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Publishing your book

11 January 2016

Getting published is a major preoccupation for many writers. How do you get an agent? How do you self-publish? And how do you decide which to do - and when to give up on agents and go for self-publishing?

These are the questions which reverberate around writers' heads. Most writers can hugely improve what they've written with the right advice, and then they stand a much better chance. But many writers who are submitting their work simply tidy it up a bit and spell-check and then send it out there. This is a rather miserable thing to do really, because - unless you are exceptionally talented - you are opening yourself up to being rejected or ignored. Most writers have to draft and re-draft to get their first book right, and you should do it before you send it out.

Tina Seskis was a Success Story at WritersServices some time ago and she's written a cheering piece which shows that you can get published and find a successful career as a writer. But not only was her first book clearly publishable but Tina worked for many years in marketing, so she had a set of well-honed skills which would be very useful in promoting and selling her book. Things are not so easy for most writers and few of them are natural marketeers - in fact many have a preference for hiding away.

What to do then? There's no right answer but it's worth getting your manuscript into the very best shape possible first and then thoroughly researching agents and publishers. A lot of this research can be done on the Writersservices website, using our agents' database, and there are many articles, including Making submissions and Finding an Agent, which can help.

Tina's article

 

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