What are 10 great points a new author should avoid when searching for a literary agent and publishing company?

Question

New authors can make a lot of mistakes attempting to pubish their first book. Many prople have opinions on what are the best methods about the book publishing process. There have been authors that have been rejected hundreds of times before their first book was published. I seek to learn from their mistakes. Success leaves clues. So if I apply the same kinds of principles, I can reap the same kinds of rewards. The trick is you have to know what to do. This question is aimed at finding those answers. I know there is no one framework that works for every situation, but studying at least 10 significant points can lead to the overall building blocks needed to succeed in book publishing.

Answer 1

1. Don't stop writing just because someone rejects your work...even if it's rejected 100 times.

2. Don't discount what people tell you when they reject your work. Learn something--glean anything--from their comments that will make your work stronger and better for the next submission.

3. Don't let them see that you're an amateur. Read their submissions guidelines and follow them to the letter. If you ignore their requirements, you won't be taken seriously...you won't even be read.

4. Don't send in work that is full of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. That screams amateur!

5. Don't pay for services. Avoid agents that charge reading fees, representation fees, editing fees, and agents that refuse to supply you with a list of their published clients. An agent is allowed to charge for the course of business like copies, long distance phone calls, postage, etc, but a majority of agents don't charge until they sell your book and then they take a percentage of your percentage.

6. Don't stop reading the books on the market. It keeps you current on what's being optioned by agents and publishers.

7. Don't misrepresent yourself to an agent or a publisher.

8. Don't begin querying agents or publishers unless you have a completed and polished manuscript.

9. Don't send the same manuscript out to various agents/publishers at the same time unless each of the places agree to accept work submitted to multiple places.

10. Don't assume you know more about the business than a reputable agent or publisher.

The list can go on, but what's important is that you take the first step and make a submission and learn from the results.

Good luck to you in your endeavors! :o)

Answer 2

You have said a great deal of truth ...
Some things to avoid (not ten though)
1 - Don't pay up front
2 - Don't sign on with an agent who has no track record of success
3 - Don't accept promises, accept performance
4 - Don't submit any book that hasn't been proof read by someone in the literary field (professional proof-reader, teacher, professor ... someone other than their mother)
5 - Don't go in ignorant. Know what agents are expected to do for the author and what it will cost
6 - Don't sign any agreement without a lawyer or someone in the know having looked over the contract

Answer 3

i imagine you need Lanark through Alasdair gray. he's a Scottish author (from Glasgow, the position I stay) and it is a unique novel about a tender guy suffering to interrupt out of his shell into existence and in assessment to at least some thing else in fiction. i visit also propose attempting Murakami (as yet another respondent did). And, if you're keen to take under consideration interpreting some performs (through an author who has in elementary words in basic terms died), Harold Pinter (especially the early paintings) creates communicate which few others can.

Answer 4

I don't know...how does one publish a book?