How to Get a Novel Published

Video Transcript

"Alright folks, in this clip I'm going to teach you how to get a novel published. Alright, step number one. Go online, do a Google search of small independent publishing houses that fit the genre of the book that you just wrote. Whether it be horror, thriller, romance, whatever. Make a list of different, independent, smaller publishing houses because at this point, if you're a brand new aspiring author, the big guys are not going to take your calls, just not going to happen. Unless you have a foot in the door, in which case go for it. Talk to that person, find out the best way to reach the big wigs and get your material read. Chances are that's not going to happen so you're going to want to hit up the smaller publishing houses or literary agencies. That is your best plan of attack. So make your list first and foremost. Once you have your list down, you're going to want to make a nice but brief concise cover letter explaining who you are and summarizing the material of your book. Summarizing the story, the plot, all the relevant information there and a brief, no more than two to three paragraph cover letter. You're going to want to attach a hard copy of your manuscript and if I were you, I'd even throw in a copy on a disc so they have both, they can pass it around. I'd print out a hard copy, seal it up in a manila envelope, slip in a disc of the same, send in your cover letter and then start mailing them out. At this point what you're going to want to do is wait to hear back from them and if you don't hear back from them within a month, month and a half, start the process all over again until you finally get someone to call you back or at least send you a rejection note. If they are interested, at that point, you're going to want to start handling the case very carefully you're going to want to bring in a lawyer to talk to these people if they're offering you any kind of a deal to publish and to take the rights to your novel. That would be the next obvious step. But at that point you should be pretty happy because you've got your foot in the door, someone's excited about your material, thinks its worth publishing so at that point you can open the bottle of champagne and rejoice with your friends because you're well on your way to becoming a published author."