and emotion go into creating works of fiction. They're our babies.

But these babies have something called first print rights. And when they're gone, they're a much tougher sell.

I have friends who have been through the experience of having their small publisher close and orphan their books, and so they seek a new publisher. It's heartbreaking. I don't blame them. And, honestly, we have contracted some e-pubbed previously published works...but those are few and far between. The reality is that the same amount of money goes into publishing a reprint as does a brand new book, and most of the time, reprint sales are lower. Why? The market's already been tapped. It's not "new."

The other biggest problem is self-published books. Look, I know there are lots of valid reasons for self-publishing. I'm not knocking that. But a lot of people come to the realization that they don't have the time or money to make their book a success, so they come knocking on the door of commercial publishing. The problem is that, half the time, the books are still in print.

If a book is still in print, we CAN'T offer you a contract for it. We need exclusive electronic and print rights. We can't spend time and money evaluating something that, legally, we can't even publish yet.

The same goes for having a book available for free on your website, or a short story on a free ezine--ninety-nine percent of the time, even if you take it down, it can still be read via caches. Why would a publisher drop thousands of dollars on a book that anyone can read for free online? Especially when a big part of said publisher's market is the ebook reading one?

And being dishonest about it in your cover letter and not bringing up the fact it was previously published looked bad on you. We've been burned enough times that we Google before even evaluating a book.

We, fairly recently, had a pair of books go out to the editorial board. Everyone totally loved the books. One reader specifically said, "I'd grab up EVERYTHING [author] has ever written!"

And then I got back a note from one last reader, who did a quick search. The books were previously self-published and STILL readily available for sale.

This isn't just a waste of our time--it's a waste of time for all of the authors sitting in slush. Honestly, if people would stop sending stuff that we can't even evaluate, we could get to the legitimate stuff sooner.

My advice to authors: stop trying to sell something you've already self-published or commercially published. Write a new book. Submit that. You'll have a better chance of selling it and you'll probably improve as a writer. Put the old one aside. Write something new. After you've successfully sold a new novel, THEN you bring out the old one and see if your publisher is interested in a reprint.