Part 3

Now that you’ve researched a reading audience and found your book to be marketable, and you’ve given your book a catchy title and a flashy cover you’re ready to submit your work to a publisher. This can be done electronically or by hardcopy. You must do some research now into different publishers to find which type of publisher you will need for your style of book. Both of my publishers that I have used in the past prefer electronic submission (e-mail) but they will accept hardcopy (snail mail) as well.

First you can go into a search engine (Google, yahoo, whatever) and type in the word publisher or type in your type of genre with it- to narrow down your search. Do some research as to the publishers rites and their royalty offers. Some offer great royalty rates and others sort of steal your book from you by paying you pennies on every book sold. Be careful, not all publishers are created equal. Don’t just jump on the band wagon with a publisher just to join the elite class of 2% of the population, that you give your book away. The standard rate for royalties is 10% across the board. One of my publishers pays me 23% and the other 8%. One I put some money up front to aid in the promotion of the book, and the other foot the whole bill. You must study and research which publisher would be right for you. The publishing world is such a competitive world today that many publishers are looking for people who want to be authors, and not someone who just wants to see their name in print. I know there’s a special moment in an author’s life when they hold the finished product in their hand. They have taken their words and preserved them for generations to come. They’ve left something behind for their grandkids to read.

After you find a list of publishers just submit what is called a query e-mail or letter telling them about your book and ask them if they would be interested in taking a look at your book. For other publishers you might have to submit a hard copy for them to read upfront. One thing you must always remember to do is not get discouraged. If you believe in your book keep trying until you get it into print.

What do the books Tom Sawyer and Cat in a Hat have in common? Both were rejected by publishers and self published by the authors. The rest is history isn’t it? You may have to go this route even though it is a hard way to get your book in print. There are thousands of good self publishers who will your print your book for you if you are willing to do the marketing yourself. I hope you already understand that you will have to do most of the marketing yourself.

I hope you already understand that you will have to do most of the marketing yourself no matter which way you go. I hope these three lessons will help you get started on the road to getting your book into print. Now look at lesson 4 and we will start to look at how to market your book.

Part 4 – Coming Soon!