I’ve been doing a lot of research into getting my manuscript published and how to go about doing it properly to increase the likelihood of it being picked up.

I’ve only ever sent one manuscript to a publishers before and I realise now I did just about everything wrong (which is ok, because I think my writing has improved a lot since then anyway).

Mistakes I made with the other novel:

– I sent it directly to a publisher, rather than through an agent (although I have recently found out that in Australia this isn’t such a big deal as publishers are much more lenient on unsolicited manuscripts since we don’t have a lot of agents here).
– I had no idea what a query letter was or how to write one effectively, so they probably took one look at my cover letter and thought ‘amateur’.
– I’m pretty sure I didn’t include a synopsis, and if I did I doubt it was very effective. I don’t think I was very good at being able to ‘sell’ my story.
-I only sent it to one publisher and after it got rejected I gave up and didn’t send it to anyone else.

This time around I’ve really done my research and I’m prepared to do everything ‘right’ so that my novel at least has a chance of being published. This is what I have been doing, and what I intend to do this time around:

– I’ve been researching how to write an effective query letter, what agents/publishers are looking for in a query letter and what you should avoid including.
– I’ve been scouting the internet for agents in Australia that are currently taking manuscripts in the genre of fantasy. I’ve started making a comprehensive list of agents to try sending a query letter to when my manuscript is ready. Plus I also intend to compile a list of possible publishers in case I can’t get any agents to pick it up. I’m not going to give up on the first rejection this time!
– I’ve also been researching how to effectively pitch my story and write a synopsis.

I’m hoping this time around I will have more success. I will be sharing some of my research in future blogs.