Claire Wingfield

1. Be Professional

This means understanding that, while writing your manuscript may have been a labour of love, the publishing world is a business. This doesn’t mean people working in publishing don’t care about new work – it just means remembering to approach them courteously and professionally at each step of the way.

2. Make an Appropriate Approach (Part 1)
This means ensuring you are sending the right material to the right person in the correct way. The first part of this is making sure your chosen publisher or agent publishes the kind of work you want to send them. The second is finding out if your target has a preferred way in which they like to receive work (for example by email, by post, after a short introductory telephone call). You should be able to find some of this information on the publisher or agency’s website, or in ‘The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook’. Otherwise, a short phone-call can make sure you are sending your material to the right place and in a way which makes the recipient’s job as easy as possible.

3. Make an Appropriate Approach (Part 2)
The standard initial submissions package for fiction includes a cover letter, a synopsis and the first three chapters.
Your cover letter should provide a brief introduction to yourself and to the manuscript you are submitting. Here, you might explain why you are specifically qualified to write about the subject matter of the book (for example, if your novel is set in Japan and you used to live there – say so; if you’ve written a non-fiction book about the weather and have spent your professional life working in the MET office – say so). Here (particularly for non-fiction) you might need to deal with any books that are similar to yours on the market. Show your awareness of the competition and state how your book differs from / improves on, what is already on offer.
The synopsis is a short overview of the submitted work. For fiction, it will introduce the central characters and give an outline of the plot (including the ending). Like the manuscript, it should be double-spaced. Ideally, a synopsis should be one or two pages in length.
Your first three chapters are of course your primary selling tool (and yes, they must be the first three chapters of the book – not your favourite three chapters from anywhere in the manuscript). By the time you are considering making a submission you must be happy that your manuscript is as fully developed as you are able to make it. The people you are sending it to aren’t in the business of helping to complete an unfinished manuscript. There are, however, people who are (literary consultants, writer development organisations who might organise mentoring schemes, creative writing tutors…)
So, make sure your work is the best it possibly can be before you make a submission, and make sure it is professionally presented. Double-spaced, with numbers on each page, and properly proof-read for spelling and grammar. Consider asking someone you know to read through for misspellings or grammatical errors, or even employing a professional proof-reader.

4. How to Send a Polite Reminder
Publishing houses and literary agencies are notoriously busy places, and if you don’t receive a response within a reasonable amount of time you may like to send a quick reminder. Ideally, you should try to find out at the start of the process how long the organisation’s reading process typically takes. Mark this in your diary (and if you don’t have this info I’d give 3 months as a reasonable period of time here) and if you haven’t heard anything after the date passes you might want to send a polite reminder email. If you’ve had any successes / developments with your writing in the meantime (i.e. you’ve sent them a novel, and you’ve just found out it’s been shortlisted for a writing competition, or a play of yours has just been commissioned) sending news of this would be a nice way to prompt the recipient with regards to your submitted work. Otherwise, a simple email asking if the recipient has had the chance to read your work, with again a few lines of description about yourself and the work, would suffice.
A word of warning: on occasion I’ve seen incidences where writers have shown their annoyance or disbelief that they haven’t been contacted by now. This won’t win you any friends, and is very unlikely to win you a publishing deal. Remember that whilst looking for new work (and there’s a lot out there at any one time), publishers and agents are also busy fulfilling their commitments to the writers they are already working with. A new writer must show both patience and tenacity.

5. How to Respond to Rejection (Part 1)
Always take rejection gracefully, and where you can, learn from any feedback that is offered to you. This shows professionalism, whereas an angry response (You’re wrong! I will get published!) will only make the recipient glad they didn’t decide to work with that particular writer. If you are determined to make a career as a writer, you may well come across the same people at a later stage. It’s also true that there are many reasons why a manuscript may not be accepted, and the likelihood is you may never know what these are. An agent or publisher may have just taken on a similar manuscript, or they may have appreciated elements of the work but ultimately found it not to their taste. However, publishing people talk, and something that might not have fitted their list, may fit someone else’s that they come into contact with. Ok, it’s a rarity, but never blow this chance by sending an ill-considered angry or disappointed response. (If you feel the reader has helped you in some way a short ‘thank-you for your time’ email could be a nice response with even (where appropriate) an indication of how you intend to take their feedback on – again, this shows tenacity and a professional approach to your writing.)

6. How to Respond to Rejection (Part 2)
The first point to this is to keep going – it’s hard to get published, and what doesn’t suit one publisher or agency may well suit another.
The second is to consider changing your approach. Have you had the project professionally assessed? A literary consultant such as myself will be able to give you a professional appraisal of your work, giving you an idea of how marketable it is, and where the manuscript can be improved. Do you need to take some time to develop your craft via a writing course or even by joining a supportive writers’ group? Can you sharpen your writing skills by becoming involved in local projects (e.g. writing for a community play)? Do you need to take some time out to read new writing, to familiarize yourself with what is currently being published in your genre?

If you would like to apply for my made-to-measure literary consultancy service, which focuses on giving individual writers the support they need, or have a query or comment on anything in this article, please email Claire Wingfield on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .