How to get Traditionally Published

A question I get asked over again is how someone gets a book published. When I first started on my publishing journey, that question eluded me.

Here’s an easy run down about the process:

1. Finish writing a novel.
2. Edit it.
3. Find a literary agent.
4. Submit to publishers.
5. Get a contract with publishers.
6. Edit your book with publishers.
7. Launch your book.

The steps seem simple, but every part of the journey is its own undertaking. First of all, writing the novel requires you sit down every day for who knows how long to write. There are so many books on writing you may want to consider reading. Here are a few: Save the Cat, Write your First Novel, and DIYMFA.

Edit the novel. This means reading it over again for plot holes and pacing. It also means making sure your sentences make sense and flow nicely. It might take three rounds of edits or twenty. I severely underestimated the amount of edits it would take to have a novel ready when I first started writing. A question I get is: How will you know when your novel is ready?

My answer is you might not know if you are new. You might need other pairs of eyes to give you that affirmation. If this isn’t your first dip into professional writing, you will know when you can read your work without needing to edit every page.

Then the find the literary agent portion is riddled with rejection. Whenever someone tells me that J.K. Rowling got ten rejections, or however many she got, I inwardly roll my eyes. If I ever get famous, my story will be that Candice Pedraza Yamnitz stopped counting after 100 rejections and she had another three spreadsheets full of rejections and some considerations.

Finding a literary agent requires a query letter and a catchy pitch. You submit through email or an online form to each agent in the hopes they will at least respond. Most of the time, you get a canned response or no response. If you want to see my query letter for Unbetrothed, sign up here.

Next, if you get a literary agent (because there is no guarantee), you will prepare a proposal to submit to publishers. The proposal is meant to show publishers an excerpt of your book and your plan to sell your book. Even if you do get a contract with publishers, you will be doing part of the marketing. With smaller publishers, you will be doing the bulk of the marketing. This means you will be on social media, sending out your own newsletters, doing speaking engagements, and so on.

Once you get a contract with publishers, you will edit with the publisher and market your book. Launching a book in a way that gets readers requires a team to review the book and spread the word online about it.

And VOILA! You have a traditionally published book.

Even though the process is long and rigorous, there’s something to be said about the process. I’m the same person, and my writing has improved.

Many people go to independent publishing a book or hybrid publishing. Those options are good too. I will say that it might be most beneficial to get familiar with all the steps required to release a book so that your work can feel as polished as a traditionally published book and get some hype on social media.

What questions do you still have about the publishing process? Comment below.

If you want to get traditionally published but need some support, I’m offering author services. Check it out here.