So, you’ve written a book – or you want to write one. How do you take the next step and actually get it published?
As a former publisher myself, I’m conscious many people wonder: should I get an agent, or should I approach publishers directly? You can do either, and both options have their advantages: an agent will have existing relationships with publishers and will pitch your book for you (in exchange for a percentage of what you’re eventually paid). But it’s often easier to get a publisher than an agent in Australia – and plenty of publishers are happy to be approached directly.
Generally, either a publisher or an agent will ask you for a query letter introducing yourself and your book (saying what it’s about and why you’re the person to write it), along with a synopsis summarising your book, and either a few sample chapters (more often for a nonfiction project) or a full manuscript.
We asked five literary experts – a mix of published authors and publishing professionals – for their top tips on getting published.
1. Don’t write for trends
If you can identify a trend, chances are it’s almost over.
You don’t want your book to be an echo of another, more successful story: you want it to surprise and delight readers, find a fresh direction on a well-beaten path. The only way to do that is to write the book that you want to read, in a way that only you can do it.
Writing an on-trend book might bring you commercial success in the very short-term, but it won’t build you a community or a career.
Kate Cuthbert is a former book publisher and an honorary fellow in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin.
2. Get involved with the writing community
Writing is frequently a solitary pursuit, but becoming an author and getting published is a community affair. To make the leap from your garret to the wider world, find your tribe and dive in.
Look for a writers’ group: it might be at your local writer’s centre or library, or it might be online. Joining a writers’ group offers you support, feedback and potential contacts. If you’re under 25, start submitting to Voiceworks, a national literary journal by and for young Australians. No matter what age you are, be part of the Emerging Writers Festival. Attend book launches. Volunteer for your local writers festival.
The more you become part of the writerly community, the more contacts you get and once you are ready to submit to publishers, you won’t be a complete unknown.
Tim Coronel teaches in the postgraduate publishing program at the University of Melbourne. He is a contributor to How to be An Author (Fremantle Press 2021).
3. Follow publishers you like on social media
The first benefit of this tip is that publishers often use social media to announce submissions windows. Not all publishers are open to unsolicited submissions year-round. For example, Black Inc. only accepts submissions in the first week of every month, while poetry submissions at Fremantle Press are limited to a six-week window each year.
The second benefit of following publishers on social media is you can sometimes get a sense of what specific editors are interested in.
For example, Pan Macmillan Australia recently posted to Instagram that their submissions portal is open, and the post included photos of individual editors with a one-sentence description of what they’re looking for, such as “escapist stories set on wondrous worlds with swoon-worthy romances”. The insight this offers into an editor’s taste enables writers to personalise their query letter when submitting a manuscript.
Per Henningsgaard is the publisher of Elephant Page Publishing and coordinator of the Professional Writing and Publishing program at Curtin University.
4. Read acknowledgements pages as research
When you read a relatively recently published book that resonates for you, flip to the acknowledgements page, where authors often acknowledge their agents and publishers. Then, when you’re ready to approach the agents or publishers (or both), you can go to those who seem to publish books you admire.
When you approach them (following their submission guidelines), mention the book you read, why you loved it and why you think they might be interested in your own work. This works best with books that share a sense of voice, atmosphere or genre niche, rather than books that have similar plots.
It shows the agent or publisher that you understand where your book fits in the marketplace – and why they might be the right person for your book. and being published by someone who loves the things you love, and who appreciates your ambitions for your work, is likely to be a better long-term experience for you.
Penni Russon is a published author and senior research fellow, creative writing, at Monash University.
5. Submit to writing prizes
In 2009, I won the Varuna Harper Collins Manuscript Prize for my manuscript in development, The Casuals, leading to working one-on-one with an editor, and publication of my book.
Entering prizes is a way to cut through the purgatory of the slush pile, a sense of geographical or lit squad isolation – prizes are a catapult and often have generous support mechanisms attached to them: agent introductions, feature publications, residencies.
My advice would be: get organised, hit national and international prizes regularly, and have your blurbs, author bios, project descriptions and other cut-and-paste responses done, so doing them isn’t a chore and you can get back to the writing.
Check the bona fides of the prize giver, the reputation of the publisher, the status of the judging panels and the trajectory of previous winners. If the reading fee is particularly high, (US$20 or over), the cash prize should be commensurate to that. If there is no cash prize and a steep reading fee, that’s a sign the competition may be a money-making exercise.
Yes, prizes are a lottery – but sometimes your numbers come up.
Sally Breen is a published author and associate professor in creative writing at Griffith University.
