How to Get Published

by John Bowers

It takes a really good query to get a publisher’s (or agent’s) attention, but what really sells your book is the book itself.  The query might be a masterpiece, but if the novel isn’t at least as good, you’re going to be rejected.

Agents and publishers are inundated with material, most of it bad.  If you’re going to rise above the mob, your book has to have something special.  A compelling, well-plotted story is obviously necessary, but it’s amazing how many well conceived stories are just plain badly written. To sell your story, it needs to be written well, and the best way to do that is to write it tightly.

Tight writing, like tight pants, gets noticed. (more…)

by John Bowers

You read an awful lot these days about the good writers who never get published.  You read how the system is structured to make it very difficult to break in.  And what you read is true.

There’s another reason good writers often don’t get published.  That’s because they never really try to break in.  They become discouraged and give up.  That query letter is just too intimidating, or researching the markets just seems hopeless. “I can’t do it.”

I understand that mentality completely.  I’m one of those writers.

I discovered a love of writing in junior high.  Long before I bought my first typewriter, I was writing short stories with a pencil.  I just loved to create adventures in my head and write them down.  When I got to high school, four of my English teachers (which means…ALL of them) were astounded at my natural gift (I didn’t even know I had one, I just thought it was fun), and expected great things of me.  So I began to believe in myself.

Then I ran into the world of reality.  People I knew - friends of the family, people at church - they smirked.  They laughed.  “You want to be a writer?  Who are you? What makes you special?” (more…)