Many students and professionals know of me as an author and publisher of drum and percussion books. As such I receive numerous submissions from other writers hoping to see their work in print. There is now a glut of books on the market. The field is literally saturated with hundreds of books on almost every subject related to drums and/or percussion, be it reading, rock, jazz, technique, solos, etc. From my point of view the only reason for me to publish a book is because nothing exists on the topic, or it’s a vast improvement on what has already been written. The first thing I do when I receive a manuscript is to read and play through the work thoroughly. At the end I ask myself the following questions:
1-Has the same material been covered in any other books?
2-If the answer is yes, do I think the manuscript sent to me is a significant improvement on what is already available, both in quality and content? 3-Does the material extend what I’ve already written and published?
4-Perhaps most important, do I feel I can sell enough copies to make both the author and myself happy?
The answers to those questions influence me as to whether or not I want to move forward and publish the work. Sadly the answer is usually no. Most of the time I find the writer has not done their homework in researching other books to discover what has been published on the same subject. That research can take a lot of time, but it’s necessary if you don’t want to waste your time submitting material that's already available. One of the simplest things to do is google a list of publishers of drum and/or percussion books. Look at the titles on their catalog to see if anything covers the same topic. Most of the time the title itself tells you what the book is about. Hudson Music specializes in digital versions of books. E-books, of course, are less expensive than purchasing hard copy. Hudson is an excellent place to start the research since they have hundreds of books on their system by both known and unknown players. If you’ve already written your book simply query an appropriate publisher by sending an email or letter telling them who you are, your background, and the nature of your work. If they are interested they will let you know and ask to see your work. Assuming they like it enough they will offer a contract. If you find your work is rejected don’t lose hope—it happens to most every author in every field. Simply keep submitting the work to different companies. In the end if you find you’re having no luck the last resort is self-publishing. And the best way to go about that is the topic for a whole other article. Good luck!
Joel Rothman is a prolific author of nearly 100 published drum books…and a great guy! His Basic Drumming book is the most popular beginning snare and drum set drum book used by private teachers - G.L.
