Getting Published: The Catch-22 Dilemma
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Getting published can be hard, even in ideal circumstances. A big complicating factor that frustrates a lot of writers is hearing that they need publishing credits if they want to stand a chance of getting published. But they’re not published yet! How do they get publishing credits? A Good Story Learning member recently identified this seemingly no-win situation:
How do I go about getting published and getting an agent or a publisher to read my stories, when I haven't been, well, published yet? I have crafted a few short children's picture books and just finished my first novel for young readers, but I'm stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle of needing writing credits to get writing credits! Could you offer me any guidance on breaking this no-win catch-22?
The Trick to Getting Published
Many unpublished writers feel that it's impossible to get published without having been published first. This is similar to the job market, where even entry-level jobs seem to demand work experience. There is, however, another way to look at this problem.
First and foremost, as much as writers wish they were getting published right when they want to, literary agents and publishing houses wish they had an endless stream of talented, skilled, and easy-to-work with writers. The book publishing process doesn’t work without content to publish, and that’s that.
Most literary agents and publishers are consistently on the search for fresh prospects. They take unsolicited submissions from new faces, they attend seminars, they maintain a social media presence, and they connect with authors, all in the hopes of getting amazing work sent their way. Of course, there are some agents who do not accept new entries or solely collaborate with writers who come to them by referral, but they’re generally always looking for clients.
I’d like to emphasize that everyone starts somewhere. If you have amassed some writing credits on the road to getting published with a longer book project, that’s great. Those credits, whether they’re from a blog or website or literary journal or newspaper, might help you with getting published.
However—those past credits do not offer any guarantee of future success. And if you don’t have those writing credits, your odds of getting published don’t actually drop precipitously. The submission that you're sending—and how you pitch it—is much more important in getting published than your resume of past works.
Getting Published Is a Process
When it comes to publishers, the majority of big houses will not consider unagented submissions. So there are some obstacles to getting published where you do need to clear a few hurdles. Getting a literary agent to shop you around to major traditional publishing houses is one of those hurdles.
But it’s important to note there are still publishing houses that will accept manuscripts directly from unpublished writers—and many have historically bought at least one book that came in through the slush pile.
If you want to work with a literary agent—and either approach is fine, because some writers do and some don’t—toward your goal of getting published, know that you don’t necessarily have to have writing credits to your name in order to try a submission round. If you do have past credits, that’s great. If not, you can work on submitting to websites and journals while you craft your longer manuscript for book publication.
The activities of writing a novel and writing short stories, blog posts, articles, essays, or op-eds to bolster your credibility don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
If you are receiving form query rejections or agents and publishers aren’t even bothering to respond to your submissions, the issue isn’t likely related to publishing credits, or lack thereof. Getting published is a long journey with a lot of different routes to potential success. Don’t give up—even the most successful authors working today were once unpublished, and everyone needs to start somewhere.
Elevate Your Storytelling
Wherever you are in your writing journey—from an initial outline to a draft to pitching your project—the experienced team at Good Story Editing can take your work to the next level.