How To Get Published In 12 Easy Steps

By Keith Boykin, in books
Tuesday, December 27 2005, 2:12PM

Hardly a week goes by when I don't get an email, letter or request from an aspiring writer who wants to make a splash in the publishing world. I usually point them to some advice I wrote several years ago, but I realize that some of that information has now become dated. So as the beginning of the new year approaches, there's no time like the present to get started on that new book and get it published.

Why get started now? Because the new year brings new possibilities. I often tell people how easy it is to write a book in a year. If you simply write one page everyday for 365 days, by the end of the year you could have yourself a book. A page a day is not as easy as it sounds, but it's a much more manageable way of looking at the process than thinking of writing 300-400 pages in one sitting. So with the new year on the horizon, here now is my updated advice on how to get published in 12 easy steps.

1. Write an outline or proposal for your book.

For me, the hardest part of writing a book is picking a topic. I can write a website article about almost anything. But writing a book is such a long, solitary and complex process that I can only begin the journey if I'm passionate about the topic. My file cabinets are littered with outlines, manuscripts, book proposals and unfinished novels that didn't hold my interest. So how do you get it going?

The first thing to do is to write your manuscript or book proposal. If you're writing your first work of fiction, agents and editors at publishing companies may expect you to submit the entire manuscript. If you're writing nonfiction, you can usually get away with writing a book proposal of 50 or so pages, including a sample chapter.

In fiction, you typically won't need a book proposal. You will need to write the book instead. In nonfiction, however, you'll want to write a strong book proposal to sell your book. There's no magic formula to writing a book proposal, but I always use the same resource. I go back and review Michael Larsen's book, How To Write A Book Proposal, for guidance.

Even if you don't write a book proposal, you will probably need a good outline. Think of the outline as a highway map. It doesn't have to map out every little back road along the way, but it should give you an idea of where you're going and how you plan to get there. Once you get started on your journey, you're always free to take detours and pit stops and even make U-turns.

2. Review, edit and proofread your work carefully.

Before you send your work out to anyone else, make sure that whatever you send out is something you're ready to release to the world. Spell check, edit and proofread your text and be sure to have someone else look it over as well. A second set of eyes always helps in catching the mistakes your own eyes will miss.

3. Think about getting an agent.

You should not even think about getting an agent until you have something to give them. Most good agents are very busy and don't have time to hold your hand while you figure out what you want to say. You should have a finished book or at least a finished book proposal to submit to any agent.

Of course, you don't have to get an agent, but it depends on who you are and what you're doing. If you're a little known first-time writer with no connections and you're trying to break into a big publishing house, you have almost no chance of making it in the door without an agent. Agents have relationships with editors at major publishing houses and they can introduce your book in casual conversation or by formal submission to prospective publishers.

Some people choose not to use an agent, but I recommend that first-time authors find an agent unless they (a) plan to self-publish or publish with a very small press, or (b) already have inside connections and knowledge of the literary world that an agent would typically have.

4. Find a good agent

Of course, getting an agent is not as easy as it sounds either. You have to sell yourself to prospective agents in order to get picked up in the first place.

You can find lists of literary agents online. You can also find them by reading the acknowledgments sections of books that are like your own. Or you can look through lists of agents printed in books about writing (e.g., The Writers Digest Books). Keep in mind, however, that many good agents are oversubscribed and are not accepting any new clients unless your work is extraordinary (which is rare).

You should never have to pay an agent to represent you. That's not the way the publishing business works. The agent reads your work and determines if it's publishable or sellable. If she or he feels that it is, then the agent will try to sell it to a publisher. Once you get paid, the agent gets paid. That's how they make their money. They don't make it from reading fees and other such things. If your work is good, an agent will take you on as a client because they feel they can make money by selling your product to a publisher, not by scamming you for a fee.

5. Submit the work (through an agent or not) to publishers.

I hope you have a strong ego because this part can be very frustrating. You've finished your work, you love it, your friends love it, your agent loves it, but you can't find a publisher to pick it up. Then come the rejection letters and explanations. Your work is too much like so-and-so. It's well written, but we don't think there's a market for this right now. We don't publish poetry from first-time authors. And so on.

Get ready for this because it can really deflate your ego, and if you're not careful it might stop you from writing altogether. If you really believe your work is good, don't give up. The truth is, most books that are written never see the light of day in your neighborhood bookstore. But there are plenty of books published every year that just aren't very good. Publishing is a business. It's not always about quality. It's about money. An editor may pass on a decent book just because he doesn't think he can sell it to his bosses at the publishing company.

6. Don't forget about small publishers.

The small press may not be able to pay you a big advance, but they can usually give you a lot more personal attention than you would get at a big New York publishing house. My first book was published by Doubleday, a major publisher with lots of clout. However, I was a small fish in a big pond and I didn't get much attention.

My most recent book was published by Avalon, a mid-size publishing company based in California with an office in New York. When the book hit the New York Times best-seller list, I became a big fish in a smaller pond. Writing a New York Times best-seller at Doubleday, on the other hand, is not as much of a big deal.

7. Sign a good contract.

Once you've accepted an offer from a publisher, you'll need to sign a contract to confirm the deal. The most important thing to remember is that the contract is not final until you sign it. Before you sign it, you have some bargaining power to negotiate more favorable terms than the standard boilerplate language used by most publishers. After you sign the contract, the deed is done and you have to abide by the terms of the agreement.

That's why you need a good agent. Unless you're familiar with the nuances and language of the publishing world, you may be mystified by the terms in a typical contract. You may find the following terms in your contract.

Publication Rights. Delivery of Manuscript. Warranties and Indemnification. Copyright. Royalty Advance and Royalties. Hardcover Edition. Trade Paperback Edition. Overstock. Audio Publication Rights. Electronic Publication Rights. Subsidiary Rights. Reports and Payments. Audits. Author's Copies. Reversion of Rights.

Pay attention to each section of the contract, especially anything with a number in it. Look closely at the dates. The delivery date, for example, is the deadline when your finished manuscript must be submitted to the publisher. If you don't think you can finish the book by that time, don't sign the contract. Instead, ask your agent to negotiate a new delivery date.

Also, make sure you understand the royalty system and advances. The publisher will often pay you an advance, which is money that is deducted from expected future royalties. The advance is typically paid in installments. For example, you may receive a portion of it when you sign the contract, a portion when you deliver the manuscript and a portion when the book is actually published.

Be careful. Don't mistake an advance for a royalty! Every dollar you're paid in advance has to be repaid to the publisher before you earn a dime from royalties. That's why you should be careful not to ask for too much as an advance. First, most publishers won't pay a big advance for a first-time author. Second, many authors will never earn back their advance, thus hurting their chances of getting future deals because publishers will think they can't sell.

8. Think about self-publishing.

The great advantage to self-publishing is control and money. You have control over the timing, process, and editorial content of what you write and you reap all the net profits. The great disadvantage is, you guessed it, control and money. Because you control the whole process, you have to make all the decisions (right or wrong) and live with them. You also have to spend your own money to get it published. But a good first time writer with marketing skills can usually make a lot more money by self-publishing than by going to a publishing house.

One of the best known examples of successful self-publishing is E. Lynn Harris. He self-published his first book, Invisible Life, in the early 1990s and was so successful that Doubleday bought the rights and re-published the novel. Now, eight best-selling novels later, Harris is America's most popular living black male novelist.

Another good example is Alphonso Morgan, whose novel Sons seems to have made quite a splash without a publisher behind it.

9. Write a good book.

You've finished the proposal, lined up the agent, signed the deal and gotten your advance. Now comes the hard part -- writing the book. A good book doesn't have to be intellectual or super serious. It just has to be well done. Don't rush, unless you have to meet a deadline. Take your time, do your research, and write the best book you can. Then double space the manuscript and send it off to your editor.

Once you submit the manuscript, the editor will guide you through the process. The editor will make comments and send it back to you for revisions, suggestions and questions. After this back-and-forth process, the book will be sent to a proofreader or copy editor to catch spelling errors, punctuation problems, readability and compliance with the style rules of the publisher. There are several editing stages up until the very end, but it's harder to make major changes later in the process.

10. Pick a good title and cover.

You've heard the expression, "Don't judge a book by the cover." It's a great rule for life but doesn't really work in publishing. People judge books by their covers all the time. That's why one of the most important aspects of successful publishing, especially for new authors, is picking the right title and cover.

I have to admit I'm not the best at picking titles. For my first book, I chose the title, Black and Gay in America. The publisher hated it and changed it, with my blessing, to One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America. For my second book, I picked the title The Power of One. Again the publisher balked and changed the title, also with my blessing, to Respecting the Soul.

Finally for my third book, I picked a winner. I picked the title, Beyond The Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America. The publisher liked it but wanted to remove the word "lies" from the subtitle. We argued about it but left the L word off the title for the advance galley copies sent out to reviewers and taste makers. Finally, a few days before the book was set to print, my partner Nathan noticed that the word "lies" was missing from the subtitle and reminded me to get the publisher to put it back in. At this point, the publisher's early reluctance had melted away and they agreed to my request.

11. Promote and market the book.

If you think writing the book was hard, wait till you begin to market it. You need to start thinking about marketing and promotion long before the book is released. If you want to get coverage in leading magazines, for example, they'll need to get advance galley copies of the book months before the book's publication date in order to meet their lead time and early deadlines.

You should start thinking about what markets work best for your book and create a plan to tap into those markets. If your book is about Chicago, you'll want to market the book heavily to the media and institutions in Chicago. If the book is about Native Americans in Florida, you'll want to promote the book to Native Americans and Floridians, among others.

You'll also want to do a book tour. When I published my first book in 1996, the publisher flew me around the country on an expensive 12-city book tour, paid for my travel and hotels and arranged an escort to guide me from event to event in each city. For most first-time authors, those days are gone. You'll be lucky if the publisher will pay your cab fare to your local bookstore. Don't worry. You can still try to push the publisher to do more, but if they don't, be prepared to pick up the slack.

For each book I've written, I've spent thousands of dollars of my own money to supplement the publisher's marketing and promotion plan. I found a sponsor to help underwrite the costs of my book launch party last February, and paid the rest myself. I scheduled book signing events around previously scheduled speaking engagements so it didn't cost any money to the publisher to add them to the tour. And I took advantage of easy targets near where I live. From New York, for example, it's not too expensive to take a train to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. When you add New York to the mix, you have a five-city book tour without ever boarding a plane.

Remember, when your book comes out, the window of opportunity is wide open but closes quickly. Take advantage of TV, radio, the Internet, email chains, listserves, and every contact you have to promote your book. But like voting in Chicago, do it early and often. Most successful marketing takes place in the first 6 weeks after a book is released. Afterwards, sales taper off dramatically and it's a lot harder to get media attention.

If you're writing a book for a niche market, your publisher may need help. A few months ago, I participated in a panel of black writers at Harvard. Featured authors included Charles Ogletree, Helen Lee, Sheryll Cashin, and Annette Gordon-Reed, and most of the authors commented on the difficulty that publishers have in reaching so-called niche markets.

One of the big problems is that most publishers don't know how to reach the black market or the Latino market or the LGBT market, so authors in these markets have to be aggressive in marketing their work. When I did my last book tour, I made a point to go to a mainstream bookstore, a black bookstore, and a gay bookstore in every city I visited. I also encouraged the publicist to schedule radio, TV and print interviews in each city. I even planned to hire my own outside publicist to supplement the work of the publisher's in-house publicist, but ultimately I didn't need to spend my money on that.

12. Don't give up.

As with anything in life, persistence pays off. It's not easy to find an agent, to secure a publisher, to get a good deal, and to get your book published. It takes hard work over a long period of time. And even if you do make it through the process, there's a lot of details to work through and work out. Many writers receive dozens of rejection letters before they ever receive an acceptance. But the difference between a published writer and a wannabe writer is often not based on talent, but on tenacity.

Writing a book can be a long and challenging process. But in the end, when you finally hold the book in your hand, all the sweat and tears and sacrifice pale in comparison to the reward of knowing that you've created something that could reach thousands of people you've never met. It's a great journey. Enjoy the ride.

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