OV9

Anyone got any pointers??

My mother in law has dabbled with some novels over the years. Mainly “Life and Love in the old East end of London” types. Never really went anywhere. Had ISBN and limited self publishing of one but nothing serious to speak of.

Over lockdown, she wrote another one and this one might just be different. Universal appeal (like global universal appeal) and you read the first 60 odd pages thinking it’s one thing only to find out it’s something completely different. It’s very clever and very poignant

Googling has revealed many pages offering differing advice, some with hand out looking for money etc. minefield.

Short of creating a PDF version and a biography of the author and e-mailing them to every publisher I can find, I’m stumped.

I quite fancy ditching the job to become a literary agent - boozy lunches in Bloomsbury, leather satchels, tweed and pocket watches etc so any advice greatly appreciated

Cheers

My sister in law is a publisher author, she’s represented by Penguin Random House. I can ask for pointers.

Cool Zonda, thanks.

Just some basic pointers to get us moving on the right direction. Should we find an editor or will a publisher do that if they like the story etc.

It’s hard to jump straight to getting a novel published. Usually you would have short stories, poems or something first to show your work.

Some smaller publishers will do open calls for unpublished writers to submit work but it’s usually aimed at young and/or minority people.

Most of the time unsolicited submissions won’t be looked at. Your best bet would be to self publish and hope someone sees it or keep an eye out for open submission calls.

ETA saw your editor comment, hiring an editor or agent can help get a foot in the door but it would be a big expense without any guarantee of money back.

Could try some self publishing/promotion and then use that as a launchpad into a bigger publisher

i.e. I self published and sold X copies in Y time period = there's some form of demand

Shows initiative and belief too, not just expecting a publisher to do everything

What about initially publishing electronically on kindle?

This is exactly what I’m looking for lads - I’m clueless here.

Publishing is all about platform these days, you will struggle to get an agent or publisher unless you’ve already got fans and supporters on social media. They’re looking for authors who are providing a full package of book and following. Having this will get your foot in the door.

Otherwise you can self publish then self promote like duck, and if you manage to get sales that would help with getting a publisher later on.

There are loads of book competitions which can be worth entering, same goes for unsolicited submissions, but it’s a slog. Sorry if this sounds negative, all pathways are basically tough, but worth trying

Richard Porter talked about self-publishing his Boring Car Trivia books on Amazon. They print to order as well so people can buy a physical book, not just a Kindle version. Not sure how you go about it, and it's obviously important to get a decent cover design not just knock something up in Paint.

Also look at Unbound

https://unbound.com/