8 Things You Must Know to Get a Book Deal

• What are ‘The Big Five’ book publishers?
While researching how to get published, one term you’re likely to run into is “The Big Five”. This refers to five publishing houses that now dominate the book industry in the United States. The majority of books are published by them, and the majority of books appearing in bookstores, discount stores, and supermarkets come from them.

• What exactly is ‘legacy publishing’? 
Legacy and traditional publishing are one and the same. Which term you use, however, largely depends on your personal opinion about the Big Five publishers.

• Basic steps to follow in mainstream publishing 
If going the mainstream publishing route, there are some very general steps that most writers traditionally follow.

• Ready your story for submission to publisher 
When submitting a story to a magazine or a book publisher, your manuscript should appear in a specific format. Following this format is important for a number of reasons. 

• How to write a novel synopsis 
If you want to sell your novel to a publisher or get a literary agent to represent it, you’ll ultimately need to write a synopsis, or a brief summary of what occurs in your story. It typically is sent by the author with a query letter; a literary agent who represents the book likely will use the synopsis to pitch your book to publishers.

• How to find lit agents, publishers for your writing 
If you’ve decided that finding a literary agent to obtain a publisher for your book is the best route for you, you’re faced with a new dilemma: Where to find one. There are a number of routes you could go.

• Write winning query letter to editors, agents  
When submitting your short story or article to a magazine or your novel or non-fiction book to a literary agent or publisher, you almost certainly will need to write a query letter. The goal of such a letter, also known as a query, is to pique the receiver’s interest so they’ll bother to read your work. That then could lead them to buying and publishing your writing.

• Why writers must learn to handle rejection  
If you want to be a writer, you must persist in the face of self-doubt. If your manuscript has been rejected, you need to re-examine it, possibly revise it some more, and send it again.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

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