Secrets of the Acquisitions Editor: 5 Steps to Getting Your Novel Published

As my guest poster today I'm thoroughly impressed. When asked to describer herself Erin Lale wasn't pulling any punches "Acquisitions Editor at Eternal Press and Damnation Books and Editor and Publisher of Time Yarns and an author published both self and traditionally." See what I mean.


Secrets of the Acquisitions Editor: 5 Steps to Getting YourNovel Published
By Erin Lale, Acquisitions Editor at Eternal Press andDamnation Books, and Editor and Publisher of Time Yarns


If you want your novelpublished by a publishing company, there are five important steps to ensuresuccess. These steps are based on the five most common reasons why I reject amanuscript submission from Eternal Press or Damnation Books.
1.  Followinstructions. Read the submissions guidelines and follow every requirement. Ifthe guidelines say to submit your manuscript in doc or rtf format, don't submitit in a different format. If the guidelines say to include a marketing plan,then do so. "Market plan: whatever will sell millions of copies J" (yes, that is a quote from a real cover letter) isnot a marketing plan. If you don't know how to write a marketing plan, it's OKto ask for help. An author's marketing plan is just a list of all the types ofpublicity and marketing in which the author is willing and able to participate.An example would be doing a guest blog post via email, like this one exceptabout your book. Not following instructions is the most common reason why Ireject a manuscript submission.
2.  Write a strongopening scene. The second most common reason why I reject a manuscriptsubmission is a weak beginning. Often, I receive manuscripts in my slush pilewhich are weakest at the beginning and get better as they go along and haveterrific endings. To me, that is evidence that the manuscript is a first draft,and the writer learned to write better as he or she went along. Of course thereis nothing wrong with improving as one learns by doing, but the beginning isthe most important part of a book for grabbing the reader's interest, so manybooks would be much better if the writer rewrote or completely eliminated thefirst chapter. Often, the viewpoint character, the person (first, second, orthird), or another important element of the book changes after the first fewpages, leaving the book with an opening that does not reflect the quality ortone of the rest of the book. Of course there are examples of classic booksthat have beginnings that are dissimilar from the body of the book, but anauthor hoping to be published by an modern genre press should keep in mind thatreaders want to know with whom they are supposed to identify and what theirproblem is on page one, and may choose to stop reading if that information isnot provided in the first chapter.3.  Impress me withyour marketing plan or list of published works and the size of your fan base.If I've put your book in my "maybe pile" and am trying to decide between twobooks I'm not sure about, the cover letter that states "I'm a 21 year oldcollege student and I worked really hard on this book" (yes, that is a quotefrom a real cover letter) is going to come in second place to the one thatstates "I'm the editor of (name of magazine) and I can promote my book to my(number of) subscribers" (and that is also a quote from a real cover letter,and yes, I offered her a book contract.) Like any other business, a publishingcompany wants to sell units. Unlike some of the larger publishing houses, somesmall presses are actually more likely to want your book if you previouslyself-published it as an ebook, if you have a good sales record, some goodreviews, and some publicity already in place, such as a book trailer, reallycool author website, or speaking engagements and convention panel participationalready booked for the coming year.4.  Choose whichpublishing company to which to submit your book carefully. If I get the samebook in my inbox at both Eternal Press and Damnation Books, which have verydifferent lines, it seems to me that the author is just shotgunning their bookand does not really know where it fits. Also, if you are sending outsimultaneous submissions, it is considered good form to say so in the coverletter. Also, keep in mind that if you are submitting to a genre publisher, theeditor will be assessing whether a book fits the genre the author has assignedit in the author's cover letter. I have rejected a book that was supposed to bein the Young Adult category for having one completely inappropriate scene nearthe end of the book, because I would be embarrassed to give that book to afriend's child. I have rejected a collection of short stories because thesubmission guidelines say we are closed to short stories, and I have rejected aWestern submitted to Damnation Books because there was nothing dark about it;it could have played on family viewing time TV as an episode of Walker TexasRanger, and Damnation Books only publishes dark fiction.5.  Be original. I'mmore likely to like a book that has original ideas, although in category genrepublishing it is acceptable to follow the crowd. I will undoubtedly buy morevampire romances this year, but just once I'd like to read about a skinwalker. Moreimportant than originality of ideas, though, is simply submitting your ownwriting. One of the less common, but more egregious, failings of manuscriptsI've found in my slush pile is plagiarism. Copying and pasting from websites isreally obvious when the document file contains live links back to the websitefrom which it was stolen, and yes, that was a real book in my slush pile too.
Bio:
My career in the writing andpublishing field began in 1985, when my poem was published in an anthology. Iwrote for the Sonoma Index-Tribune, was editor and publisher of the quarterlymagazine Berserkrgangr, and owner of The Science Fiction Store in Las Vegas, all before theera of internet publishing. I published 15 of my own books and founded TimeYarns, and came out with 2 anthologies of other authors' works under that labelbefore becoming Acquisitions Editor of Eternal Press and Damnation Books.
Eternal Press site:
http://www.eternalpress.biz
Damnation Books site:
http://www.damnationbooks.com
Time Yarns site:
https://sites.google.com/site/timeyarns/home
Youtubelink to watch the Time Yarns trailer:

HD http://youtu.be/oW3hvRVmRCY

non HD http://youtu.be/OGvaUgP1K7U
Linkto buy my short story collection Universal Genius:
 http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Genius-Collected-Fiction-ebook/dp/B004SY9MF8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1308698786&sr=8-4


Universal Genius is a collection of my science fiction,fantasy, and magical realism short stories, mostly reprints from magazineswhich are out of print. The Timelessness Machine is a classic from the firstissue of Sterling Web and is also the story which originated the Time Yarnsuniverse, spelling out the way the physics of attempting and failing to timetravel works in the Time Yarns stories. The recent Time Yarns anthologies eachcontain a story in which attempted time travel results in similar kinds ofspectacular failure,  Testing Time byTony Thorne MBE in Cassandra's Time Yarns and 1400 Hours by Ian Miller inAnarchy Zone Time Yarns.

link to buy:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006S4IJ7I


link to buy:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006S4X5EK