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Becoming an
Author with

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"Psychology you can use, from
professionals you can trust," is not just a slogan at Impact; it's a
description of our business. We're recognized both among human service professionals
and in the book
trade as an outstanding publisher of self-help and professional psychology,
and we're dedicated to bringing it to the widest possible audience. Our door is always open to qualified new authors. If you are a professional in
the human services who's been working on -- or at least thinking seriously about -- a book
manuscript, and wondering how to connect with the right publisher, this information may
help. We invite your written inquiries, and ask that you follow the guidelines presented
here.
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Author-Publisher Relations Subject Fields and
Author Qualifications
Manuscript
Submission Procedures
Criteria for Manuscript Selection
About "The
Practical Therapist Series"

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Author-Publisher Relations
We believe an author-publisher relationship should be
collaborative, not adversarial. |
| The author's job -- and it's hard work -- is to prepare
the best possible presentation on a subject of interest to a definable
audience, and to make that material available in every manner at his/her
disposal. One part of that job is to find a publisher who can help. |
| The publisher's job -- it's not easy either -- is to help
the author "polish" that work for the marketplace, to produce it attractively
and appropriately for its audiences, and to place it in the hands of as many buyers as
possible through effective marketing. |
| Impact, like all legitimate publishers, pays royalties to
authors; we do not ask authors to subsidize their books. A modest advance and a royalty of
10 to 15 percent of sales receipts are typical. |
| Active authors (those who do workshops, make public and
professional presentations, write articles, get media exposure) almost always have the
most successful books. |
| You need not have a literary agent. We're happy to work
with your agent if you have one, but we frequently contract directly with authors. |
| If you're writing now, keep your audience in mind, and
remember that writing self-help is like talking to clients, but it's not the same. In a
book, you must spell everything out clearly, simply, and completely. You won't be there
for your readers to ask questions. |
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Subject Fields and Author
Qualifications
Impact Publishers, Inc. publishes only popular
and professional psychology
and self-help materials written in "everyday language" by professionals with
advanced degrees and significant experience in the human services. The Impact list is
focused in five fields:
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| Personal Growth
(emotional development,
self-esteem, self-expression, coping with change, individuality, life choices.) |
| Relationships
(intimacy, love, marriage, divorce,
on- the-job, getting along with others...) |
| Families
(children's emotional development and
self- esteem, parenting, prevention of sexual assault, child behavior management...) |
| Communities
(peace, social justice...) |
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Health and Wellness (stress management,
depression, mental health, physical well-being...)
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| Professional
Psychotherapy (practical guides for therapists of all disciplines.
Click here for more information.
Please don't waste your
time (and ours) by sending us fiction, poetry, cookbooks, biographies,
autobiographies, history.... If it's not "psychology you can use,"
written by a qualified professional, it won't work for us. We know it's
tough to find a publisher, but we ignore such submissions, since it's
obvious our guidelines were ignored. A marvelous resource for writers in
search of publishers is Writer's
Market.
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Manuscript
Submission Procedures
We look at all submitted material.
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| Your chances of hearing from us promptly are greatly
enhanced by the inclusion of a self-addressed stamped envelope. |
| We love to see initial inquiries which look like this: |
| (1) a brief letter of introduction, telling us: |
| a. what your book is about, |
| b. the audience to whom you've addressed it, |
| c. why you're the right person to have written it, |
| d. why Impact is the right house to publish it, and |
| e. why it's outstanding enough to have a chance when
50,000 other books will be published that year. |
| (2) an annotated table of contents (with a paragraph
summarizing each chapter) |
| (3) a couple of sample chapters |
| (4) a short resume or curriculum vita (we don't need your
lists of publications in refereed journals and/or presentations at professional meetings
--
yet). |
| It'll take us a few weeks (from four to twelve, on
average) to respond. Please don't telephone. If you want to be sure we got the manuscript,
include a simple response device (postcard, or check-off letter & SASE) with your
submission.
(Please do not send entire manuscripts via email, unless specifically
requested to do so; a brief proposal is usually sufficient.)
We rarely select manuscripts from prospective
authors outside the U.S. If you wish to submit a proposal from
abroad, please provide an email address or International
Reply Coupon for our response.
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Criteria for Manuscript Selection
Since its founding in 1970, Impact Publishers has elected
to publish only books which serve human development. A manuscript we select for
publication will exhibit a strong combination of the following characteristics:
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 | it will present a message we believe in. |
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 | it will be a work which, in our opinion, needs to be
published. |
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 | it will present practical ideas which an individual,
family, group, organization, or community may use to improve its well being in one or more
of the following realms: emotional, intellectual, interpersonal/social, physical,
political. |
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 | it will fit well into the Impact Publishers catalog of
books. |
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 | it will honor the principles set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (although it need not be a work devoted to human rights per
se). |
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 | it will be written in non-academic readable style. We're
fond of the saying "The language of truth is unadorned, and always simple." |
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 | it will be written by
person(s) whom we believe to be
qualified to speak with authority on the subject. |
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 | it will be more likely to present an integrative
perspective than one which reflects a single school of thought regarding human behavior. |
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 | it will be marketable within our means. We have an
assertive and effective marketing program which emphasizes publicity, direct mail, limited
advertising, and energetic author activity. We do not send authors on extensive personal
appearance tours. |
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 | it will have promise of selling enough copies
-- at a fair
price -- to pay its own way. |
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Address inquiries to:
Editorial Offices, Impact Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 6016, Atascadero, California
93423-6016, or by e-mail to: submissions@impactpublishers.com.
(Please
do not send entire manuscripts via email, unless specifically requested
to do so; a brief proposal is usually sufficient.)
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