Finding the right publisher for my book

Publishers are much more likely to look favourably on submissions from an agent, that direct ditto.

How many agents have you tried? One way to choose possible ones, is to look at the thanks from the author to agent/publisher at the beginning of the sort of book you have written.

I tried 6 before one took me on, and after much rewriting, before she thought it 100% ready to send out, that novel went on to attract a bidding war.

I was successfully published for some years, but I’m not writing any more - ideas simply dried up. Which would mean (some would say) that I was never a ‘proper’ writer in the first place!

Needless to say, your covering letter or email should be brief, with immaculate spelling and grammar, likewise the SPAG of any partial submission.

Might add that I have seen a lot of wannabe efforts, and many would be vastly improved by cutting/pruning unnecessary words/waffle.

My first published novel (for a minor publisher some years before I found an agent) started as a reject which I rewrote, with drastic cutting, for a competition asking for just the first 4000 words.
After such a major pruning, I wondered why I hadn’t done that in the first place! (My entry went on to win one of 6 x 2nd prizes - this was donkeys’ years ago though.)

I might add that I know a lot of authors and most had a lot of rejections before their ‘first’ novel was published.

Good luck and all the best.

I am interested in this post. I am a prolific writer and have had a few short stories published in magazines over the years. Self publishing sounds like a wonderful idea but, as I have posted elsewhere, it is not half as easy as it sounds. I've more or less given up and just write for my own pleasure now. I suspect my DH thinks it a waste of my time but I do find it very therapeutic, especially in recent times. I will have a look at bookstok though. Thanks Namsnanny.

Thanks Namsnanny. I'll look at that.

I've read that lots of people use bookstok to self publish now.

Thank you!
Good for you, geekesse!
I've been struggling with the Writers' handbook but find information overload there!
Having submitted to several publishers, I started trying to get an agent, but nobody interested in me!
So I'm going down the self-publishing road and even that is a minefield.
I'll try your 2 suggestions Manhattan, I'd forgotten about Mslexia.
I need a little more help than simply self-publishing on Google. Although I might work my way round to that eventually.
Thanks again.

I believe you can publish yourself on Google. A friend of mine has written his life story as a warning against drug taking and I keep telling him to publish it. I'll have to follow that up again. It needs proof reading and editing.

Writers & Artists is the best place to start learning about the process:

www.writersandartists.co.uk/

More useful advice from Mslexia.

mslexia.co.uk/

Yes, but it was a textbook, and I was commissioned to write it.