What publishers are looking for in authors

Most authors today don't have the technical experience to create digital content, said Ted Buchholz, senior vice president of Copyright Clearance Center, but that will need to change in the future if they want to attract a publisher. "Publishers have done a good job of providing digital content services for authors, but in the future, authors are going to be asked increasingly to provide these services themselves," he says.

Buchholz oversees CCC's marketing, publisher relations, author and creator relations, research and development and business development areas. His background includes positions at Harcourt College Publishers, where he served as publisher and senior vice president and then president and chief executive officer.

He shares some additional insight into what publishers are looking for in potential new authors:

• The ability to differentiate their planned text from the "competitors".
• Whether they have they written something. Not a dissertation, but a trade (non academic) book that has had some success.
• A good understanding of the market and the books he/she would compete with.
• Organized thinking
• A network of colleagues at other colleges who may be interested in the book.
• Conciseness/brevity
• A major desire to write.