Ten tips guaranteed to get MS looked at

[Egg_Fu]

Spriggan, people totally do that.  Some include chocolate or other gifts.  Money excepted, I imagine most editors toss the gifts and roll their eyes at the sender.  Me, I'd take the $50, assume the manuscripts must be awful if they feel they need to bribe me, and then send back a rejection with a big fat NO on it.  But, then, I'm inherently evil.

The SASE advice I don't agree with at all.  Publishers post guidelines.  If you don't follow those guidelines, you come off as someone who thinks they're above the rules, and who wants to work with someone like that?  

[Spriggan]

I know people do that, the difference is I'd post it in my Guidelines as an Editor.

[Fellfrosch]

On that note: as editor of TWG, I can guarantee that I will look at any article if you include a paypal donation of at least $50. Toss in an extra $50 and I'll guarantee that it sees publication, though I reserve the right to change the title and content at my discretion.

By the way, Egg_Fu: you're the first poster I think we've ever had who introduced himself before posting, and then joined conversations by saying something intelligent and on-topic. Feel free to make some really stupid post about cats, written in l33t, in some three-year-old political discussion. Everybody gets one for free.

[Egg_Fu]

I've spent years on a board composed solely of children's writers, so polite and literate is all I know.  I used to moderate my own message board, too, so spam and l33t give me rage blackouts.  I cannot abide by such abuse of the English language!

And since this is completely off topic, I suppose this must be my one freebie....

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

perhaps we should send him a copy of GTA
We all know that playing GTA not only makes you a murderer but gives you atrocious grammar and manners.

[guitarbabe]

Ha, thanks for the laugh, people

So, the great SASE debate continues. It makes me want to try something evil...like send a query without one. Of course, I'll probably get an 'I told you so' from you guys when I'm biting my nails wondering if the publishing company ever got it or not...

I'm just getting together some queries...and right now, my big debate is on which book I should send a query out for? I'm trying to take the, 'check out the agent/ publisher to see if they even go for your kinda stuff' advice before I send these out.  I'm thinking my stuff is so speculative fiction (it doesn't quite fit any niche I can find) that I'm having a hard time, deciding where to send these queries out. Maybe it's time to hit the bookstores?--I'll just have to keep in mind that I'm trying to sell a book, not buy out the stores.

[stacer]

Yes, going to the bookstore and finding a book/several books that are kind of like yours--not the same story, but the same genre--will lead you to their publisher. Then follow that back to your Writer's Guide or whatever, see how they take submissions, look at their guidelines online, that sort of thing. I think that's a very good idea.

[MsFish]

My problem with this aproach is that for the most part, all I've found is a lot of books leading me to various imprints of Random House and Harper Collins.  All well and good except that they don't take unagented stuff at all.  So it's back to square one...

[guitarbabe]

Hmm, try looking at these sites for agents, and then see who they publish with?

www.anotherealm.com/prededitors

www.katfeete.net/writing/agents.html

Those are what I'm looking at right now. And you can also check if they're reputible through the 'Another realm' website.

[Egg_Fu]

There are a lot of publishers out there that do take unagented submissions.  You don't necessarily need an agent--I don't have one yet, and I've done just fine so far.  

As an alternative to Stacer's suggestion, I would actually suggest a sort-of reverse way of searching (though both ways work fine).  In the back of Writer's Market they list publishers by what genre they publish.  Since I write YA fantasy/sci-fi, I would go through and highlight every publisher listed that publishes books in that area.  Once I have that narrowed down list, I'd look at each imprint/house one by one and determine if they would be a good fit for me, by reading their guidelines and noting what they say they're looking for.

I'd then Google the publishers I have left, or go to Amazon.com, to see what their most recent books are.  That'll help me narrow the list down to a nice group of publishers who would be perfect for a query for whatever it is I've written.  You can also at times find interviews with editors or notes from conferences where they out and out say specifically what they want ("sports stories for girls!" or whatever).

Some of the publishers on your final list will only take agented subs, sure.  But there'll be plenty who'll take queries, too.  And with a targeted list you're much more likely to hit.

Of course, it's possible you all already knew that, but I'm new  I think this way may give you a wider group of publishers to query, even for a manuscript with a genre you find hard to define, so I hope it helps some....

[Parker]

I've been thinking about this SASE idea some more, and I think I've come up with the ultimate solution:  Send out SASEs, but don't include the Query Letter.  That's right!  Just an envelope within an envelope.  That'll *intrigue* the editors into writing *me* a query just to find out what they missed.  And if they don't include a SASE and $50 in said query, then I'm not sending anything back to them.  Let them suffer in the agony of suspense for once.  Hehe.

Yeah.

[guitarbabe]

That's brilliant! I'm doing it!

[The Jade Knight]

Perhaps his advice is intended solely for agents, not for publishers?

Does that make a difference?  Would an agent care about different things than a publisher?

[Savage Beast]

Hey, all. Okay, I went and googled House of Secrets (I know, I know, total ego thing) and your great conversation hooked me. BTW, guitarbabe, your notes were great. Wish my own had been that organized when I spoke. And thanks for not mentioning that I was ten minutes late.

Just a couple of comments.

First and foremost it's all about the writing. Tough to sell a bad product. But many good writers never get looked at because they think a query equates to a business letter. You are trying to sell your work. Be professional and include things that help showcase your complete offering.

On the SASE debate. Not including a SASE with a query for a novel isn't going to affect your chances of getting published. My feeling is, why pay $0.40 to have someone tell you they don't like your writing? I've talked to dozens of published novelists, both national and LDS and not one has recived an acceptance via SASE. And I've yet to talk to an agent or national publisher who will reject good writing because there's no SASE. If you want to keep track of the rejections (in in a perverse way it's actually kind of fun at first) feel free.

If you are going for a national agent though, DO include a photograph. Again, if your writings not great it won't make a difference. But you are selling a complete package and the big five publishers--along with many regionals--are very focused on how well you can market your book after it comes out. The fact that you know how to look presentable is a definite plus.

This particular presentation was focused on novel submissions to agents and publishers.

On the mulltple submission question, again the focus was queries. I would never recommend that you query only one agent or publisher at a time. That will take you forever, and has no appreciable benefit. A good friend of mine just sent out 5 queries for a national YA fantasy using the four page query. So far he has received two e-mail requests for the first 50 pages. At that stage, the agent may or may not request exclusivity for a limited period of time. Or they may wait until they request the full ms. Either way, I would never recommend ignoring that request. You want a professional agent, so acting professional w/ them only makes sense.

[House of Mustard]

Hey neat.  Welcome Jeff.  With any luck LDS authors will outnumber mainstream soon!