6/24/09

How Many LDS Publishers Are There?

I am also a BYU student who just turned a "self published" book in as a creative project for a class. The professor loved the book and suggested I should look into publishing it for real. Since I was more concerned about a good grade than publishing, this is a brand new concept for me, and I have no idea where to start.

My book has a definite LDS slant so I jumped on the internet to see who the LDS publishers are and found your site. You may be just the perfect person to get me started wading into this undertaking. I've looked at the submission guidelines for Shadow Mountain, Covenant, and Horizon. (I tried to look at Cedar Fort also, but the link to their submission page was broken.)

Are there other LDS publishers out there other than these? Is any one better than another to start with? Any other suggestions or helpful hints you want to throw my way would also be appreciated. Much thanks in advance.

Oh, there are so many more LDS publishers than that! For example, the biggest one: Deseret Book. (Shadow Mountain is one of their imprints.) How many are there? I don't know—there are always new ones popping up and others closing.

Without knowing what your book is about, it's hard to know what to advise. Do your research. Submit to the companies that publish the type of book you've written.

There are free lists of LDS publishers online HERE and HERE. Some of the info may be outdated.

Or THIS, which costs money but is pretty comprehensive.

[Cedar Fort's site is working fine right now. HERE is the link to their Submission Page. ]

4 comments:

Traci Hunter Abramson said...

When I was preparing to submit my first novel to an LDS publisher, I went to the local LDS bookstore and browsed their shelves. I looked for books that were somewhat similar to what I had written, checked out who published them, and then made my decision based on that research. And I've been happy with my choice ever since. :)

Anonymous said...

Tracy. Its easy to be happy when you write such great books. The rest of us just struggle along, hoping beyond hope, for some crumbs to fall from the publisher's table. Spill something for the rest of us, would you?

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

And BYU Student...

Send it in. Often. Its like voting in Chicago. Submit early. Submit often.

Welcome to the real world, where getting an A on the project is nothing like convincing a publisher that what your wrote is worth their investment in your work...which means convincing them that they can make money off of your work. Good luck. Send it in. Get yourself a contract. No more self publishing. Now you gotaa convince someone that its worth publishing.

Maybe school isn't such a bad gig after all.

Haley Hatch Freeman said...

I was going to tell the BYU student to go to Ldstorymakers.com too but I see you have that covered.
Also they have a book out that is called Publishing Secrets that I loved. It gave me a great idea of the whole publishing process and step-by-step help. I highly recommend this book to your inquirer.