There it is! The cleanly printed manuscript you have slaved over for years while squirreled away in your attic with the kids are screaming downstairs or bleary-eyed at the breakfast table at three a.m. with five cups of killer coffee already in you.
It’s done! But you aren’t.
In fact, although the contractions are coming faster, the child stubbornly refuses to be born. Here are some of the myths and realities of getting your book published.
Reality: Just because you think it’s finished doesn’t mean anyone else will.
I will use examples of my own tortured path to publishing, in the hope that it will spare you some missteps of your own. I began my first novel Saving Max in 2000. It was published in 2010. I certainly didn’t think it would take ten years to see my name on a book, although I was well aware—as you should be—of the increasingly unlikelihood that a debut author would be picked up by a reputable agent or publishing house.
My first draft was eight hundred pages long (I’m a former lawyer. You know lawyers can’t say anything in a simple sentence, much less a chapter!). But I learned, as I’m sure you have if you’re reading this, that when they tell you to kill your darlings, they mean yank all the superfluous junk out of that manuscript and leave it writhing on the floor. Four years after that, it was a mere shadow of its former self and, I knew, ready to publish!
Right?
Wrong.
Reality: You need a professional reader—not a friend or family member—to read your manuscript before you try to get an agent.
This is only my opinion. Many authors have gotten agents and had their work published without using a professional reader. While I’ve bounced my work (ad nauseum) off family and friends (who now shudder when they see me coming with a sheaf of papers in my hand), I hired a professional to increase my chances. And I think it helped. But it wasn’t cheap: expect to spend at least a few thousand dollars for someone who can take you from draft to completed manuscript. I was fortunate to find an author who had published umpteen novels and did an excellent job of teaching me what I needed to know to attract a number of agents.
Myth: Great, I’ve got an agent! Almost there!
Not.
I chose my first agent from a reputable agency that will remain nameless. So wet behind the ears that I believed everything she told me, I was talked into changing the protagonist of the story (the mother of an autistic son charged with murder) to the detective. Big mistake. Bad mistake. That took another year and a half of revisions. Then it sailed out to the publishing world. And was soundly rejected—across the board. “Love the writing, but what is this?” The entire New York publishing world sent rejection letters that papered my desk. What did my agent say? “Write a new book.”
I said, “No.” I fired her and went back to my reader. You’re not supposed to fire an agent until you have another one, but I was furious. My reader agreed the book should be rewritten with the original protagonist.
Another two years.
Myth: I have a really terrific agent who loves the book! Finally!
Not.
I do have the best agent in the world, Al Zuckerman of Writer’s House. He represents Ken Follett, Stephen Hawking—you name it. So now that I have Al, my world is golden, right?
The first thing Al said was, “Well, we can’t sell it like this. You need to rewrite it.”
Which I did. For another two years. Al edited every word and forced me to hone that book (and me, in the process) down to its bare bones.
Myth: Al says it’s done! Start the bidding war and sell that bad boy!
No.
Certainly not right away. I thought with King Al as my agent, the process would be a breeze. I vastly underestimated how difficult it is to get a publisher interested in an unknown, unpublished author. I had never published anything. Legal articles, big deal. (Do try to enter contests and get something published so your name and the title of the manuscript isn’t all you have to show an interested editor.)
Myth: I get the call. A publisher wants it! Champagne!
Don’t quit your day job. You won’t eat much if you do. Fortunately, my novel was a bestseller and sold over 250,000 copies, but that is not the norm. (See above. Don’t quit your day job.)
Reality: Most editors receive manuscripts in need of serious editing.
Because I had Al, my editor only asked for very minor revisions. This is also not the norm. Your editor will want to work closely with you to make sure the book is what they want to publish. You will most likely have to make significant changes you won’t want to make. This process can take a very long time, at least a year. With the publishing business as it is today, you will be lucky if you have only one editor during the publishing phase. (On my second novel, I had three.)
Myth: I’ve got the editor’s green light, where’s my book?
Your book is a year and a half away from nestling into your hot, little hand. I don’t pretend to understand the mystery of this process, but it is standard knowledge in the business. Cover art (especially if it is original) takes forever. Copyeditors take forever. Everything takes forever.
Reality: Here it is!
What was that book about again?
Tell me your opinion: What is the biggest myth you’ve uncovered about getting a book published?
