How To Get A Book Published: Finding A Publishing House Or Literary Agent For Fiction And Nonfiction Book Deals
“How do I get my book published?” is a question many writers ask, particularly writers who want to publish fiction books (novels and short story collections), creative nonfiction (such as memoirs), and serious nonfiction (self-help, and how-to). Which publishing houses will offer you a book deal and publish your book manuscript? Which literary agents will read your book query letter and negotiate a book contract for you? Is there a professional organization that helps writers submit their novels or nonfiction books for publication? In other words, is there anyone who can help you get your book published at a traditional, paying publisher?
Writer’s Relief is an author’s submission service dedicated to assisting writers who want to learn how to get a book published. Some writers don’t know how to get a book published, and they give up too quickly. They self-publish and often feel let down and embittered by the lack of results. Before you give up on publishing your book, give us a call. We professionally prepare submissions at target literary agents and editors. Our goal is to help writers of fiction and nonfiction make strong submissions and get closer to publication.
To learn more about how Writer’s Relief helps with the submission process, visit www.WritersRelief.com.
Working with us allows you to collaborate with a team of expert personal assistants who will help you prepare and target your book query letters and proposals to the literary agents who are most likely to enjoy and appreciate your book. When you get your novel or other book to the right literary agents—formatted and proofread to industry standards—you are more likely to get your book published. Traditional book deals are more likely to happen when you pair good writing with expert submissions. That’s how to get a book published.
Writer’s Relief takes the stress out of the book submission process, and we don’t cut corners; we assist writers who are serious about reaching literary agents (and, therefore, book publishers) using traditionally accepted methods. In other words, we don’t “spam” literary agents and editors. Our query targeting is precise, personalized, and effective—the same as how you would do it at home, only more professional, efficient, and effective. We are selective about the writers who are invited to enroll in our Full Service clientele. We help writers who are wondering “how to get a book published,” but we only work with strong writers for our Full Service.
To learn more about how Writer’s Relief helps with the submission process, please visit www.WritersRelief.com.
How To Get A Book Published: A Step-by-Step Guide
Getting a book published isn’t easy: the odds can be discouraging. Some writers give up on getting published too quickly. After just a few attempts to get a book published, they decide self-publishing is better for them. What they don’t realize is that they must effectively query about 100 appropriate agents before they should rethink their book project. Help is available in the form of Writer’s Relief’s PROVEN submission assistance. If you are frustrated by trying to get your book published, or if your current submission strategy has proven ineffective, do yourself a favor. Don’t give up on your dreams of getting a book deal just yet: call Writer’s Relief.
To learn more about how Writer’s Relief helps with the submission process, please visit www.WritersRelief.com.
Whether you hire professional submission assistance or do it yourself, here is a general overview of how to get a book published:
How To Get Your Book Published – Step One: Write Better
To get a book published at a traditional publishing house, you’ll first need to be a good writer. This may seem obvious to you, but many writers have difficulty “seeing” their own writing for what it really is. Publishing a book or novel requires that you have a strong grasp on your goals, intentions, and desires—and that you have a realistic outlook that emphasizes striving for something better rather than giving up or settling for less. If your book is truly good, the economy won’t stand in the way, and the usual odds won’t apply to you. Good books ARE being published every day—more books are published now than at any other time in history! Want to know how to get a book published? Write a good book and prepare good, professional submissions. If your writing is competitive, you may be able to get your book or novel published at a traditional publishing house.
At Writer’s Relief we do not accept every writer who applies to our Full Service program. Not every book that is sent to us for review is ready for publication at a traditional publishing house. We only take on writers whose projects interest us and who have a strong grasp of writing fundamentals. In other words, we work only with strong writers who have written strong books; our goal is to see our clients get published.
Our clients range from multipublished, highly celebrated, award-winning writers to promising unknowns. Our Review Board does not offer editorial critique, but it does indicate whether or not we believe a project is strong enough for our Full Service. Because we try to submit only quality writing—and because we strive to maintain a good reputation in the publishing industry—we do not take on work that we feel is not ready for submission. Only our A La Carte clients do not need to apply to the Review Board.
We want our clients to get published and to get book deals; we do not misrepresent ourselves by saying we can get any writer published at a major New York publishing house. The odds of publishing at a New York publishing house are daunting, but if you are a good writer and you have Writer’s Relief in your corner to prepare professional, well-targeted submissions, you’ve got a serious advantage over the competition.
To learn more about how Writer’s Relief helps with the submission process, please visit www.WritersRelief.com.
How To Get Your Book Published – Step Two: Get Ready To Submit
If you are an unpublished writer working in fiction, you’ll need to complete your book before the thought of how to get a book published even crosses your mind. Do not submit your novel for publication unless it is complete. Memoirs and creative nonfiction also should be completed prior to submission when possible. Only serious nonfiction (self-help, how-to, personal development, etc.) can be submitted to literary agents via a book proposal. Do not submit an idea for a novel or book to literary agents.
Writers who have completed a book project often think that the hard part is over, but the submission process can be tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating. Most writers hate the submission process. When it comes time to submit for publication, that’s when amateurs and hobbyists are separated from the truly passionate and professional. Just think: if it weren’t difficult to get a book published, everyone would have a traditional book deal—which would make the dream of getting published far less desirable. To get your own book deal, you’ve got to rise above adversity and beat the odds.
Refrain from rushing into sending your book out for publication too quickly; you need to have all the facts before you begin submitting your fiction or nonfiction book. Your manuscript must be perfect before it is sent out in hopes of getting a publication contract.
First, make sure that your novel or book manuscript is in the proper format. If you submit sample pages of your novel or book proposal in a personalized, unique, artistic way, literary agents and editors at publishing houses may peg you as an amateur. If you want to convince literary agents and editors that you’re worthy of being a published author, your book manuscript has to look the part. Keep in mind that books are submitted in a format that is different from how books appear once they are published. Getting a book published means following the publishing industry’s rules.
Do your homework. If you want to know how to get a book published, research what the standard submission format is for your particular type of book project, or hire expert assistants (like the team at Writer’s Relief) to help you format your query packet or your entire manuscript.
Second, not only must you properly format your book, you must also have your book proofread (at the very least, you must have the sample pages that you plan to send out proofread, and you must be aware that if someone asks to see your complete book, it has to be ready to go).
One key difference between beginning writers and intermediate/advanced writers is that beginners tend to think they don’t need proofreading, while veterans recognize that it is an asset to any submission or publication. Writers tend to get lazy and cut corners when it comes to the proofreading portion of the submission process. Don’t make that mistake. If you don’t need Writer’s Relief’s submission services, you may want to check out our proofreading and formatting services. We’ve been proofreading and formatting for the publishing industry since 1994!
How To Get Your Book Published – Step Three: Write Your Query Letter
Generally, query letters to literary agents are one-page missives that “pitch” a book project in hopes of getting an agent’s interest. Query letters are intended to depict your book as professional, publishable, unique, and exciting. Your query letter (sometimes called a cover letter) must contain your bio, the pertinent information about your book, and a minisynopsis (also called a blurb).
Writing a good query letter is vital to getting your book published. If you want a book deal, you’ve got to get literary agents excited not only about your book, but about who you are. Here are some articles that may help you figure out how to write a query letter in order to get your book published:
How To Write Cover and Query Letters That Get Attention
Want Us To Create Your Cover/Query Letters?
Self-Publishing: When (Not) To Include Your Self-Published Book In Your Cover Or Query Letter Bio
If you’re not sure that your query letter is competitive enough to get your novel or book proposal the attention it deserves from literary agents and/or editors, Writer’s Relief can help. We know how to get a book published. We’ve been working with our clients to create effective cover and query letters since 1994. We know what literary agents like and don’t like. Query letter composition, proofreading, and printing is included with our Full Service and A La Carte PLUS programs.
How To Get Your Book Published – Step Four: Do The Legwork
Once your book demonstrates that you are writing at an advanced level, it’s time to start thinking about sending your book project to literary agents. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a novel or a nonfiction manuscript like a self-help book or memoir. If you want to know how to get your book published at a major publishing house, you will need a literary agent to represent your writing.
We DO NOT recommend you try to get your book published by submitting directly to editors at big publishing houses UNLESS you have a literary agent. Most fiction book publishers do not read unsolicited queries from writers who do not have literary agent representation. For more information on why you should send your book to literary agents rather than publishing houses, please visit this article: Top Reasons To Query Agents First
To successfully send your book to literary agents, you’ll need to research not only those agents who are best-suited to your book, but you’ll also need to rule out literary agents who are not suitable. It takes TONS of time. You’ll need to weed through all the unreliable information about literary agents out there, cross-checking until you find the most accurate and up-to-date sources. Then you’ll need to create a unique query packet for each literary agency: writing “dear agent” on ALL your letters will not cut it if you want to get published. You must go the extra mile to win the race.
At Writer’s Relief our database of literary agents and editors is unmatched; it is updated daily and cross-checked across many sources. Because our clients send us all the personal comments that literary agents make on their responses, we know individual literary agents’ preferences, down to the smallest detail. Our clients benefit from private information that is not available to anyone else.
How To Get Your Book Published – Step Five: Know the Etiquette
In order to understand how to get a book published, you’ll need to know the proper etiquette for making submissions to literary agents. That means you’ll need to know the industry lingo, the preferences of each agent you submit to, the proper way of wording your letter, etc. Good etiquette shows true professionalism, and we’ve been working with novelists and writers successfully for years. We know what literary agents want.
Not all writers achieve a pie-in-the-sky book deal with a major New York publishing house, but those who quit too soon NEVER have a chance. At Writer’s Relief, our goal is to get your book closer to publication; we want to help our clients make powerful first impressions with their strong submissions. If your submission strategy hasn’t been working, it may be time to ask for professional submission assistance.
To learn more about how Writer’s Relief helps with the submission process, please visit www.WritersRelief.com.
