I'm almost ready to publish. Now what? | Writer Questions #12

I am at a loss where to even start. I have finished my first draft of my novel, I am powering through my editing and preparing my second draft for critique. I am getting really close to having my novel ready to send to the chopping block of the publishing world. I just don't know where to even begin this process. I want to go the traditional route and have a publishing company publish me. This is the first novel I have ever really finished, and I have been working on the idea of this story for years. To be honest, I never thought I would get to the point I would be close to ready to publish, and it is getting more real than I ever expected it to. I have been given a ton of positive feedback and feel that with a little bit more shine I have a good candidate for publishing. Any advice for those who have gone through this that knows where, who, why, what, and any other questions I should be asking or answering, your help is much appreciated.

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Dear Writer,

Congrats on finishing your first draft! Most likely, you're not almost ready to publish.

Many writers have said, with the wisdom of retrospect, that their first novel was not published nor was it worthy of publication and that they are glad it wasn't published. While this is not always the case, it is frequently enough the case that you should take this fact into consideration. Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is s***."

But don't let Hemingway or myself extinguish your enthusiasm. You should be excited and proud to have finished draft one of what is presumably your first novel.

I'd suggest setting aside the manuscript for 6-8 weeks; you need space from the story to see it with fresh eyes. Use this time to flesh out your goals for the story, which you seem to have an idea of—but you need an answer, not an idea. When you know your goal, you can establish your plan of action and set appropriate expectations for yourself.

Gather a group of no less than five beta readers who will commit to reading the story from start to finish within a reasonable timeframe and whose goal is to engage with the story as readers, not as critique partners or editors. If possible, choose from a broad spectrum of people you know across age, socioeconomic status, ethnic background, etc. You need to have a grasp of how the story resonates with regular readers who come from different backgrounds, as this will help you address marketing questions. It's also fun to see what different people do or do not gravitate toward.

Determine what "success" means to you. Is it simply having written a book? The traditional publishing route? Getting it up on an eReader platform? Just having people read it and not say it sucks? Know thyself.

After setting aside the story, reread it, preferably in a format other than the one you wrote it in—print it out, change the font and size, whatever. This will help with the "fresh eyes" part. You will notice many things you want to change and many things that pleasantly surprise you.

For traditional publishing, you cannot submit directly to a publisher unless a representative of the publisher requests the work from you—this would usually only be the case for a known person with a platform and name recognition, or you could get lucky and impress someone at a writers' conference. You will most likely need a literary agent, which means you need to learn how to compose an effective query letter; check out Query Shark.

If you have written non-fiction, you need only provide your credentials and an outline of the book to an agent. For fiction, you must have a complete, crisp manuscript.

You would be wise to attend local writers' conferences or one in a larger city. If there are local writers' fellowships (check on meetup.com) consider visiting, as there may be published authors who are in attendance or at least flesh and blood people to talk with about these questions.

Self-publishing is a different animal altogether. Success is elusive and largely based on your ability to twist SEO to your ends and consistently publish books—great for romance, challenging in other genres. Expect to work very hard to achieve a wider audience.

Professional editing prices vary depending on the length of your work and the depth of the editing, but it is in any case not cheap; budget between $1,000-2,000 if you choose this route. Some editing firms will provide you full-on mentoring services where they will meet with you several times over 3-6 months and give you their advice on how to get the story to sell depending on your publication goals.

Alternatively, sharpen your self-editing toolkit and make sure your query letter is perfect.

Assuming you ultimately pursue traditional publishing, it is crucial that you realize the literary world is a business first and the goal of a publisher is to make money. They want to publish books they believe will make money written by people they believe can make them money and who are marketable as people. Literary professionals' first goal is to profit, not to coddle anyone's sense of artistic integrity. This doesn't  mean that they don't want to publish books that are artistically intriguing, only that they have investors to satisfy . You must become comfortable with the idea of changing your characters, story, book title, cover, whatever, in order to complement the professionals' goal of profiting. On the other hand, you must know what your non-negotiables are and die on the right hills.

Your most important first step is to know what success means to you and what you want to do with this book. Successful professional authors write broadly, in different formats, and make a decent living wage. They are by-and-large not millionaires or even six-figure-aires.

Best,

DR-M