The
Business of Novel Writing
Questions for Clare B. Dunkle about publication
I receive many questions from readers who want to publish
a book, and that's why I've developed the pages in this
section. These pages answer the basic questions I receive. This
is a difficult field, and I am no expert. I cannot and will not
advise you on your career. But if you read all the pages in this
section, consult the recommended print sources, and still find yourself
wondering about a question, click the Contact
the Author button to the right to send me an email.
CAN YOU HELP ME GET MY BOOK PUBLISHED?
DO YOU KNOW ANY GOOD PUBLISHERS?
IS IT EXTREMELY HARD TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED WITHOUT AN AGENT? WOULD
IT COST A LOT OF MONEY? I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY PARENTS WOULD
SAY.
IS IT BAD TO HANDWRITE A COVER LETTER AND IS THERE
A CERTAIN FORMAT A COVER LETTER HAS TO BE WRITTEN IN?
HOW ARE THE COVERS OF BOOKS MADE?
AM I TOO YOUNG TO BE PUBLISHED?
WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING PUBLISHED?
MY BIRTHDAY IS COMING UP, AND I'M TELLING
MY FAMILY THAT ALL I WANT IS AN AGENT. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO LOOK FOR
ONE? I'VE LOOKED AND I CAN'T FIND ONE THAT IS EVEN CLOSE TO
BEING LOCAL.
CAN YOU HELP ME GET MY BOOK PUBLISHED?
Yes and no. I can share my advice with you because of my experience
in preparing and revising long fiction manuscripts. But authors
aren't publishers. We have no control over what publishing
houses choose to accept or reject. I'm not an editor. The
two professions demand very different skills.
Shannon Hale has
a wonderful webpage on this topic. On that page, she describes
how she brought several different manuscripts from acquaintances
to her editor, only to have every one of them turned down. She thought
they were great, but they still didn't make the grade with
her editor, so what good did her involvement with them do? I've
had that experience myself, and I've come to exactly the same
conclusion.
Readers frequently write to me, hoping that I will read manuscripts
for them, but this is something I won't do because it wastes
everyone's time. I don't have an editor's skills:
I can be brutal with my own work, but I absolutely cannot be mean
to you, so those looking to me for substantive feedback won't
get what they need. And,
for reasons that
I explain here, I think it is unwise and potentially damaging
to the hopeful writer's morale for an established author to
read unpublished works.
So, you're far better off investing that time you would waste
on me into finding a good agent and editor instead. Those are the
people who can really help your career. Then write to tell me that
you've made it. I'll be thrilled for you!
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DO YOU KNOW ANY GOOD PUBLISHERS?
The best publishers are the ones whose names you see on the newest
books in your library or in your bookstore. You can research them
on the Internet to see if they will let you send them manuscripts.
(Most of them won't; your agent will have to do that.) If
you are serious about contacting publishers, you should read all
the webpages in this section and go on to study the resources that
I recommend in them.
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IS IT EXTREMELY HARD TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED WITHOUT AN AGENT? WOULD
IT COST A LOT OF MONEY? I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY PARENTS WOULD
SAY.
I think it's great that you're writing a book. That's
a huge achievement, and one you should be very proud of. Don't
let the idea of publishing, with all its headaches, ruin the joy
of the writing. No author has much control over what happens to
our books once we write them, whether they get published or not
and how many people read them or like them. What we can control
is our writing, and that's where we feel our satisfaction.
Many great books were never published in the author's lifetime.
Only the author's friends got to read them, but that didn't
make them any less wonderful.
You need to ask yourself what you want from your book. If it's
just extra copies you want to give to friends and family, then you
can print them out, put them in notebook covers, and give them away.
That's how my family first read my books. But if you want
your book to sell in bookstores and show up in libraries all over
America, then you have to learn everything you can about the publishing
industry. To start, you can read all the webpages in this section
and go on from there to the resources recommended in them.
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IS IT BAD TO HANDWRITE A COVER LETTER AND IS THERE A CERTAIN FORMAT
A COVER LETTER HAS TO BE WRITTEN IN?
Publishers expect an author to be a professional, and that ordinarily
means a nicely printed letter on quality paper. Publishers also
expect the author to have his or her book available in electronic
format (for instance, as a Microsoft Word file). The most important
resources for authors spell out the format a cover letter should
be in. You will need to go to the library or bookstore to study
them.
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HOW ARE THE COVERS OF BOOKS MADE?
The publishing company usually wants complete control over how the
cover of a book looks. If a publisher doesn't care, then it
isn't a commercial publishing house which will market your
book to bookstores for you. Big publishers have a special art director
who coordinates this. They don't just care about what looks
nice; they also care about what has sold lots of books this year.
They will even want control over the title. So far, I've always
gotten to pick my own titles, but I've had to work with my
editor till we've come up with something the sales and marketing
staff could work with.
If you want to print a book for yourself, go to your local copy
shop to ask what options they have available. It may be that you
can have a cardstock cover put on it without spending too much money
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AM I TOO YOUNG TO BE PUBLISHED?
Probably. And I'm not telling you this because I think you
have no talent. I'm saying it because you probably do. I don't
want you to give up on writing just because you get rejection letters
in middle school or high school. I want you to understand the profession.
Please read
my webpage answering this question.
It will help you decide for yourself when to seek publication, as
well as give you good advice if you want to become a professional
novelist.
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WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING PUBLISHED?
I'm one of those people who has an answer for everything (not
necessarily a good answer, mind you, but an answer nonetheless).
Very few questions slow me down. But this question stopped me in
my tracks, and it's taken months of puzzling to figure it
out.
Many unpublished writers focus on that golden moment when, like
a new mother, you first hold your own book in your hands. You see
your name on the cover, you fan through the pages. You examine your
book and find it perfect.
It's true that there is a moment like this in writing: a pure
high, a moment of victory. But it isn't when your book arrives.
At least, it isn't for me. When my editor and I are finishing
the line edit, the very last thing I do is read my manuscript out
loud. As I'm reading along, listening to my story, and every
word is just the way it should be—that's it!—there's
the high. That moment is part of me forever. No pretty book, no
great review, and no awards ceremony can possibly supplant it. The
words themselves are all that matters.
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MY BIRTHDAY IS COMING UP, AND I'M TELLING MY FAMILY THAT ALL
I WANT IS AN AGENT. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO LOOK FOR ONE? I'VE LOOKED
AND I CAN'T FIND ONE THAT IS EVEN CLOSE TO BEING LOCAL.
I don't think you need to ask for an agent for your birthday
because no one has to pay money to a good agent (the kind you want
to get). A good agent, like a good publisher, is something your
writing will have to earn. For basic information, you should read
my
webpage on agents. Then follow the
link I include there to the SFWA website to read their advice on
agents. That webpage names the two major print resources for finding
agents, which you will probably be able to find in your nearest
public library.
Agents are almost never local. My agent is in New York City, where
the book business is, so that she can have meetings with editors
and publishers. She and I email back and forth, and occasionally
phone. My editors are also both in NYC. I've never met any
of these people! So don't worry about finding someone nearby,
or even someone in your own state. They don't need to be close
to you to do their work well.
Just remember the most important rule: DO NOT let an agent charge
you money! You won't get what you want from agents like that.
Agents should make their money when you make money—and NOT
before!
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Webpage text copyright 2006 by Clare B. Dunkle.
Permission is given to print this page for educational or private
use, provided the author is acknowledged on the printed copy. It
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