Ali from Illinois just asked me a question:

How exactly do I go about publishing a book? I wrote [Ali's project - secret!] and I want to get it published, but I don’t know exactly how to do that. I was wondering if you could tell me how I go about the process.

Here’s what I wrote back:

How do you publish a book? It depends how you want to do it.

If you don’t mind paying for the production of your book (what, a little unkindly, is often referred to in the trade as ‘vanity publishing’) then there are lots of companies who will do this for you. Questions about print-runs, what the book looks like etc, will be up to you to decide. You can do the book however you want, depending on how much money you have to spend. On the downside vanity publishing is expensive, often results in a poor product, and the book is unlikely to be stocked in shops.

If you wish to be paid for your writing – to do this professionally – then it’s another story.

First, you have to write the best book you possibly can. This, really, is the crucial bit. Don’t start sending the book out to publishers until it’s the very best that you can possibly make it – good enough to stand up against other books. If it isn’t, the publishers won’t be interested.

NB: This pic doesn’t have any particular intended relevance. I just saw it on Boing Boing and liked it. ;D

Next, build up a list of places to send your book. This part is quite easy. Finding out who publishes books like yours is a good place to start. If you do more research, you will be able to find the contact details you need. Here in the UK we have books like The Writers and Artists Yearbook and The Writers’ Handbook, which contain lists of publishers – what they publish, who to write to. Those books are available in bookshops and public libraries and online: I’m sure the US equivalents will be, too. Do this research carefully. Only submit your book to publishers who might be interested in it.

Once you have your list of contacts, start submitting to them. Go for the most important one first, and only approach one at a time to start with. If publishers have submission guidelines, follow those exactly. If they haven’t, send a short (less than a page) covering letter explaining who you are, what you’ve got, and why you’re contacting that person, and enclose the first few pages only of your book. The first few pages will be enough for a publisher to decide if they’re interested in reading more, so save yourself the postage and don’t send the whole thing first time.

Then you wait.

Some publishers reply quickly: you might hear back within six weeks. You certainly shouldn’t write to chase or hassle a publisher until at least six weeks have passed. Other publishers take longer. My current publishers, Random House Children’s Books, didn’t reply to me about The Black Tattoo when I first sent it to them for eighteen months. That’s unusual, but by no means unheard of. Publishers receive a lot of books from a lot of hopeful writers.

At some point, with a little luck, you will get some sort of reply. To start with, unless you are exceptionally fortunate and your book reaches the right person at the right time, the reply will be a brief letter politely saying ‘no‘. I hear J K Rowling had nine of those before finding the right place for Harry Potter. Me, I had one hundred and thirty-four letters saying ‘no’ for my stories (not just Black Tat, others too) before I got the first one saying ‘yes‘.

If you’re going to do this, the trick, I think, is not to let your expectations get too high and – most importantly – to enjoy what you write. Do it because you love it, not because it’s going to be published. Keep your spirits up, keep writing, keep sending the stuff out, and eventually something good could happen. That’s ‘could’, not ‘will’. But I did it. That means you can do it too – if you want it enough.

Best of luck to you, Ali!

Sam

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