There are so many paths to publishing—what's the best fit for your project and career goals?

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The Process of Getting a Book Published Video Transcript

Hello, my name is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. This is a video about the process of getting a book published.

A lot of people are very, very interested in this, who come to this channel. I've been working with writers for over a decade within the publishing industry of Chronicle Books and Andrea Brown, and then on the back end, for the last seven years, at this point as a freelance editor working directly with clients. And one of the things that has really struck me over the years is that every book has a different path. Every writer has a different trajectory. And I think when we first approached the industry and we're like, "Oh, publishing. Okay, this is how it works, step one, step two, step three." But there are so many tools now that have democratized the process of publishing. So it could very well be that somebody's publishing path includes independent publishing, which is easier to do and more accessible to do now than ever before. Or maybe they independently publish one book, traditionally publish another one. Maybe they work with an agent for their children's work and then their graphic novels, they go out on their own. And so, it's very tough to talk about the steps of publishing a book, the one path to publishing. But a lot of people who learn from me and watch videos like this, they sort of want to know a broad-strokes overview and that's what I'll be talking about today.

So the first step to getting published, for me, is having an amazing book. It doesn't really go past that step, if you haven't achieved that step yet. And I am very, very serious about that. All of the work that I've done, I was a very editorial agent, I have an MFA in Creative Writing, and now, of course, I work with writers who are, by and large, attempting to publish or aspiring to publication. But I do work with some authors, some multi-published authors. I work on behalf of literary agencies. And so, I do work with writers who are looking to polish their work and make their work stronger, sort of, at every level. But the majority of my client base is trying to break into publishing for the first time as a debut. And so, without a really strong project, you're not ready to approach the industry. And I know how exciting it feels to type "The End" on a project and want to get it out there, but really, without that project being as strong as you can personally make it, everything else is sort of a non-issue at this point.

So I would say your number one step and this is...step one is a big one, is to make sure that you absolutely understand your vision for the project, you understand the audience for the project, and you do the best job that you possibly can to make the project match the fullest expression of your vision for it and also match the audience that you hope will eventually read it. As I like to say, "You can always write a 150-page picture book." But your odds of publishing one and getting one into the hands of readers are very low because usually, we understand certain things about picture books. They're for very young children. They're about 32 pages usually. And so, there's gonna be a big mismatch in terms of what you're trying to present to the world and what the publishing world wants. And even if you publish independently with a project, that doesn't necessarily give you full license to do whatever you want, whatever sort of comes to mind, because the readers who are going to be buying your independently published work have been sort of trained by the publishing industry. Their expectations have been set by the traditional publishing industry. And so, they're gonna see your 150-page picture book and they're gonna be like "Um, this doesn't look right. I don't recognize this from all the other picture books I've ever seen, most of which have likely been traditionally published."

And so, I do sort of say, "Yes. You have more creative control and freedom to realize your vision with independent publishing but you may want to queue kind of close, again, to the expectations of your audience, the expectations of your readership, and know your category." Know the market at least a little bit. You don't want to necessarily be sort of beholden to trends or watch the market very closely, at the expense of your own creative expression. But at the same time, it helps to sort of keep an eye on what the market is doing, what the audience might expect. Same for if you write romance novels. Romance readers have strong expectations that the main romantic couple will get together at the end, for example. And so, if you pull a Romeo and Juliet type of ending in a book that's gonna be pitched as a romance novel, you're probably going to upset some people and they may not be as enthusiastic about your project.

So, I think, knowing the market, knowing your audience should factor into how you create your work and then getting some feedback, doing your due diligence to make sure that the work is as strong as you can possibly make it. It's very important. You don't have to hire a freelance editor. I don't want this video to be tainted by this idea that I'm a freelance editor and my step one advice is you should go hire an editor. You can absolutely get feedback from beta readers, from critique partners, from your spouse, or your kids, if you write children's books. It's just this idea of... Sorry about my dog. It's just this idea of, you know, is their advice going to be as useful for you as possible. If I go through the process of getting outside advice, I just want to make sure that the person that I'm soliciting knows what they're talking about. Family members are kind of bad at this because there's a relationship there. They feel like they have to say the right thing, everything that you want to hear. Friends, too. So maybe try and find other writers or people familiar with the industry.

Anyway, do as much revision as possible. Get it as strong as possible and then, you have to make some decisions. One of the decisions is "Do I want to go for a literary agent? Do I want to go directly to a publisher or do I want to publish independently?" Some people arrive at the decision to publish independently after they've sort of exhausted their options in the traditional space. Agents will broker you to publishers and a lot of the, like the big five publishers, your HarperCollins, your Penguin Random House, do not accept unagented submissions. Cat alert. Hey! So an agent will get you into bigger houses and with more accuracy than a lot of writers are capable of achieving on their own. But there are houses that accept unagented submissions, which means simply that you'll approach the house directly rather than going through a middle man. An agent will be paid a certain commission, usually around 15% for domestic deals, and 20% to 25% for sub rights and foreign deals, for their efforts on your behalf. And they will also do contract negotiations and handle a lot of those relationships that arise in a deal. A publisher, if you approach them directly, you will have to act as your own agent. That means contract negotiations, advocating on your behalf. It just depends on your sensibility and how you want to orchestrate your career. That's not to say you can't get an agent later or once you are already in a publishing deal. But for the majority of people, they want to sort of be shopped around, have somebody working on their behalf, and they engage the services of an agent, if they're able to find one.

So what I would do, once you've sort of made your decisions and set your priorities getting into the process, would be to do as much research as you possibly can into agents and publishers that accept unagented material. I see no problem in querying both. When I say query, that means pitch your project, usually with a cover letter called a query letter. Put together a submission list. That is step three. After doing your soul searching and kind of determining how you want to approach publishing, that's step two. Step three is doing your research and putting together a list of people that you want to target. One agent per agency and one imprint per publisher. Because if you query Aladdin, and Atheneum, and Simon & Schuster, the house may, for example, both imprints might be interested. A house is not gonna like realizing that it's in a bidding war against itself, for example.

So you put together your list, and I would suggest maybe 10 to 15 names per round. Query your A list first because if one of those people offers representation on your project, then if you started with your C list, you may always be wondering, "Oh, what might have been." So I suggest querying your A list and then sending out a query letter. Everybody has submission guidelines posted. It behooves them to be as detailed as possible. They post their requirements. You follow their requirements. You don't send attachments because, in 99% of cases, people don't accept attachments. You send a query letter and a writing sample, whatever they request, pasted into an email to this person, and then you wait. And usually, it takes six to eight weeks to hear back. Sometimes, people do not respond and that is a "no." Some agents, they are just very, very busy and they don't respond to everyone unless they are interested in a particular project.

And then you put together all your feedback, you see if there are any patterns, if people are saying, "Well, the plot. I just didn't believe the plot," or "I didn't relate to the character." If you get that feedback consistently, maybe that's something to work on in a revision round. And then you sort of do your analysis and see if you want to keep working on the project, maybe do some revisions, if any patterns have emerged, and approach those people from your A list who seemed interested. You'll have put together a B list and maybe even a C list in your research. Approach those people and try another round. If you feel discouraged with the project or people have pointed out things that could be fatal flaws for the project, maybe it's time to reevaluate and either start working on a new project or put this project aside and really sort of go down to the suds and make some big creative decisions for the project.

And, you know, I would love to tell you that you just have to go through this process once, and then you're gonna have your outcome and you're gonna be published. But it's a learning process just like everything else, just like the writing process. And so sometimes, it may take a couple of manuscripts. It may take a couple of rounds of submission. It may take independently publishing a project just to get it out there and then writing another project and trying that one traditionally, in order to really understand who you are as a writer, what the industry is like, what the industry is looking for, and if the twain shall ever meet between what you want to produce and sort of what other people want to champion or want to read in the case of independent publishing, and that's just...it's a process. There are, of course, people who get published on their first time out. They trip over a literary agent. They make a big deal and, like, everything is butterflies, and puppies, and unicorns. But for most mortals, it is a learning process. It is more of a trial and error type of situation.

And so, I can't tell you what your individual story trying to get published is going to look like, but this is what I would recommend as sort of a really nice progression of your first few steps. But remember that manuscript, the actual thing around which all of this fuss sort of swirls, that's gonna be the most important thing. And I think a lot of writers lose sight of that a little bit in their excitement to submit, in their excitement to sort of move forward and build their careers. It really does come down to the manuscript and then if this one doesn't go somewhere, it all comes down to the next manuscript. Because every time you write a manuscript, you're learning, you're growing, you're taking kind of next steps in your progression as a writer. And so, I don't believe that any experience you have is truly wasted, but I would maybe recommend that you settle in for the long haul because the steps to the publishing process and how to publish a book, it really can be more of a marathon than a sprint.

This has been Mary Kole with Good Story Company, and here's to a good story.

You have a story in your head—if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here. So how do you turn it from an idea into a polished, professional, un-put-down-able work that people will love to read? That’s what good editors do, and that’s what we’re here for.