I wrote my first 'book' when I was 8-years-old. In a little green jotter, I wrote the story of "Emily's Land Outside the World." It was heavily influenced by C.S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia", and when I say heavily influenced, I mean that I didn't understand copyright laws and I would have been sued the instant it was published. But that was my dream. Since way back then, I've wanted to hear those words. This week, that step was taken.
Lots of people have asked me how it works, what actually happens between finishing a book and getting that contract. There are a few different ways you can go about it, but let me tell you what it's looked like for me over the last few months...
The first step was research. A whooole lot of research. Starting with good old Google - book pulishers, Christian publishers, Christian literary agents, publishers New Zealand, publishers Australia, literary agents New Zealand...just a few of the terms I searched. What I quickly discovered was that most of the market is in America. There are a few small publishers in New Zealand and a few more in Australia, but I couldn't find any agents. My first plan of action had been to go through an agent. Ok, side step here, I'll explain...
So the publishers are the people who put the money into the book: the editing, the designing, the printing, the marketing, the selling - that's the publisher's job. The agents are the people who connect you with the publishers. Most publishers, especially the bigger ones don't accept unsolicited manuscripts (ones they haven't asked for), so the agents act as the go between, taking your book and telling the publisher why it is worth publishing. Problem is, it can be almost as difficult to get your manuscript accepted by an agent as it is a publisher.
So, you have to write a proposal. Each agent/publisher asks for slightly different things, but generally, it will include a brief overview of the book, a list of contents or chapter summaries, sample chapters, an author biography, information about similar books and details on how you propose to promote your book. The longest one I sent was 24 pages!
So, after preparing a proposal, I started off with agents...I made a list and I started to send. Most agents in the States say that is you don't hear from them in 4-6 weeks, to assume they're not interested. And a lot will ask that you don't submit to other agents while they are reviewing your work. You can see how this would be a long process.
Another avenue to go down is looking at self-publishing/vanity publishing/subsidy publishing. Another side step...
I'm not going to try to explain all these terms because I don't fully understand them myself. Basically, the gist of it is that the author pays for part or all of the process and the publisher does part or most of the work which includes the printing and may include marketing etc. Thing s have changed a lot in terms of publishing, and with publishers accepting fewer and fewer manuscripts from unknown authors, this is the way that many first time authors are going.
I looked into that option a little. Since it was something I had dreamed of for so long, I was prepared to put money into it. Then, along came Ambassador International...
After sending proposals to about 10 agents and either getting rejections, or no replies, Ambassador were the first publisher that I sent directly to. And it turned out, I didn't need any more. They are a company that, while mainly based in America, started off in Belfast, one of the reasons I was so keen for them to publish my book. They replied after getting my proposal and requested that I send them the full manuscript, which they liked (yay!). So, after a few emails of questions and answers back and forth, we have ourselves a signed contract!
I was naive enough to think that writing the book was where the hard work would be. But no, I'm pretty sure it's only just started...
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