The Next Step

In our opinion, our book-baby was ready to head off to college; therefore, the process of selecting the right college had to be our next step.

That wasn’t a problem for us.  All we needed to do was complete and present the submission applications to the various publishers or literary agents, and wait for the acceptance letters to come pouring in.  We figured the hardest part would be to select the right publisher/agent amongst the slew of offers that we would be receiving.  We didn’t want to make a mistake at this stage of the game.

And no, I haven’t forgotten about my friend who offered to help me publish my book after hers was published.  The glitch in that plan was that her book wasn’t completed yet.  We can’t jump on her coattails of success if her tailor isn’t done making her jacket yet… so, at this point, we had to forge ahead on our own...

We did our homework for this stage.  We googled how to go about getting a book published; we went to the library and checked out various books on the subject; we talked to bookstore owners to get their feedback and advice; we contacted the person who was in charge of book acquisitions for our main library, so we could understand how libraries went about acquiring their inventory.  We worked on developing our query letters and book proposals.  We did our market research and identified what made our book unique from all the other books that are out on the market.

We decided to contact agents first, instead of going directly to publishers.  Most publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts and rather work with literary agents.  Most won’t give you the time of day unless you are recommended by someone — a literary agent, an accomplished author, or a high-profile personality who can guarantee high sales of the book.

With this information in mind, we tried contacting Sam Keen, who is the author of the fabulous book, To Love and Be Loved.  I highly recommend you getting a copy and reading it… of course, after purchasing ours first (when we finally do get published. that is).

Anyway — back to Sam.  His insights and genuineness prompted us to contact him, hoping that he would mentor us through this adventure we were on.  We knew it was a long shot, but it never hurts to ask.

A surprising thing happened.  No, he didn’t take us up on our offer, BUT he did send us a really nice encouraging letter of hope.

Yes, we were disappointed, but not discouraged.  We just moved on to the literary agents.