Today I’m off to one of my favourite coffee shops, with one of my fabulous writer friends, to work on the last few edits on Mercutio. Even though the revision has been slow going (not helped by me getting sick last week), I’m really happy with the changes and eager to get this novel back to Jane Johnson, my editor at HarperVoyager UK. If all goes according to plan, it’ll be on shelves about a year from now.
Bits of news first off:
Tickets are now available for Can*Con 2025 in person here in Ottawa in October (where I’ll be a guest of honour) and also for the shorter, virtual version in April. I expect this will be the only convention I attend in person this year.
My novel about Nazi-fighting clairvoyants, The Tapestry of Time, is on sale in ebook ($2.99) and audiobook ($6.99) in Canada at all retailers for all of March (it was a contestant in HarperCollins Canada March Madness, from which it’s been eliminated, but the sale’s still on, and the contest is great fun and you should check it out and vote on the remaining books.)
And I’m thrilled to say that a game I co-wrote with nine other writers, A Death in Hyperspace, is a finalist for the Nebula Award! My third Nebula nomination in game writing, which is wild and not something I ever would have anticipated for my career. We made this free-to-play indie game on a lark, leaning into the weirdness of having 10 different writers, and it’s a real joy to see it be recognized by our peers like this. Love and congratulations to my fellow writers: Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Nacarat, Natalia Theodoridou, M. Darusha Wehm, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor and especially Stewart C Baker, who wrangled us.
On to the topic for this week’s newsletter.
There’s one question I get asked more than any other, which is some variation on “I’ve written a book and I want it to be published. What do I do now?” I fielded this one a few times when I was a writer in residence last year, and I’ve had this question from some people I’ve worked with through mentorship programs. I have even had a few people approach me to ask this question in the last few weeks just out of the blue — which I encourage! For the record, my email inbox is always open and I’m always happy to chat about people’s particular circumstances if I can be helpful. But since it’s such a common question, I thought I’d give the basics of my usual answer here.
Back in the 90s when I started submitting my work, the internet was not much use on this question. Then, there was a golden age of about 15 years when it was very easy to find reliable information on the internet. And now, well, here we are again.
First, as with all matters related to writing and publishing, I can only speak from my own experience, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
When people ask me this question, I ask them a few questions in return, to define the parameters.
What genre are you writing in? This question sometimes throws people for a loop, and they’ll respond by telling me the plot — but that’s not the question. You don’t have to have the genre perfectly defined, but you should have a general idea, because how you go about publishing your book will depend, in part, on what kind of book it is. If you’re Canadian and you’ve written CanLit, for example, you are probably most interested in a Canadian publisher. Some genres do better in self-publishing, some in traditional publishing. Think about the readership too: is this a young adult or middle grade book, or is it aimed at adults? Word counts come into it; if you’ve got a 57,000-word epic fantasy, you might want to consider self-publishing, because that doesn’t fit inside what traditional publishing tends to want (although readers might be thrilled. Also, there are always exceptions.) Think about what books you’ve read that might appear on the shelf or online category next to yours, to get an idea. Genres can be fluid and fuzzy, and sometimes you’ll have multiple possible answers (“this could be horror, thriller or literary”) but starting to narrow it down will help you decide what to do next. It can help you decide which writers to approach for advice, too. I get asked for advice about people’s memoirs all the time, and I’m happy to help as much as I can, but … I’ve never written a memoir, so there’s a limit to how useful I can be.
What publishing pathway do you envision for this book? Again, you don’t have to engrave this in stone; your plans can change as you go. But you can’t make a plan to get somewhere until you know where you want to go. The Big 5 publishers (Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins) control many imprints and they are your surest shot at getting thousands of copies onto bookstore shelves. There are particular stresses and pitfalls when publishing with the Big 5, as with anything, so it’s not the one true path by any means.
If you do want to publish with the Big 5, you need an agent. Most of the time, Big 5 publishers won’t even look at direct submissions, and agents do very important work when it comes to finding the best editor for your book, negotiating the contract and protecting your interests.
That’s all true when it comes to working with independent publishers too (they run the gamut from brand new micropresses to mid-size, long-established, award-winning houses.) But many independent publishers will take submissions directly from writers.
Getting an agent can be difficult and might add time to your journey; it took me 15 years, on and off, but I know people who’ve signed with agents within a couple of weeks of sending their first query. Like everything in publishing, it is unpredictable. Keep in mind, though, that agents tend to hear back from publishers more quickly than writers submitting on their own do, so you might save time overall by going with an agent (or not!)
Anyway, have a flow chart:
Once you have a sense for the path you want to take, you can start to pursue it, which, at some point, will involve sending query letters to agents or submissions to publishers. Both of those are big topics for another day, but I will say that the path for most of us does involve the tedious slog of querying and submitting, at least to some degree. People sometimes come to me hoping to learn what the secret handshake is, or how to make the right connections with the right people, and, well, it just doesn’t work that way. (Again, there are exceptions. But not as many as people think.)
I’ve cut off the flow chart when it comes to self-publishing just because I don’t know much about it, so at that point, my ability to give advice ends.
Often, the “how to get published” question is only part of a bigger question, “what do I do next?”, which is about how to chart a journey as a writer.
Again, I can only speak from my own experience, and everyone has their own needs and circumstances. What makes sense for a 22-year-old student might not make sense for an 82-year-old retiree, for example. But here are a few things I found:
Community is very helpful. Writer friends can help you navigate these waters. Find local groups or conventions in your genre, or find them online. Listen to podcasts about the business and craft of writing, especially in your genre.
Get some feedback, typically by trading critiques with writer friends. You can also pay for feedback through manuscript evaluation services (such as the one run by the Writers Union of Canada) or with a professional editor. It is never necessary to pay for an editor’s feedback if you are pursuing traditional publishing, but it can be a worthwhile learning expense if the editor is good. Just be sure to treat all advice (including mine!) as one person’s opinion.
Learn. Keep learning. Writing is learning. That means reading as much as you can. Workshops and how-to books can also be very valuable, if you approach them with the right attitude — I resisted this for decades, but eventually I figured out that deliberately trying to get better at expressing myself and stretching myself creatively was rewarding in every way. Again, be sure to treat all advice as one person’s opinion. There are no laws in art.
Write the next book. Again, this might not apply to everyone — it’s fine to write one book and be done. But if you want to keep writing, keep writing, no matter what is happening on the publishing side of things. Querying and submitting are, for many of us, processes that take years and can include a lot of heartbreak. Sometimes people will say to me, “I’ve written a book and I want to put it out there on submission to see whether I’m any good and should keep going.” I always push back against that assumption. The reasons why a manuscript might be accepted or rejected are myriad and many have nothing to do with whether it’s any good. If you would enjoy writing more, keep at it. If not, stop. The business side has to chug along separately from the creation side — at least, that has been the case for me.
I hope that’s helpful! Feel free to share with anyone asking these questions. As I say, my inbox is always open.