Submitting Your Manuscript: A To-Do List

The “Now What?” Months continue, and we’re shifting our focus to the wide world of publishing! Today, Samantha Streger, the director of publishing at Full Fathom Five Digital, an e-first publishing imprint, shares a to-do list for when you’re ready to start shopping your manuscript:

So you’ve finished your novel. It’s been edited, and revised, and you finally feel ready to start submitting your manuscript. Now what?

Figure out who will want to read it. Who is your audience: middle schoolers, Young Adults, adults who love YA, divorcées, thrill-seekers, dog-nappers? After you know who’s going to be interested in reading your book, you can easily find out what other types of books those readers like to buy, which have been the most successful, and who publishes those books. Look at a publisher’s and agent’s “About” page to see what types of works they’re interested in, but find out even more by looking at their online catalogs and bestsellers…

For example, digital publishers like Full Fathom Five Digital often go for commercially-oriented, genre-driven titles, while larger print publishers are looking for the highest concept and literary works. It seems obvious, but many writers don’t research the company they’re pitching. You may find that the most successful-looking titles in your genre are self-published. With that knowledge in hand, you can decide to follow the blogs of those authors, research publishing services, and self-publish your own work.

Go one step further with your research. No one loves to research (those who say they do are unicorns!) but a few days of collecting information can go a long way toward understanding where you should submit your manuscript, and why. 

Subscribe to free publishing newsletters (like Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Weekly) to learn more about the current news and bestsellers. Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups for writers, and look at the current topics. Follow publisher, editor, and author blogs, and see if there are new emerging trends. 

For example: as of early 2015, science fiction is hot right now, but dystopian YA is on the way out. Does that mean you’re out of luck with your dystopian YA manuscript? Not at all. What it does mean is that you will have a knowledgeable pitch letter meant to convince an agent or publisher why looking at your dystopian YA is worth their time, despite the flagging trend.

Pitch & synopsize. Once you’ve done the research, and have found titles comparable to yours, you can pitch agents or publishers who deal with that type of work. 

Unsure whether to try for an agent or go straight to a publisher? That is the perfect type of question for online author groups. Some publishers will not look at titles that are not submitted by agents, but many new innovative publishers (like FFF Digital) will. 

When submitting a manuscript, include both a pitch and a synopsis. I’ve seen long synopses without a pitch, but the pitch is the necessary hook. Agents want to know how they’re going to sell your book to a publisher, and publishers want to know how they’re going to sell your book to readers. The pitch will tell them! 

When writing the letter, think about how you would sell your book via Twitter—you only have 140 characters to tell it all. Then use this savvy sentence to hook an agent or editor.  The rest of your (succinct!) pitch can include your knowledge of current trends and titles comparable to yours, making an argument for your work.

Don’t forget to sell yourself. It may seem counterintuitive to promote yourself as an author prior to actually having a book deal, but you’re doing the same thing an agent or publisher will be doing: trying to sell your work. 

I love to see a pitch that includes an author’s own plans for marketing themselves.  Not every author has an established web presence or marketing strategy, but even a website under construction and small social media following is appreciated more than a lack of information. 

If you’re a member of an author’s organization, like Romance Writers of America, include this. If your NaNoWriMo manuscript has been read by over 100 people to great reviews and feedback, include this, and a blurb of the best review. 

A well-written manuscript is only 1/4 of the publishing battle: authors always need exposure. Companies that will become your publishing partner particularly like to see that the partnership will be maintained when it comes to marketing and publicity. Your pitch letter is similar to a job application—make us want to work with you!

Be a minuscule bother, and then move on. Follow up if you haven’t heard from the places you’ve submitted your work in about three months time. When an author follows up with me, I’ll glance at where the manuscript is on my list, and potentially move it closer to the top. Just like with a new job prospect, it doesn’t hurt to show that you have continued interest in the company. 

Remember that agents and editors will only acquire what we think we can sell, but we are not all-knowing. With each passing year, a rejection is less of a big deal: there are tons of options for authors publishing today, and too much information to keep track of. If you’re unsuccessful pitching the big five publishing houses, take a step back, and think about whether a new model could be right for you and your work. 

Samantha Streger is the Director of Publishing at Full Fathom Five Digital, an e-first commercial publishing imprint that launched in October 2014. A veteran of the ebook business, Samantha was previously an editor at Open Road Integrated Media, where she built a children’s ebook list from picture books through YA novels. Prior to her position at Open Road, she worked as an Assistant Agent at the Wallace Literary Agency and Assistant Editor at Disney Publishing Worldwide. She received her graduate certificate in publishing from New York University in 2009. Curious about Full Fathom Five Digital? Find out more about us here. (But first do the dreaded research.)