Getting Your Book Published The Guerrilla Guide

Life as a professional writer involves more than just writing a book and mailing it off to a publisher or agent. You must be capable of doing the work. Ask yourself: “Do I have what it takes to be a professional author?” I’m sorry to burst any bubbles, but the daily world of the average author does not revolve around lunches with Martin Amis, book launches and jetting off around the world to research your next blockbuster. As with any profession, a writer is expected to have mastered certain skills.
A writer must be reasonably literate. When you are ready to submit your debut manuscript to a publisher, it absolutely must be the best quality work you are capable of. Your script is not just another manuscript. It will be all the publisher has to judge you by and, as we all know, first impressions are crucial. You must avoid submitting anything that is not edited to the best possible standard. You will only get one chance, so don’t squander it.
Once you have completed writing your book, I suggest you put it in a drawer and take some time off. How much you need is up to you, but I generally need a month. Then come back to it and check it over for mistakes. I guarantee there will be lots. What you’ll find might include typographical, grammatical and spelling mistakes, problems with your plotting and story-line and plenty more. Don’t think that your computer’s spell-checker can do all the work for since they do not always produce accurate results. An emerging writer will initially be judged on the look of the first manuscript. Make darn sure it is the very best you can achieve.
Before you send any manuscript out to a publisher or to anyone else, ask someone you trust to look it over. Ideally you will want to show it to a fellow writer or, at the very least, someone who knows something about writing, spelling and grammar. An English Language teacher would be ideal! Have them go through your book and make sure you tell them that you not only want them to look for errors, you also need them to be honest with you about the book as a whole. Be prepared for criticism and try and use it to improve your book. Remember, only an idiot would fall out with someone who offers them constructive advice.
Once you feel your manuscript is ready to go out into the world, you’re in business. There are several different routes to having your book published by a recognized publisher. The traditional way is to simply submit it directly to the publishing company you consider most appropriate. Of course, this will not be as easy as it sounds. Most publishing companies receive dozens of manuscripts every week. Some of them get hundreds. Competing with this number of people (some of them may be pretty good!), will be hard. It is important you give yourself some kind of edge.
The majority of writers are handled by an agent. That could be your edge. You really need to find yourself a literary agent. Unfortunately, that can be another “mission near-impossible”, unless you follow a simple trick. Do some research and find at least one author who writes the same sort of books as you. Find out who their agent is and approach them. Just steer clear of superstars – they have agents who usually don’t bother with minnows like us. Provided your work is good enough, you’ll stand a fair chance of being taken on. If not, just go through the process until you hook yourself an agent.