GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR BOOK (TRADITIONALLY) PUBLISHED
By: Leah Cypess
I often get questions from young writers who are interested in becoming traditionally published authors. After giving people the same basic speech a dozen times, I decided it might be helpful if I wrote it down.
Important caveat: Everyone’s experience in publishing is different, and the information I have is specific to my own experience. I have published many books with numerous publishers, so I am confident that what I’m writing is more reliable than much of what you might find circulating online. Even so, there are other people who have different experiences in publishing and have broken in through different methods. I’m just telling you how I, and most of the authors I know, have done it.
Important caveat #2: These days, there are lots of ways for authors to get their work out there, including self-publishing. My area of knowledge is traditional publishing, so that’s what I can tell you about.
I would encourage any new authors to focus on this step for as long as possible before they think about publishing. The only real reason to be an author is because you love to write; most of us do NOT get rich and famous (or financially stable) through writing books. Even after being published, getting awards, and receiving amazing and heartwarming messages from readers, I can still say confidently that the true joy of being an author is in the writing.
With that said: if your goal is to get published, you do want to make sure you’re writing a book that is publishable. You should be familiar with other books in your genre and know that you’re writing something that fits into that space. Be aware of what age group you’re writing for—and yes, you do have to write for an age group: middle grade, young adult, and adult are all distinct categories, and you should know what category your book falls into. Be aware of the general expectations for that category. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your book is: if there’s no shelf on a bookstore where it can be put, publishers cannot publish it.
And be aware of word counts: don’t write a 50,000-word adult epic fantasy novel or a 300,000-word middle grade adventure. (I mean, do write them if you want to, just for fun! But know that even if they’re brilliant, they almost definitely won’t get published.)
So what word count should you be aiming for? Things can change, but as of this writing, here’s what I aim for when I write:
Middle Grade Books: 25K-70K words, but very dependent on whether you are writing lower middle grade or upper middle grade/tween
Young Adult: 60K-80K
Most adult fiction categories: 80K-100K
Epic fantasy: 90K and up
Almost no first draft is something you want to send to a publisher. I revise each of my manuscripts multiple times, and the majority of writers I know do the same.
There are many (many) books and articles out there about how to revise, and everyone has to find the method that works best for them and for the particular book they’re working on. Out of all my methods, there are two that I think should be in every writer’s toolbox:
[1] Critique. Have other people read your manuscript and tell you what they think. Almost definitely, there are places in your manuscript where you thought you were saying one thing and your readers thought you were saying something completely different. Or where you very clearly explained something but nobody except you understands it. Or where you had a character do something that seemed reasonable to you but not to anyone else. Unless you are a very rare writer, there are a lot of problems in your manuscript that you can’t see on your own, but that a fresh reader will be able to point out.
My first published novel, Mistwood, was critiqued by over a dozen people, and then after it got published, it went through five rounds of revision with my editor. Not every book needs that much revision, but they all need some.
You are probably hoping that I will now give you advice on how to find critique partners. I wish I could! I found my own critique partners through years and years of joining writing groups (both online and in-person), participating in critique exchanges, and gradually finding the people who both got my work and were able to give useful feedback. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the current state of writing critique groups for beginners.
If you are writing for children or teens, joining your local SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) chapter is likely a good place to start. Many different subgenres have their own writing organizations that you can look into. However, I know that joining such organizations is not feasible for everyone, and I’m sure there are useful online groups that I don’t know about.
If anyone has great ideas for how to find critique partners, please feel free to email me (LCypess at gmail) and I will try to look into your suggestions and add any that seem helpful.
[2] As a final step, read your work out loud. Full disclosure, I discovered this method only after publishing my first two books. But I am always amazed by how many awkward phrases I discover and fix during this step.
Once you have finished your book and made it as good as you can, you’d probably like to try to get it published! Which means, assuming you are going through traditional publishing, that you need to get an editor at a publishing company to read your manuscript and decide to publish it and pay you money for it.
(It’s a little more complicated than that; an editor is the person at the publisher responsible for reading manuscripts, editing manuscripts, and managing many parts of the publication of a book. However, most editors cannot decide on their own to buy a manuscript; they have to convince various other people at the publisher to agree. For the purposes of this guide, though, let’s stick with the editor—who is, for most purposes, the only person you’ll be directly in contact with.)
When I started trying to publish my books, over 30 years ago, I could send manuscripts directly to editors. That is very rare nowadays, and not a method I would recommend in most cases. Once your manuscript is complete, you want to send it to a literary agent. A literary agent’s job is to send manuscripts to editors who might be interested in buying them. Ideally, a literary agent is familiar with which editors at which publishers might be interested in buying your specific manuscript. A literary agent should also have credibility with editors, so that editors will pay attention to manuscripts sent to them by that agent.
(Other things an agent does, further down the line: negotiate your contracts, discuss and plan your career, be an intermediary if you have disputes with your publisher. Some agents will also help you edit your manuscripts or publicize your books.)
There is no formal program for becoming a literary agent, and anyone who wants to can slap up a website and call themselves a literary agent. That doesn’t mean they actually know anything about publishing or that any editor is interested in looking at what they send. So this is a step where you have to be very careful. You want a good and reputable agent who is also a good fit for you.
(People in publishing circles often say “A bad agent is worse than no agent.” I cannot overstate how true this is.)
My best tip for how to find such agents is to go to the library and look at books that have been published in the last few years and are in some way similar to yours (same age group, genre, etc.) Flip to the acknowledgments page. Most people will thank their agents. Using this method, you can get a list of possibly appropriate agents.
(There are also many books and lists of reputable agents out there, which are likely very useful but which I am not familiar with.)
It is important to know that the way agents get paid is by getting a percentage (usually 15%) of whatever a publisher pays the writer. Agents do not get paid unless and until their writers are paid. YOU SHOULD NEVER PAY AN AGENT DIRECTLY. If they ask you for money, they are not an agent; they are running a scam.
Once you have your list, go to each agent’s website to see what they’re looking for and how they would like authors to send them work. FOLLOW THEIR DIRECTIONS.
Most literary agents will want something called a query letter. As a sample, here are:
[1] The query letter that got me my first publication deal. (Because it is from the olden days, I sent it directly to an editor, but you would use the same basic format to send to a literary agent.)
[2] The query letter that got me my current agent.
(If you are wondering where you can buy the book described in this query—you can’t, because even though that manuscript got me my agent, it never sold to a publisher.)
There is no requirement that you send your work to only one agent at once. I recommend sending to agents in batches, maybe 3 or 4 at a time. That way, if one agent responds by pointing out that there is something wrong with your submission, you can fix it; you won’t have already sent that submission to every agent on your list.
Be forewarned that getting an agent is extremely difficult. In fact, I tried to get an agent for my first published book, Mistwood, but got nothing but rejections. That’s why I sent it directly to publishers (which was an option back then, but isn’t as much of one now). After publishing my fourth book, I left my agent and had to look for a new agent. Even as a published author, with a list of agents who had told me they loved my books, it took me over three years to find an agent—and I wrote three manuscripts that no one would take on before finally landing an agent with my fourth manuscript.
I say this not to discourage you (it was all worth it), but to forewarn you: be prepared to face discouragement. Be persistent. And also, once you’re sending your book to agents, try to focus on writing your next book.
So, what if you get an offer from a literary agent?
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! As I’ve made clear, this is not an easy step to get to.
It might even happen that you get offers from multiple agents. This is great! In fact, once you get an offer, you can tell the offering agent that you will get back to them in two weeks, then write emails to other agents who have requested your full manuscript to let them know that you have an offer from a different agent and, if they are interested in the book, could they please let you know within two weeks? This is completely normal and expected, and no one will be insulted.
It’s great, but also stressful. Because now you have to choose an agent. This is where you set up phone calls with any offering agents and ask them a list of questions that are important to you. Such as: How involved are you in career planning? Are you editorial? How do you like to communicate? These are other books I’m thinking about writing, what do you think of them? Would it be okay if you put me in touch with one of your other writers so I could talk to them?
There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. (Well, except the last one. They should definitely be able to put you in touch with another writer they represent.) You’re just trying to figure if the two of you would be a good fit.
In fact, I would recommend taking these steps even if you only have one offer. Because if you realize that this isn’t the right agent for you, you are better off declining and going back to the query process.
Now it’s your agent’s job to send your manuscript to publishers. Sit back and relax!
Just kidding. Obviously, you will be talking to your agent about the submission process. And there is a LOT to talk about there, too. But let’s leave that for another time.
For now, here’s my best advice for when your book is on submission: be busy writing your next book.