Getting Published

Writing your novel is the easy bit; getting published is when the hard work starts.

Okay, only joking about writing the novel being easy - it surely isn't!

But certainly it's only half the process. The journey of publishing a manuscript can be as long and as arduous and as challenging and as demanding as writing the novel ever was.

When you’re finished writing your novel, the next job is to publish the manuscript. You have two options re publishing a manuscript:

1. Traditional publishing, i.e. submitting to agents and publishers and getting them to publish for you, and
   
2. Self-publishing.

Then you find out all about literary agents, and go through the process of finding the right one for you (and of course, being the right literary agent for you includes wanting you as a client!), almost definitely collecting many rejection letters on the way.

It’s a long hard road, and you know that the odds of being published are against you (although, not as bad as you might think as that page will show).

However, there is very good argument, in my considered opinion, to go this route if at all possible. You’re a writer, after all, not a business-person. And make no mistake, publishing is a business. There’s a lot to publishing all of which you’ll have to do yourself if you decide to self-publish.

And all of this will take time - time when you could (should?) be writing your next novel, and it’ll also take an investment of money.

Having said that, there are arguments for self-publishing. It gives you control. It guarantees you publication. It can be the route to huge success as these self-published authors found.

If you’re considering publishing a manuscript yourself, then you’ll want to check out print on demand services and print on demand publishers.

You’ll also want to read up on the print on demand stigma and read up on vanity publishing too.

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