Go For It

More power to you if you decide to go the traditional route and seek an agent to represent your work. If this is your first choice make sure you find a reputable person to represent your efforts. Legitimate publishers and agents never charge a reading fee, nor do they ask for money upfront to represent you. Check out http://aaronline.org/ for a list of ethical agents. Now get busy writing a query letter, synopsis of your manuscript, and author biography. There are numerous sites on the internet that will give you valuable information on this topic. Just remember, many literary agencies are operating with a reduced staff and have a huge number of submissions. In other words, it can take a long time to receive a response. In the meantime, you might want to consider becoming an Indie author. The time you spent on writing your author bio and synopsis will come in handy when you begin your self- publishing journey.

How do you get started? Hopefully, I can make the process a bit easier by sharing a few things I’ve learned. I assume you have already shared your writing with friends or perhaps you belong to a writing group. Personally, I’m a rather solitary writer—many of us are—and the group thing is something that doesn’t work for me for a variety of reasons; but whatever your preferences, don’t miss this important first step. You will soon find out that your friends can give you valuable feed-back, and they will probably enjoy playing the part of literary critic. Ask them to give you an objective opinion—what they liked and what they didn’t like—and develop a thick skin. Listen to their suggestions and keep an open mind. Your real friends will tell you the truth, I have found. If something about the manuscript doesn’t work, they will tell you! Just try to ignore comments like: “You left out a comma in the second line on page 231.” Everyone wants to be a critic and your friends will probably be no different. But their job as friends is not to proofread, although that can be helpful. Instead, ask them how they feel about the characters and the plot, or if you’re writing non-fiction about the development of your topic. Once you have done this, take some time to brood about their comments. This is when that thick skin comes in. Remember, they’re your friends, right? Then reread your manuscript keeping their comments in mind. It works for me, and I haven’t lost a single friend.

Proofreading:  I will be very specific about this subject. YOU CANNOT PROOF YOUR OWN WORK! No matter how carefully you reread your manuscript, you read what you think you wrote. You miss typos and redundancies. I find mistakes in many of the books I read for pleasure, and they are written by established authors and published by big houses. Can you imagine how many people have proofed those books? So how do you avoid errors in your manuscript?  If you’re lucky you may have a qualified friend who can proof your work. If not, bite the bullet and pay someone. Spell and grammar check in Microsoft Word will not catch every error. I can’t say this often enough.

After you have had an outside source proof your manuscript, put it away for a week or two. I know; you’re probably wondering if you will ever be finished with this book! But paying attention to details will save you a lot of effort later on. Revisions can be very costly and bad for the nerves. Relax and let your manuscript rest for a while. Then take another look.

Next week: Formatting your manuscript