Hello Everyone, I'm new here, so I hope you can help me?! I'm writing my first book, which is a mystery/thriller. I have been writing it for a while, (keep stopping and starting it but never thought anyone would want to publish it) however today I decided to contact a publisher to see if they thought it had any potential? They said it did and then explained to me what sort of thing they would do to market my book. Turns out it was a vanity publisher, that had gotten in touch. I was so excited but it's got me motivated to finish my book and has now made me set a goal to see if I CAN actually get it published now. With this in mind I am now stuck on publishing houses, which ones are good and which ones aren't! I also want to find out if all publishers want you to finish the book or don't mind you sending in half of what you've written to see if it's any good. Recommendations/advice would be very much appreciated. Many thanks, Vickie
finish the book first - even though a lot of places accept a shorter submission initially you need to have a finished draft ready to go... also once you've finished it you need t edit it to the best of your ability before you think about submitting probably with the aid of beta readers. Since i self publish I'm not the right person to advise on specific publishers but i would say you need to define what you mean by best more tightly... most prestigious ? most likely to accept your submission ? best advance/royalties ? best to work with ? and so on there is also the question of do you get an agent first or whether you will only submit to those houses that accept unagented submissions... theres a lot to think about, but as i said finish the book first.
Finishing first is generally just good form. Supposing a publisher asks you for your first 50 pages, you provide, and they like it so much they want to see the rest, asking them to politely wait another 10 months for you to finish probably isn't going to win you any deals. Also, at least for me, the amount a story can change after the first draft could lead to problems if and agent or publisher expects to receive one thing based on what they've seen already, and end up getting something completely different. Especially if it's your first time selling a book, finish first.
Thank you so much. I think I will finish the story first, and then send it off. I'm hooked writing it, so it shouldn't be a problem!! Haha many thanks again. Vickie
Thank you, I'm going to finish it first. I'm currently writing it, and would prefer to finish it before sending it off. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. Vickie
