She broke her advice down into ten simple tips regarding what we can and can't control about the publishing industry:
Five Things You CAN'T Control:
- Publishing is a Business
- Publishers want a book they can sell to hundreds of thousands of people--not just your mother and your neighbor
- Authors who aren't willing to be business-like make it easier for the publisher to take a pass on their book
- The number of manuscripts submitted in a given year
- At Deseret Book, out of over 2000 yearly submissions, they will only publish around four
- 80% of those submissions aren't ready for publication
- 30-40% of those that aren't ready didn't follow the guidelines
- The number of available slots a publisher has for new writers
- Lisa has seen a debut author published every year she has worked for Deseret Book
- If a publisher doesn't have room for a book, they can't publish it even if they love it
- Other submitted manuscripts that are similar to yours
- If they get four books on Themes in the Book of Revelation, they can only publish one
- They will publish the one that they like best
- An editor's mood
- Lisa tries to do her critical work in the morning or after lunch
- Don't put the editor in a bad mood by making your manuscript hard to get to
Five Things You CAN Control:
- Do your homework
- Think about the kinds of rights (foreign, movie, ebook etc) that are available so that you're ready to enter into a discussion about them
- Great sites for advice:
- Follow the posted guidelines
- See above
- Write a killer cover/query letter
- Don't say "This is the next...."--Editors want the first book in a new trend.
- Be authentic, professional, and memorable
- Include the hook: what is the price of failure?
- Showcase your talent
- Write what you're passionate about
- Let your strength show in your cover/query letter
- Deal with rejection
- You can let rejection stop you in your tracks or you can get over it and get on with your life
- Remember that you can't get out of the slush pile unless you are IN the slush pile
