Marketing your Work

You're a writer and you've written a wonderful piece - a short story, an article, a novel - and now you need to send it out to an editor or a publisher. Who do you send it to? In America, and increasingly in Australia, publishers prefer to read work submitted through an agent. Agents, however, often require the writers they place on their lists to have a publishing history. It's a catch 22 situation but there are ways around it, and there are people who have submitted work directly to the 'slush pile' and found publication.

If you need to find an agent, first build up a publishing history with smaller works, published in quality anthologies, local media, university publications and the like. Join a writers group in your area - through them and/or their newsletter you will receive news of competitions you can enter; a prize in a prestigious competition can earn you cudos. Do some research on agents, either online or via a plethora of books that contain information about this subject. Talk to other writers about agents and see if one of them is registered with one you like the look of. Sometimes, an introduction by anther writer will get you a foot in the door. If you 'known' in any area of your life for any speciality you are expert at, and it is about that that you are writing, this too will be looked upon favourably.

If an agent is not for you, submit to the slush pile by all means; but make sure that your work will stand out from the crowd. This does not mean that you should print your manuscript in fancy font, or on coloured paper, and bound with ribbon! Doing something like this screams 'amateur' and the editor you hoped would read your work often sends it right back - unread. That's if it gets to the editors desk; publishing houses employ staff to go through the slush pile, weeding out manuscripts like that.

Of course, some publishing houses miss out big-time on brilliant manuscripts from their slush piles by not reading everything sent to them, but they often receive many thousands of unsolicited manuscripts and just don't have the time or the staff to go through them all, so they take the risk.

As for who you should submit your manuscript to - this also needs research. Some writers choose their market first; others write first and look for a market afterwards. Go online to see what publishers are looking for. Does what you have written fall into their genre? Look at the back of the title pages in books on the shelf at your local bookstore (the reverso); here you will find the publishers’ name. Don't make the mistake of sending your brilliantly written piece about Gardening in Drought to the editor of a sports publication - unless your garden is set around a sports playing field and is somehow relevant to a particular sport, in which case you will need to reflect this in the title of your piece.

Send your manuscript to 'the editor', but first ascertain the editor's name. This shows professionalism. If you've written a query letter and have been asked to submit some sample chapters, make sure that you submit only what is asked for. If they like your work they will ask for the rest. Make sure you have read and understood the publisher’s guidelines, which are available from publishing houses online, or by request.

If you have written a piece that stands out from the crowd and it is professionally presented, you are well on your way to publication.