Publishing, marketing and selling your novel

Might help us to be not so hard on ourselves as the rejections start to trickle in.

  Literary Agents receive

 Between 100 and 200 queries each every week. An agent might only sign one new author a year.

 A publishing house of a medium/large size will often receive more than 5,000 -'Unrequested ' manuscript submissions every year. The book publishing industry state that the odds of an author getting their work published stands between 1% and 2%. Take out the 'Unrequested' submissions that publishing staff have dumped in the trash file and that 1% to 2%. rises to around 11%. 

If an agency doesn't specify their response times, then a good rule of thumb is three months.

An agent has accepted your query and manuscript . Depression, anxiety  lowered , Hope on the rise!  you hold the key. Agents  represent talented authors.

How long does it take a literary agent to sell your story to a publisher?

For example, they might say that you can expect to hear within eight weeks – and if you don't get a response within that time frame, it's unfortunately a no. Hopes dashed.

The Publisher accepts your book.

Once your book enters production, you can expect the process to take from nine months to two years, with eighteen months being the average.  

So you have achieved your, what must at times have seemed  an impossible, goal. To be 'traditionally published.' 

You set goals, Your book was fully edited, your baited query letter hooked the Agent and the Publisher. You respected Genre conventions and you kept at it on that long bumpy road .  You wrote a sellable novel.

The well-known publishing option is working with a traditional publisher or publishing house. That's how most books have always been published. You pitch your book idea to the publisher, they usually give you an advance on your book, and once your manuscript is complete, they publish and bring your book to market. 

What are the pros and cons of traditional publishing?

Pros 

Bookstore distribution is almost guaranteed. Your Novel could be sold nationwide or in retail chains across the UK increasing the chances of selling it. 

Credibility and prestige. Publishing with big name publishers gives new authors credibility and prestige. However, this alone is not a guarantee of selling your book. Marketing and promotion is!

Well established contacts  A traditional publisher, with well established  contacts, offers the best chance of marketing and promotion, with some input from yourself,  to receive mainstream media and 'importantly in todays world'  Social media coverage of your book. 

Publisher carry all of the risk. A traditional publisher takes all of the risk whether your book is successful or not. Since you are not paying the publisher to publish your book there is no monetary loss for you, if your book doesn’t sell well. Hurt, but no money lost.

Author receives an advance. See cons. 

Cons 

Very low royalties. The greatest problem with traditional publishing is the royalty percentages. You typically receive around 10% from each book sold, and the publisher keeps the other 90% of the profits. If your book sells for £10 you'll receive £1. If making a profit from your book is your sole motivation for writing and publishing your book, then you need to think carefully before signing on with a traditional publisher. And any advance is something that you have to pay back. 

Author receives an advance. This may seem like it should be in the pros section. However, you have to pay that advance back in royalties before you see any money transferred into your bank account. If your book doesn’t sell well and doesn’t connect with readers then you might not see any profit from your book at all. Nothing lost but nothing gained.

Requires an agent   Traditional publishers consider what books they want to publish based on whether a book will make a profit for themselves. This is where an agent comes in. After the agent has been hooked by your query letter  and assessed your manuscript, they do the leg work of contacting and pitching the initial idea of your book to publishers and negotiate on your behalf with the publisher giving you more of a voice when creating a contract. The downside is that you also have to pay your agent, usually a portion of your advance and a share of the royalties you receive.

Rights to your book Publishers usually have the rights to your book. This varies depending on the contract agreed  between the agent and publisher and agreed and signed by you. However, your book idea is in the hands of the publisher. They'll make all the decisions about what your book looks like, formatting, cover design, and even some of the content. The publishing company makes the final decisions about every part of your book. This can be a Pro if you  have written a very sellable novel, but have no clue as to design, formatting or marketing.  Remember that they are trying to sell your book to their audience. Not your audience. Sometimes these two simply don’t align. 

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