If you have a great idea for a non-fiction title, then you need to take the time to research where the best place to market your idea will be. If you can identify your marketplace for the non-fiction book, then you will likely find a market for the book you are interested in selling or promoting. The market is wide-open for writers but just because there is now a tremendous amount of electronic publishers as well as trade paperback publishers doesn’t mean you should just toss your non-fiction idea or manuscript up in the air for someone to grab. You have to do your research.

 

First, you need to identify who your target audience will be and where the market will be. Are you writing a non-fiction book for a certain age group or gender? Are you writing the book for the e-book marketplace? Are you going to try to submit it to one of the larger publishing houses? Where will you find your best market?

 

After you determine your marketplace and more specifically the audience you hope to reach, you need to begin to search out publishers in that area. Find out what publishers you can approach and find out their submission guidelines. Many publishers have strict guidelines for their non-fiction proposals. They don’t want to see the entire manuscript and instead only wish to see a well written proposal which means you will need to orchestrate a well written proposal to send out to numerous publishers for consideration. This can be a good thing for you because it gives you the opportunity to complete your book and polish up any rough areas of the book.

 

Some publishers of non-fiction, just as fiction publishers will only want to take a peek at material which is submitted through a literary agent. In this case, the best way to find a literary agent is to go online and research the agents. Never pay an agent a reading fee because that is the first sign of an illegitimate agent. Keep in mind agents only want writers they feel like they can sell to a publisher so only send well written proposals to an agent.

 

When submitting your non-fiction material to an agent or a publisher, read all of the guidelines for the book submission. A publisher or an agent will place the submission guidelines on their website for a reason and that’s with the hope that people will follow those to help make their job easier in weeding out the massive amounts of material that comes in for their approval. Most agents and publishers will toss anything that’s not in line with their clearly defined guidelines for submissions.

 

You will notice on some websites of publishers and agents that simultaneous submissions are OK. This means you can take the time to submit your ideas and proposals for the same idea to multiple publishers and agents at the same time. You will be able to receive a response much quicker when you send out simultaneous submissions. However, you will need to indicate this when submitting your non-fiction work for consideration. Keep in mind, not all publishers will allow simultaneous submissions so make sure to read each publisher’s guidelines.

 

Non-fiction work is difficult to step into and with the growing e-book marketplace; non-fiction will begin to be tough. People will still expect authorities on the subject matter at hand on how-to books and if they find the how-to information is incorrect, then they will let you know it in poor reviews and take the time to let others know it.

 

If you are trying to step into non-fiction with a large publishing house, you’ll likely need an agent and you’ll likely need a lot of knowledge on the subject at hand. Otherwise, no one will take you too seriously as an author.