The road to getting published is a rocky one. It’s generally a long and tough process with many knock backs along the way. It can take years and years for a new writer to finally get published. It took me 10 years. You need to be resilient and be able to accept that success can take a long time. You need to be able to take rejection and criticism. But then if it was easy what would be the achievement in that???

As well as novel publishing, there is also short story, comic book, article or poetry publishing that you can look at if those areas interest you. Before getting a novel published I wrote a number of short stories and articles which I sent off to relevant magazines. I will just concentrate today on publishing novels.

So what’s the process? Well, you’ve written your book and you’ve revised it and revised it several times until you’re fairly happy with it (we’re NEVER totally happy with it!). You’ve also given it to a few friends or family members to read through it for you which have hopefully helped you develop and improve it even further. Now you’ve then got 2 options. Send it off to a publisher or a literary agent.

Most of the big publishers will not accept manuscripts from authors without an agent and those that do look unfavourably on authors without an agent (I only realised the benefit of getting an agent after the first book was published – I would recommend approaching agents sooner rather than later). If you get an agent they can use their contacts in the industry to try to get your book in front of the right people at the right publisher. They can also help with the editing and presentation of your book. They do charge a commission fee though, usually around 15% for UK sales and 20% for international sales. So my first advice is to get a copy of a publication like the Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book. It lists all the reputable agents and publishers with contact details plus what genres they work in. There is no point in sending your sci-fi book to an agent or publisher that only specialises in crime thrillers. So, know your market otherwise you’re wasting your time.

A lot of would be authors choose to go down a self publishing route. That is where the author pays to have their book published. I would always recommend trying again and again to go the normal/traditional publishing route, rather than self publishing, unless you’re wanting to publish something just to get it out there for friends or family to see or a subject that is not commercially viable (i.e. a niche book that would not make enough money for a mainstream publisher to take an interest). Both of these scenarios are for people who are not interested in making a career out of writing but do still want to write. It is extremely difficult to make any kind of career from self publishing (although not impossible – some great authors did start with self publishing before progressing to mainstream publishing e.g. Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn and John Grisham – A Time to Kill).

So, you’ve selected an appropriate agent or publisher to send your book to (my advice is to only send it out to one at a time). What you then need to do is ensure that it is in the right format. To start with, almost all agents and publishers out there still prefer to receive submissions by post in hard copy. They still do not as a rule like to receive email or disk submissions.

Postal submission

A4 single-sided, double spaced with decent margins and generally in a 12 point easy to read font (Times Roman, Arial).

You need to write a cover letter that briefly describes the book – genre, how many words, basic plot – and a brief note on you – age, background. The cover letter should always be kept to a single page.

You also need to include a synopsis of the story. The synopsis should also be kept to a single page. The synopsis is a detailed breakdown of the story – giving details of the main characters and what happens. This should not be mistaken for the blurb on the back of a book. A blurb is to entice a reader to read your book. A synopsis is to explain exactly what happens in your book so that the publisher or agent will be able to decide whether your book is saleable.

You then need to include the first 3 chapters of your novel as a rule. Some prefer just 1 or 2 chapters, but the majority prefer 3 to get a better picture of your writing and the story. The yearbook or their website will tell you exactly what their submission guidelines are.

Finally you also need to include a stamped addressed envelope (SAE) to return your work.

Then what? While you wait around 6 weeks for them to get back to you what you do is start on your next story. Don’t wait to find out what happens to the first one because it could take a very long time.

If and when you get a rejection letter – we all get loads of them, so don’t worry about it – you then send it out to the next one on your list and then the next one and so on. I received maybe 20 or so rejection letters for my first novel before finally getting it published.

After a few rejections then try taking a fresh look at the story – 6 months may have gone by, so when you re-read it you may feel that you would like to make a number of changes and improvements to it. I went through that cycle about 6 times with the first book – changing it and moulding it until the story evolved in many different ways from the original one that I first sent out.

Conclusion – just keep trying, keep writing and keep revising. Writing is a tough business but it is the most fantastic feeling to get your work into print and for people to be able to read your work.

An important rule to always remember about writing is to write often and regularly. You need to get yourself into a routine of writing. The more you write, the better you get at it. I try to write a little bit every single day. Some people commit to writing 3 times a week for an hour at a time, but it’s up to you. You need to decide what is right for you and then stick to it. By all means do more, but never do less.

To help improve your craft and also to help promote your writing and find yourself some readership, there are many sites on the internet that allow you to publish your work online. These sites can be great for your early work to get feedback and criticism for your work. We can’t improve without criticism, so don’t just accept it, invite it.