Hey all,
This is my first NaNoWriMo, but my wife and I have been writing for a while now. We have a LOT of ideas and are close to having our first manuscript finished. Currently, its floating around 125K words.
Anyway, I was wondering how one goes about getting their work published. I tried looking into it a few years ago, but all of the websites talking about literary agents said you needed a completed manuscript before they would even talk to you.
Do you need an agent? If not, are you better off with one?
Thanks in advance for any help.
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2009 - The Gemini Virus
38,554 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 07 38
If you're going to be publishing with a major market press, then you will need a literary agent. Large publishing houses will not take what are called unsolicited manuscripts. So you will have to find an agent to represent you if you want to go with someone like Simon & Schuster or Penguin or someone like that. If you're ok with going with a small press -- and there are a lot of them -- then you won't necessarily need an agent. Just look on their website and see if they require that the manuscript be sent in by someone other than the author (you).
On a side note, 125k is a lot. For a debut writer, between 90k and 110k is a good range, but more is better than less, so you might want to trim your piece down just a bit to around 120k. And yes, publishers will want to know that you have a completed manuscript, because they don't want to sign you only to find out that you haven't finished the thing. They can only publish a finished product, and the closer it is to being ready to print, the closer it is to making money for them.
As an editor, I would suggest finishing the piece. Then, polish it significantly at least twice (Why twice? Because you'll end up finding things the second go-around that you missed the first time). Since you have a writing partner -- your wife -- both of you do it simultaneously, and you'll probably be fine. At the same time, I would say to start looking into agents that fit with the market you're looking to publish in: is it Young Adult, Children's, Science Fiction, Mainstream, Thriller, etc.? This is something you need to know in order to better market yourself.
If you would like some more advice, feel free to message me here or contact me on my website: www.jbdrydenco.com.
Cheers,
----------Boone
James Boone Dryden
Director, The Milwaukee Writers Workshop, www.milwaukeewritersworkshop.com
2006: Shadows of Mati - 63,000
2007: The Travlers - 32,000
2008: short story collection - 22,000
2009: untitled steampunk YA novel
38,382 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 09 14
I agree with Boone--edit and get an agent.
I would go even shorter for a first novel--80-95k words. No one wants to buy a novella (they want their money's worth!) but they also don't want to commit a ton of time to a new novelist.
Best thing to do in terms of getting an agent:
1. research
2. go to conferences.
Do your research. Finding an agent is harder than finding a spouse and just as tough as getting a publisher! Conferences are a great way to meet agents!
And keep writing!
Hope this helps. I have writing tips at my Web site (they come via email): http://www.writenowcoach.com
Rochelle
----------If my doctor told me I only had
six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.
I'd type a little faster.
—Isaac Asimov
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.WriteNowCoach.com
23,569 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 18 14
Hey I, as well, am doing this for the first year, and at the current moment i have another manuscript as well as my nano, and all it needs is just one more revision and it runs about 83K. I would like to get it published, not just a small independent company but i would like to get it published in a well known company. It is a young adult/youth adventure story; i started it in 2006 but since then i have made many revisions as my writing skills have greatly improved. I would like to know where i can look to get an agent online. I am 16 years old but i think it is good enough to get published. If i could get some advice on looking for a publishing agent that would be great! I would love to get my story published. Thanks for any help that anyone can give me!
23,569 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 18 16
Sorry i accidentally made a duplicate message
52,249 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 09 06
I'm in the same boat, I'm a 16 year old and I've been working on my novel for the past couple years. I'm waiting till my skills improve before I attempt to publish it, but I do watch a couple blogs about the Querying process. I really recommend these two:
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ [reviews of potential query letters sent to agents]
http://www.rejecter.blogspot.com/ [an agent's assistant who has pretty much answered every possible question about the process]
Good luck getting published!
35,319 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 22 16
On Live Journal there's a group called QueryEagles (I think that's spelled right) where you can post a query letter and get it critiqued. Even post the revision and get it critiqued.