A traditional publishing deal is a contract where a publishing house acquires the rights to an author’s manuscript. In exchange, the publisher manages and funds the entire publication process, from editing and design to printing and distribution. The author receives payment consisting of an advance against future earnings and ongoing royalties from book sales. For the author, this means professional support and broad retail access without personal financial risk.
Prepare Your Manuscript
An author’s primary focus must be the manuscript. For fiction writers, the book must be fully completed, revised, and polished. Publishers and agents will not consider a novel based on an idea or a partial draft, as they need the finished product to evaluate its potential. This means the author should have already completed self-revisions, addressing plot holes, strengthening character arcs, and refining the prose.
For most non-fiction projects, like memoirs or topic-driven books, a comprehensive proposal and sample chapters can be sufficient. This is because non-fiction is often sold on the strength of the concept and the author’s platform or expertise. The proposal itself serves as a business plan for the book, and the quality of the sample chapters must be high, demonstrating the author’s writing ability.
External feedback is a part of the preparation process. Beta readers from the book’s target audience can provide impressions on pacing, clarity, and overall engagement. For a more professional critique, hiring a freelance editor is a useful step. A developmental editor can help with large-scale issues like structure, while a copy editor focuses on correcting grammar and punctuation.
Find a Literary Agent
A literary agent is a necessity for authors hoping to be published by a major publishing house. Agents act as an author’s advocate and business partner, serving as gatekeepers to editors who rarely accept unsolicited manuscripts. They have established relationships with editors, understand market nuances, and negotiate favorable contract terms. Agents receive a 15% commission on any income the book generates.
The search for an agent begins with targeted research. Authors should look for agents who sell books within their specific genre. A good starting point is the acknowledgments section of recently published books similar to the author’s own work, as writers often thank their agents by name.
Online resources like QueryTracker and Publishers Marketplace offer searchable lists of agents, including their submission preferences and recent sales. An agent’s personal or agency website is also a source of information, detailing what genres they represent and how they prefer to be contacted. Verify an agent’s legitimacy by looking for a history of book sales to avoid fraudulent operators who charge upfront fees.
Craft Your Submission Materials
The Query Letter
The query letter is a one-page professional introduction that is an author’s first chance to capture an agent’s interest. It must be concise and professional. A successful query letter is broken down into three parts, opening with a compelling hook that encapsulates the book’s core conflict or concept.
Following the hook, the letter provides a brief summary of the book, usually two to three paragraphs. For fiction, this outlines the main character, their goal, the central conflict, and the stakes, without revealing the ending. For non-fiction, it describes the book’s main argument, what makes it unique, and its intended audience. The final component is a short author biography with relevant writing credits, awards, or professional expertise.
The Synopsis
A synopsis is a detailed summary of a book’s entire plot from beginning to end. Unlike the teaser-style summary in the query letter, the synopsis must include all major plot twists, character developments, and the story’s conclusion. Its length is one to two single-spaced pages, and it shows an agent that the story is well-structured with a coherent narrative arc.
A synopsis should introduce the primary characters, explain the inciting incident, and follow the main plot through its rising action, climax, and resolution. While the writing should be clear and engaging, the focus is on plot mechanics rather than prose. Agents use this document to quickly assess the core structure of a manuscript before committing to reading the full work.
The Book Proposal
The book proposal is the standard submission document for non-fiction and is a business plan for a book that may not yet be fully written. It is a comprehensive document designed to convince a publisher that both the book idea and the author are worth investing in. The proposal begins with an overview that summarizes the project and its unique selling proposition.
A proposal must demonstrate that a market exists for the book and that the author is the right person to write it. It includes several components:
- An analysis of the target audience, identifying who will buy the book.
- A marketing plan detailing how the author will use their platform to help sell the book.
- A list of competitive or comparative titles, explaining how the book is different.
- Sample chapters to showcase the writing quality and the author’s voice.
Navigate the Querying Process
Once submission materials are prepared, the active process of querying agents begins. The most important rule is to follow each agent’s specific submission guidelines precisely. These guidelines, available on the agency’s website, detail everything from email formatting to how they want to receive sample pages, and failing to follow them is a common reason for rejection.
A practical strategy is to send queries in small, targeted batches of five to ten agents at a time. This approach allows an author to gauge the effectiveness of their query letter and synopsis. If an initial batch yields no manuscript requests, the submission materials may need revision before contacting the next group.
Rejection is an unavoidable part of the journey. Authors will receive responses ranging from standard form rejections, which offer no personalized feedback, to more encouraging rejections that might include a brief comment. The goal is to receive a request for a partial or full manuscript, which signifies a higher level of interest. Querying is a numbers game that requires patience and resilience.
The Publisher Submission and Offer
After an author signs with an agent, the agent takes over the submission process. This phase is known as being “on submission.” The agent uses their industry connections to pitch the manuscript to a curated list of editors at various publishing houses and manages all communication.
If an editor is interested in acquiring the manuscript, they will present an offer to the agent. A publishing offer includes an advance and royalty rates. An advance is an upfront payment to the author that is paid against future royalties, meaning the author receives no further payments until the book earns back this amount. Royalty rates are the percentage an author earns on each book sold and vary by format.
The agent’s role is valuable during this negotiation phase. They work to secure the best possible terms, including financial aspects and clauses related to subsidiary rights. These rights can include audiobooks, translations, and film adaptations. Once a contract is signed, the book enters the publisher’s production pipeline for editing, design, and marketing.