The Wannabe

So this book writing thing is harder than I thought. I’m not talking about actually writing the book, I’m talking about the process to get it published. I’ve discovered that no major publishing house accepts “unsolicited proposals.” In other words, you have to find an agent first who will then send your book to the publishers.

But it’s not just that. The process is really counter-intuitive. Instead of writing the book and then getting it published, you get it published and then write it. Here’s how it works. First you send a one page query to a bunch of agents (like twenty or thirty). The query only contains three paragraphs: what you would like to write about, who your target audience is, and a little about you. Then you wait to see if one of them calls you back. If you don’t get a call back, send it out to more agents or revise it. If you do get a call back, you then have to send them a proposal. These are usually between twenty and fourty pages and contain, among other things, a complete outline for the book and some sample pages.

If the agent still likes the idea they send you a contract promising to work as hard as they can to get your book published in exchange for 15% of whatever the publishing house pays you. Now this may seem like a really painful process, but it’s the first part that really gets me. In case you missed it I’ll repeat the scary part: Using only three paragraphs, you have to convince an agent that your book is worth pursuing! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but based on my previous posts you should be able to tell that I can’t say anything in only three paragraphs! So while I’ve got the ability to write a book, that apparently doesn’t mean anything if you can’t get an agent to accept you…based on only three paragraphs!