FAQs

Awesome, getting an idea that burrows into your brain is the perfect first step. Now you need to write. So many writers join writing groups, get writing buddies, or take the journey solo. There is no wrong way, but write, write, write!

It is a craft, and like any craft you need to practice it to get better. You need to read (in and out of your genre) to get better. The classics and new writers.

Once you’ve got a draft ready, then you can decide what your goal for it is. Some may want to publish traditionally in one of the big houses, some may publish independently, some may want to write only for their family and friends—all of these, and whatever else drives you, are 100% valid motivations.

Write your draft and then call an editor.

If I could do that, I’d probably live in a lamp! I can’t snap my fingers, but I can offer advice.

There is so much out of our control in publishing, so I recommend focusing on what is 100% in your control: your manuscript, and making it as brilliant as it wants to be.

Better question, and there are tons of resources and smart answers from smart people to this one the webs. Many editors, agents, and writers have guides and blogs about the many different ways to approach it. Here’s mine:

If you are writing fiction, write your manuscript. Finish it and get it as bulletproof as you can. If getting published is your goal, you can’t get a novel published with just a partial or a proposal. (You can find exceptions, but I promise they are unicorns. I can think of a very small handful of novels that got contracts based on an excerpt—but they are the result of such a rare and perfect storm that they are useless as a role model.)

Memoir has a little more leeway, but I also recommend finishing the manuscript. Most memoir submissions I read were complete manuscripts, but several were substantially written—as in at least ½ or 2/3s complete. There has to be very good reason for it to not be complete, and the partial work needed to be strong.

Narrative non-fiction is almost always a detailed proposal with sample chapters—sometime quite long.

Once you’ve written your manuscript or proposal, identify some contemporary, recent books that your book could sit next to thematically/stylistically/tonally on a display table at your local bookstore. Read a ton. Study book stores. See what’s new that the bookstores are taking care to promote, and read the acknowledgements of all these books. Acknowledgements are great resources, and almost every time you’ll see the author thank their agents.

Then start collecting names and agencies, check out their agency websites and their professional feeds on social media to see what other books they represent.

The number of potential agents you should compile is much, much higher than you might think.

Keep reading, keep writing. Write every day, which means sitting down where you write and writing. Just keep writing. It’s a muscle, and you need to work it.