The Publishing Catch-22
A frustrated author wrote me over the weekend to ask me how he might be able to get published when most editors won’t look at unsolicited manuscripts these days. Since I hear this question all the time at conventions and such, I decided to post my answer here too:
As an unpublished author, you’re caught in the publishing industry’s Catch-22. No one will look at your book until you’ve been published, and you can’t get published if no one will look at your book. Fortunately, there are ways around this.
The best way is to get an editor to look at your book. Don’t send a manuscript, though, especially if the publisher’s website states that its editors will not consider unsolicited manuscripts. However, you can often send just a single-page query letter.
In paragraph one, state who you are and list any relevant credits or credentials. In the second, pitch your story. In the third, thank the reader for his or her consideration. Keep it simple and sweet.
Alternatively, you can try to meet editors at conventions, online, or wherever. Ask politely if you can pitch your manuscript to the editor. If they like your short, succinct, and intriguing verbal (or e-mailed, posted, or tweeted) pitch, they may ask you for a few chapters or a full manuscript. Then the manuscript is no longer unsolicited.
There are a number of agents who will consider unsolicited manuscripts, and you can hunt them down too. An excellent place to start is PublishersMarketplace.com, which has a searchable database of publishing professionals you can access for free. Best of all, you can narrow down agents this way by their stated interests. Before you get too far though, be sure to check Preditors & Editors and Writer Beware, both of which can help you avoid the swathe of people who run scams to prey on the hopes of new writers.
Unfortunately, good editors may not have much time for unpublished authors, and you won’t want to work with the bad ones. It’s best if you can get an editor interested in your script first. Then you can wave a nearly done deal under the noses of the good agents, something that usually grabs any professional’s attention. There’s nothing stopping you from attacking the challenge on both flanks however.
Be persistent and methodical about it. Eventually you’ll get through. However, don’t stop writing while you try to sell your book. Start on your next one instead. That way, if anyone says, “I like your style but not this book. Do you have anything else you can show me?” you’ll have the right answer already.
Good luck!
There is also the short fiction route. Sell some short stories. That gives you some published professional work you can point to. Once upon a time that was the standard route — short stories, then novels.
Good point, Jim. That’s especially true of genre fiction, I think. Still, short stories are different animals than novels, and not everyone is equally comfortable with each form.