The guide to getting your first book published in India

What you need to do to see your work in print.

The traditional publishing industry sometimes works like a maze. Years worth of effort and anticipation enters it everyday in staggering proportions but only empty responses and frustrating silence usually emerges out of it. So here’s a guide to traverse this maze.

Finish it
No matter what kind of book it is, if this is this is your first book, then the first and foremost thing you need to do is finish it. Do not ever assume that you would land a publishing deal or agent contract first and then you would complete the book. Unless you are a star writer and there are people clamoring for your work to come out, this is not how it usually works.Decide on your plan of attack.
There are 3 ways you can go about getting your book published. You can go for
1) Self publishing where you publish the book using services like KDP
2) Partnership publishing where you would be partnering with the publisher by contributing money to share the cost of publishing
3) Traditional publishing which is what most people usually look for.
In traditional publishing again you can take two routes.
a) directly approach publishers or
b) you can get a literary agent who would represent you and would get in touch with publishers in order to get you a good deal that your work deserves.
Now, most publishers usually do not accept unsolicited submissions and even if they do, they are not likely to go through all the submitted entries. Most of them rely on trusted agents to pitch them good work, out of which they would pick the ones that makes the most business sense to them.
The publishing landscape in India is growing more crowded each day and publishers are slowly starting to rely more on agents than on direct submissions. But there are still quite a few publishers who consider direct submissions. So think carefully on what route you want to take based on your own timelines and your target publishers.Write a query letter
Once your work is finished and you have pulled enough hair over it, trying to edit it to the best of your abilities, you sit down and write a query letter. Here is a good reference of what a query letter is and how to write one. Basically, it is your sales pitch to publishers/agents in order to convince them that their time/effort/money is not completely wasted if they invest in your work.Read submission guidelines
Each publisher/agent has their own submission guidelines. Visit their websites and read them carefully. Tweak your query letters accordingly. Try to send your query letters to as many publishers/agents as possible unless you are looking for some very specific agent/publisher. Some of them might ask for the first 3 chapters along with the query letter. This is why it is always better to be prepared with your entire manuscript polished and ready before sending out the query letters.Send Sample chapters.
Once you send out your query letters, if the receiving party is interested in your work, they would usually ask for sample chapters (unless they ask for it along with query letter). One important thing to note here is most publishers/agents take a long time to reply to submissions, even if they are interested. So waiting for around 3 months is usually the norm. Do not lose heart immediately if you do not get a response. At the same time, keep sending out letters to other publishers/agents. Once they have expressed interest in your work and asked you for sample chapters, send out the chapters according to what has been asked. Some might ask for first 3 chapters and others for any 3 chapters. If they ask for any 3 chapters, try to send out your best 3 chapters. Always keep in mind the fact that these chapters are supposed to convince the publisher/agent to take up your work. That means these chapters should have content that the publisher thinks would appeal to the readers. Chapters which you think are well written but would have no impact on a publisher/reader are not recommended.Send full manuscript
Once the publisher/agent goes through your sample chapters and finds them suitable for what they are looking for, they would ask for the final manuscript. This request might come as early as 2 days from your day of submission of query letter or as late as 6 months from that day. Always have your full manuscript ready and properly formatted based on the publisher’s guidelines. Send it out with all the necessary details of how you actually envisioned it. Do not send out unfinished work or rough drafts.Sign the contract
If the publisher/agent goes through your entire manuscript and feels it is what they are looking for, they’ll offer you a contract which outlines details like how much royalty the author will be receiving and how much duration the publisher would be having the publishing rights for etc. Read the entire contract carefully before signing it. Make sure all your demands are met and you are clear on what is being agreed upon between you and the publisher. Do not hurry. You have waited long enough to get to this stage. Now is not the moment to hurry and overlook things.
Once you are satisfied with everything that’s written in there, sign your contract and send it back to your publisher. You have now officially got your first book published.

There it is. Simple 7 steps to get your first book published.

My second book ‘Sinners: The Dawn of Kalki’ is now traditionally published and is available on  Amazon