The Behind the Scenes Scoop on How to Publish Traditionally

One of the questions writers ask me a lot is: “What does it take to get published?” or “How do I do this thing called publishing?”

Some of you have heard about the work that we do over in the Writing Gym, and the results we get.

Today, I’m really excited because I get to celebrate two of our amazing Writing Gym Rats–we call them that.

It doesn’t sound very nice, but, they’re Gym Rats. They’re working out. They’re working their writing toward publishing, and I’m super excited about it!

First, I want to tell you first about my work with Jim.

Jim has been writing this great book. We finished working on it about eight months ago. He’s been putting together his package and querying, and we are in negotiations with an agent. 

We’ve gotten some great feedback from one agent, and we’ve gone back and forth a couple of times with revisions on that piece. You may not know this, but sometimes an agent will like a piece of work, but will want some changes made.

They might say, “I want to represent this, but I need to see a version where Chapter 3 happens before Chapter 1.”

In Jim’s case, he has moved some of his chapters around, moved some of his content, and now it’s back in the agent’s hands. Congratulations, Jim!

I also want to make a shout-out to Vivian.

Vivian just had THREE requests for full manuscripts!

Many of you know that agents will typically ask for five pages, ten pages, fifty pages, a hundred pages. They put their toes in the water, thinking, “Am I interested enough to read the whole thing? Because I don’t want to waste my time.”

When you get asked for a full, it’s kind of like going from dating to being engaged. It’s a switch in the investment that the agent has on you.

This is an agent saying, “This is interesting enough to me that I’d like to see the whole thing.” And to get THREE requests for a full manuscript within the course of about two weeks is amazing!

Vivian is rocking her querying and her submissions. She and I worked really hard on those submission materials.

Yesterday, I was chatting with a publisher. As you know, I speak with publishing industry professionals every week, all week. I’m always chatting with someone about what’s going on in the publishing industry. She and I were having a chat about negotiating audiobook contracts: how audiobooks become part of the book deal you get when you publish, and how we can work toward getting better publishing contracts for the people who are in the Writing Gym–those Writing Gym Rats.

And over the course of the conversation, she said, “I would love to see some pieces from your writers.”

This happens pretty frequently when I’m speaking with publishers and editors and agents because in the industry, I’m a known entity. People know that the writing that comes out of the Writing Gym is going to be high quality. It’s ready to go.

That doesn’t mean, as we saw in Jim’s case, that they don’t have some changes that they want to make. But it’s going to be polished, not something typed up during NaNoWriMo and sent in. 

As I was speaking to this woman, she said, “I’d love to see some of the writing that comes out of the Writing Gym,” and I asked her what kinds of pieces are really interesting to her these days. She said, “I’m really interested in environmental pieces these days.” And I said, “Well, I’ve got a story to tell you.”

I told her about the novel that Vivian has been working on, and she said, “That sounds amazing! I absolutely love that concept.”

I asked, “Can I send you a query and a synopsis?”

And she said “I absolutely want to see that.”

So, that’s how things happen in the Writing Gym. It’s sort of like having a matchmaker to find you your mate. Having somebody to help pair you with the right person can be absolutely essential.

You can do it on your own. If you want, you can go out and write your book, and try to revise on your own, and try to find an agent.

But, I spend some time trolling around in other people’s groups and listening to the kinds of things that writers are saying, and the things that I hear are: “Agents are jerks.” “Why is it so hard to publish?” “They keep rejecting me. What’s the deal?” “Why are they so snobby?”

I hear all kinds of things like that, and I understand the frustration of trying and trying without positive results. That can be really frustrating, and you might think that the agents you’re submitting to are just jerks. You can try to do it on your own, or you can stop running on that constant treadmill of frustration and find a solution that works.

I’m sure Jim and Vivian would tell you that it feels a whole lot better to alleviate the stress, to submit and manuscript that they knew was ready to go with a query in tip-top shape, and an interesting synopsis.

All the pieces they needed were in order, and I could pick up the phone and call these people and ask them: “You want to see this synopsis? Would you like to see that query? Are you interested in this book?”

That’s what happens for people who invest in themselves and in their future.

I want to be really clear here: There are no guarantees. I do not have a magic wand where I can make the people in the publishing industry do what I want them to do. But I am part of the publishing industry, and that makes a huge difference.

Think about the people in your community, whether it’s the fellow parents who drop their kids off to school with you, or maybe people your church or your temple or your Rotary Club. Those are the people you know. They are the folks you can call when you need something. They are your people.

When it comes to your book, you want to work with someone who has people she can call too.

Now, this isn’t for everyone. This isn’t a magic pill, and I’m not going to give you some magic thing  to get your novel to publishable. The Writing Gym is for people who are looking to become the kind of writer who can publish time and time again, who want that publishing career and are committed to doing the work and putting in the time.

If that sounds like you, I’d love to have a chat with you. Let’s talk about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there. Until next time, Happy Writing!