Tuesday, July 31, 2012

So Let's Begin...

I'm back! Thank God for my six year old. She has turned out to be the best babysitter, giving me at least ten minutes here and there to get some things done, like working on my much neglected blog. 


Long ago, and many posts far away, I promised that I would share with you lessons learned in working to get my first novel published. Well, I'm making good on that promise now, and I want to begin at the beginning, at least what I thought was the beginning: finding out who to send your manuscript to. 


The obvious thing to do in today's technological savvy world is to look on the internet,  'googling' anything you need to find out. Well, don't get your hopes up, thinking I went about it some other, more creative, more fulfilling, more scholarly way, because I didn't. I'm guilty. I googled. 


And it gave me about a billion ways to get my manuscript into someone's hands.


I'm going to save you some time, because I know you looked here before anywhere else, right?  Well, the first bit of crucial knowledge I'm going to pass down to you will save you oodles of time, but will cost you about 20 or 30 bucks, albeit money well spent, I assure you. 


YOU NEED A COPY OF 'THE WRITER'S MARKET GUIDE.'


Or, if you specifically want Christian publishers, then you need 'The Christians Writers' Market Guide.'


Fellow writers, this book should be your bible if you're looking for a publisher. There truly is, in my opinion, no better way to research who your manuscript should go to. Listed within are hundreds of publishers, with exactly what they are looking for, whether or not they're accepting manuscripts, if you need an agent to do it for you, even how many pages they're wanting. Each year a new edition is published with updated information.  I tell you the truth, this is the book to get. After days of surfing the web making sure I indeed should buy said book, I went to Barnes & Noble and picked up the latest edition of both the regular guide and the Christian one. 


Before you begin, you should know the topic/genre/classification of the book, how many pages it is, who your target audience is(some publishers listed within the book are audience specific, i.e. children, young adult, African American), and if you have an agent(again, some publishers will not take unsolicited manuscripts, meaning if you don't have an agent, don't waste their time).


In edition to having book publishers, the guide contains consumer magazine listings, Canadian and International book publishers, trade journals, and listings for awards and contests and even literary agents. You will need to find the section for book publishers, which has both fiction and non-fiction publishers.  


I started by reading the 'How to use the Writer's Market guide in the beginning of the book. It had lots of nifty info, and I can truly say I learned quite a bit, especially how to do research within the guide. 


Next, I looked up some publishers I knew by name, simply because they're popular, like Harlequin and Little and Brown, just to name a few. The publishers are in alphabetical order, by the way. 


When I realized that the big time publishers either wanted an agent to submit my work, or their guidelines just didn't suit me for various reasons, then I started at the beginning(this is not to say you shouldn't seek out the popular publishers first, even if you are a first time author. Do whatever you think you should do concerning your work). What do I mean by I started at the beginning? Well, just that. I started at A and ended with Z. I read through every publisher's requirements listed, and if my work could be a possible fit, I highlighted them. I came out with about a dozen publishers I felt my novel could be submitted to. Why only a dozen out of hundreds? Because some of the publishers listed are so specific as to what they're looking for, that it left no room for me to even wonder whether or not I  should submit to them. For instance, does my novel have any curse words? If so, don't bother submitting. Or, does my novel empower a certain social group to think beyond their current circumstances? No? Then don't bother submitting.
You get the idea.


If you have an easier method than going through each listing, then go for it. I simply wanted to make sure all possibilities were exhausted. This was my first novel, my baby so to speak, and I was chomping at the bit to get it into print. It was my dream, and I couldn't afford to let one sentence go unread. I didn't want a single publisher to slip by my radar because of hastiness. And, since I knew nothing of the publishing world, except what I googled of course, I felt I needed to educate myself. 


I will stop there for now, because getting my list of publishers I wanted to submit to was really the first important step in getting my book in print. And it's bottle/nap time. I will detail my next step in the next post.