How to get a big publisher to buy rights to small book?

Question

Is it possible to get a big publisher to buy the rights of a book printed by a smaller press and republish it with a broader release? If so, how does that work?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible. Yes, it has to catch the eye of the publisher and they have to beleive it will make them money. It's not easy, but nothing in publishing is easy. Sometimes -- it has happened through history -- that small press book shows the publisher what is possible, what it could be.

Answer 2

It helps to be on some sort of circuit where you're speaking to new groups of people constantly and pretty much sell your book out of your trunk on each stop. So many of these books have been nonfiction, but that's not always true.

Big publishers don't do *anything* anymore that they don't believe will make them a huge amount of money. There used to be literary books that they didn't expect to sell hugely, and the John Grishams would help pay for them. Recently, it seems, they want nothing but John Grishams.

So in this case they have to be pretty convinced that the book they pick up will result in dumptrucks full of money, so a good sales history for the smaller edition is key. It does happen, though, and often those books have real staying power ("The Celestine Prophecy" was one.)

Answer 3

James Patterson, Stephen King and many more self published a book and had it picked up by a major publishing house. The book, however, must be a big seller over the Internet and of course 'word of mouth' plays a big part.