Writing to be published - 3.1/3
Ready to submit your manuscript
I’m back with the final stage in my Writing to be Published series. Advising and helping writers become published was something I used to do in a big way. I ran the popular blog, Help! I Need a Publisher! (now dormant), which led to a book deal for my book Write to be Published. I was Chair of the Society of Authors (SoA) in Scotland and later of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group of the SoA. And I ran the consultancy, Pen2Publication. My ebooks, Dear Agent and Write a Great Synopsis are available from Amazon. I don’t earn a living doing that any more but I’m still keen to help writers who are serious about becoming and staying published.
It’s been a while since I wrote the first parts of this series so let me give you the links to the previous posts, in chronological order:
The introduction
Part One 1-3 was about YOU, the writer:
Part Two 1-3 was about your BOOK:
And now Part Three is about submission
We have come to the actual stage of submitting your book to an agent or publisher. The process is the same whether you choose agent or publisher but how do you make that choice?
I’m going to split the submission stage into two articles.
Today, I’ll cover a) agent or publisher? and b) how to pick your agent or publisher. I’ll also check that you really are ready, that you’ve got all the bits you’ll need. In the next and final post we’ll come to the nitty gritty of how you submit: how to build your submission for a novel (or children’s picture book) or your proposal for a non-fiction book. The does and don’ts - especially the don’ts!
Agent or publisher?
There are two aspects to this: a) Do you even have a choice? and b) If you do, why would you choose one over the other?
Do you have a choice?
Some types of writer and some types of writing are unlikely to find an agent, even if they are brilliant. This is because an agent earns nothing until the client begins to earn and then only a % of your earnings - and your earnings are in the distant future. So it simply doesn’t make commercial sense for them to take you on unless they can be reasonable sure of a reasonably good return reasonably soon.
Therefore, the following types of writer or writing will be unlikely to find an agent:
A writer who only plans to write one book - unless that book is going to set the publishing world alight
Writing in a genre that earns very little - such as poetry or academic books
A writer who is in this as a hobby, rather than aiming to build a career
A writer who displays a real lack of understanding about the industry and a lack of willingness to learn (because the agent will have to invest too much time hand-holding and teaching)
If you do have a choice, how do you decide - agent or publisher?
You do not have to have an agent but personally I recommend that, if you can, you do. Remember that I’ve been published for nearly 30 years and have in that time have well over 100 books published. And I still choose to have an agent. In fact, when my agent of over 25 years retired last year, I didn’t hesitate to go with a new agent. So, why do I willingly give up a % of my income, even though I could get publishing deals myself?
The advantages of having an agent:
They pursue foreign rights deals - I wouldn’t have a clue; and if I did have a clue, I don’t have time because I want to write
They submit my books to appropriate publishers and handle all the negotiations
If I have a problem with one of my publishers, my agent can both advise and act for me
They understand contracts and can make sure I get the best deal and don’t sign away something I’ll regret. They know what clauses can be pushed against and why.
And royalty statements - which are basically written in ancient Greek (a language which I can in fact read, but you know what I mean…)
I undoubtedly earn more than I would, even after giving away that commission %. I earn 1000s of ££ each year through foreign rights - doing literally nothing myself other than say “yes” in response to emails.
Also, you will often find that publishers’ websites say “no unsolicited submissions”. In principle this means “no submissions that have not come through an agent”.
NB You can approach agents AND publishers at the same time. That’s actually what I did originally. As it happened, a publisher and an agent both replied immediately. I told the publisher that an agent had also replied and the publisher said, “Excellent - and she’s a good agent”. I did go with that agent, although in the end that wasn’t the publisher we went with.
How do you choose which agent or which publisher?
Once you decided that you’re approaching agents or publishers or both, which ones? This is quite easy in principle: you approach the one(s) that handle the sort of book that you have written. You might think that, if a publisher does not handle XYZ sort of book, maybe they’d like to. No, they don’t handle XYZ sort of book because they don’t want to. Don’t try to run their business for them.
So, go to bookshops and libraries and seek out books that are in some ways like yours - similar in genre, style, theme, tone etc.
Obviously, it’s easy to see who published them but not so easy to see who the author’s agent is. For this, you can do a bit of simple sleuthing: you can see whether the author mentions their agent on their website; or, more usefully, you can go to the websites of various literary agencies and see what kinds of books they handle. That’s a useful method because they will often say what types of books they are actually looking for.
FYI I am very happy to say that my agent is Emily Talbot at United Agents. My previous agent was an independent, Elizabeth Roy, who had been in children’s publishing for many years before becoming a successful agent.
Once you’ve made a list of agents / publishers who would be worth approaching, what then?
First, check that you have what you need…
This is a bit different depending on whether you are writing fiction, non-fiction or a children’s picture book. There are exceptions to these rules but you will do yourself a favour by following them. Trust me.
Fiction:
You need to have finished writing the complete book to the best level of polishing you can do without employing an editor. If you haven’t finished it, you can’t know if it’s worked.
You need to include the following in your submission:
Covering letter / email (I will cover the details of this next time but it is all there in Dear Agent; always including the “pitch paragraph”, which I’ll explain next time)
Sample of the book - (almost) always the first part; usually 10,000 or three chapters or whatever specific amount the individual agent or publisher specifies)
Synopsis - outline of the main plot (including how it resolves - yes, you DO include the ending!) and a mention of subplots if any
Non-fiction:
You do NOT need to have finished writing the complete book before submitting it. Typically you will have written at least 10-20,000 words, enough to know that you’ve got the voice, tempo, content and plan correct.
You need to include the following in your submission:
Covering letter / email (as above)
Sample of the book - usually the first part; usually 10,000 or three chapters or whatever specific amount the individual agent or publisher specifies
Chapter outline - chronological plan of the content
Proposal details - why you have the authority to write this - your background etc; the market - what competition and how does your book compete; the intended audience; etc
Children’s picture book:
If you are only writing the words, you will have finished them to a high level of perfection; you will probably have suggestions as to what the illustrations will contain. If you are an illustrator (trained or at least experienced and talented with a high level of skill), you will also have a few illustrations ready, plus some sketches of other pages or spreads.
You need to include the following in your submission:
Covering letter / email (as above); this will certainly include a sense of you as the author of more books than one picture book
The entire text and some illustrations if you are an illustrator
In the next article, I’m going to go through exactly how to construct your submission package but first here are a few general principles.
General principles of the submission stage
Don’t rush this. If you send your submission to all your favourite publishers/agents and get a load of rejections and then realise you could have done it better, you don’t get a second chance - you can’t submit the same book to the same ones again.
It’s definitely worth submitting to more than one at a time, however. This is because it can take many weeks to get a reply. But I recommend no more than three at a time.
Be organised - keep lists and records of what you’ve sent where and when.
Follow the “submission guidelines” of each publisher or agent precisely. If they say they want around 3000 words, don’t send 10,000. If they say double-spacing, don’t send single. If they say sans serif, don’t use a serif.
Be professional, serious and respectful in all your dealings with agents and publishers. This is a job. It is for them and it should be for you. Your job is to let them see how excellent your book is and how good you will be to work with.
On social media, behave decently. An agent and publisher has to work with you so be a person they want to work with. If they look at your social media profile - which they might do if they like your submission - they will also be thinking of how you might use social media to engage with readers. Do you look as though you will get this right? Will readers like you? (Listen, if you don’t care about this, that’s fine, but be aware of the consequences of your choices and be comfortable with them.)
Start to think about what aspects of social media will work for you as an author if you become published. And what won’t. You do not have to do everything but you will probably need to do something.
Think about how you can engage with other writers, whether not yet published or published. Build your connections, perhaps by engaging with like-minded writers on Twitter/X or wherever you hang out. Look for groups or organisations you might join. As you read above, I’m involved with the Society of Authors - I’m a “Fellow” - and I highly recommend that you keep an eye on their activities and, when you get your first deal, join! There are other organisations that you can join before being published, too. And there are organisations for those considering self-publishing.
Keep writing! Now that you’ve finished the book on submission, you need to be focusing on your next work. That’s how you become an author. Very often, a writer’s first book is not the one that becomes published and the moment when you realise that your next book is better is the moment I believe you become properly a writer.
Next time: finally, the nitty gritty of the submission! But, if you can’t wait, check out Dear Agent and Write a Great Synopsis.
Oh, I'm really glad you're doing this again! I sadly had to stop recommending your book to authors because it was so dated, but now I can rec your blog. I've developed a similar no-nonsense brand of editorial feedback.