Rejected? Help is at hand for wannabe bestsellers

Almost every academic at some point dreams of seeing his or her fascinating and important research in print and at the top of the bestseller lists.

But few ever get beyond a stack of rejection letters or indifference from publishers. For them, however, help may be at hand.

Anthony Haynes has set up a firm specialising in giving academics advice on how to secure book deals.

In his former job as a director of arts at academic publisher Continuum, Mr Haynes sent ten identical rejection e-mails a day to lecturers who wished to join the ranks of Simon Schama, Peter Atkins and Anthony Giddens as an academic with a lucrative publishing deal.

It was clear to him that most hardworking academics had no idea of the tactics required to land a publishing deal. His company, the Professional and Higher Partnership, was launched this week. It offers half-day workshops to university departments.

Mr Haynes promises to act almost like a literary agent, scrutinising manuscripts, recommending suitable publishers and helping with contract negotiations.

He said: "Too often, academics' plans to publish founder because nobody has taken the trouble to explain to them the basic processes: how to formulate a proposal, how to decide which editor to send it to and how to negotiate a contract that works in your favour. You would think that this would be part of the basic training given to academics, but sadly it isn't.

"Often academics send a psychology book proposal to publishers who don't even cover psychology.

"I will be honest and tell academics why a proposal won't work. I am also prepared to write a script of what they should say to the publisher when drawing up a contract.

"At the moment, the main interest in getting published is for the research assessment exercise. We're here to help with that - and also to remind authors that getting published successfully can be great fun."

Mr Haynes said the most common mistakes made by academics trying to secure a book deal were writing the manuscript before they had a contract and approaching the wrong publisher.

He warns academics not to devote too much of their book proposal to explaining content but to focus instead on the market for the book and why people will buy it.

He said: "Be careful not to sign a contract without reading it, and don't be overoptimistic about an early delivery date. It is not always the case that being a volume editor is easier than writing a book yourself, either."

Mr Haynes has published Frank Furedi's Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone and Politics of Fear . The cost of a half-day's workshop or advice is £125.

jessica.shepherd@thes.co.uk

Before you write...

• Assess the market. Is there a demand for your work? Will readers benefit from it? Will it sell abroad?
• Define and target your readership
• Choose a publisher that is active in your subject, and select one of its editors to send your proposal to
• Publishers will take more interest in an author with a public profile, so develop one by giving talks and writing articles in the mainstream press
• Read the publisher's contract and propose revisions
• Avoid titles with three nouns such as Teaching Maths to Pupils with Special Needs in Secondary Schools, which appeal only to those interested in all three nouns.