How To Get A Novel Published
How to Get a Novel Published – The First Step is a Query Letter
Author: Dee Power
your query letter is your first step to getting your novel published. A good query letter catches the agent’s attention and is the first step in how to get a novel published. What should be included in your query letter?
The first paragraph should be a brief synopsis of your novel. No more than 100 words, perhaps 150 words. This synopsis is written in the present tense. You want to hook the agent’s curiosity to read more. It’s a challenge to condense a 100,000 novel down to 150 words, but important you do. Think of the synopsis as a back cover blurb. It gives just enough information to create excitement about the novel. If you need some examples go to the bookstore and look at the back cover blurbs of books in the same genre as yours.
The second paragraph describes the market for your novel and includes the genre. Are you aiming for romance readers, cozy mystery readers or is your book a young adult novel? You can compare your book to other similar books, saying something like “readers of Sandra Brown will enjoy TITLE OF YOUR BOOK. Mention the word count and that the novel is completed.
The third paragraph includes your background as a writer and a brief bio. If you have writing credits make sure you mention them. Many agents don’t consider a vanity/subsidy book or self-published book as a writing credit. If you include the title they will look it up on amazon.com to see who the publisher is.
The third paragraph is where you can describe any special experience you have that could become a publicity hook or gives you an insight other writers might not have. For example if you are a pastry chef and your heroine is also a pastry chef that would be relevant.
End the letter by thanking the agent for their time and consideration and asking if they would like to see the first few chapters or a completed manuscript. The purpose of the query letter is to motivate the agent to ask for the manuscript.
The query letter should be no more than one page single spaced. You could also include a 2 or 3 page synopsis of your novel, but don’t include the first chapter or the entire manuscript.
A great query letter is the first step in “how to get a novel published.”
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/how-to-get-a-novel-published-the-first-step-is-a-query-letter-167892.html
About the Author
Avoid scams and get your book published. Complimentary report Perils and Pitfalls of Publishing for Writers just visit Free Report
Dee Power is the author of several books including The Publishing Primer: A Blueprint for an Author’s Success and The Making of a Bestseller
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It has never been easy to break into the published novel market although there are a few ways, but all of them need you to believe in yourself fully and never give up.
To tell you how I did it eventually after 23 rejections for my first novel I have to go back to 1971 and was just about beaten even though I had received a multitude of great critique from professionals.
I was 20 years old then and still at Vet college.
I had started out by submitting to all the large book publishing companies with rejection after rejection, and was gradually working down through a list I’d compiled before hand but I don’t think most of my submissions even crossed a desk before the rejection slip was sent out to me, but that’s always the same for a total unknown author I’ve since learned.
I was studying in Scotland at the time and struggled to keep on finding the extra cash to pay postage to keep on submitting and was even getting pretty angry about the whole thing and in the end I wrote a letter to one of the major British newspapers enclosing my full manuscript with a deal offer that went a bit like this:
Dear Editor,
Please read my book manuscript before you reject it and throw it in your bloody trashcan as everyone else seems to do.
Once you’ve read I want you to think about breaking it down into four parts to print as a serial book form in your Sunday edition.
If you are willing to print the first part of my manuscript you have my full consent to go ahead and do it without any obligation.
I am aware that all newspapers know their ‘standard’ sales receipts so by the time the final part of my manuscript appears in your paper you will know if it helped to boost your weekly sales figures or not.
Now here’s my deal sir:
If your sales figures have remained roughly the same during the four weeks that my manuscript appeared in your paper then you owe me absolutely nothing at all, and I will owe you my thanks for being prepared to give my first novel a public airing, but if your sales figures did rise by a minimum of 5% during the final two weeks you pay me one thousand pounds for the rights to publish my book.
I have no way to know if you decide to cheat me or not, but while the sum of money we’re talking about here may be small to you, it is a hell of a lot to a struggling student, so please bear that in mind.
OK, so that’s not my exact wording, but it went something like that, it’s far too long ago to remember how much cheek I had then and I’d got to the stage where I felt I had nothing left to lose anyway.
To my surprise I receive a letter back from that editor a week later with a cheque for the full amount I’d asked for if things went well.
The letter told me that they would publish my novel just as I’d suggested and he though the sum I’d asked for the ‘one off’ publishing rights was a gift as far as the paper was concerned.
Needless to say that my book was published in the four parts over the next month, but the best part of all was that after the final section appeared in the paper I received an offer to publish it in a book form with a contract for a follow up book that had to be finished and handed into the publisher within 12 months.
Well, I’ve published 17 books since then, so the risk I took paid off, and that newspaper editor and I became and remained friends until his death from natural causes in 2002.
It’s a friendship I value and cherish even today.
wwww.writersmarket.com has a list of publishers and literary agents that are reputable. If you get a good agent or publisher, you shouldn’t have to pay anything. What happens is when your book gets published, they get a percentage of the profits. How much of a percentage they get is determined by your contract.
An unsolicited manuscript will be completely ignored. Contact a literary agent. Here is a website to help find one. Good luck.
http://www.writers.net/agents.html
You need to get some information on what publishers to submit the book to. Try the Writer’s Digest. They have a great deal of articles and books on this subject.
It also depends on the subject matter. See if you can find a publisher that is interested in that particular subject matter.
Or worse comes to worse find a vanity press and sell on the web.
Good luck.
I wish I could get started on writing.
You need to find an agent if you want that popularity, self publishing and doing your own submission to publishers will probably be slower as the publishers who would give you the most exposure don’t accept unsolicited work. Once the publisher buys the rights to your work they will then field offers to movie production companies if they deem it worthy of being translated into film. You may or may not be asked to consult on the project (Stephen King was asked to consult on one movie in the early days, he had to personally produce the TV remake of the Shining to have a hand in it).
How do i get a novel published?
I am currently working on my second novel, neither is published and i have no idea how to even get started on getting published.
How does a normal person without connections to the publishing world, get a novel published?
I was just wondering. If you were a normal person, and didn’t know anybody at all in the publishing world, how exactly do you get a book published? I mean, the postage would just cost to much to send a whole couple hundred page novel to a bunch of publishers. Besides, most publishers will just turn you down, right? Is there like a website where you can send your story to the publishers or something? I think it would just be so hard to get your work out there and published, you know?
How do I get my novel published and noticed?
I’ve written a novel that I think is pretty good. How can I get my novel (and maybe other stories as well) published and noticed when I don’t have a lot of money to pay a publisher and literary agent?
Do I need to have money to get my work noticed?
How to get a novel published and a movie created?
I have wrote a novel like Harry potters but with a completely different story and I was wondering who to get it published so that there is more popularity of mine like J K Rowling. I also want to get it into motion pictures like harry potter series
How did you get your first novel published?
I’m interested to know what you went through to get your first novel published (Not self publishing) and how you managed it in the end as I know how tough it is to make it.
How many rejections did you get along the way, and how did you finally find a way to break through the barriers that keep 99.9% of new authors out of the market.
I ask that you please give as much detail as possible, but not because I’m trying to get published myself.
I will reveal why I ask after I have read any/all answers.