Here's the situation: I wrote a novel. It's my first. It's huge for a first book, 135,000 words. It's set in America. It's about the shift between the old school Hollywood studio system and the new wave of independent cinema in the 70's that gave birth to directors like Coppela and Scorsese. It's a murder mystery hidden inside a story of an alcoholic's search for redemption (based on the life of Edward Wood Jnr to some extent) but it is an amalgamation of a lot of different Hollywood myths and legends that creates a psychedelic film noir mystery story with a very Fitzgeraldian feel. It has an amazing twist at the end. It's a great book, it's fantastically written, everyone who reads it loves it and says it should be published. It gets praised constantly. (I'm not trying to be egotistical, I just want you to know that it is not unpublished due to its quality.) The problem is, I'm in Australia. Australian publisher only want to publish new works that are around 80,000 words, and only longer if they are about Australia or Australians. They all say to me 'this book is amazing. I would publish it except - I'm not willing to take the risk in this market place' Which is fantastic. I've written a great book, it took me fourteen years to write it, and now I have to go pack shelves in a supermarket and forget I ever wrote it because I'm in Australia and it isn't about Australians. My only hope is to publish it overseas. I google how to do that constantly, and my results always come up with 'pay me a lot of money and get nothing in return!' How do I get an overseas agent? How do I get my book to publishers? How do I do anything with the ocean between me and the people I need to submit to? And after I've spent a hundred dollars posting my manuscript to another country, how do I get them to send me an email that says 'I got your package' so I know it didn't just sink into the ocean? How do I get my book to people who will want it if they are overseas?
I'm not literally over a sea from the US, but I'm in a different country (Canada) and haven't had any issues. When I started writing I was in a niche genre so I subbed directly to small (American) publishers. Nobody had a problem with me being in Canada. When I wrote something more mainstream I subbed to (American) agents, got interest from several, signed with one, sold quite a few books through her... no issues with being Canadian. Most agents take e-mail submissions, so the cost of postage shouldn't be an issue. Getting a US agent is pretty much the same process whether you're in the US or not. Basic steps are outlined at https://www.writingforums.org/threads/so-you-wrote-a-novel-and-want-to-get-it-published.148510/, but if you have more specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.
So you suggest I go through an agent? I've been told constantly by my lecturers at university to try to get a deal first and then talk to an agent. I guess it's different for trying for overseas.
I have no idea about the Australian market, but if you want a Big Five publisher in the US you'll almost certainly need an agent just to get your MS read. (There are a few exceptions... I think Tor still has a slushpile, and probably a few others, but mostly? Agents needed.) If you're looking at smaller publishers the agents may not be necessary (or interested) but unless your MS is really niche, it probably makes sense to start with the Big Five and work your way down if needed.
Hmm... interesting. Thanks Bayview. I was really starting to think I'd run out of options, and only after being able to try very few options at all, it was feeling a bit hopeless for this book. As I said, though, every time I googled how to get an agent or publisher, the results were very bad. They were not any of the things included in that post. Seems a bit - odd.
There are a lot of scams out there for sure, and maybe they're good at getting their sites high in the Google rankings? I'm not sure. But I'm pretty confident in the general directions from that post I referred you to, based both on personal experience and on friends who've gotten published following the same process.
First and foremost, pay nothing to get published. If they want money up front, that is a scam, add their e-mail to your blocked list and delete it. Youu might consider self-publishing though it will take a lot of marketing on your part. I would recommend CreateSpace, which is the route I used. And interestingly about a third of my sales are in the UK, which I don't market directly. Also a few in Australia. Also, just got both my books up now on Barnes and Noble and Ingram as of today, via extended distro from CS.
I'm curious as to what sites you found and what Google search strings you used. Because I've always understood that you start with an agent, and that starting with a publisher is the exception, not the rule.
Sorry. It was too long ago for me to remember names of specific sites or search strings. I've done a lot since then that has made me forget this little hiccup.
