Anyway enough of these pleasantries . I’m currently writing 2 books, One is an action adventure (80,000 words so far) the other is a childrens action/comedy involving pirates.
Despite the fact i’m a long way into the action adventure I think the childrens book will be completed first. How would I go about getting published?
I know you need to find an agent (At least I think you do? :dubious: ) But how do you go about this? Is there a list or reputable firms
Its bloody confusing… any help will be greatfully recieved.
Go to the local library’s reference section and take down the current volume of Literary Market Place. Turn to the “Literary Agent” section.
Find someone who specializes in the sort of books you’re writing (or put your hand over your eyes and jab the book with a pin), and send him/her the finished manuscript with a nice polite cover letter.
You can skip the agent stuff and send your work directly to the editorial department of a publishing house, but that’s about as likely to get you published as tying the manuscript to a large rock and chunking it in the river.
How long is the standard manuscript for a novel? I’m working on one now and I’m up to approximately 130,000 words, and I plan on writing at least another 50-70,000 words…just wondering how “bloated” that is…
There are no general standards any more. There may be a standard for the particular type of novel you are working on.
Some fantasies can be 200-300,000 words. Some romance novels need to be under 100,000. Bestseller-type novels are generally quite large. Literary novels can be just about any length.
The only advice I can give is to finish the novel and try sending it off to an agent that specializes in your area. If it’s any good, the agent will let you know whether it is bloated or not.
Let me emphasize finished novel. Never send an agent a partial. They will want to know whether you can finish a book properly.
Just curious (as one who is currently up to 40,000 words)… how many words is in the average 300-400 page novel? I’d like to avoid 1000+ pages, I think.
And I agree that getting an agent is a big help in selling your novel, but in many fields unagented manuscripts are still considered. The main change over the past twenty years is that editors would consider full manuscripts from unagented authors, but now will only consider outlines.
The most important thing about getting published is writing a novel so good that the editor falls in love with it. That’s also the hardest part.
If you’re using standard manuscript format (in a nutshell: 1" margins, 12-point Courier, double-spaced paragraphs), you’ll get approximately 250 words per page. Exceptionally long novels are probably a little more difficult to get published (since the publisher takes a bigger financial risk) than average-sized ones, but as RealityChuck points out (and he’d definitely know), it’s the story that truly matters.
. I’m currently writing 2 books, One is an action adventure (80,000 words so far) the other is a childrens action/comedy involving pirates.