Common Publishing Mistakes

A few months ago, a young friend of mine shared some very happy news with me. Her book had been accepted by a publisher! It was the first she'd ever written, and it was accepted on her first submission attempt! Trying not to show my skepticism, I congratulated her and asked her who the publisher was.

"Publish America," she answered.

I went home that night and did what I often do when I hear something odd: I turned to the internet. I googled Publish America and found reference after reference to how much of a scam they were (too much to discuss here, but in short they overcharge for poor quality books so you're not likely to sell many, and they keep the rights to your book for seven years). I found two sites that were of particular help: Predators and Editors and AbsoluteWrite.com. I felt terrible for my friend, but I had to tell her the bad news. She took it pretty well, thankfully.

I offered to look her manuscript over, and I soon realized the book was nowhere near ready for submission. It was filled with grammatical errors and plot inconsistencies. She's going to keep working on it, with what guidance I can give her, and will submit again later when the manuscript is in better condition...to a legitimate agent or publisher.

I spend a lot of time on writer's forums, and I see the same mistakes over and over: people fall for the Publish America scam or others like it, failing to do research on publishers and agents before they submit. Others do their research and find the right places to submit, but get excited and send out queries before their book is done. They must then scramble to get the piece finished when someone actually asks to see it. Make sure your work is complete and edited before you submit!

If you want to be a writer, the first thing you should do is learn how to write well--take classes, read books, and study grammar. I have an articles series titled "Common Grammar Mistakes" here on Associated Content--just click on my profile to find them. I also talk about lessons I've learned about fiction writing on my blog, Jennifer Gets Bloggy. There are a lot of great resources on the internet to improve your grammar, such as Michelle L. Devon's Editing and Proofreading Tips blog.

The next thing you need to do if you want to get published is educate yourself about the publishing process. Visit the writer's forums--Accentuate Writers is a great one--read everything you can there and ask a lot of questions. Research every publisher or agent before you submit, and make sure your work is as good as it can be.

Some publishers just don't have very good business practices. They get a bad reputation in the industry by selling poor quality books, hiring inexperienced editors, or engage in amteurish publicity. In some cases, their business fail because they tried to put out too many books too fast or made other bad decisions, leaving their authors in a lurch. Make sure your agent or publisher has a sales record and check them out on the internet to see if there have been any complaints about them.

I was lucky enough to get some great advice from Michelle L. Devon. I recently asked her to share the most common publishing mistakes she sees.

Michelle Devon: What mistakes do you see authors make when they try to get published?

"The first and biggest mistake an author can make when trying to get published is getting ahead of themselves and sending it in for consideration before the writing is ready. The writing you send to a publication or publisher should be as close to publish-ready as you can get it before it's ever submitted for consideration. Write, wait, edit, edit, edit, rewrite, and then edit again before you ever submit to a publisher. The competition is fierce, and it will be the writer who takes the time to perfect their writing who gets published, while others who may have fantastic ideas will not be published because they didn't take care of these things. It's tough once you have a completed work and you want to get paid and see it in print, but it's so essential to build your portfolio and reputation that editing is a larger process in your writing than even the writing itself.

"The second mistake I see authors make is not following the submission guidelines. This is true of articles as well as book manuscripts. Those guidelines are in place for a reason. Sometimes it's so the publisher can see if you will be easy to work with and can follow instructions, and other times it's about saving time and money by having the work publish-ready when it's received. I have worked with many small to mid-sized publishers who will throw out manuscripts that do not adhere to the submission guidelines exactly, without ever reading the manuscript. Don't think your writing will WOW! them so much that they'll overlooked submission guidelines mistakes, because many editors will never even see your work if you don't follow those guidelines to the letter.

"If you liken it to looking for a job, your manuscript and query are your resume, while the submission guidelines are your application. You wouldn't go into a job interview and fill out an application where it asks for your name by putting in your birth date, or putting your name on the social security number line, would you?"

Do your research and you'll avoid the publishing scams that entrap so many authors. Follow Michelle's advice to make sure you're truly ready to submit your work, and your chances of becoming one of the honored few who have their name on a published book will greatly increase.