The first time I got to this point, I was shocked. I wasn’t sure what I had accomplished. I sent my document to a friend, and she informed me that, once it was published, she’d put the book in her library. What?!
I want to begin by saying I am not an expert. I don’t know if that there are experts out there. Maybe there are, but I’ve gotten so much advice and some of it is so different, I’m not sure. We are talking about people, and everyone is different.
I was dumbfounded. I started Googling. The first site I found said: now that you’re done and excited, start your second book. The implication was, it was all downhill from there. I did start my second book, if you’re wondering…
I was at the start of the editing phase. If you’ve followed all my advice, you’ve already gone through alpha readers, critique partners, beta readers, and an editor. You are way ahead of where I was then. So I’ll fast forward in my story. About a year and a half later.
My book has been edited…twice. A good editor will do this.
Next, publication. I wanted (and still want) a traditional publisher. If you’ve read my book you may know how my book was published whereas I, sitting here writing this today, have no idea. I am still in that hazy unknown place that I’ll be writing about in this post. This may be where you are, the unknown point of how I get my work published. If my book is published and you’ve read it: Hi Future! From the past! Hope things are well!
If you want to publish traditionally, you will still need to do a lot of the marketing yourself. Read that last sentence again. It threw me when I first learned that fact. You may want to go and create your own website, instagram, twitter account, tiktok, or whatever the latest in social media is to catch people’s attention. I’ve always hesitated in mentioning the specifics, but I did here since three of the four I’ve mentioned are ones I have.
Some publishers will accept your work, your manuscript, directly. That isn’t common. I wouldn’t expect it. The ones I did find said that if you sent them your manuscript, only query with them, and give them three months to get back to you. That means, you are in limbo for three months and are agreeing not to show your work to any other publisher or literary agent.
Most writers look for literary agents. There are people who have relationships with publishers. There are hundreds, probably thousands of literary agents and companies out there. Each one is a bit different in how you approach them and what they want.
Query Letter: This is the most basic request. There are many websites which will tell you how to put together a query letter. Most agree that it should be short, with a limit of 300-350 words. Start with a greeting, thank them for reading your letter. Don’t hide your twist. If the literary agent is reading 100 of these letters in a day, you want to capture their interest right away. What makes your story better then the next author’s? Include your title, word count, and if the work is completed. You should add something about yourself. I noted that I am a math teacher, and why I thought it was appropriate for me to write about the LGBTQ community.
Synopsis: A Synopsis is similar to a police report of your story. It is a dry reporting of the story from beginning to end. Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. You should bold the characters names (with the age in parenthesis). It should end up being about 500-800 words.
The synopsis should give everything away about the story. Don’t hold back. The person reading the synopsis should know all of the spoilers by the end and have a good feel for your story.
Pitch: The pitch should be a single sentence that introduces your main character, your story’s title, your genre, and a brief introduction to what you wrote.
Bio: Here they want to know something about you. If you have any background in writing and English, all the better.
The last thing that is often asked for is comparable books to yours. Knowing a list of books that are similar is great. If you don’t have any, then you may need to just say that.
Once you have all the pieces collected, written, checked over, you are ready to start. Just know that this part of the journey is long. Everyone gets a long collection of rejections. Everyone rewrites the query letter. It is all part of the process.
Start finding literary agents. They have websites. You can find listings in different collections as well. Then you read over what each agent is looking for and find one who would be interested in your genre. Figure out how they want to be queried, and go for it.
I kept a spreadsheet. This way I only queried each agency once. Most don’t like being queried multiple times, even after your rejection. Some say it is okay; if that is the case, then go for it. Some have one person read the queries and give the submission to the most likely agent. You really don’t want to upset the agencies. I’ve heard you should query anywhere from 25 – 100 agents. I don’t know the correct number.
Good luck on this part of traditional publishing. It is the hazing that most writers who publish traditionally go through.
Cheers!
Huckleberry Rahr - Author 