How To Get Your
Novel Published
Anyone who’s written a novel will tell you how
much time and effort were required to finish it.
It takes long hours of facing the blank page,
perfecting those sentences, and getting the story
right. But getting a novel published can be even
harder than writing it! So it’s good to know that
there are dependable ways to get your manuscript
into the marketplace . . . and watch it become a
success!
One of the first things you need to do is to
figure out the genre in which you’re working. Is
your novel a thriller? A mystery? A romance? A
detective story? Just as there are different
readers for different books, there are also
different publishers. Look through the bookstores.
Study the bestseller lists. See what category your
novel falls into. Then search for a publisher who
publishes your kind of book. You need to know what
you’ve written before you can sell it!
The next thing to do is to find an agent. And not
only an agent, but the right agent for you. Just
as there are different publishers for different
books, there are also different agents. Once
you’ve identified your genre, start looking
through the books of other writers of that genre.
They’re sure to have a page of “acknowledgements”
. . . and they’re sure to thank their agent on
that page. Contact the agents of the writers you
admire. Who knows? You may be their next client!
The key to success is getting your book read. So
you need to meet other writers, as well as editors
and publishers. You need to network. Start a
reading group. Join a writers’ workshop. Send your
book out to as many people as you can. It only
takes one person to say “This is fantastic!” They
might give it to their own editor or publisher. Or
if they’re a publisher, they might publish it
themselves!
There are secrets, of course, to getting it done.
And fortunately we’ve got them.
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