The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published [Paperback]

Do you have a burning desire to write a book? Or have you already written it and just want to know how to get it published? Is it just this one particular book you are passionate about, or do you want to become a full time writer and need guidance on what to write and who to sell it to? Whatever your situation, the quest to get into print can seem an utterly daunting one. Unless of course you have an insider to guide you.

This book reveals how publishers operate, who makes the decisions, what influences them, how you can make you and your book instantly more appealing to an agent or publisher and how to create the brilliant submission that will shine amongst the pile of tired words on a commissioning editor's desk.

It also reveals what to do if you get a rejection (or 10) and, if you can't find a publisher who wants to take your book, or you don't like any of them, then you'll discover what your other options are, from using a publishing service to complete DIY self publishing.

We're assuming that you've got the kernel of a good idea (we'll test this as far as we can along the way) and that you can write, or are willing to work with somebody who can. However, many good writers and great books go unpublished. This is about making sure you and yours aren't among them.

In the same way that many good books don't make it to the shelves, plenty of books do get published but don't sell. This book is also about doing all you can to make sure that doesn't happen. In the process of constructing a brilliant pitch, you can usually pick out areas that might be weak, and either re-evaluate the proposal or the book to deal with it. This will make the project and the book more appealing to readers as well as to publishers. We'll also look at how you can work with a publisher to maximise the chances of your book selling well once published.

What's the secret?
Getting published is more a combination of art and luck than it is science. There is no single magic formula that will absolutely guarantee you success; however there are plenty of strategies that will vastly increase your chances of getting published. That's the `art' bit and that's what this book is about.

Luck undoubtedly does play a part: the biggest hurdle in getting published is whether what you propose tickles the fancy of a single person - either an agent or an editor. And that in turn depends on that person's personal preferences, their experience, what they happen to be looking for at that time, their gut feelings and possibly even whether they got out of bed the right side that morning (if we're being really honest).
However, getting the right book, explained in the right way, in front of the right person isn't all luck - far from it. This book will show you how you make sure you do just that.

What kind of book?
Obviously, there are many different types of publisher and many styles of publishing. Not everything in this book will apply to all genres or categories, but there are a surprising number of commonalities. Different attributes are needed for a good children's book as opposed to a good history book or business book or novel.

However, the principles of how publishers work, the process of choosing and approaching a publisher or agent, and the crafting of a winning submission are pretty similar. Sometimes advice applies particularly to fiction or non-fiction, and I've tried to flag clearly where this is the case, but the best advice is that you read with a filter of `does this apply to my book?' running in your head. Discard whatever doesn't seem to apply, and just pick up on what does.

Most existing general books on getting published are biased towards fiction rather than non-fiction, yet there's a lot more to be said about how you submit non-fiction ideas (i.e. the pitch as opposed to the sample text itself). I've tried to find a balance between the two and hope I've succeeded.