Hey guys! I just finished editing my manuscript today, but now I'm really unsure where to turn after checking the pages in this Forum. Should I get an agent, and if so can somebody please send Links to one's web-site. Or should I send my manuscript to a publishing house straight-forward, if so should I send it via computer files or by submitting the manuscript through the mail? All response would be mucho appreciated.
If you think it stands a shot of being published, find an agent. Unsolicited manuscripts from agentless writers get heaped on the slush pile and discarded at the first opportunity...as to how to submit, refer to the guidelines of the specific publishers...some accept online submissions, most will want a hard copy. And perhaps most importantly, write a mind-blowing cover letter (and make sure you tailor that too to the specific publishing house...how you would approach a big house is vastly different to how you would approach an indie publisher with your mss)
you can email me for agent listings, if you don't want to find them on your own, with a simple google search... publishers are listed at www.duotrope.com and in writer's market [hard copy and/or website] maia3maia@hotmail.com and you should really have someone knowledgeable take a look at your ms to make sure it's ready to be seen, before you start querying...
Thanks guys! I checked out that duotrope, but haven't submitted anything to anybody yet. What's your e-mail, Mammamia?
you can also look a www.ralan.com There is a variety of publishers, for the love markets, paying, pro and semi pro markets, and a few more I think. (variety of print and website publishers)
Thanks again, M. I think I may hold off on submitting to publishers a while to "perfect" my query-letter and I'm also trying to publish the story on the Amazon Kindle store, which should be a good way of getting it out there and seeing what people think of my story. I just published it (the site says it normally takes 1-2 hours to have the story up on the site, if it does I'll Post a link on here), so hopefully everything goes A-OK and nothing mucks up.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that publishing on Kindle may cause trouble for you down the road. I've read in a few of these publishing threads that once you've published your book anywhere (including websites or forums like this one), then first publication rights have already been used - by you. This results in many publishers rejecting your story, because they lose the chance to grab up those first publication rights. Perhaps I've interpreted those other threads incorrectly, or perhaps the Kindle store is in some way "different." But you may want to rethink your strategy here.
Submitting to Kindle would involve giving them first publication rights, but its not necessarily a bad move. It may prove successful enough in its own right to enable the author to completely forego traditional publishing, or its success may prompt a publisher to pick it up anyway and publish it in physical book form first. Publishing online and on places like Kindle is still very much new ground in publishing, and publishers are often hesitant with regards to online publication, but if they can see a reason to print the work, thy're not necessarily closed to the idea.
Aha! Thanks for clarifying, arron. I wasn't sure at all of what I was saying, but I thought it might be good for me to say something - just in case.
By putting it on Kindle, you have just self published your work. Which means you have now lost first digital publication rights. Most publishers require first publication rights and quite a lot require first digital rights as well. If you are ever going to submit to a publisher, DO NOT post your work anywhere online and do not self publish it anywhere. You will probably find the only places that will accept it now are places that accept reprints, unless you make a substantial amount of sales on Kindle.
