How to get a small press publishing deal (for authors)

Answering my most frequently asked question, with a fun thought exercise

To reverse an old idiom, the “gamekeeper” is stepping into the shoes of the “poacher” today, as I gather up all my knowledge of what authors can do to get their books published by a small press, and share it with the masses. I’m approaching it a little differently than you might expect though; I had this idea yesterday after an email from

Wendy Pratt

and couldn’t resist playing it out to its conclusion. (Thanks, Wendy!)

The thought exercise is as follows:

• A rich man (the guy off the Monopoly box, if you want a mental image) turns up at my door and promises £1million of funding for Valley Press if I can complete a simple challenge.

• I need to write either a poetry or short story collection, and have it accepted for publication by a reputable small press within the next 36 months. “That does sound simple!” I say. Ah, but…

• I can’t use my real name, refer to my history in the industry, or reveal to anyone at any time that Jamie McGarry was involved in the book’s creation. (I also can’t bribe the small press with a share of my winnings.)

• Instead, I have to use a random pen name that I’m given. The rich man rummages around in a hat and pulls out… Brian Smethurst. He then wishes me good luck, gets back in his limousine and drives off.

So there you have it: “Brian Smethurst” must write a book and get a publishing deal within three years. I will now tell you how I’d approach this challenge, and in the process, you’ll hopefully learn a thing or two about getting your own publishing contract at the small press level.

(Note: Because this is a topic I’m often paid good money to speak about – albeit without the fun setup above – we must assume what follows has some reasonable value. Thus, this post is a paid-subscribers-only outing. See you after the jump!)