[highachiever]

I have seen a lot of people on here asking how to get published. Here is a list of tips for everyone asking these questions. I hope it helps!

#1-DO NOT PAY ANYONE TO PUBLISH YOUR WORK! Anyone who claims to be an agent or a publisher and charges you fees is usually full of crap. Vanity publishers will publish your stuff, but that is all. Any marketing or selling of the published work will be your responsibility. A real agent will not ask you to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to read your book. That is BS, and likely a scam.

#2-Prepare. Take time with your work, polish and refine it. Make it a masterpiece. Unless you are on a contract already, you are not on a deadline to finish your work. Make sure it is pristine. Know your characters, and make sure you have developed them enough to make your story interesting. Know your genre, and maybe read others' works in that genre. Perhaps reading the work of others can help you to hone your writing technique and turn out better work.

#3-Approach an agent. There are sites which will help you to write a query letter to an agent. In the query letter, you should have a "hook" (that draws in your audience), a synopsis of your story, and a brief bio of yourself. Keep the letter to one page. Once you secure an agent, it is their job to find a publisher and sell your work. They make a commission off what they sell, and YOU DO NOT PAY THEM. They receive a percentage off your sales. Find an agent that has worked with other authors in your genre (i.e. romance, horror,etc.) If you are writing fiction, have your manuscript ready before you write to agents.

#4-Be prepared to wait, and get rejected. Even Stephen king had a mountain of rejection letters. So did J.K. Rowling. Don't get discouraged by rejection letters, just keep trying. And keep writing. Maybe they don't like this story that you have written, but they will like another. Try to get published in magazines, write articles or short stories to add to your experience and credibility. But most importantly, if you have a story to tell, DON'T GIVE UP!

I hope this helps, and I wish you all good luck. Happy writing! :)

[JudyKayTee]

Did you write this?

[highachiever]

Yes, I did. I figured this would be better than trying to post to each person individually, as they are essentially asking the same thing.

[JudyKayTee]

Excellent - wonder if a moderator on this thread could make it one of those "read this before you post" threads - ?

[Eileen G]

Well said. If I get one more person tell me they have half a book written and wonder if they should get an agent yet, I'll scream.

I met John Boyne recently. He wrote "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", as well as other award winning books. He said he always writes 10 or 12 drafts of each of his books, and sometimes more. And in spite of that, his first book wasn't published because it just wasn't good enough.

If he has to work so hard at getting published, the rest of us can do no less.