Getting Published - 13. Where to submit your manuscript

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I received a query from TK in response to my Writing Tips. TK asked: once a story is ready, who should a writer contact to get it published?

In some ways, the easy part is the actual writing of a story. Getting it out there and into publication is the challenge. So where do you start?

Novels

If you’ve written a novel and want to get it published in the UK, the first step is to get a literary agent. You can find agents listed in the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook (both published annually - so get the most up to date ones). They will act on your behalf in submitting to publishers. This gives you the strongest chance of getting your work noticed by a publisher. For a more detailed insider’s view of what a literary agent does and how they can help you, listen to my podcast interview with a UK literary agent Lucy Luck - click here.

If you’re trying to get your novel published in Malaysia, I believe that the way you do it is submit it direct to the publisher. Eric Forbes, the books editor for MPH Books in Malaysia, gives useful guidelines at his blog - click here.

Short Stories

If you’ve written a short story, you should try and get it published in magazines and journals first before hoping for a book deal in the UK. It is much more difficult to get a collection of short stories published in the UK than a novel - especially if you have no track record of published work. Readers here tend to prefer novels so that is the primary market. Check out magazines and journals in the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook and submit your story to them - make sure they are interested in short stories first, obviously. Payment is likely to be minimal. Once you have a published body of work, then you could try to get a publisher to put together a collection - the editors of the magazines you have published in may be able to suggest the best route for that. I do not have any experience of trying to publish a collection of short stories but I suspect that the process is the same for novels - ie to get a literary agent first.

There may be publishers who are actively looking for short stories to put into collections arranged by theme and featuring a range of different writers. You could try to seek those out. I do not know where or how you would find them but the Writers Handbook and the Writers & Artists Yearbook may be good places to start. Also literary / writing magazines and journals may publicise or advertise such ventures.

I believe that it may be easier in Malaysia to get short stories published in book form as that is the primary local market. I have no personal experience of this process but you might like to check out Ted Mahsun’s blog at http://tedmahsun.blogspot.com to see how he’s got his stories published - Ted is a regular Fusion View reader and commentor based in Malaysia, who is a great example of a tenacious and focused writer. For ages, he has been writing stories, sending them out for publication, getting rejections, picking himself up again and keeping writing. Last year, he had his first two stories accepted for publication and is starting to make a name for himself as a book reviewer, too.

Other Countries

These tips focus on the UK as that is my area of experience and I’ve mentioned Malaysian opportunities for publication based on what I’ve gathered from others.

If you have any tips about the publication process in other countries, please do add a comment or email me (see the Email Me link on the sidebar).

Or, if you have anything to add to what I’ve said here that could help emerging writers, do get in touch as well.

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Photo: thanks to wrtehereinfrance