Check your ego at the door (if you want to be published)

October 23, 2009 by Mohana Rajakumar (Writing Development Director)
Filed under: Getting Published 

Mohana RajakumarIf the writing of a work isn’t hard enough and if you are like most authors, you’ll want to get your manuscript published.

This second goal can be equally – and in many cases – more challenging, particularly as the internet and self-publishing have democratised the way writers send their words out into the world. Yet many still prefer traditional print outlets for their work – international distribution via trade paperback, for example.

For my next few posts I will talk about the process of getting an agent and then the lesser known steps of selling rights to your work in different markets and languages.

For now: the age old mission of finding an agent. There are many resources that offer listings of agencies and the various types of work they represent – the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook being one. Perhaps the most traditional way of finding an agent is honing a query letter and sending it off to someone who represents work similar to yours, hoping for a positive reply.

Increasingly, agencies are accepting initial queries via email. The best expected reaction could be a message requesting to see more of the manuscript in print. This should always be accompanied by an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) for the agent to mail a reply; although they may reply by email. Don’t grow old waiting for either but get on with writing and living so that when they do get in touch, it’ll be to find out you’re working on a new and exciting project.

Writing a query letter has been covered in many other places (and do read Michael Legat’s Approaching a Publisher if you haven’t already); the nature of replies less often. Below are a few of the responses I received for the query letter I sent out for my novel, An Unlikely Goddess. They underscore the importance of writing for life, not publication, and also the importance in having enough confidence to keep going.

“Thank you for submitting a query to me. Although your story sounds interesting, it isn’t something I am currently looking for. Because I am passing on your story at this time, it in no way means you should give up pursuing your writing dream. Again, thank you for considering our agency and I wish you the very best of luck.”

“Thank you for your recent query. Unfortunately, I feel that in today’s market, I cannot take on projects unless I feel strongly about them. I’m sorry to say that it didn’t happen with this one. This, of course, is just my opinion and others may feel differently.I wish you the best of luck with all your publishing endeavors.”

“Thank you for contacting me about representation. I don’t believe I could successfully interest a US trade book publisher in your novel, although I wish it weren’t the case. I’m working with two clients who do not live in the US, and they are delightful. I hope to discover a way to introduce their work to readers in the US. I hope you’ll wish us luck, as I do you.”

Mohana Rajakumar

(Reading and Writing Development Director, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing)

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Comments

5 Comments on Check your ego at the door (if you want to be published)

  1. Claire Fogg (Publisher, Yearbooks) on Oct 28, 2009 at 18:14pm

    2. Thanks Mohana, that’s useful advice and a handy reminder that virtually every writer gets responses like these at some point in their career.

    I wonder whether any of our web users would like to share their own experiences of getting the dreaded rejection letter?

  2. ravibedi on Nov 1, 2009 at 07:39am

    3. Hi, I got one like this:

    “Your story is very compelling, but somehow It doesn’t fit into our scheme of things. Thank you for sharing with us. Wish you luck.”

    Another bloke, who appears very prominently on Google as a publisher in India, praised my novel and immediately offered to share the expenses on editing, printing, launch (cocktails included) and promotion. I found out that he has taken many for a ride and dumped the books at the door of the writer.

    He persisted and I resisted.Thank god I didn’t fall into his trap.

  3. Laura K on Nov 1, 2009 at 14:11pm

    4. I’ve brought this over from another thread but this is my latest experience:

    Ouch, just had another rejection, which not at all unexpected, just seemed a bit harder to take than the other few I’ve had so far – don’t really know why, think it was really just their choice of words and I feel a bit daft to have allowed my spirits to sink so low!!

    It included the lines ‘We take on new clients very sparingly and we have to feel that something is very special indeed. Having considered your enquiry we’re afraid we are not confident we could find you a publisher….’

    It’s a completely reasonable and logical statement but why does it feel so…..final?
    Oh well, the battle rages on (picks self up, brushes self down, moves on).

    Anyway, as a soon-to-be-discovered brilliant novelist, the chance are they wouldn’t have been able to handle the overwhelming attention and demands my work would have placed on them…(whistles a happy tune…)

  4. jacaranda on Nov 2, 2009 at 14:42pm

    5. Hi, read your comments re rejection. Have you ever thought of self-publishing via Lulu.com? You can start without any cost to yourself, if necessary.

    Good luck

    Val

  5. Mohana on Nov 3, 2009 at 12:36pm

    6. Jacaranda is right that self-publishing is an ever increasingly attractive option for those who can market their work; high sales in self-publishing often attract the attention of commercial giants.

    Also Laura, I can see why that letter left you a little disgruntled. “We have to feel that something is very special indeed” leaves you only to assume otherwise which is not very nice!

    Hope we all keep writing as the creation, as much as the publication, is the important part in story telling.