How to publish a book in a publisher

Writer finishing novel

One of the biggest dreams when you finish writing a book is that a publisher notices your story and wants to publish you. It is perhaps the most beautiful thing that can happen to you, as long as they bet 100% on you. But, how to publish a book in a publisher?

If you have been "subjected" to the muses and you have a book in your hands, or a whole drawer full of stories waiting for someone to give you the opportunity, why don't you take a look at what we have prepared for you?

Publishing in an editorial, is it difficult?

How to publish a book in a publisher

We are not going to tell you no, that it is very easy, that anyone can do it because actually it's not like that. In addition, several types of publishers must be distinguished.

On one hand, you have publishers where you pay for the edition of the book. That implies that they are not really publishers. Rather, they become printers, under a publishing label, but your books may not sell in the main places (The English court, Amazon, physical bookstores...) but they offer it in a catalog to these and, if they don't ask for it (on request), you wouldn't be in them. Also, they are quite expensive and in the end the book will end up weighing you down.

On the other hand, we have the “good” publishers. And we say it that way because they are the big ones and to which every writer wants to reach, and that they pay attention to them. It is much more difficult to get to these, but not impossible. In fact, it's even possible that if your book is successful, or you are successful on social media, someone from the publisher writes to you to ask if you have a book or even to propose writing one and have them review it for possible publication.

You should run away from the first. Any publisher that asks you for money to publish your book is not good, no matter how much they tell you that they are going to distribute it in multiple places and that you are going to give yourself a lot of promotion. And of the second, you should think about it but bearing in mind that, unless you sell a lot, for them you are nothing more than a writer's number. That is, they are not going to promote you (unless they trust your work a lot) nor are they going to look for interviews, events, etc. You will have to work for that.

Steps to publish a book in a publisher

Person thinking How to publish a book in a publisher

Clarified the previous point, it is time to know how to publish a book in a publisher. Or, at least, have the opportunity to read your work and want to publish it.

To do this, the steps you must take are the following:

Get the novel ready

Although sometimes the answers of the publishers can take 6 months to give them (if they do), the normal thing is that you have the finished novel. And not only that, but also layout, spell check, and ready to be published (although later they give it another review).

There are some publishers that ask for the entire manuscript, while others only want the first few chapters. So to not have a problem, better to have it finisheda.

List of publishers and conditions for sending books

The next step, once you have the novel, is know which publishers you are going to send it to. In this case our recommendation is that you do a list with all publishers related to the genre of that novel and that you write down data such as the name of the publisher, website, contact, conditions (if you have to send the entire novel, chapters, summary, etc.).

Thus, you will have a better organization because you will know what to send to each publisher and you will cross out those in which you have tried (so as not to send it twice by mistake).

That does not mean that, if you have several novels, do not try it with each one of them, you can do it but this way you will be able to plan much better.

Write the mail to each publisher

Apart from the above, you should know that mass mailings, where you write the same thing for all publishers, can play tricks on you: end up in spam or junk mail.

To avoid this, it is best to write an original and unique article for each publisher. Furthermore, considering that each publisher may have its own conditions for receiving manuscripts, you will have an advantage because you will offer him a "cover letter" according to what he is looking for, and not one that will look like a copy and paste.

That letter or email will serve to make you known, and if you use persuasive techniques you can get them to read your manuscript first. How? Well, using the right words, looking for the type of books they want to publish, etc. In other words, using copywriting.

Accompany the manuscript with other documents

It may seem silly but you will be saving a lot of time to the person who receives the books to read them.

And it is that if in addition to the manuscript you send him a summary of the book, another by chapters and a synopsis with hook, you will be making his work very short because with that he can get a better idea of ​​what your book is about (and if you hook him with those few pages he will want to read the novel more).

Yes, do not go too far in extension, it is better to focus on what is important or what you want to be reflected in the novel.

wait the wait

written novel

This will be the worst, because publishers can take a long time to respond, if they do (if they don't respond, they're not interested, or they haven't even read it).

The average period of publishers is between 2 and 6 months. If within that period they have not responded, then they decline the offer.

For this reason, do not be afraid to send the same manuscript to several publishers. If you are lucky enough to get a reply, you can always use that "weapon" to write to other publishers that you think are better. or that you would have preferred to give them the "opportunity" to make an offer before you accept (yes, it's to make you important).

If in the end the publishers don't answer you, you can always consider self-publishing. Some authors who now publish with publishers started out tired of nobody publishing them, and they took the leap and publishers rained down on them when their books began to sell and become well known.

Do you still have doubts about how to publish a book in a publisher? Ask us!


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