Does A Writer Have To Register His Manuscript?

Scott Pack is an editor, publisher, and author of the book How to Perfect Your Submission. He'south hither today to shed some light on how to enquiry prospects and perfect your manuscript submission to agents and publishers. Take it away, Scott!

As a publisher, I receive a hell of a lot of manuscript submissions. That probably doesn't surprise you. What may surprise you is that effectually fifty% of the authors who send their manuscripts to me make simple errors that drastically reduce their chances of beingness published — which is what led me to write my ain book on how to submit a manuscript to publishers!

My ebook, How to Perfect Your Submission, is a short guide for authors who want to avoid the sort of common mistakes that I encounter pretty much every 24-hour interval. It also offers strategies for making your manuscript as potent as information technology can be. My mission is to ensure that no 1 who reads the book volition have their submission rejected because of something hands fixable.

To aid me farther this mission, the nice folks at Reedsy have invited me to share some of the contents of my book with you. Hither'south my best advice for submitting a manuscript to a publisher, condensed into five essential steps! Let's start at the beginning…

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1. Do your research on agents and publishers

One of the acme complaints from agents and publishers is that authors don't practise their inquiry before submitting. Needless to say, in guild to perfect your manuscript submission, you lot need to know who you're targeting. Here are a few tips to get you started!

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📚 Familiarize yourself with the merchandise printing

Check out trade publications like The Bookseller and Publishers Weekly to get a sense of the biggest names and trends in traditional publishing. Follow trade journalists and authors on Twitter and take notation of up-and-coming agents, editors, and publishers — specially those who specialize in books like yours. And finally, if y'all desire a truly thorough education, I'd recommend the Writer'due south Market guide (for US authors) or the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook (for UK).

👩🏽‍💻 Expect through websites and acknowledgments

Equally you observe new agents and publishers, peruse their websites to see which genres and categories they're seeking, and indeed whether they're currently accepting submissions at all. For a more intimate approach, you can too try looking through the acknowledgments in published books for agents and acquiring editors to contact (though yous should nonetheless check their websites before doing so!).

✍️ Bring together writing communities and attend workshops

Cipher can replace the power of personal networking in publishing. To that end, consider getting involved in a writing community, where you'll receive advice on your craft and insider tips on how to get published.

And if you take the opportunity to attend a literary festival or workshop, definitely take information technology! Lots of them take talks from agents and publishing pros about how to succeed in traditional publishing, and you may even get the chance to speak to agents ane-on-one.

At present, you've washed your research and have a potent sense of the industry, maybe even a few agents' or publishers' names floating effectually in your head. What comes next?

2. Develop a plan to track manuscript submissions

If you haven't already, now'due south the time to brainstorm putting together your longlist: a collection of all the agents and publishers you remember would exist good matches for your manuscript.

Equally the proper name implies, your longlist doesn't need to be too selective. Feel costless to tape every agent and publisher who piques your involvement; meliorate to commencement with a broad range of options and narrow it downward afterward than to nitpick now and terminate up with goose egg realistic prospects.

Proceed rail of relevant details as you go. This should include links to their websites, notes on why each prospect intrigued yous (eastward.g. "they correspond authors similar to me") and guidelines on how to submit a manuscript to them. I am a big fan of using a spreadsheet for this process to proceed my notes organized, and considering it can easily evolve to eventually track your submissions and responses.

Putting your longlist in a spreadsheet likewise makes it easier to sort in gauge lodge of priority, which is what you'll need to exercise adjacent. For this, you may want to come with some kind of rating organization, which you can record in an additional column and use to sort your listing. Like so:

how to submit a manuscript — A sample of what your longlist might look like, with prospects sorted in order of priority.

3. Create a shortlist to submit your book to

Once you lot take your ordered longlist, I would advise that y'all submit your manuscript to 5-6 prospects at a fourth dimension. However, before y'all start reaching out, give just a trivial more than idea to your first choices.

For instance, perhaps you've ordered your priorities with your absolute "dream" agents and publishers at the top, regardless of how many authors they already stand for. Though you shouldn't disqualify prospects simply considering they're competitive, yous may want to bump a couple of "reach" targets down your list so your first round of submissions has a better chance of receiving responses.

Furthermore, if yous've compiled your longlist over the course of several weeks or months, you lot'll want to double-cheque that all the agents and publishers on your list are still taking submissions. If anyone's condition has changed, agree off on contacting them. Y'all may think "they'll get to information technology somewhen," but in truth, they'll just ignore y'all — or worse yet, recollect you as pushy and inattentive to detail if you try them again.

Tweak your priorities with these factors in listen. The top 5-6 agents and publishers on your list at this stage will be the shortlist for your commencement circular of manuscript submissions!

4. Write personalized queries based on website guidelines

At present concentrate on your shortlist alone. Regardless of how much research yous've done, it'southward time to exercise some more!

If yous oasis't read at least two books represented past each of your top prospects, do it now. Pore over their Twitter feeds and Manuscript Wish Lists. Find out what they've acquired and sold recently, and how busy they seem to be. If they're getting dozens of interested replies on their Twitter submission calls, you may want to look to submit until they tin can pay closer attention to your manuscript.

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Hopefully, all your prospects volition concord up and yous'll come up away with a detailed sense of each one's clients, genres and categories, and electric current preferences for submissions. With all that in mind, you're prepare to customize your query letters and submission notes to each of them! That blog mail service will take you lot through it in detail, simply here are a few key tips:

Accost each contact by name, due east.yard. "Beloved Ms. Smith" (and make sure information technology's spelled correctly!)
Explain why you want them, specifically, to have on your book
Describe comparisons to similar books they've represented or published
Ensure that your manuscript sample is absolutely spotless

Any you practice, don't just send out a template letter to everyone! Only adjusting the greeting is not enough — and if you lot don't take 2 or three solid, detailed reasons for querying each party, that person or publisher should not be on your shortlist.

5. Submit your manuscript

There are ii possibilities hither. The kickoff is that the submission guidelines for i of your prospects ask for complete manuscripts (which is rare, but it happens!).

The second, and somewhat more likely, possibility is that yous've gotten a positive response from an initial query, and now an amanuensis or publisher is requesting to run into your full manuscript. But either style, congratulations: someone wants to read your volume!

Take the time to perfect your submission before sending information technology in. Become your text proofed, if y'all haven't already, and format your manuscript according to professional person standards. You'll demand a headers with all your authorial info, the right typeface and line spacing, and folio numbers. If that sounds intimidating, Reedsy has but the thing to help you lot out.

Enter your email to download Reedsy's Manuscript Format Template!

You lot'll get it in your email inbox right away.

Want to know more?

For those still curious about how to submit a manuscript to publishers, check out this Reedsy Live hosted by me! In it, I discuss the five well-nigh common mistakes authors make when submitting to publishers, using information technology as a chance to point out the errors I see people make every mean solar day. Have heed and good luck with your submissions!

Scott Pack is Associate Editor at Unbound, the world's first crowdfunding publisher. He is likewise co-founder of Abased Bookshop, an ebook imprint that publishes neglected and forgotten classics.

On Reedsy, Scott offers editorial services including developmental and structural edits, editorial reviews, query letter critiques, and more. To collaborate with him on your side by side manuscript, head over to his Reedsy profile! And to purchase his book on Amazon, click here.