One of the hardest things for me after I finished writing the first draft of Gift of the Shaper was figuring out where to go next. Now that I’m officially a published author, I thought I might try and pass along some of what I learned so that more people can realize that goal as well. Just a warning: this post will be lengthy, but I also hope it will be helpful.
And, if you’re not quite there yet, but looking for tips on how to finish your book, check out my post on how to finish that novel.
Beta readers
One of the most crucial pieces of getting a book ready for publication is the editing process. I can’t stress this enough: you need more than just your own pair of eyes looking at your writing. I had a friend who I sent chapters to early on and she would give me feedback (mostly encouragement, as I was still early along in the process of writing Gift of the Shaper) but that was not nearly enough. What I did, and what I recommend doing, is making a post on your favorite social media platform (or platforms, if you’re multi-talented) simply asking if anyone is interested in beta reading a book. I got close to a hundred responses, and ended up sharing the google docs manuscript with them, allowing for comments but not editing. You don’t have to do it this way — you could also email the manuscript to them individually — but it was the easiest route in my opinion.
Beta readers are great because you can see what areas people are really focusing on. Is there a certain plot point that they’re all hung up on? Are they saying that you need more description for a certain character or part of the story? In my opinion, the more of these aggregate opinions you get the better — but you must keep in mind that you don’t have to make every change they suggest.
After about a month or two of working with my beta readers and taking or rejecting their feedback, I went through my manuscript one more time. I was at a point where I felt that it was the best possibly product that I could offer, so I took the next step, which is …
The query letter
Before you can send out your book to agents or publishers (we’ll get to that in the next section), you have to construct what’s called a query letter. Thank your lucky stars that you’re alive in the era of the internet, because querying used to be a lot more difficult. (Just google “JK Rowling rejection letters” sometime if you’re feeling adventurous). But, like I said, we have email and the internet! HOORAY!
I’ll outline the basics of a query letter here, but using one of the resources that I’m going to list below, you can get much better and more in-depth advice on how to actually craft it. Suffice it to say that each query letter will be different, but the basics are:
- Your opening line saying who you are and what your book is about, its approximate length, and some popular books like it in the genre
- A quick synopsis of your book
- Your bio
- Your contact information
That’s essentially it. And if you want to take a look at a real query letter, I’ve included one here.
In contrast to how it used to be done, query letters today are almost all electronic. In fact, I didn’t send out a single “hard copy” query letter. I know this because I was deployed to Africa at the time, and sending out mail was not exactly convenient. Expect a wait time of a few days for your query letters, and if you get back an actual response, great! If it’s a rejection, and you can tell they actually took the time to write it, I would suggest sending back a quick “thank you,” since they obviously read it and wrote you a real response it instead of just sending you a form letter. I won’t list how many rejections I got, but I’ll say it was a lot.
My last piece of advice here would be: do not let rejection discourage you.
And speaking of rejection…
Sending it out to a publisher or agent
Now we get to the exciting part, which is also the hardest part.
One of the most useful resources I had available was the “Writer’s Market” book, and I highly suggest you pick up a copy — in fact I would say that it is essential in getting published. Do yourself a favor and look it up on Amazon, making sure that you have the most recent year’s version.
The guide is a great resource for finding agents and publishers that fit your particular genre. This is important, and you want to tailor your query letter to them as much as possible. For example, some agents will only accept queries from authors who write adult horror, so you shouldn’t try and query them with your angsty teen romance novel. That’s not to say you can’t ever query them, but you should only consider them after you’ve exhausted all your options. This is the Hail Mary of query letters. The Hail Query.
My best advice to you here is to do your research. You’ll see from the example query letter I posted that I knew who the agent represented, and some of the other books he’s worked on. This is important because it tells the potential agent (or publisher, if you’re choosing to do without an agent) that you’re not afraid to do a little extra leg work. This process is mentally exhausting, but I assure you: it is worth it.
I sent queries out for about 4 months until I got back a positive response. And the rest, as you’ve probably guessed, turned into my book Gift of the Shaper.
Never stop sending query letters until you’ve reached your goal
This is the last piece of advice, and hopefully the last step in your journey to becoming published.
One thing that every published author has in common is persistence — they did not give up until they got a response from either a publisher or an agent. Now, whether or not you should go with an agent is a topic for another time, but for now let’s just say that there are authors who choose to have representation, and those who work directly with a publisher. I happen to be the latter, so take that as you will.
But, at the end of the day, this is your work, and you should be proud of it.
Hopefully the guide above has given you a little more insight into what to do after you finish writing. And, if you still have questions, feel free to contact me or leave a message below!
-D.L.
