Newbie wanting to publish novel

Hi and welcome to the boards.

Might want to check the newbie forum and then have general look around. There's a lot of information on these boards. Have a read through them. The Book World Forum might help you a lot, and if you've got questions, people are more than helpful.

Hope you enjoy it here

Skysha Tranqui said:

It's not actually ready to be published, but I've been sitting on this thing for years now, and if I want to try and get it on the shelves then I should probably find out what I need to do first.

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What you need to do first is to get it into publishable shape. Until it's ready for publishing, there's nothing you can do with it. No agent or editor wants to see the rough draft--they want your best possible work.

When that part is done, go to the book store and look at other books in the genre and find out who the publishers are. Read the dedications, et cetera, to see if you can find out who the authors' agents are. Search online for agents who handle that kind of work, double check them against the Preditors and Editors site to make sure they're legit, then find out what they want as part of the query. Study their guidelines and follow them to the letter--if all they want is a query, don't send the first three chapters. If they want the first 30 pages, don't send the whole manuscript. Do the same with publishers who accept unagented manuscripts.

Good luck,

Chris

Some of the answer to your question may depend on specifics: genre, for example. Another part of the question is: should you send your work off to agents or publishers first?

Essentially, you need to identify agents or publishers who accept the kind of novel you've written, then find out what their guidlines for submission are. Warning: there are numerous scam publishers and scam agents, so be careful to choose wisely. Ask on the "Bewares and Background Checks" subforum if you're not sure.

Here's a couple threads to start you off:

Query an agent or publisher first?
When can you start writing to agents?
General Tips about Avoiding/Dealing with Scammers
On Queries and Agents: Information Sources

If I may be so bold: There's also my own "Learn Writing" thread.

just thought i'd say hi and welcome to the site. . I'm seven days younger than you and in England as well. What uni are you at? I'm ona gap year.

Welcome. There's a wealth of information on this board. I suggest you go through the novel writing forum, post after post. You'll be surprised what you'll find...

Hi! Welcome, Skysha. One other point - don't rush into publication - the biggest thing you have on your side is time - time to perfect your writing skills. Good luck - this site is a massive source of help and information.

Bufty speaks the truth. I didn't even get a bite on my novel query 'til I joined this site and picked everyone's brains.

Welcome.

Before you start your agent or publisher search, you need to educate yourself about the publishing process. This is vital not just to your success as an author (since you'll be able to submit your manuscript much more effectively if you know something about how publishing works) but to your protection, as it'll keep you out of the hands of scammers and amateurs.

Delay the submissions process for a little while, and do some reading (and not on the Internet, where misinformation abounds. Even where the website is really useful, like this one, the information is provided piecemeal, making it a lot harder to put the big picture together). Go to your local chain bookstore and spend some time in the section where the books on writing are shelved. Both the Dummies and Idiots lines have good basic introductions to the publishing process, and there are many others.

Please don't skip this step--it's tedious at the outset but will save you time (and grief) in the long run.

- Victoria

Hello. Same as above. But I'll add, congratulate yourself on little things. If you send out queries, consider that a success, regardless of whether or not you hit pay dirt right away.

There is a publishing learning curve. The first time I sent something out, I didn't know what SASE meant. It means "self addressed stamped envelope".LOL And I quickly learned that the agents (or publishers) do not answer if you do not include one.

Then you may learn that you have to target Genre Specific agents...etc. Take it one step at a time, and you can get there.