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Is there a story inside you that’s just busting to come out? Or maybe you’ve spent every weekend tapping away at your keyboard for months, and now you’ve got your words down on paper, your thoughts are turning to how to get your hard work published as a book.
How do first time authors get published?
The best place to start is by researching novels that are already available in the same genre as yours.
“Just pop into a bookshop and have a flick through similar ones and see if they have any literary agent’s details inside or who the publisher is,” Cass Di Bello, a publisher from Allen & Unwin, tells WHO. “From there, you can reach out to individual agents for representation or visit publishers’ websites to see what their submission guidelines are.”
Most publishers will open their doors to accept submissions for at least a few months per year. They will specifically outline whether they will only take a full manuscript or are happy to review just a few chapters.
They may also request supporting documents, such as a synopsis, a detailed chapter outline, an author bio and information on comparable titles already in the market.
“If there is a killer one-line pitch that shows the story has a really good hook to it, that’s something I can’t wait to dive into to find out more,” Di Bello explains.
How hard is it to get a book published in Australia?
If you’re not hearing back, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should be discouraged.
Today, Liane Moriarty is one of Australia’s most successful authors with 10 internationally bestselling novels to her name. But before finding success, she was a novice who penned a children’s book that resulted in nothing but a pile of rejection letters.
“There are places you can go to for help,” Di Bello says. “The Australian Society of Authors runs courses on how to pitch your book and have a few pitching sessions a year. Or you might be able to find an online group of writers with a similar goal you can team up with to assist in editing and reading your work.”
Another alternative to get the right eyes on your work could be to enter a competition.
The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, run by publishing house Hachette, is currently open for submissions of just one chapter. The winner will take home a cash prize of $10,000 and a year’s mentoring with one of Hachette Australia’s publishers.
“The Richell Prize is very unique because it is all about discovering writers who have talent and working with them to develop their work,” Vanessa Radnidge, head of literary and non-fiction publishing at Hachette Australia, tells WHO. “There are several people over the years who haven’t won and have still gone on to have their work published, either with us or other publishers, too.”
Once you’ve toiled over your work and you are ready to upload it for submission, Radnidge advises to leave it for a day to give it one last look over with fresh eyes.
“Publishing is a business, so you want to approach it in a professional way to put your best foot forward,” she advises. “That includes going back and really proofreading to make sure there are no spelling mistakes and that it’s as polished as possible. Also, double-check you’ve followed the submission instructions.”
The publishing industry is one that runs in cycles, and romance and fantasy are the top trends right now. But just because that is what is having a moment, it doesn’t mean that is what you should be writing about, too.
“I think if you start trying to chase a trend, there is a good chance you are going to miss it,” Radnidge says. “But if you are writing about something that you are really passionate about and have a lot of knowledge in, that has a better chance of shining through.”
Di Bello agrees with that advice. “When there is already a lot of something on the market, it does make it harder for your work to stand out as something different,” she says.
With hundreds of thousands of submissions coming in each year, not everything is going to make it to the shelves at Dymocks. That shouldn’t make it any less valuable to you.
“Just like any other business, what we do needs to be commercially successful,” Radnidge explains. “So if you are writing because it’s your passion and you love to do it, or it is how you make sense of the world, that doesn’t diminish your writing even if it isn’t published.”
For more information on The Richell Prize, click here.
