Ten Steps Toward Increasing Your Publication Odds

Janine Cross

Each one increases your odds of a successful manuscript sale to a traditional publishing house.

Popularity trends, mergers, budget cuts, staff turnovers, and surplus inventories can influence whether a writer’s manuscript is purchased by a publishing house. Yet these factors are entirely beyond the writer’s control. The good news is, there are aspects of selling a manuscript that are entirely within the writer’s control. Each one increases your odds of a successful manuscript sale to a traditional publishing house.

1: Know your genre. When you’re selling your manuscript, you need to target genre-specific agents and editors or else suffer superfluous rejection letters. Furthermore, each genre has tropes and reader expectations that must be met.

2: Have the appropriate word count. Agents and editors use word count as a quick filter for rejection purposes. If your word count is significantly outside the standard in your genre, you’ve decreased your odds of being read. Yes, there are exceptions to every “rule,” but do you want to gamble on being an exception?

3: Edit your manuscript. Bill Contardi, powerhouse literary agent, says it best: “As the book market gets tougher for selling both fiction and nonfiction, it is imperative that all submissions be polished, edited, and almost ready for the printer.” As you edit, address the creative content of your novel (for instance, does your protagonist display character agency and show a clear character arc?) and technical flaws (such as spelling and grammar errors).

4: Have a reader vet your manuscript. An agent or editor should never be your first reader. Because you’re so close to your story, you need an outside perspective to help you see issues with plot, pacing, logic, and character motivation. A beta reader can also advise if your climax has your intended emotional impact.

5: Create a synopsis of your manuscript. Whether the agent or editor requests one, you should condense your complex, nuanced novel into a two- to three-page summary that reveals the ending. When describing events in such an abbreviated cause/effect manner, any plot flaws are quickly revealed, along with gaps in character motivation and lack of story structure or character arc. Don’t fear this fantastic tool.

6: Create a riveting pitch line. Don’t underestimate the importance of this one-sentence summary! Agents use them when pitching to editors, editors use them when pitching to sales teams, sales teams use them when pitching to booksellers, and readers use them when pitching to friends.

7: Create a solid query letter. This is your crucial first impression! Comb the internet for examples on how to write a succinct, compelling query and devote ample time and energy on incorporating spark into these few paragraphs.

8: Get an agent…or not. Major New York publishers read only agented material. Canadian publishers usually don’t require an agent. Regardless of where you hope to publish, schedule one-on-one agent interviews at writing conferences to receive valuable feedback on your pitch and the commercial viability of your manuscript.

9: Have a game plan. Create page-count goals and first draft deadlines. Apply for grants and writer residencies. Schedule time for online learning and research. Create a submissions chart to keep track of who you’ve sent what to, and when. Think business. Think career.

10: Keep on… While trying to sell the manuscript, keep on reading, inside your genre and outside it, and keep on writing by moving on to the next project. Persistence=success.

With North American book sales increasing every year—696 million sold in the United States alone in 2018 (NDP BookScan)—there is a healthy public appetite for print books. In following the above ten steps, you can increase your chances of joining those numbers.

Voted by Library Journal as one of the top five sci-fi/fantasy novelists of 2005, Janine Cross is the author of the internationally published The Dragon Temple Trilogy, and the literary novel The Footstop Café. She’s sold fiction and non-fiction to magazines, is a regular contributor to the Canadian Owners & Pilots Association magazine, and has taught workshops at writing festivals, conventions, and in secondary and elementary schools. http://janinecross.ca/index.html