This is the first in a series of posts about how to get a novel published.
Now, I understand that people reading this post might want to be a bit dubious about anything I write here. After all, I’ve only had a publishing contract for one book and that’s not out in print yet. I’m hardly an expert on the publishing industry or the practice of getting your first book out on the shelves.
However, I have done a lot of research on the subject. I’ve read about half a dozen “how to write” books, all of which included at least a chapter on getting published. I’ve read magazine articles on the subject. I’ve attended talks by writers and editors. I’ve read countless websites and forum posts about this. So these posts are based on knowledge gathered from multiple sources, most of them substantially more experienced than me. I’m not just making stuff up.
So my first piece of advice is to do just what I’ve described. Don’t assume that getting published is going to be straight-forward. If you’re reading this post, I’ll make the assumption that you’re open to taking advice, so go and hunt that advice down. Don’t listen to one person; they might be wrong or speaking from a restricted viewpoint. Go and find a dozen different sources of information and pay attention to them all. That way you’ll know what to expect and you’ll be better prepared to face it.
Do your research. Particularly, check up on the publishers and agents you’re planning on submitting your work to.
I attended a talk by a senior editor of a company that publishes non-fiction books for schools, particularly teachers’ guides. She commented on the huge number of submissions they get for children’s fiction. It doesn’t matter how good those stories might be, they’re going to get rejected simply because her company doesn’t deal in fiction.
Make sure you’re sending your work to the right place. It’s no good sending a crime novel off to a publishing house that only prints romance books. A good way to check is to see if the publisher gives a list of their books currently in print. That way you can see if they work with titles similar to yours. The same applies to agents as well. Most agencies only deal with specific genres of fiction, so send your submissions to the right ones.
If you’re going directly to the publishers, check that they accept unsolicited manuscripts. Read their websites. Read the Writer’s Handbook or The Writers and Artists Yearbook.
This technique doesn’t always work. When submitting my novel, I came up with a list of publishers using a copy of the Writer’s Handbook that was two years out of date. I then went through that list, checking websites so that I could make sure I was addressing the submission to the right person. If the entry in the Handbook said that the company accepted unsolicited submissions and the website didn’t say one way or the other, I went with the Handbook entry. Turns out, there were some who didn’t accept unsolicited submissions who hadn’t bothered to update their websites to say so, and I got the first rejections back by return of post.
Another thing to research is what form they want submissions to take. Most places, publishers and agents, want three chapters, a synopsis and a brief cover letter, but there are many, many exceptions to that rule. Some places want you to email an entire manuscript. Some want the first chapter. Some want the first three thousand words. Some want any two chapters of your choice. And so on. The length of the synopsis can vary hugely. Some companies ask for a synopsis of no more than five hundred words, some ask for up to a thousand. A few want a one page synopsis, others ask for a three to five page one. Many don’t specify the length they want.
Go to the websites and read carefully what they ask for.
There’s a lot more to getting published than that, but that’s a good place to start.
