The Tears and Triumphs of a New Author Chapter 22

Chapter 22



I realized that if I was ever going to get the exposure for 'Lady Justice' that I wanted, I was going to have to find a 'traditional' publisher who would take my book.

I read about a book titled 'The Writer's Market' online and found a copy in our local library.

Virtually all of the publishers, both traditional and self-publishing, were listed with their submission guidelines.

The vast majority of traditional publishers said either that they don't accept unsolicited or un-agented submissions.

So maybe I should find an agent to represent me

I turned to the literary agent section and was surprised to read that most of the agents didn't want to talk to you unless you were already a successful author.

Hold on a minute! Publishers don't talk to you without an agent and agents won't talk to you if you're not previously published.

WHO MADE THESE RULES???

It became quite obvious that the deck was stacked against the new author unless, of course, he or she was a celebrity.

Oh well, nobody said it would be easy.

I went through the 'Writer's Market' and pulled up the websites of all the publishing companies and literary agents that would accept unsolicited submissions and followed the directions on each site.

I received a few replies thanking me for my submission, but regrettably, the subject matter of my novel didn't fit into their current plans.

I did receive positive responses from one literary agency and several small publishers, but when I did my research on them, they all had reputations for taking anything that was sent to them, and most were less reputable than the company I already had.

Another dead end.