Hello, I am looking for some advice from all you enchanting and budding writers. I have written adventure story for age group of 11+. I am in London and i would like to know which publishing companies i should submit my story to? All help and advice is welcome. Thankyou.
by 'story' do you really mean 'book'?... stories would only be published in magazines... if you have a book ms and want it published in the uk, google for uk publishers and submit to those that take the genre your book best fits... and/or email me and i can send you a link to a uk publishers listing, as well as canadian, australian and US publishing houses... congratulations on reaching the publishing stage! love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
What you need is an agent, not a publisher. Few publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts. Google literary agents in the UK, I'm sure you'll find a fair few. Make sure they're legit - legit agents only get paid when they manage to sell your MS to a publisher. Do not pay a penny, do not pay any reading fees. If an "agent" asks for such things, they're sharks. Reimbursement of any costs incurred while the agent is trying to sell your novel should normally be taken out of the payment the publisher finally pays, I believe. I don't think even this is paid in advance. Correct me if I'm wrong people. Anyone from the AAR can also be trusted: http://aaronline.org/
I'm sorry, but I'm going to disagree with Mckk here. You don't necessarily need an agent to get a publisher. If you've gotten to the stage where you've submitted to your selected list of agents (if you want to start with them first and what is recommended) but if you've exhausted your agent list, you can submit directly to publishers that accept unsolicited material. It's true that a lot of bigger publishers only want agented work, but it's also true that some of the bigger publishers are now expanding their search to taking unagented submissions. As the same with smaller publishers that are making a name for themselves and expanding with imprints. DO your research well. Start high first with agents, but don't let that be the only search and submit you do. There's several other options out there. There are plently of wonderful advance paying, reputable smaller publishers that often authors overlook. There's a middle stage to this too. Places like Sourcebooks, Soho Press and Kensington are all examples of mid-size publishers you can submit directly to that are all great publishers. And even after you go through that list, there's smaller publishers, say for instance Jollyfish Press, which doesn't pay advances, but does have the benefits of higher royalty rates and good marketing and distribution. And they take MG which sounds like what you're writing. Watch for the target audience they take too. If you're MC is 11, middle grade (MG) would be the way to go when you query and submit. Check the word counts publishers accept too. I think MG could range as low as 10 to 15k for chapter books and so on, 25-40K for novels. If your book was YA (young adult) then you'd be looking for publishers that take that category, and word counts of 50K and above. Don't stress if your word count is low. There's hundreds of publishers that accept all sorts of word counts. You just have to look for them. Research is absolutely key to this whole process. Making sure places (agents and publishers) are reputable first and foremost! You can go to places like Predators & Editors, Agentquery, Querytracker(net) Publisher's Marketplace and you can find first hand accounts and personal experiences of such places in the Bewares and Background Checks in the Absolutewrite forums. If you feel dizzy in there trying to look, you can always do a quick search or use there index. There's a few lists on my blog (link in sig line) of big to small reputable publishers you can submit to that take MG, if you would like to go that route. But you certainly don't need an agent to accomplish your publishing dream. There's also the wonderful world of self-publishing too. But again RESEARCH the sh*t out of it as you would any place you're interested in. And Maia gives excellent advice too. She is a pro in this field, especially the children's market. Good luck to you.
Mamma and LMC are right research will become your BBF for awhile... it's the only way to target the correct publishing housings - no point sending your material to a publish house that doesn't cover your genre or target audience. Yes, as LMC said some big publishing fishes outthere require agented submission only but many big, medium and small presses are more than happy to accept unsolicited work - this is where the fruits of your research will come into play. Best of luck.
agents' expenses should never be paid out of pocket... no legit 'agent' will ask for any payment for anything, from the author... if your agreement with the agent includes expenses to be repaid, in addition to the agent's commission, they will be deducted from the publisher's payment... and yes, many indie/niche publishing houses will accept unagented submissions, so if your book is not liable to or fails to attract an agent, go ahead and query them directly... can do both at the same time, actually... if you have an offer from a publisher, that can make your book more attractive to agents...
Roxie, you summed it up so much better than I did. haha Good to have your support on this advice too. Another fun thing to have, that's tangible and at the tips of your hands, you can get the 2014 edition to the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market Book: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/2014-childrens-writers-illustrators-market-chuck-sambuchino/1114185363?cm_mmc=googlepla-_-book_25to44-_-q000000633-_-9781599637266&cm_mmca2=pla&ean=9781599637266&isbn=9781599637266&r=1 Or something similar to it. Having a book on this resource also is vital to the research experience. Chuck Sambuchino is someone to follow with his up-to-date information on new agent alerts. Sometimes with a new agent, they are eager to build their client list and if they are working from a very reputable literary agency, it's most definitely worth a shot. It's the Guide to Literary Agents. The blog is extremely helpful on keeping up to date on your targeted book market as well. Knowing what your competion is, and what's hot and what's not, and reading it, will help you get further as well. It's really a blast if you think of it and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Have fun with it.
LMC is right about the fact that some publishers do take unsolicited MS, but those are hard to find as far as I'm aware. But then again, it's research I guess! There was a thread on here only a few days ago of someone sharing a list of publishers that take unsolicited manuscripts actually. It's just if you're going for a small publisher, just make sure you check out how they distribute and market your book etc. You don't wanna sign with a publisher, think your dream's come true, only to realise the publisher doesn't really have the power to promote your book properly and having to end up doing everything yourself. Pretty sure a member on here mentioned how one author had to spend a fortune to print his own books to distribute at a book signing event because his publisher ran out of cash. It's just that if you're gonna go into all this trouble for promotion, you might as well consider self-publishing and keep all the profits IMO. (having said this, even a small publisher's budget and contacts will still be greater than your personal ones, so... pros and cons really) Lemme go find that thread. Found it - it's right there at the top actually: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/big-publishers-accepting-unagented-ya-submissions.127528/#post-1145858
Haha...that's my blog actually. I'm an advocate of writers in this position. Mckk brings up an excellent point about the marketing and distribution, so important for a book. You can have an amazing novel and not sell well if the book is buried under poor distribution. And if a book isn't marketed well, how are people going to really know it's even out there? All things to consider when you're doing your search.
Any traditional publisher requires editing on their behalf. You wouldn't need to get that done yourself. Smaller publishers do as well. But you'll need to be careful of this too because if you get involved with a poor publisher, what do you think you're gonna get? That's right. Poor editing too. Whatever publisher you're looking to get involved with, it is best to check some of their books out and see the editing for yourself. Does the publisher have a poor history of editing? Checking the book reviews too can help you with that.
if by 'basic' editing you don't mean the editing writers must do before submitting their mss an only meant checking the submitted ms for typos and minor grammar glitches, serious plot holes and the like, then yes, publishers do that... but if you meant editing mss that are rife with goofs and glitches left in by lazy writers, then no, they don't... and, as noted above, the quality of publishing houses' editing can vary from perfect--with not a word/letter out of place--to poor--full of overlooked typos, etc.... but the publisher alone does not bear the blame for the latter, since the author is sent a 'galley proof' and is expected to catch anything that was missed, before it goes to the printer...
"but the publisher alone does not bear the blame for the latter, since the author is sent a 'galley proof' and is expected to catch anything that was missed, before it goes to the printer..." Sometimes it is just the publisher to blame...and not only to blame, but in refusal to change the errors too. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/12/terri-bruce-stops-publisher-error
only rarely, since no legit publisher wants to put out a book that's rife with errors and be known for sloppiness... the one that article refers to earned a 'not recommended' listing on p&e... so the author should have done her homework and vetted them more carefully before signing on... luckily, she won her case, but it still cost her time and money and effort she could have avoided...
Yeah, that case is rare. But I've seen other cases of poor editing too, so it does happen. And it's not just the author's fault either.