One of the best resources for finding an appropriate theatrical publisher is Writer?s Market, published by Writer?s Digest Books. How do you go about submitting the play for publication? Very few original plays have much appeal beyond the circumstances of their first production, but if you’re sure that you’ve got a script that can compete with the “big names,” take the time to analyze the publishers and their respective markets. There’s no point in submitting a script and having it rejected because it doesn’t fit a publisher’s customer-base. Your play is going to be facing enough rejection as it is. Why make it more painful than necessary? A little planning can save a lot of time and heartbreak. One of the best resources for finding an appropriate theatrical publisher is Writer’s Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books. It’s updated annually, and can be found in the reference section of most libraries. Or you can check out www.writersmarket.com. Writer’s Market covers nearly all areas of writing and publishing in more than 1,000 pages of articles on the business of writing, and listings of agents, publishers and more. There are approximately 24 pages devoted to playwriting, listing theater companies that accept new plays, contests and festivals, and theatrical publishers. Make a list of all the publishers that sell plays like yours. Many publishing companies specialize in certain types of plays. For example, while most amateur theater publishers will carry a few religious plays, Meriwether Publishing, Lillenas, Eldridge and I.E. Clark have sections devoted to plays suitable for churches or Christian schools. But even in that specialized market, some publishers focus on skits and sketches, others on holiday shows, and still others biblical/historical plays. Pioneer Drama Service has a large selection of musicals, full length comedies, children’s plays and melodramas. Samuel French carries mostly former Broadway productions. Once you have a list of prospective publishers, check out their web sites. Request a catalog and submission guidelines. Browse through the catalog or the web site to get a better idea about how your play would fit in with that company. If you’ve got an adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” and the publisher already has three or four of them, chances are your script would be rejected, even if it’s better than the ones the publisher already has. For example, check out the Pioneer Drama Service catalog and see how many “Wizard of Oz” adaptations you can find. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a publisher that has plays in the same genre as yours, but not your particular title or subject. Congratulations! You’ve identified an opening! Follow the submission guidelines. Every publisher has a different way of doing things, and they have their reasons. You want to adapt to fulfilling their needs and making them happy, rather than ask them to accommodate you. Personally, I prefer to send a query letter or e-mail to the publisher rather than fire off an unsolicited manuscript. If your play isn’t right for a publisher, it’s better to find out in the query phase than after you submit the script. It’s easier to take a query rejection than to send in a script, wait hopefully for months, and then have your actual script rejected. If the editor’s curiosity is piqued by your query letter, you’ve already got your foot in the door. The forthcoming script is going to get a much more favorable reading than if it is dropped unceremoniously on his or her desk along with dozens of other unrequested scripts. Submitting a “requested manuscript” is a sure way of moving your script to the top of the heap. Some publishers don’t mind if you submit your play to multiple publishers. Others are offended by the practice of multiple submissions, so respect their policies. Most of the plays I’ve submitted to publishers lately have been by e-mail, rather than snail mail. I’ve found that editors respond to e-mails very quickly, and it saves loads on photocopying and postage. I suspect publishers like this too, because it’s easier to edit a file than typeset a script submitted in hardcopy. However you send it, be prepared to wait. Most theatrical publishers receive hundreds of scripts each year, and publish only a fraction of them. Once you’ve gotten a play “out there,” start working immediately on your next one. Rejection is easier to take if you’ve got another project in the works, and if your script is accepted, you’ve got another show in the pipeline to show them. Publishers like working with reliable playwrights over and over again, and they’ll be eager to hear about your next big hit! | 
