Nancy L Fish

I work with writers of nonfiction, creating book publishing strategies and manuscript submission materials.

Contact me when you’re ready to look for an agent or publisher

Arguably the most important and challenging writing you’ll do in the creation of your book are the query letter and book proposal. These two documents require that you evaluate your work in a very different way than you’ve been doing as you write. Creating submission materials that will entice an agent to represent and sn editor to publish your manuscript requires an alchemy of passion, opportunity, perseverance, and kismet, all while following their rules.

Proposals must be submitted replete with marketing plan, defined audiences, endorsement resources —anything that will help make the book a success. I can help you develop a realistic publishing strategy and create the most compelling query letter and book proposal to help you achieve your publishing goals.

I’ve been in the

book business

since high school

I’ve had just about every marketing job in the publishing business. I’ve worked in management for one of the big five corporate houses, HarperCollins, and tiny nonprofit shops, like Thich Nhat Hanh’s Parallax Press. I’ve served on many title acquisition committees and run an independent book publicity agency.

But even before that, since my first after-school job, I’ve been a bookseller. College summers, between jobs, during the holiday rush, and on the second shift, I’ve been able to augment my long publishing career with bookselling stints at some of the greatest independent shops in the country, including NYC’s Shakespeare and Company, The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, and currently at Marin County’s renowned Book Passage.

I work most successfully with writers who:

  • have gotten editorial feedback on their manuscript, either from working with a writing group or an editor, and feel that it is ready to be published;

  • understand the submission process, having investigated the many excellent websites like Jane Friedman Reporting on the Book Publishing Industry, The Women’s National Book Association, or others;

  • are clear about what their book is, complete with Table of Contents, needed for the proposal;

  • have read recently published titles in their genre;

  • have given thought to where in the bookstore their book should be shelved to sell the best (is it current events or history; is it memoir or essays; etc)

I’m direct but always careful to acknowledge that you are the expert on all aspects of your book. I will make suggestions, and explain my reasoning, but I will always defer to your preferences and do my best to support them.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS

I am not a book editor. I’m laser focused on the tools you need to get your manuscript published rather than the manuscript itself.

I cannot find you an agent. I can give advice and help find appropriate agents for submission, but you are the only one who can get yourself an agent. In the same vein, I can suggest publishing houses to which you may want to submit, but I do not do the submitting, that’s up to you.