A pretty common fear among aspiring authors is that if they pitch their book to an agent or publisher, that person will steal their idea. They either avoid querying, or they write “copyright” all over their manuscript, which immediately makes them look like an amateur.
I didn’t believe it when I started out, but to get a book published, you’re going to need to know people—mentors, teachers, friends, colleagues, critique partners, and cheerleaders. There’s nothing I hate more than schmoozing, so I’ll tell you how I found those people without ever networking.
Format your book the right way for each occasion— pitching agents with a manuscript, querying nonfiction with a book proposal, or for self-publishing. You want your book to stand out for its stellar writing, not for its unorthodox formatting. Here’s how the pros do it.
Landing a literary agent may be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you should be getting ignored. If you’re sending out queries and not hearing back at all, you’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed.
Here are some possible reasons you’re hitting a wall:
As I’m sure you’re aware, the path to getting a book into bookstores is not easy, but it is straightforward. I’ll go over the ins and outs from literary agents to advances, editors to proofreaders, marketing to publicity.
Pitching agents can be torturous. Did they get my query? Did they hate my query? I bared my soul and all I got was this form rejection? Ugh, I’ve been there. Fortunately, you don’t need a miracle to turn this around. You need a strategy.
I talk a lot about finding the right agent for you, rather than just any agent. You want someone who gets your vision, who knows how to sell books like yours, and whose personality gels with yours, which means finding the right agent is a pretty personal task. That said, there are a few consistent qualities we should all be looking for:
While non-fiction books are generally sold on proposal, novels are not. With fiction, they don’t just want an idea of what they’ll get, but they’ll want to read exactly how the whole thing pans out. Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the execution we all struggle with.
You’ve got a great book, but now you have to write something that might feel even harder — a knockout query letter. In this detailed guide, I’ll show you exactly how to do that without making all-too common mistakes.
A pretty common fear among aspiring authors is that if they pitch their book to an agent or publisher, that person will steal their idea. They either avoid querying, or they write “copyright” all over their manuscript, which immediately makes them look like an amateur.