What it Takes to Publish a Debut Novel...
And other reasons not to give that novel a one-star on Goodreads.
I’ve fielded a lot of questions lately from friends who don’t know about the process of writing and selling a novel. It’s apparent from their questions that most people believe the hardest part of getting a book into bookstores is writing the 200-plus pages of book.
It’s not. At least if you want your work to be featured on recommendation lists and bookstore shelves, reviewed in newspapers, or talked about in book clubs. A writer must step into many roles before landing that publishing contract, and all that work is done on-spec, so writers must have other sources of income while doing it.
If you are just starting out, or you want to see inside the process, I’ve laid it out here in as simple of terms I can muster. If you want to know more about any one of these steps, or you need more resources, let me know. I’d be happy to provide them.
HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR DEBUT NOVEL:
1. Conceive of a novel-length idea: Novels require conflicts large enough to sustain over at least 60,000 words, but more likely 80-100k GOOD words. That means you’ll need to consider not only what happens for that many words, but how your main character will grow and change, whose point of view you’ll tell it in, how many narrators you might develop in unique ways, in what tense and order, and over how long a frame it will take. Oh, and not just any plot will do. It needs an original premise if you want it to sell.
2. Outline (or, if you’re a ‘pantser,’ who flies by your seat, move to next step): If your plot is sufficiently complex, or if you write genre fiction that hits certain beats at pretty standard points, you might find outlining helpful. Doing so prevents writing your characters into corners, a problem many novelists don’t understand until they’ve written one or two of them. Outlining might save you from rewriting the novel from the beginning. Or, you might still have to. You never know. Writing novels is a little like performing surgery: you never know what you’ll find when you cut into the story, because every body (or character) is different. Sometimes, their differences must guide you.
3. Research: Depending on what kind of novel you’re writing, you need to do more or less research, some in the beginning and some at the end. If you are writing an historical novel, for example, you’ll need to know the basics of the period before even beginning, lest you realize your premise wouldn’t work halfway through drafting. Some information you can find online, but you may need to read widely in the subject area or talk to experts in the field.
4. Write the novel: some writers can do this in mere weeks, others take years. Again, a novel is at least 60,000 words long, or about 250 pages in Word, double-spaced. During November, many novelist try to write all of these words in one month for NaNoWriMo, a subject I’ve written about before.
5. Make friends and join a critique group: these friends will champion your work, help you find problems and solve them, comfort you after inevitable rejections, and guide you into next steps. If you meet weekly or monthly, they will hold you accountable to your work, as well. You will need these people to lean on. Only they truly know what you’re going through—all the highs and lows and hardships of rejections, changing markets, plot challenges, and literary-Twitter drama. (Shout out to my FRAWGS and LCTFL.)
6. Revise the novel: DO NOT just hit ‘send.’ Revising is the important step. Get all those plot holes fixed. Make sure the character’s motivations and goals are clear. Make sure characters develop and the plot doesn’t stagnate (especially in the saggy middle). A novel is more than making bombs go off and cars chase other cars. We must care why characters are finding themselves in rough situations. We must get to know their hearts and minds. In this step, it might be helpful to read craft books about writing and revising novels. A few industry favorites are Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and Lisa Cron’s Story Genius.
7. Secure beta-readers and editors: Beta readers are those who read after revisions but before querying. These can be your critique partners mentioned above (who are more often alpha-readers who read first or while drafting), but you’ll also want to ask general readers unfamiliar with your story to tell you where they felt it lagging or they didn’t understand something. Betas can also help find accuracy issues you may have to research further. Or, you can hire a professional. Not all editors-for-hire are created equal, though. Some can cost a few hundred dollars for a novel read; others can cost up to six-thousand. Some provide detailed feedback and others very little. Price does not determine quality. Do your research and get referrals.
8. Revise the novel based on feedback: lay out pages on the ground and reorganize if you must. Yes, do it many times.
9. Edit the novel, this time just for wording and format mistakes: This is going through with a comb, different than revising for global story issues. Correct awkward language and grammar problems. Weed out POV lapses. Press “enter” for paragraph breaks and get it into submission format (yes, there is a specific format.)
10. Secure more beta-readers and repeat.
11. Attend conferences, make contacts, and learn the industry: Hearing others talk about the process might inspire/pressure you to revise your novel yet again. If their advice strikes a chord, follow it. Don’t follow all advice. You’ll need to figure out when to trust your writerly voice and when to listen to others. I’m not sure how to tell the difference. After a while in this process, you figure it out.
Conferences also help you network and know how your work fits or doesn’t fit into certain markets and preps you for post-publishing work you’ll need to do, as well, like teach at conferences. (See how this is a giant, never-ending circle?)
12. Establish an online presence: including on social media apps, like Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, and IG. Start a newsletter, blog, and website—share them widely. To publish nonfiction, one should have at least 500,000 followers. For fiction, that number can be significantly smaller, but you still need to choose and project your brand and establish an audience for an agent to notice you. It’s good to post at least once a day to maintain their interest.
13. Publish other pieces, including short stories, essays, work in other genres, journalism. Win awards. Help other writers win awards. Edit a magazine. Agents will want to see that you are a career writer and not a one-hit-wonder. They only make money if you make money. Demonstrate that intention by showing off your craft and ability to shift with the tides. CAVEAT: Some people might disagree with this, but the general consensus is not to self-publish unless you think you can sell thousands-upon-thousands of copies yourself OR traditional publishing is not your end goal. Self-publishing can count against you when you go to query agents, but it also allows you to get a book out right away, skipping the querying stage. If you think you can handle the marketing, editing, cover-designing yourself, this isn’t a bad option. Self publishing is also more effective if you already have a fanbase for your work or you write in certain genres (like fantasy and fan-fic) that are well established in self-publishing.
14. Research the market, defining your genre and finding and reading comparable titles (called ‘comps’), published in the last two years. You will not only need to show you are well versed in your genre, but demonstrate where your novel fits in that market, comparing it to other books published recently. Comps should be similar in scope, genre, style, or themes. These titles play a major role in piquing an agent’s interest, so get them right. You’ll need to read at least a book a week to keep up with changing trends. (Recently, an agent broke down some of the trends for debut authors last year. This is the kind of nerdy stuff we writers geek out on.)
15. Research agents: Look up agents who sell your genre, weeding through databases, like manuscriptwishlist.com, Publisher’s Marketplace, Query Tracker, and Duotrope, and following them on Twitter/IG. Some of these databases are expensive (Pub Marketplace is $25/mo), so make sure you know what you’ll use it for before investing. Make a list in Excel of all possible agents, noting which agencies allow you to query more than one agent (if the first rejects you), their submission guidelines, how long they might take to get back to you, etc. Then, stalk those agents on social media so you know how to make a connection with them. Read the books they represent so you know if they’re a good fit. Agents come and go, so keep the list updated.
16. Learn how to write a query letter by listening to the podcasts, like The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, and reading blogs, like Query Shark. Query letters follow a very specific format, limiting your chance to impress agents to 200-500 words buried in an email or Query Manager. This letter should capture your voice, communicate the novel succinctly and accurately, and sound professional. You’ll also want a short elevator pitch in case you ever find yourself in an elevator with an agent or publisher. For example, mine for my most recent work-in-progress is “The tables turn on a Child Protective Services caseworker when her adult client is murdered and she—a new mother with postpartum depression—seems the likely suspect. To keep custody of her baby, she must trust her reality and uncover the dangerous sex-trafficking ring threatening her life, family, and clients.”
17. Write a query letter and synopsis and polish them to perfection.
18. Query (sometimes hundreds of agents): Make sure each email or form is tailored to each agent. Save about ten minutes to one hour to complete each query. Most guidelines require a letter and first five-ten pages. Those pages should be perfect, as well.
a. You can cold query to agents’ slush piles, or
b. Live pitch at a conference, or
c. Use connections and get referred to someone else’s agent (thus, the networking you just killed yourself to do!)
19. Wait: Sometimes, it takes two days for agents to get back to you, sometimes it takes six months. Often, they don’t reply at all. Agents receive HUNDREDS of queries per week, which they read during their off-hours. The rest of the day, they cater to their paying clients. Do not reply to an agent’s rejection. Chances are, they are form rejections and mean very little about you personally. If agents go out of their way to tailor a response, you may thank them. Do not try to argue your way in. It won’t work. Just grow a thicker skin.
20. If an agent requests your full manuscript, send and wait another six weeks to six months to a year for a response. Or no response, at all.
21. Revise the novel, again, according to any lucky feedback you’ve been given. Most agents only send form rejections, though, so if you aren’t getting a lot of interest, assume you need to revise, but good luck figuring out why or how.
22. Revise the query, again.
23. If you get no bites after you’ve queried 50-100 times, you might consider shelving the book for a while and starting another, or keep going. Sometimes, it’s about timing, luck, or sheer focus. Again, agents receive tens of thousands of queries a year. They sign only a few of those clients.
24. Land an agent!: Congratulations! Get a lawyer to read the agent contract, try to secure other agent offers so you have a choice in them, interview agents with specific questions in mind. Choose one you connect with and can see working with. Sometimes, agents burn out, leave their agencies, and drop their clients; therefore, you might want something in that contract that secures support from the agency in case that happens.
25. Go on submission to land a publisher! Your agent will then help you revise (again), polish the pitch, and then take the book out on submission, probably first pitching to the Big Houses, then to smaller ones. Sometimes, many publishers want the book and it goes to auction (yea!). Regardless, this round of submissions is just as rigorous as agent ones. Recently, Sarah Cantin, executive editor at St. Martin’s Press, said she entertained about 300 original titles last year, about 12 of which she bought. Hopefully, one of them bites and buys and you’ve sold a novel!
26. FINALLY GET PAID! One can land many types of deals, ranging from a few bucks to millions. Here’s some info about what an author is paid for all that work, but don’t expect much. It’d be nice if writers got paid per hour we worked on our writing—even if that number were minimum wage—but we don’t.
Good luck, and keep on swimming.
I wish I had been following you long before I put my memoir up on Amazon. While it's won an award and good reviews, had i paid more attention to the process, it might have gone further. That said, I continue to learn the many ins and outs of this craft and I thank you for your posts!