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Larry Lawless
Joined:
2005-2-13
From:
Texas
Posts:
8
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Murray Houliff (who's had a ton of stuff published) had some excellent comments about this on a similar thread on the Percussive Arts Society message board.
Start by doing your research, go to a well stocked music store and browse the marimba music. Find out which publishers are putting out things like yours. Also find out what makes your stuff unique enough to deserve publishing. Remember, those companies are trying to earn a living. Most percussion music publishers are percussionists themselves. Your stuff needs to be marketable.
Once you have a handful of publishers to go to, send a very polite query letter, short and to the point, briefly who you are, what you have, would they be interested in reviewing it for possible publication. It helps greatly if you know the name of a person at the company to contact, instead of just "to whom it may concern". Most will take queries from email these days.
When you receive a reply that a company will review your material, send clean, preferably computer notation program generated laser printed copies with a cover letter. Send to only one publisher at a time. Multiple submissions cause problems (I found this out the hard way)and word gets around. These people all know each other and talk frequently. A CD recording of the piece (can even be Midi generated, but a live real person type performance is better) should accompany the submission.
Keep a database of your submissions, what you sent, when you sent it, who you sent it to, the response. Then go on to other projects, because a response will take a long time, sometimes months. Don't wait around, start a new piece and submit that somewhere else, always moving on to the next, but keep track of where your stuff is floating around. After about 6 months, with no response, a polite follow-up could be in order, but by no means take an attitude. The publishers have plenty of projects in the works, as well as trade shows, promotion, running the business, and hundreds if not thousands of submissions to go through. Be patient. That's why you go on to something else. If you're hanging by the phone or mailbox waiting on word of that contract, you're going to be there a while.
If no response to the follow up after a few more months, you can decide to let them know you are submitting elsewhere, or continue to wait. Up to you.
If a publisher does agree to handle your work, they will send a contract spelling out royalties, etc. Read carefully before signing, because they will then own the work. Typical royalty is 10% of the publisher's price for the work, not the store's price. For example, a book that sells in the stores for $15 probably gets the publisher $10. You get $1. Percussion music is a very small market and specialty niche. You will NOT get rich writing music for marimba. You WILL get the enjoyment of others sharing your creation, which is priceless.
Best of luck.
- Larry
Remote Host: tx-69-68-118-229.dyn.sprint-hsd.net
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[4702]Re:Re:Re:How do I get my music published? (535 reads)
[4693]How do I get my music published? <tpad>
