What can book packagers do for you? The simple answer is: Book packagers can expand your list with titles you can't get anywhere else. Every year, some of the most impressive titles on the market are packaged books. (Books of Note features just a few high-profile success stories.) Among them, these books, along with the many hundreds of other packaged books that have hit the shelves, span the entire spectrum of publishing categories—art, medicine, cooking, history, parenting, gardening, sports, popular culture, self-help, business, and more. They also run the entire spectrum of publishing markets, including trade, mass market, educational, juvenile, professional, and reference. As diverse in subject matter as packaged books are, they typically have one thing in common: Packaged books are complicated projects to put together. Complicated can mean many things, depending on the project. Often it means the project involves working closely with an outside organization, like a magazine or a medical school, to shape a book on which the organization can agree to put its name. Sometimes complicated means coordinating the work of multiple authors, researchers, and experts, or supervising the creation of original art or photography. Sometimes it means executing a highly elaborate design, or even incorporating non-print materials, such as CDs, juggling balls, or other merchandise. Almost always, however, complicated means that the project calls for concentrated, labor-intensive activity. And this makes most packaged books the kinds of projects that literary agents cannot offer to publishers and that publishers themselves generally cannot execute in-house. And yet without such complicated books, publishers' lists would be missing many a remarkable—and lucrative—title. Book packagers exist to create these complicated projects. Unlike any other players in the publishing industry, book packagers (also known as book developers and book producers) are specifically equipped to devote the time, energy, and focused attention necessary to bring these projects to fruition-through manuscript, design and computer files, or even finished books. Drawing on the most sophisticated design and production technologies, book packagers can handle every stage of the publishing process and be counted upon to deliver a product on schedule with the highest level of professionalism. Packaged books generally make their way onto publishers' lists in one of two ways: Editors may make deals on original submissions from packagers. Like agents, packagers routinely submit book proposals to publishers. As a rule, these constitute some of the smartest ideas around. For this reason, it makes sense to get on a packager's submission list. Editors may hire packagers to develop and execute in-house ideas. Packagers are quite willing to help shape your ideas into viable projects. Teaming up with a packager is often the only way editors can transform solid in-house ideas into actual books. It's also an excellent way for publishers to exploit their own corporate brands. Book packagers fill many different niches. Each company has its own areas of expertise and working style. The best way for you to learn which packagers might serve your interests is to get to know the packagers out there. A careful review of the American Book Producers Association Membership Directory is one good way to get a clearer sense of the packaging world. Even better is to meet ABPA members face-to-face-perhaps at one of our monthly luncheons, to which we welcome acquiring editors as our guests.

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