Questions to Ask a Publisher
Questions for an author talking to a publisher about an offer or a submission, covering the editor, the advance and royalty structure, which rights are being asked for, the publication timeline, marketing, and what happens if the book underperforms.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What made you want this book?
Open here because the answer shapes everything else. An editor who can describe the book back to you, including what it is competing with, has an internal case for it. An editor who talks mostly about the category or the trend acquired a slot rather than your manuscript.
- 2
Who do you think buys it, and where do they find it?
You are listening for a specific reader and a specific channel: a bookstore section, a course adoption, a podcast audience, a professional association. Everyone who reads is not an answer, and it usually predicts a marketing plan made of hope.
- 3
Who would be my editor, and how much editing do you expect this to need?
The acquiring editor is not always the editing editor, particularly at larger houses. Ask how many rounds they anticipate and how much structural change they have in mind, since an editor planning a rewrite and an author expecting a copyedit should discover that now.
- 4
What is the advance, and how is it broken up?
Payment schedules matter as much as the total. Advances are commonly split across signing, delivery, acceptance, and publication, sometimes with hardcover and paperback separated, which can spread a single number across three years. Ask what triggers acceptance, because that is the payment most often delayed.
- 5
What are the royalty rates, and are they calculated on list price or on net receipts?
This distinction changes the real value of a rate more than the rate itself does, because net receipts are after discounts to retailers and wholesalers. Ask for the escalators too: the copy thresholds at which the rate steps up.
- 6
Which rights are you asking for, and which do I keep?
Territory, translation, audio, film and television, serial, and merchandising are all separable. A publisher who takes a right should be able to say what they will do with it. Rights that are taken and never exploited are worth nothing to you and cannot be sold elsewhere.
- 7
If you take audio and translation, what is your plan for them?
Ask which titles they produced in audio last year and which languages they sold into, or whether they use an outside agency. A publisher with a real subsidiary rights operation answers this quickly. Vagueness suggests the rights will sit unused for the life of the contract.
- 8
What is the timeline from delivery to publication?
Traditional houses typically publish a year or more after delivery, and the season matters for review coverage and shelf space. Ask what determines the date and how firm it is, since a book moved twice usually loses whatever slot the sales team had built for it.
- 9
Who writes the jacket copy, and who has final say on the cover and the title?
In most trade contracts the publisher holds final approval on all three. That is standard, so the question is really about process: whether you see options, whether your objections are recorded, and whether anyone has ever changed a cover on an author's say-so.
- 10
For a book at this level, what does the marketing actually consist of?
Ask for the list of activities rather than the intention. Catalogue placement, review copies, a publicist, a co-op budget for retail placement, and paid advertising are all separate line items, and some are only assigned to lead titles. Enthusiasm is not a budget.
- 11
Is there a marketing budget attached to this book, and who decides it?
Budgets are often set months after acquisition, based on early sales interest. Knowing that in advance explains why an editor cannot promise numbers, and it tells you when the real decision happens so you can be useful before it rather than after.
- 12
What is the planned print run and format, and which accounts do you expect to carry it?
Format and distribution decide whether the book is physically available where its readers are. Ask whether it goes to chains, independents, wholesalers, or specialty accounts, and whether the first edition is hardcover, trade paperback, or digital only.
- 13
What do you expect from me?
Get this in specifics: events, social media, a mailing list, interviews, a second book on a schedule. Author obligations are increasingly assumed rather than stated, and it is much easier to negotiate what you cannot do before signing than to decline it later.
- 14
How many books similar to mine did you publish last year, and what happened to them?
You are asking for a track record in your specific category, not for the house's best-known titles. If they can name comparable books and describe how each was handled, they have a working model for yours. If they cannot, you may be the experiment.
- 15
What happens to my book if you leave, or if my editor leaves?
Editors move often, and a book left without its acquiring champion frequently loses internal attention. Ask who else in the house has read it and who would take it on. This is one of the most common quiet causes of a disappointing publication.
- 16
What is the reversion clause, and what triggers it?
This is how you get your book back. Older clauses tied reversion to being out of print, which print on demand and ebooks made close to meaningless. Look for a sales threshold over a defined period instead, with a clear notice process.
- 17
Is there an option clause on my next book, and how is it worded?
Option clauses vary from a first look at a finished proposal to a right to match any other offer, and the wording can tie up your next book for a year. Ask what happens if they decline, and how long they have to decide.
- 18
When would you consider the book to have underperformed, and what changes then?
Publishers make quiet decisions about reprints, paperback editions, and continued promotion within the first few months. Asking for the threshold now tells you what window the book has, and gives you a shared vocabulary for a conversation you may need to have later.
- 19
How and when do I see sales numbers?
Royalty statements are commonly issued twice a year with a lag, and many contracts allow reserves against returns that hold back money for several periods. Ask whether you can get interim sales figures on request, since most editors will share them and few authors ask.
- 20
Tell me about a book of yours that did not go well, and what you did about it.
Close with this. Everyone has one, and the answer shows how the house behaves when the plan fails: whether they re-promoted, changed format, went quiet, or told the author nothing. That is the version of this relationship you most need to be able to picture.
Talking to a publisher about an offer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Before the call
Before the call
- 1Look up what the imprint has published in your category in the last two years and note two titles you can name in conversation.
- 2Write down your three non-negotiables in advance: a date, a right you will not give up, a format. It is far easier to hold a line you decided on beforehand.
- 3Have your numbers ready if you have them: newsletter size, prior sales, professional audience, anything that answers the marketing question for them.
- 4Ask for the offer in writing, including advance, payment schedule, royalty rates, and rights, before you discuss anything else in detail.
- 5Say nothing definite on the first call. Thanking them and asking for a few days is completely normal and costs you nothing.
Clauses worth reading twice
Clauses worth reading twice
- Grant of rights: territory, language, format, and duration. Anything granted for the life of copyright is effectively permanent unless reversion works.
- Acceptance: who decides the manuscript is acceptable, on what grounds, and what happens if they decide it is not.
- Reversion: the sales threshold, the period it is measured over, and the notice you have to give.
- Option: what it covers, how long they have, and whether it binds you to match terms.
- Royalty basis and reserves against returns, which determine how much of a sale reaches you and when.
- Have an agent or a publishing lawyer read the whole thing before you sign. Nothing here substitutes for that.
What tells you how the book will be handled
What tells you how the book will be handled
- Whether the editor can describe your book to their own sales team in one sentence, and whether they say that sentence to you.
- Whether anyone besides the acquiring editor has read the manuscript.
- Whether marketing or publicity joins the conversation before the contract, which usually signals a book with resources behind it.
- How they answer the question about a book that went badly. Detail suggests honesty; a blank suggests a rehearsed conversation.
- How fast they respond to your emails now. That pace rarely improves after signature.