How To Get Published

With a shrinking book market and a growing corporate emphasis on profits, it has become harder than ever to break into the big leagues of book publishing.

These days, the ‘big leagues’ has dwindled, too, to the Big Five publishers. These are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

That said, publishers need authors, and the notoriously passionate people who work in book publishing still get excited about great writers, especially those with proven sales or at least strong sales potential. Here’s what you’ll need to get in the door.

Your platform might be an established history of literary publications and prizes or a popular blog. It might even be a web series with a strong audience or a Twitter feed with 100,000 followers

In any case, a publisher will look to you to help bring an audience to your work. It’s a rare author these days who stumbles upon a publishing contract armed with nothing but a great manuscript.

Even if the book is still just a gleam in your eye, you can start building an author platform.

If you don’t have a hit TV show, a viral web series or 100,000 Twitter followers, you’ll need to deliver the goods up front. That is, you’ll need a great manuscript, if you’re a fiction writer, or a great book proposal, if you’re writing non-fiction.

Either way, you need to present yourself and your work in the most professional light possible.

Literary agents are the gatekeepers for book editors. They pre-screen the gazillions of manuscripts and book proposals that are produced every year, winnowing them down to the few most likely to succeed, and pitching them directly to publishers. A credentialed literary agent can be a powerful advocate for your book.

These days, there are opportunities to directly catch the attention of print editors. The digital-first imprints of major publishers are prime examples.

But most of the time an agent is essential to getting a contract with a major publisher.

If you’re published by one of the Big Five, they are making an investment in you, the author, and your intellectual property. From editorial to production, to sales, marketing and publicity, the publishers are staffed up and ready to take your book from manuscript to the marketplace.

These resources cost them money. There are likely to be some creative compromises along the way.

Moreover, all of that support means you’re going to see less of the bottom line from your book sales.

Traditional book publishing contracts favour the publisher. To some extent, you can insulate yourself from being taken advantage of by properly negotiating your book contract.

If all of the above sounds like too high a bar, you should know that small trade presses generally have similar parameters but operate on a more modest scale and might be a better fit for some authors.

You also might consider self-publishing your book. If you have that effective platform already, you have in place the means to promote and market your own book.

Finally, a hybrid publisher is an option. If you have a business to promote or a modest marketing platform you want to exploit with a book, that might be the way to go. It requires the writer to subsidize publication costs but provides some services such as marketing and distribution.

Editing Is Vital

Editing is vital for any book to be published. No publisher will put your book into print if the text is sloppy, misspelt and badly phrased. So hiring an editor is an extremely important think to do. You may think you have excellent English skills, but everyone needs their copy looked at by a second pair of eyes. You will not spot everything!!!

I have exceptional English-language skills, and always work quickly and accurately. I’ve received positive feedback from all the clients I’ve worked with so far and intend to keep it that way.

If you need any magazine, article, book, website, essay, dissertation or CV/resume edited, along with any other documents you may have, this is the site to visit. I can edit any Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Libre Office or InDesign document to an exceptional level, and annotate any PDF you require.

So why not contact me and let me know what you need editing? I will edit whatever you need. All you have to do is contact me (you can email prooftheword.com@gmail.com if you’re not happy with contact forms), let me know the word count of what you need editing and type of document it is, attach it if you want, and that’s it!

Book Me

I’ll then send you a quote of my price and we can take it from there. Once we’ve agreed a price, I will do the work and send the edited document back to you via email. If it’s a big file, via a dropbox, WeTransfer or whatever means you prefer.

You can then pay me either directly through your bank or through PayPal (all my details are on the invoice I will send you). I also have an IBAN and BIC, so international payments can be made.

It’s guaranteed you will be happy with the work I do! I will make any amendments you require at no extra charge. Happy customers are my reason to keep going, which is why I’ve been successful so far.

There’s a lot of positive feedback on my Testimonials page, so please take a look to see their comments. There are also reviews on Facebook, Yell, Yelp, Free Index and My Local Services. I always do my best work when people really need me, so please take a look at the services I offer and get in touch!

Look forward to hearing from you! You can also email me at prooftheword.com@gmail.com.