In the last blog I provided a few starting points to finding an agent. So, I am assuming
you have finished your manuscript, and you are ready to start the arduous process of
getting published. Ask yourself, what is the best marketing tool available for your book?
AWARDS.
While you are looking and submitting your work to agents, simultaneously submit it to
contests. There are hundreds out there. Some are more important than others. Submit
to many. Submit to the best and to those that are at a lower level. Any award provides
a credential.
When I published Small Moments: A Child’s Memories of the Civil Rights Movement I
made the mistake of self-publishing first and then sending it out to contests. Publishers
rarely want to republish a book that has already sold to what they call ‘low hanging fruit’
or the long lists of friends and family. Having already published, I then sent it out for
awards, and it won several, including the Midwest Book Award. However, I have yet to
find a publisher willing to republish. Lesson, send your manuscripts out to as many
contests as possible while working to find an agent and before. Give yourself time to get
the book ready to catch the attention of a publisher.