Submission Tips
Leigh Fallon's Guide to Getting Your Work Published
Yay! I’m published. I sold my book to HarperCollins, one of the big six publishers. Carrier of the Mark has been translated into several languages and will be sold in ten countries, with more on the way. It’s been featured as a Buzz Book and BEA (Book Expo America) the biggest book conference in North America, and where people stood in line for hours to get a signed. I scored an Editor who has a string of New York Times bestsellers on her list, and now have literary agents in New York and London, oh and an agent managing movie and TV writes for me in LA. I’ve just signed contracts for my next book and the future looks promising. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? I still have to pinch myself. This can’t really be happening to me, can it?
But it is! Two years ago, none of this existed. I had just finished writing my first book and was floundering about what to do next. I bought a copy of the Writers Handbook 2010 and started reading. I tried my hand at a few queries to Irish publishers and agents, but failed miserably. Despite rejections from early queries, I’d always felt quietly confident that I would eventually get my debut novel, Carrier of the Mark, published. I knew that when I got my rejections it wasn’t all down to the manuscript, while it was in need of much editing, it was my lack of knowledge of how the publishing industry worked that was my greatest obstacle.
Read more: Leigh Fallon's Guide to Getting Your Work Published
From Contract to Publication – Demystified
The phone rings…
The moment you’ve dreamed of has arrived…
A publisher is on the other end of the line telling you very calmly that they love your manuscript and want to offer you a book deal…
Do you scream and scare them off indefinitely?
Say yes immediately?
Faint?
Explode into uncontrollable tears?
How I Got Published Without an Agent - Derbhile Dromey
Two publishing deals were struck in the week running up to Easter 2011. One was splashed all over the media, a €500,000 struck by agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor, the queen of the zillion-euro book deal. The lucky author was Kathleen McMahon, a radio reporter with the national Irish broadcaster RTE.
The other was the deal that I struck with an independent publisher called Book Republic. Let’s just say that mine was somewhat more low-key. No advance and no fanfare, apart from the trumpets myself and Book Republic blew on our social media pages.
I can’t lie. When I started to send out my novel, The Pink Cage, I wanted a deal like McMahon’s. Certainly, I felt I needed an agent to make sure I didn’t get ripped off and that my novel found a good home.
Read more: How I Got Published Without an Agent - Derbhile Dromey
What is Editing?
Writing the first draft of your book is very often the tip of your iceberg. Before you even get down to the submerged parts (OK, I’ll stop this metaphor now), there are several basic things to do. Editing is top of that list.
So what is editing?
Editing has come to mean various things over the years, and even within different publishing houses, the term can be used to cover a multitude of individual tasks. Within newspapers and periodicals, the terminology shifts still further.
But let’s not get bogged down there today. In so far as it relates to what you, the author, can do at the drafting stage, ‘editing’ is:
What is Genre? Understanding the Business of Publishing with Mary Malone
What is genre?
Where will your book fit in the market?
What will give it the very best opportunity of being picked up by a publisher?
Very briefly – because I don’t want to interfere with or disturb your creative flow – if you are a writer, you have to consider the business side of writing, the dastardly publishing world. It’s not something to be afraid of but it is something to prepare for.
Read more: What is Genre? Understanding the Business of Publishing with Mary Malone
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