Once you've written a book, what's the next step to take to get it published?

Question

I'm writting my first book now, and I want to know what the next step will be.

Answer 1

Unless you self-publish, you will want a literary agent. You could try sending your manuscript to publishers directly, but these days very few of them actually take unsolicited manuscripts. Once you have an agent, she or he will help you clean your book up, and then the agent will work at selling it to a publisher. From there, you'll work with a whole team of people to get it on the shelf. The whole process (once you're signed) takes anywhere from 12-18 months.

www.agentquery.com is a great place to start.

Answer 2

I don't want to discourage you, but...I've seen some attempts at writing by some people who don't seem to realize how important style and accuracy are.
The first step for someone who hasn't done a lot of writing, is to do a lot of reading. Next would be to take some classes that force you to write things that you wouldn't choose to write--and then be graded on it, so you'll find out what skills you need to work on improving.
I've read some drafts that someone thought were ready to be sent to a publisher, and found that the writer misspelled words, didn't understand punctuation, didn't understand storytelling, didn't know the subject very well, etc.
I've done it myself. I thought I was a genius for about a year--then realized that everything I wrote was awful. After that, I subscribed to a writer's magazine and read all the articles about the craft of writing. I bought/read books about writing, and I read a lot of novels. I still have things to learn, but I've come a long way (I hope).
Try to get some unbiased (and brutally honest) criticism about what you've written so far. If you don't like what you hear, don't feel bad, just use it to learn where you need to improve.

Answer 3

Your next step is to have the book edited. Then you need to write a book proposal and find a literary agent. It is very hard to contact publishers directly so be sure to carefully choose a literary agent.

Answer 4

Before publishing anything or even getting an agent, edit. Pay for it if you can or join a writing group. It's free but you have to work too by editing other's works.

Be very, very careful about hiring an editor, however. Check with Preditors and Editors to make sure that they are legitimate. If there are any problems, you can find out there.

Best regards to you!

Answer 5

Get a Writers Digest Marketing book and READ the articles written by the publishers, agents and editors on what they want and what they are sick of seeing...

but keep writing.

Answer 6

You have to finish the book first and have it edited. Buy yourself a copy of Writers Market. It has all the information you need in it as well as the names and information regarding agents and publishers. If you are doing this and are serious about it, you have to learn to advocate for yourself and do the research. We all did at one time. There are many answers in Resolved Questions here for you to study. Just search keywords publisher and publishing. Or just surf through open questions. The question gets asked at least 50 times a day. Pax - C

Answer 7

You need a Literary Agent to read the manuscript. If he or she thinks it is commercial, he or she may pitch it to publishers.
By a copy of The Writer's Market, it lists names/addresses of Literary Agencies.