This post was originally a guest post on Ashni Clayton’s blog “Speaking Across the Centuries”
Here is a link to the original post on her website:
Speaking Across the Centuries
THE SWORD IN THE STONE:
PERILOUS JOURNEYS INTO THE WORLD OF PUBLISHING
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Part One: Traditional Publishing
Completing a novel is no small thing. It is like pulling the legendary sword from the stone. The stone represents all the things that hold one back as a writer; the sword is the completed novel. If you have actually finished your novel, savor the moment. Take pleasure in this story that you have brought to life. Heft the thing in your hand, feel its weight and balance. Prepare yourself for an entirely new journey, a new quest with your sword. That quest is the path of publishing.
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary affair. The writer and novel are insulated and safe, protected from the outside world. The process of writing is one of creativity, where anything is possible. The world of publishing is a much different place. Publishing is a business with one aim: Making money. Think of stepping into the world of publishing as embarking on a classic Hero’s Journey. Just as Joseph Campbell tells us, it may get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.
In the past, the journey from completed novel to published novel was set in stone (pun intended). It consisted of writing a novel, finding a literary agent, who would then find a publisher. This process still exists and is generally referred to as Traditional Publishing. The past decade or so has seen the rise of another path, the path of the Indie Author. In Part One of this blog post, we will look at Traditional Publishing. Part Two will look at Self-Publishing, or being an Indie Author. This little post is not meant as a “How-to-Get-Published” manifesto. Rather, this is a cautionary tale of what dragons one can expect along the way. So on with Part One. Let’s get Traditional.
Let us assume that you have written the very best novel you can possibly write. The messy first draft is a distant memory, the rewrites have been hammered out, and the long hours of proofreading are over. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated group of Beta-Readers, they have gone over your novel with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. This child of your creation, this amazing story, has now been edited, proofed, and read by your loyal and long-suffering friends. Your family, your friends, they all tell you that your novel should be published. They believe in you. The world is waiting for your story, and rightly so. The world needs more great stories.
The first step in Traditional Publishing is querying a literary agent. While being accepted by a literary agent does not mean that your novel will find a publisher, it is a huge first step. In some cases, an author may query directly to small indie presses, but the process remains basically the same. Queries begin with a top-notch query letter. There are many good online resources on how to write a good query letter. There are also a great many opinions as to what makes a query letter great, or damns it to a quick rejection. It is incumbent on the author to do his or her homework on the fine art of writing a query. This is your pitch, the three or four allotted paragraphs to sell your novel. The query is the one brief chance you will have to hook the person reading your query. I cannot possibly over-emphasize how important a well-crafted query letter is. Do your due diligence, do your homework, then write the query. There are many rules to the query process. The first rule of query letters: They have to be perfect. Not one typo, no missed punctuation, no misspellings. I beg you, ask someone to proofread your query letter. Please.
Oh, a word about rejection before going further. If you are determined to pursue this path, now is the time to grow a thick skin. Yes, I know that your novel is perhaps the greatest novel ever written. I know you believe in your novel and, quite frankly, I believe in your novel as well. Regardless, you will be rejected. The agent was having a bad day, the wind was from the south, whatever, it happens. Get used to it. Thick skin, remember? Thus girded for battle, onward!
Once one has the perfect query letter, one must have somewhere to send it. Now we must find agents who are accepting unsolicited queries. There are several very good online resources for researching agents. Agent Query and Publishers Marketplace are two of the best. The former is free and the latter is a paid subscription.
Agent Query
Publishers Marketplace
Finding appropriate agents to query is a process of elimination, and one of strict adherence to the requested documents. There is a great deal of information to be gleaned from most agent listings. First, is the agent open to submissions? Second, will they accept email submissions? What genres are they looking for? If you are a romance writer, do not submit your work to an agent interested in psychological thrillers. You will be wasting their time and yours. Every agent will require a slightly different submission package. They may require a synopsis, a three-chapter excerpt, both, or a query letter only. If one wishes to have any chance of success, the query package must be exactly what the agent is requesting, no more, no less. The agent will likely specify what format the synopsis or excerpts must be in. If they say they want everything in Twelve-point Times New Roman, double-spaced; they aren’t kidding. The query process is a multifaceted test. The test is not only whether or not an aspiring author can write. It is also a test of whether or not they can follow directions. Each letter must be personalized for the agent being queried, including the address of their agency and a reference as to why you chose to query that agent. Any query that begins with “Dear Agent” is most assuredly going to be filed in the round file. So we have our perfect query letter template, our synopsis, our excerpts, all the building blocks for a query package.
Not quite. Sorry. Agents want to see a motivated author. The last paragraph of a query is usually reserved for a short paragraph that is your curriculum vitae as a writer. If the agent manages to read to the end of your letter, they will look for some sign that you are motivated and ready to promote your work. This means having a clean, professional website, a current and active blog, or at least a social media page dedicated to your novel. Okay, last block in place: Ready, set, go!
Depending on the genre that one writes in, it is not unreasonable to compile a list of fifty or more agents. For my first novel, I sent out out many more queries than that. The list complied, the package perfect, it is time to begin mailing or emailing the submission packages. I suggest two things. The first suggestion is to keep a log of which agents were queried and when. Some form of notebook or file, whatever works best, will make it much easier to keep track of requests for additional information or rejections. Which brings us to suggestion number two. Now is the time to make use of the thicker skin we have girded our loins with. You are going to get rejection letters. They will sound personal, encouraging you to keep writing. After you receive a few more rejections, you will notice that they are all very similar. Another caution: do not, under any circumstances, send an angry or whiny reply to any agent. The world of publishing is small and word gets around. Thick skin, breathe deeply, move on.
Keep in mind that literary agents receive a great many unsolicited queries. These queries usually go into what is called a “Slush Pile.” The Slush Pile is often handled by an assistant. Your query package has to shine brightly enough to make it past the overworked eyes of the agent’s gatekeeper. A query may take weeks or months to claw its way to the top of the Slush Pile. Yes, months. Patience is a virtue you will need in great abundance. Once past this hurdle, the package may actually land in front of the agent. It will be Friday. For some reason, agents work on their Slush Piles on Fridays. Don’t ask me why.
At this point, there are three possible outcomes. The first is silence. Many agent listings state that the agency will only respond to queries that they are interested in. No response means no. The second possible outcome is said rejection letter. Invoke the mantra: Thick skin, breathe, move on. The last possible outcome, the joyous one, is a request for more information, perhaps even a request for a full manuscript.
If you are fortunate enough to receive a request for additional material, allow yourself the complete freakout. Go for it, ecstatic dance and everything. Once the joy dust settles, prepare your reply to the agent, sending them exactly what they are requesting, no more, no less. It is important to keep all of your replies professional, businesslike, and upbeat without gushing. A request for additional material does not mean your book will be picked up by a publisher, but it is a very hopeful sign.
From here, the process becomes one of the more intricate steps, and more waiting. Perhaps the agent has, or will, request a full copy of your manuscript. The author sends off the manuscript and waits. Many agents will request exclusivity at this point, not wanting to waste time reading a manuscript that several other agents are reading. The agent may request substantive changes to the manuscript. Authors must choose to compromise or not. This dance may go on through several rounds, but, at some point, the agent will offer representation or bow out. Representation means the agent does the work of finding a publisher for the author’s manuscript. In return for that work, the literary agent will take 10-15% of domestic sales and 20% of foreign sales.
The reality of questing for publication is that only a very few debut authors will find an agent who will offer representation. Many now-famous authors were rejected hundreds of times as debut authors. There is no easy or soft way to say this; finding an agent is a long, tough, arduous process.
But let us assume that one of our lucky few have broken through the barrier. There will be more waiting as the agent queries publishers. Yes, there is an upstream process between agent and publisher. When a publisher shows interest, there may be more requests for changes, either to manuscript, title, or both. The author’s agent should help with negotiating a publishing contract. Once the contract is inked, there will come a period of editing, proof-reading, cover design, and more. All of this takes time. Even with everything going smoothly, the process is not a speedy one.
These few brief paragraphs actually cover a journey that may take between eighteen months and two years. Allowing six months to find an agent is not an unreasonable guess. It could very well take longer. Add another six months for the agent to find a publisher and yet another six months for the publishing process. This would be the fast-track, the shortest distance between the first query letter and one’s published novel sitting happily on a bookstore shelf.
Our intrepid author, sword still in hand, has achieved the quest. What then? There are some very tangible benefits that come with Traditional Publishing. Prestige and recognition are some of the larger benefits. Our author will be eligible for literary prizes that Indie Authors generally are not. This is changing ever so slowly, but for the most part is still true. Our successful author can see his or her novel on the shelves of the local bookstore. The novel is much more likely to be reviewed by mainstream literary publications.
The publisher will, to a point, engage in marketing and promotion. For a debut author, that point will be fairly limited. The days of an author writing in seclusion and handing off manuscripts with no further thought are long gone. The popular mantra is “We are all in sales,” and no one more than the author. Expect to do a large part of your own marketing, traditionally published or not. And do not expect to get rich, or even very famous. The average advance for a debut author is about $8000. The agent will take their cut of this, plus most novels will not ‘earn out,’ meaning that the author will not receive anything more than the advance. As for getting famous, you will read stories of debut novelists winning a prestigious literary award and topping the New York Times bestsellers list. It does happen, but so do lightning strikes.
I do not mean to paint too grim a picture, nor do I wish to portray the world of publishing as any less brutal than it is. It is a tough business, to be sure. But with perseverance, a thick skin, and a great book, debut authors can and do succeed. But what if one simply cannot find an agent, or if one wants more control over the publishing process? That will carry us into Part Two, the world of Indie Publishing. Like Traditional Publishing, Indie Publishing has its own set of benefits, dragons, and trials.
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About the Author:
An ex-resident of Seattle, Marco Etheridge lives and writes in Vienna, Austria. He is the author of two novels: The Best Dark Rain: A Post-Apocalyptic Struggle for Life and Love and Blood Rust Chains. When he isn’t creating great fiction or being a good Hausmann, he explores the world with his lovely wife. If the sun is shining too brightly, or the birds are too chipper, Marco studies German grammar to create a suitably dark mood for creativity. For more information about his novels, check out his website at:
