 | So you just finished your masterpiece of prose... now what? Well, you have a number of choices in front of you, but primarily two pretty diverse paths. The first path is the easiest to get going: Self Publishing. There are quite a few places to go for that (most notably Amazon), and you can get your work out within a day. While this is rewarding, and you get the largest cut of sales this way, the downsides are sizable. One: the marketing is all you. You have to figure out how and where to advertise and promote your book (but to be fair, that seems to be expected of every author nowadays) and all of that is out-of-pocket. Two: you won't be recognized by anyone as |
an author. The various writer's guilds will ignore all that work, and consider you to still be a non-author, and many of the websites and festivals that promote books will be the same. Additionally, whatever you self-publish will also be considered “published” if you ever try to take your manuscript to a traditional publisher. It sucks, but that's how it is.
The second path is the harder one, takes a lot more time, and is particularly soul-crushing: Traditional Publishing. The basic rundown is: get an agent, get that agent to find a publisher, and have your book published. It sounds simple, but that doesn't seem to be the case for anyone but people who already have fame and/or fortune. The rest of us have to experience it the super-painful way, and make the climb in the dead of winter, uphill, both ways.
The first hurdle (and the biggest as far as I'm concerned, though that's probably because at the time of this posting I still haven't managed to make the jump) is to find an agent. While there are lots of agents out there, they get tonnes of queries all the time, and they're looking for any excuse not to like what your presenting them. It's kinda as if you went to a bar looking for some action, except that everyone there is extremely picky and you happen to be the least conventionally attractive one within five square miles, with the only caveat that you know that people exist who have fetishes, and one of those fetishes might just be for someone exactly like you. Point is, expect to be rejected... a lot.
Having written two previous novels, I've gone through this process several times, collected a nice figurative stack of rejections, and learned a number of things that might be helpful to you first-time submitters, and maybe a little something for those of you in the same boat as me. To start, you'll want a kickass query letter along with some kind of short bio, and different versions of a synopsis (here's a great article that'll help with the synopsis part. http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/15/clear-the-dread-from-the-dreaded-synopsis/ ).
Next, do a little research. Find a good twenty or thirty first round agents that are looking for the kind of book you've written (Hint: Young Adult and Middle Grade are huge right now. Regardless, here are two websites to get you started. https://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx
http://mswishlist.com/profiles/agent/fantasy ).
The one thing that has helped keep me sane and optimistic is my attempt to stay organized. I made a file that lists all of the agents that looked promising, starting with the agency, then agent, the status (SENT or REJECTED), the date I sent it, and how many weeks I should expect before getting a response. The final note I put at the end was a simple “yes” or “no,” indicating if they were intending to respond to my query. (Apparently it's become common for agents to simply say, “I'm too busy to sent you a simple form letter as a rejection, and give you closure out of common decency.” About half subscribe to this philosophy, which I think sucks.) Once you get a rejection (or they haven't responded within a standard timeframe, which almost everyone agrees caps out at about 10 weeks) write them off as “REJECTED,” find another agent, and send out another query. Rinse and Repeat.
An agent is important to this process (I've read a number of blogs detailing the legal advise and expertise in negotiating having an agent will provide you), though you can circumnavigate them in certain circumstances. So, lets say you've gone through every agent you can find, what then? Try to find an editor.
This one is harder. Most of them say they don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, but there are a few that are looking. The other place you can meet both agents and editors are writer's conventions. These cost money, but it's one of the few places you can meet people face to face. And this is where the elevator pitch comes in. Practice it. Memorize it. LIVE IT. Or at least be able to recite it when you get the opportunity.
And if you've beaten the bushes, buried yourself in rejections, flogged yourself to an inch of your ego's life and still haven't gotten a bite, then your still faced with two options. One: try self publishing; or two: set the manuscript aside, resign yourself to the idea that it just isn't the time for this one, and start the next masterpiece. Maybe that one with be The One.
The second path is the harder one, takes a lot more time, and is particularly soul-crushing: Traditional Publishing. The basic rundown is: get an agent, get that agent to find a publisher, and have your book published. It sounds simple, but that doesn't seem to be the case for anyone but people who already have fame and/or fortune. The rest of us have to experience it the super-painful way, and make the climb in the dead of winter, uphill, both ways.
The first hurdle (and the biggest as far as I'm concerned, though that's probably because at the time of this posting I still haven't managed to make the jump) is to find an agent. While there are lots of agents out there, they get tonnes of queries all the time, and they're looking for any excuse not to like what your presenting them. It's kinda as if you went to a bar looking for some action, except that everyone there is extremely picky and you happen to be the least conventionally attractive one within five square miles, with the only caveat that you know that people exist who have fetishes, and one of those fetishes might just be for someone exactly like you. Point is, expect to be rejected... a lot.
Having written two previous novels, I've gone through this process several times, collected a nice figurative stack of rejections, and learned a number of things that might be helpful to you first-time submitters, and maybe a little something for those of you in the same boat as me. To start, you'll want a kickass query letter along with some kind of short bio, and different versions of a synopsis (here's a great article that'll help with the synopsis part. http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/15/clear-the-dread-from-the-dreaded-synopsis/ ).
Next, do a little research. Find a good twenty or thirty first round agents that are looking for the kind of book you've written (Hint: Young Adult and Middle Grade are huge right now. Regardless, here are two websites to get you started. https://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx
http://mswishlist.com/profiles/agent/fantasy ).
The one thing that has helped keep me sane and optimistic is my attempt to stay organized. I made a file that lists all of the agents that looked promising, starting with the agency, then agent, the status (SENT or REJECTED), the date I sent it, and how many weeks I should expect before getting a response. The final note I put at the end was a simple “yes” or “no,” indicating if they were intending to respond to my query. (Apparently it's become common for agents to simply say, “I'm too busy to sent you a simple form letter as a rejection, and give you closure out of common decency.” About half subscribe to this philosophy, which I think sucks.) Once you get a rejection (or they haven't responded within a standard timeframe, which almost everyone agrees caps out at about 10 weeks) write them off as “REJECTED,” find another agent, and send out another query. Rinse and Repeat.
An agent is important to this process (I've read a number of blogs detailing the legal advise and expertise in negotiating having an agent will provide you), though you can circumnavigate them in certain circumstances. So, lets say you've gone through every agent you can find, what then? Try to find an editor.
This one is harder. Most of them say they don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, but there are a few that are looking. The other place you can meet both agents and editors are writer's conventions. These cost money, but it's one of the few places you can meet people face to face. And this is where the elevator pitch comes in. Practice it. Memorize it. LIVE IT. Or at least be able to recite it when you get the opportunity.
And if you've beaten the bushes, buried yourself in rejections, flogged yourself to an inch of your ego's life and still haven't gotten a bite, then your still faced with two options. One: try self publishing; or two: set the manuscript aside, resign yourself to the idea that it just isn't the time for this one, and start the next masterpiece. Maybe that one with be The One.
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