Nikki Blog

J. K. Rowling became the first billionaire author, even before the release of her final Harry Potter book. Back when the writing Goddess was fiddling on her first draft, she was without a job and had to operate on her soon-to-written-millionaire-masterpiece from a small shabby café. Little did she know how her life would unfold.

Ever wonder how does someone like her go from having a brilliant idea to becoming a world renowned author? Is it just pure luck that her brilliant manuscript was accidentally stumbled upon, read by top publishers and published? What is the chance of that happening to you or me? Our chance is no more or less than Rowling’s. Since we could always do with more Thai writers on the international scene, this week I will tell you how to get a book published.

It has been my worst kept secret that I want to write a book. I want to write a good book that has the power to inspire and change peoples’ life. So I started researching the publishing world to see what do I need to know to get mine published internationally. And boy, it is much more complicated than I’d originally thought. After I scoured the net for the nook and crook on publishing, here is what I learned if I want to get my book lined up on somebody’s shelves.The first step to get my dream published is to find myself a literary agent. An agent is like a gatekeeper to the London/New York publishing world, and without one, very few editors will be willing to glance at my manuscript. In fact, all the major houses, such as Simon & Schuster, Penguin Putnam, Random House etc, will refuse to look at manuscripts that are unagented.

So how does one go about finding a literary agent? Unfortunately, they are not as eager to take men on as Patpong girls, and I will in fact have to send out query letters. A query letter is a single page cover letter, introducing me and my book. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a resume. It’s not rambling saga of my life as an aspiring writer. It’s not a friendly, “Hey, what’s up, buddy. I’m the next John Grisham. Got the next best selling thriller for ya,” kind of letter. The process could be quite daunting though, as some agents receive 300 query letters per week. That’s more than 1000 queries a month! What’s even more shocking is that these agents only represent 1% of the submissions that come through the door. With this in mind, not only does my manuscript have to be polished clean, but my query letter also has to be professional, intelligent, concise, intriguing and enticing for an agent to ask for more. Basically, if my query can’t pique an agent’s interest, they are not going to request the first 3 chapters if I am writing fictional book, even if it’s the world’s next Harry Potter.

The submission process can be broken down into three distinct rounds: 1) Introduction via query 2) invitation to submit a partial (sample chapters) and 3) invitation to submit the full manuscript. There are always exceptions to the rule of course, especially in my case, since I am writing nonfiction. Writing nonfiction is a totally different ballgame. With nonfiction, I can often submit a query and partial at the same time. An agent can often sell unfinished books to major publishers on the basis of the author’s proposal and credentials. In other words, I can start querying agents before I have to finish my whole nonfiction masterpiece because they can sell the “concept” to publishers on the basis of my outline, table of contents and sample chapters. The next realm of writing is fiction. Often, agents want to see the complete fiction manuscript before they offer representation to an unpublished writer. This means avoiding any temptation to query at all cost, unless there is a full manuscript ready to be dispatched. For those of you seriously keen writers, I have come up with the list of web links and recommended books for information on how to write a stellar query letter:

• Michael Hyatt’s “Writing a Winning Book Proposal”: http://www.stevelaube.com
• http://www.smallpress.org/articles/NonFictionBookProposal.asp
• “Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract” By Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook. This is a great resource for writing queries for novels as well as how to write a synopsis and how to format your manuscript submission.
• “How to Sell, Then Write Your Nonfiction Book” by Blythe Camenson. This book describes how to put together a non-fiction proposal and the process of selling your non-fiction book before finishing it.

Now that you know Rowling started her dream at the bottom of the publishing pyramid, and climbed her way up by polishing, scrubbing, and refining her query letters, there is not so much luck in this game, is there?