How to Sell Your Novel, Part 1: Finding an Agent
Since my first novel was released last month, a lot of friends have asked me how it’s done. When you see a book in the bookstore and then think about the manuscript sitting on your hard drive, the road between the two can seem rather vague.
So how does a book go from sock drawer to bookstore? Here’s the Cliffnotes version:
- Author queries agents.
- Author signs contract with agent whose job is to market and sell manuscripts to publishers, and agent submits manuscript to editors at publishing houses.
- Publisher purchases rights to manuscript, and agent negotiates the contract.
- Publisher then edits, prints and distributes book.
I’ll write periodically in this column with more “From Sock Drawer to Bookstores” writing advice. This week, I’ll focus on getting an agent. Getting an agent is the first step toward publication. Publishers really don’t accept “unsolicited manuscripts,” which simply means those submitted directly by authors. (Full disclosure: my journey from sock drawer to bookshelf actually breaks many of these rules, but we’ll get to that at the end.) Agents work for authors, who are their clients, to sell their work to publishers. But before you can send your cover letter to agents to entice them with your story (a process called “querying”), you have to find out which agents would be best for you.
I owe pretty much everything I know about writing and publishing to my mom, author Libby Malin Sternberg, who in addition to being the writer of many highly entertaining novels also keeps a blog about her observations on writing, publishing, and life in general here.
First: Finding your agent…
A publisher.
How quaint.
I’m inclined to agree. Given that I have a) a manuscript b) a desire to make more c) no need to live off the production of same, d) full access to the 21st century, what reason is there on earth to go through the humiliating and degrading ” beg for an agent so you can get to a paper publisher” process, as opposed to going e-book and spending all that time and effort producing work for a small audience that enjoys it?
Unless, of course, the whole point of the industry is to select for people who will be obsequiously gratedful that some gatekeeper deigned to favor their work, and are just THRILLED at the idea of doing the rubber-chicken circuit to market themselves for years on end. If *that’s* the point, then, hell, the system works like a charm.
Where are you going to get that audience, even a “small” one? It will probably be limited to your family and friends. If they’re readers, they might prefer to spend their time on material of more proven quality — i.e. that survived two sets of gatekeepers (an agent and an editor).
You speak of these gatekeepers with something like impatience or disdain. I’m sure your writing is the exception, but if you think gatekeepers aren’t needed in the publishing industry, take a look at the comments threads on any column here you choose — in fact, start looking at random blogs and reading the posts themselves. Better still, answer a craigslist ad sometime for someone who needs help “writing down” this fabulous story they have of their very interesting life and all the amazing experiences they’ve had, or this very important story they have to tell which will change civilization.
Yes, a lot of the stuff that gets published is crap, but consider that it’s the top .5% of what came out of the slushpiles.
By the way, a great place to get advice on writing and publishing is the forums at AbsoluteWrite.com. There are plenty of published and unpublished authors there, and people very knowledgeable about the art and the industry.
For someone who is supposedly knowledgeable about the industry….since when is an editor a gatekeeper?
Arhooley, really. That’s the noise that’s being made to scare authors back to the plantation.
Between the review and rankings systems and good categorization, anything that’s reasonably good quality will get sales. The more of it an author has, the more sales they’ll get.
If you doubt me, go take a peek at Kris Rusch’s The Business Rusch (www.kriswrites.com). The alleged quality control and marketing of traditional publishing is at best erratic. I’ve seen independent books from Amazon with better production values than books out of the mainstream, better proof reading (as in, someone actually did proof them), and better writing. What they didn’t have was the bias the mainstream publishers prefer.
> gratedful
Possibly one reason for using agents and publishers is that hopefully someone will run your text through a spell checker?
just a thought!
Gave it a year or so for each of my first two books – which were as I described them ‘historical fiction set on the 19th century frontier’ and queried more than 150 agents – every agent/agency who didn’t sneer “We don’t DO Westerns!” Half a dozen asked for a partial MS, two asked for the whole, but eventually said although both were well-written and gripping, they just didn’t feel the two were “marketable” to a big publisher.
Marketable, smarketable. That first book has just gone to a second edition, with a tiny local publisher in Texas, and is selling very well, thank you. At this point an agent for me would be rather like (IIRC)Dr. Samuel Johnson’s remark about a literary patron being that person who ignores you when you are drowning, but overwhelms with attention once you have managed to save yourself and reached dry land.
Hate to one-up you here, but I spent (read: WASTED) 20+ years with agents and publishers. They kept telling me that “it’s too hard to sell things from an unknown author.” Hmmm. Funny. They can sell things by authors who don’t even exist!
Now I print my own books (my 6th one is on its way out), set up my own school tours, visit classrooms, help teachers with writing exercises for their students… and the kids tell me my books are better than that stupid limey on the broomstick!
Anyone who still follows the “tradition” of using a publisher is an absolute fool. But, hey, go for it! Waste your time! It just means you’re busy waiting by your mailbox, while I’m out there selling books!
Good advice. Cut out the middleman. He’s turned from a helpful resource to a controller of speech. That’s what enabled the very stupid limey on the broomstick sweepers of American children’s minds. Death, not life. Poor kids. Stupid parents. Must keep up with the zombie Joneses. It’s refreshing to support American ingenuity that produces uplifting exciting and good stories for children.
Sgt. Mom: Have you contacted Western Writers Association? Also, Rope and Wire dotcom. Both might be helpful resources. I love a good Western.
To add, there’s Wild West Magazine (Weider History Group) and True West. Those might be potential outlets to get the word out.
Thanks, Louise – I’m a regular at Rope & Wire … and my second HF was reviewed by True West. I have a sixth book of what I’ve jokingly started to call “Barsetshire with cypress trees – and LOTS of sidearms” coming out in the next week or so … so I can cheerfully say that I’ve gone way, way, way past needing an agent. OR an old-line NY-based trad publisher.
I have used Amazon CreateSpace Books on Demand to self-publish a novella, with 2 others to follow. I was interested in self-publishing, and a local reputable printer required me to have 2,000 copies printed, paid up front of course. CreateSpace allows you to upload a PDF file, and you can design your own cover, or use one of their templates. You set the selling price – they charge you a predetermined low price to print each book on demand, as it sells. They charge a % to sell the copy, and you get the rest (after deducting the printing charges).
The thing I like about them is that as an author, I can buy as many (or as few) books for myself for just the printing fee, and sell them myself (or hand over to an indie bookseller).
Check out my book on Amazon “Living out of a Tin Cup”.
In 2006 when I was following Hannah Sternberg’s traditional path to seeing my books somewhere other than on my hard drive my agent (yes I had found one) who had been in the literary agent business for 45 years quietly informed me of two life altering facts:
1] “You must understand that a publisher will agree to publish your book, get copies into about 500 bookstores and Amazon and hope you have the marketing knowhow and determination to drive people to buy your books. Your unknown and therefore they have no bucks to risk on promoting you.”
2] “The industry you are turning your book over to will not look anything like what it is today by 2009. Technology is changing everything and by 2009 disintermediation as far reaching as the music industry experienced since iTunes will overtake publishing and you will be able to reach an audience, possibly large, on your own. Since you and your wife have spent 30 years in the technology business you may want to explore alternative avenues to address the business end of authorship.
This conversation took place after three publishers expressed interest. I feared their owning the publishing rights to my work and their pockets were so much deeper than my own. If I didn’t like the relationship I would never be able to get out of it.
We choose a different path.
It is now 2011 and here are the results of our (my wife joined me in this independent publishing endeavor) efforts:
We have independently published my first mystery Treachery In Turtle Bay, the sequel Treachery In Turtle Bay II and
Look For The Hook (My wife, Susan Jane Bodell’s self help book)
All three are available in Trade Paperback on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble internet site, through Barnes & Noble stores, through hundreds of other bookstores (via Ingram\Lightning Source POD) and to Libraries via Baker & Taylor.
In Kindle e-book format in the Amazon Kindle Store, e-Pub e-book format at the Barnes & Noble Internet Store, e-Pub e-book format from Google Editions.
We have sales every day from somewhere in the world. We market globally and our distribution partners provide global delivery.
We speak at libraries, book clubs, bookstores, spas and resorts. Susan also runs a program on Look for the Hook in rehabilitation centers.
…And on November 6, 2011 we published my third novel, Nikita
What began as an attempt to write a simple mystery soon escalated into what has become the most exciting adventure of my career.
Google Amanda Hocking. She’s 26 and making millions by self-publishing on Amazon.
I really don’t care for the teen vampire angst genre, but it seems to have made this young lady a fortune.
There’s also an e-book publisher called Smashwords which I highly recommend. They present your novel in a variety of e-book formats (Kindle, Nook, and others). The service is free, and you can set your own price for your book. Check out my latest, Killjoy, P.I. — Dial ‘D’ for Darwin at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/99296.
For those of you who like a good Conservative Western, please check out The Spaniard and Three Island Crossing at flopping aces. I could use some outside feedback on a book I am writing about the Oregon Trail. It is being published in chapters. It is another way to get your work fact checked and judged before publishing.
I think the biggest appeal for the publishing house establishment is the validation that one’s writing is acceptable. They power a ready-made national marketing machine and already have all the contracts with major bookstore distributors. Thing is, I don’t buy books from stores anymore. A lot of people don’t. So why do I need to get published and have my book sitting on a shelf at Books A Million?
I applaud anyone who breaks free from that mold and publishes their own material. It’s the conservative ideal of free markets at work. Why depend on writer-welfare from the establishment? We can create our own markets as writers. It’s working very well for a lot of writers. I hope it will work for me when my work is finished and I’m ready.
The only problem I see with this model is where do we get our editors?
And while you are at it you can purchase my book on Amazon Kindle “Recon of Worlds” by C. Sarver for those that want a good mystery detective multi dimension science fiction shootem up, of which not one publisher of the 150 I contacted were interested. The old model is dead. Good riddance.
“The only problem I see with this model is where do we get our editors?”
Any number of good editors on line that are happy to get paid by the page if that’s what you want. Mine, a recent addition from India, a lit major in college, did a bang-up job for a small fee sent through PayPal in quarterly installments.
I went through the degrading process of dealing with agents. I even had two for two different books. Both of them were a waste. They submitted the MSs to four or five different publishers then gave up.
So, I have gone straight to epublication. I am now selling thousands myself on the Net. I am not making a pile of money, but at least the books are out there, and the reviews have been good. People seem to enjoy the stories, which is what it’s really all about.
Right on, Jason. The more hurdles one can eliminate, the faster you reach the finish line. Agents, editors, and all in a publishing organization who have power to kill are hurdles. 99% of them have their own point of view which may be light years removed from that of the market. Check on how many rejections each major best seller had before it made it to print and you’ll have the right perspective on the publishing industry and its process which robs writers of invaluable time.
An ebook skips over all the hurdles and reaches the market where it will succeed or fail. If it succeeds you may find publishers approaching you. At which time you get to reject them or dictate the terms. A couple of years ago I approached agents and publishers. At that time many would still accept only snailmail submissions. I automatically avoided them because this told me that they were dinosaurs and had little future.