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Advice please

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  • 08-10-2007 10:48pm
    #1
    mcoyle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    Hi everyone. Im a newbie.

    Anyway Im gonna ask a question that may have been asked before. Does anyone know how to start the process of promoting a manuscript to a publisher. Ive written a funny pocket guide. Like to know where to start.

    Thanks.


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    #2
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,240 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    Go through an agent.


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    #3
    smcgiff
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    What Blue Lagoon said, and to help you buy the Writers & Artists Yearbook or look here...

    http://www.writersservices.com/agent/uk/index.cfm

    Good luck


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    #4
    mcoyle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭mcoyle


    Thanks for the replies.

    Can you tell me how to track down an agent?


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    #5
    booky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭booky


    There are only a few agents in Ireland:

    Jonathan Williams
    Marianne Gunne O'Connor
    Faith O'Grady-The Lisa Richrds Agency
    Font Literay Agency-Ita O'Driscoll
    The feldstein agency-Based in Bangor
    The Book Bureau-Geraldine Nichol

    You can also contact publishers in Ireland directly, you don't have to have an agent, although this is not the case in the UK where most publishers only accept manuscripts through agents.

    Call the relevant publishers and ask what type of books they publish (or do this research beforehand on www.publishingireland.com) Ask them what they would like you to submit-usually a synopsis, a couple of chapters and some info on yourself.

    Send it off and expect to wait up to three months for a reply.


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    #6
    Memnoch
    Registered Users Posts: 4,276 ✭✭✭Memnoch


    mcoyle wrote: »
    Hi everyone. Im a newbie.

    Anyway Im gonna ask a question that may have been asked before. Does anyone know how to start the process of promoting a manuscript to a publisher. Ive written a funny pocket guide. Like to know where to start.

    Thanks.

    check out the forums on www.absolutewrite.com it covers everything you need to know about manuscript subscriptions. Though if you get guidelines directly from a publisher you can never go wrong.

    Generally you need to write a "proposal" for non-fiction. Best of luck in your endeavours.


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    #7
    oclugg
    Closed Accounts Posts: 72 ✭✭oclugg


    It's very likely an agent will turn you down, and anyway the queue is a mile long. I would maker a dozen copies to punt it around some Irish publishers. If one accept it you'll have an agent in no time.


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    #8
    r3nu4l
    Registered Users Posts: 17,399 ✭✭✭✭r3nu4l


    It is possible to get published without an agent but it is a lot harder. As oclugg said, most agents have a queue at their door as long as the queues at the door of the publishing houses.

    Agents are great because they have all the contacts you could ever want. An Editor at a publishing house is going to take far more notice of a manuscript sent to him by an agent than some unsolicited manuscript.

    If you are going direct to publisher then you need to call them, find out if they accept unsolicited material, do they want a synopsis, full chapters or the complete manuscript to look at?

    An agent will charge you a fee and/or take a percentage of any publishing deal you get. It's not all bad though because an agent can negotiate an excellent deal for you whereas if you're on your own you may take a bad deal...just to get published.

    Do some research before settling on one choice, if your work is of an excellent standard you may get noticed without an agent but may get noticed sooner, with an agent :)


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    #9
    Montallie
    Registered Users Posts: 81 ✭✭Montallie


    Nonfiction is apparently offered to publishers in a different way from the agent route for fiction. There are lots of good books out there that tell you how to make a nonfiction proposal - you will probably find them in the library.

    Ones I've come across are:

    A Writer's Guide to Nonfiction (Elizabeth Lyon)
    The Art of the Book Proposal (Eric Maisel)
    Write The Perfect Book Proposal (Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman
    Solutions For Writers (Sol Stein)

    The last one is very useful for both fiction and nonfiction.

    And if you can't get a publisher and decide to go the self-publishing route, you'll be following in the footsteps of the original Schott's Miscellany, so that's no bad thing.


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