5 Things You Should Know Before You Submit

After you have the next best seller or great American novel written, you have to find someone willing to put it into print. You do that by sending out submission packages to agents or directly to publishers. In either case, not every submission package you send out will be the same. Many writers make the mistake of printing of a number of copies of the same package and sending them off simultaneously.

Just like when you apply for a job with a resume and cover letter, though, you need to tailor your documents to fit the agent or publisher (for the sake of this article, I’m going to just say “agent” from now on, but the same applies if you’re submitting your work unrepresented to a publisher). Here are the things you need to know before you submit:

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1. How does the agent like submissions formatted?

2. What books has the agent represented or published in the past?

3. When are submissions accepted?

4. To whom should the envelope be addressed?

5. What is his or her acceptance rate?

You can typically find out all of this information from the agent’s website, but don’t be afraid to make a phone call. When you have the receptionist on the phone, pick his or her brain. The more you know about an agent, the more likely you are to be accepted!