From idea to (hopeful) publication

I have never published a book before. But I also have done many, many things I have never done before.

As I wrote The Mythical Creature Conservatory, several kids asked for the new chapters each time I finished the last one.. I started thinking that maybe other people might like to read this. So I thought to myself, “I’ll self publish this and get a printed copy for Hudson, Denver (Hudson’s little brother), and some friends and that will be that.” But then I finally had something to submit to a few reading groups (previously I was only a reader) and the feedback I got from these fellow writers blew me away. I started to think to myself, “Maybe I should look into traditional publishing.”

I had no idea what I was in for. The process of getting traditionally published changed a lot from the last time I tried (in the early 2000s… shhh) and now the gateway (or maybe I should call it the toll bridge) in is through a literary agent, who then reaches out to publishers to try to sell your book, which then gets you the editor, etc (though it looks like authors often need to figure out their own marketing). How does one get a literary agent, you ask? First, you research the heck out of them through their Manuscript Wishlist and other querying websites, like Query Tracker, to find who represents books in your category and might be into yours. You write a query letter, which turned out to require a very specific way of pitching, and then send it off into a pile with thousands of others and hope that they pick you out of that mountain of submissions. I’ve received a bunch of positive feedback (I was impressed to get some custom notes back vs templated responses), but so far no bites.

But… it only takes one.