Publishers out there? Literary agents?

Question

I know, it's a long shot. But I have a book that I know will make you want to help me. Let me give you one chapter. Help me out here. Just a few minutes out of your life. It's young adult but would appeal to anyone who likes teen/ya books.

Answer 1

This is the wrong way to go about it. You need to follow standard channels and submit in a traditional way - just like veryone else. There are no shortcuts. All this will earn you is a very negative reputation in he publishing world. And believe me - any publisher who accepts you offer is probably a scam you don't want to know about anyway. Some of them do troll these sites looking for easy marks.

Get yourself a copy of Writers Market. Search through it for small publishers and agents who are reading books in your genre. You will not be able to get through to major A List publishers without an A List agent. Once you find one that interests you, start checking them out. Start with Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write Water Cooler's Bewares and Background Checks, Writers Weekly, Writers Wall, Anne Crispin's site and others. If there are problems with his publisher, you will read about them and they should be avoided. Then you have to read that publishers guidelines and follow them to the letter. That generally means a query letter and a synopsis of your book - in the length specified by the publisher. You will find that Nicolas Sparks has very kindly provided a good sample of a query letter on his website. Don;t copy it - the letter is commonly known in the industry. Just use it as a guideline. Do NOT send more than one query out unless the publisher says they accept multiple submissions. If they do, send TWO at the maximum and indicate in your letter that you have sent another query to another publisher. That is common courtesy and professional.

If someone expresses an interest in your work, they will ask for either a partial or full manuscript and a book proposal. That is a very serious document and you should buy a buy that shows you how to write one. It is the #1 selling tool for your book.

Expect lots of rejections and expect lots of waiting time before you hear anything. That is the nature of the industry. Be patient. Start writing something else to fill your time. Gone with the Wind was rejected 50 times. All major authors have gotten their stack of rejection letters. Don't let that discourage you.

My last and most important piece of advice is NEVER copyright your material. Agents and publishers consider that a slap in the face. It is amateur and shows you don't trust them. Your material is your property from the moment you write it and as long as you don't spread it around on the internet, it is perfectly safe. Agents and publishers aren't in the habit if stealing author's material. By purchasing a copyright, you show you are unprofessional and have no clue what you are doing.

There is no magic way to do this. Nobody is going to discover you in Yahoo Answers. Nobody is going to knock on your door with a contract. It takes years of hard work to make that break happen. James Patterson ran an advertising agency while he wrote. He was one of the lucky ones. Other authors have waited tables, worked in department stores and worked as sanitation workers. You have to do what you have to do to support yourself and yor family. If you are one of the lucky ones, you inherit money to keep you going.

You have to learn to advocate for yourself. There are no magic publisher fairies. It is long hard work and will eat up tons of your time. You will alienate your family and friends because you are working so hard to get that break. There will be little time in your life for parties and fun. But, like all artists, we have to suffer for our art.

Good luck and get busy. Pax - C

PS NEVER post your work online. It is professional suicide. The internet is a playground for plagiarists. Publishers will not even look at work published online. It is too expensive and difficult for them to have their legal staff sort out original ownership. They will reject the work rather than face court battles alter on. The internet is the worst place on earth to post your work.

Answer 2

I'm an editor for a large publishing company, and I have no interest in your chapter. Here's why:

This is a business issue for you and for the agent and publisher. You have to approach it that way: with professionalism, and in the accustomed manner. If we responded to every person who declared that they have a great book that they know we'll love, we'd be snowed under with trash. (I'm not saying that your book is trash--but just like on the American Idol audition shows, there are a lot of people out there who have much higher opinions of their skills than are rational.)

You have to do your homework: go to the bookstore or library. There you'll find books with instructions on how to professionally query agents, how to find reputable agents who represent the kind of book you've written, and all their submission instructions.

Follow those instructions to the letter.

By posting this question here, you've told me the following:
*You are young and naive
*You like to take shortcuts--not a good sign given the amount of work required to turn a manuscript into a book
*You're not taking the publishing process seriously
*You don't think critically about your own work
*You haven't taken the time to educate yourself about publishing and finding a publisher

Your book might indeed be the best thing to come down the pike since Shakespeare. But all of the above points mean that you're not worth an agent's or editor's time to find out.

Answer 3

I'm not a publisher nor a literary agent, but I am a teacher. If you want to post your chapter here or on my site's forum, I can provide feedback for you. Essentially, you want to create a phenomenal story. Then you try to sell it to publishers through a literary agent. You find the agents in Writer's Market, as most authors do, who have guidelines you must follow to submit material. It's fairly simple. The hard part is actually writing a well-told story.

I look forward to seeing it and giving feedback.

http://www.storyentertainment.com/forum

Answer 4

Agents read "just one chapter" for "just a few minutes" every day. You dont have to troll the internet-- send some queries. If its really that great, they'll spend more than just a few minutes.

It doesnt cost ANYTHING to submit to agents-- especially know that you can do it all via email. Dont waste your time on a site like this.

ANd ps-- it has to be finished!

Answer 5

First rule: Write the whole book before trying to submit it.

No legitimate publisher is going to waste time on a new author who submits an incomplete manuscript. Doesn't happen. They have hundreds of complete manuscripts to choose from.

Second Rule: Do your homework. You want to get Writers Market and see who is accepting what and how they want it submitted. No need to get it right away. 99% of new writers never finish their first book.