How to get a Book Published Traditionally in 15 Steps

Many writers dream of selling their book to a traditional publishing house, and then seeing their book for sale in a bookstore one day.

If this is your goal, but the prospect seems unattainable, read on.

I’ll set out the steps required to turn this dream into reality.

How to get Published Traditionally: 15 Steps

Step 1: Write a Draft

For more ideas, see my article Steps for Getting Started Writing a Book.

Step 2: Structurally Edit Your Draft

This is one of the most critical steps, which new writers often overlook.

The act of completing a first draft feels so monumental, that the idea of entirely restructuring your story can leave you cold.

However, if you’re hoping to get traditionally published, this is a vital step. 

It’s possible that if you planned out a superb structure for your book, which unfolded perfectly as you wrote, you may be able to avoid a structural edit. These cases, however, are the exception rather than the rule.

For most of us, no matter how carefully we plan our story’s structure, we still find as we write that our characters take over, that certain scenes require more or less word-space than anticipated, that some plot-threads don’t pan out, or that the story just grew too unwieldy, amongst other possible outcomes.

When this happens, we need to carry out a structural self-edit.

This is when the process of writing a publishable book can seem overwhelming. Structural editing requires us to engage with a large manuscript of 60,000+ words, visualising hundreds of pages as one entity. Many people give up at this point.

Luckily, there’s an answer for how you can more easily see the structure of your entire manuscript, and that’s Fictionary Storyteller.

Storyteller is designed to help you carry out a structural edit on your story by visualising your plot and character arcs, and by breaking down your manuscript into smaller scene units. The software allows you to analyse each scene according to structural story elements, so you can assess and edit your story more objectively before beginning revision.  

It’s hard to stand back from a manuscript you’ve spent hours drafting, and objectively assess its faults. It’s difficult to convince yourself of the need to re-write vast sections of the manuscript you’ve come to love. And it can be challenging to figure out what’s strong and what’s weak about your story.

Storyteller is designed to help you find this objective perspective, through the use of story elements, so you’ve a better chance of transforming your first draft into a publishable story.

To get your book traditionally published, your story must be commercially viable. The Fictionary Story Elements have been identified to help you ensure your story has the strong pacing required for commercial success.

As you carry out your structural edit, I’d strongly encourage you to consider genre requirements, if you haven’t already.

If you like to write your first draft as an act of discovery, letting the characters and story reveal themselves to you as you write, then you may not have considered genre in much depth as you wrote. In this case, you need to do so now, as you’ll find it far more difficult to get a book traditionally published if it can’t be easily marketed within a standard genre.

Genre has extensive implications for your story’s structure, and so which genre you choose will likely affect how you carry out your edit. To familiarise yourself with genre structures, read widely around your chosen genre and analyse how your comparative titles structure their stories.

Once you’re clear on your genre and you understand story structure, you’re in a great position to begin a structural or developmental self-edit on your story. 

Step 3: Copy Edit Your Draft

The next step is to look in more detail at your writing and prose. You’ll want to look at areas such as:

• Your voice
• Your word choices
• Whether you’ve shown and not just told your story
• Whether you’ve used excessive words
• Whether you’ve used excessive adjectives, adverbs, passive voice, etc.
• Whether you’ve shown your characters’ personalities through their word choices
• Whether your dialogue contains too much or too little subtext
• How you’ve developed tone and mood

These are the areas of writing generally covered in creative writing courses and writing craft books.

Agents and publishers will assess from the first page of your book whether they like your writing. Without learning to write well, it’s unlikely you’ll get published traditionally. Not all writers need to take creative writing courses, but it’s important to understand how fiction writing differs from business or academic writing.  

Step 4: Proofread Your Draft

You don’t want to submit a manuscript filled with spelling and punctuation mistakes to an agent or publisher. Once your story and writing is strong, then it’s time to carry out your proofread. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, ask a friend, pay a professional, or make use of a grammar app. 

Step 5: Get Beta Readers

No matter how carefully you analyse your manuscript, you can never be entirely objective. The next stage involves asking trusted readers to test-read your book. A few points worth considering when sending your book to beta readers:

• Are your chosen beta readers familiar with your genre? If not, they may not be your ideal beta readers.
• Are your chosen beta readers writers themselves? It can be helpful to have a mix of readers at this stage. Fellow writers can offer useful advice, but they may not read your story as non-writers would.
• Do you trust your beta readers to be both honest and kind? Both these qualities are necessary for you to improve your manuscript without losing your confidence or becoming overly defensive.

Step 6: Revise Again

There’s no point seeking beta reader feedback and then ignoring it. At this stage, you’ll want to consider further revisions, taking into account that:

• You should only follow beta readers’ advice when you agree with it, or see its merits.
• Your beta readers may point out genuine problems they had with your manuscript, but it’s always up to you, not them, to find the best solutions.
• It’s ultimately your story, not your beta readers’ story, so don’t be ruled by their personal tastes. Nevertheless, they’ll probably be able to identify issues that you can’t.
• If one beta reader finds a problem, it may just be one person’s viewpoint. If two beta readers find the same problem, you should take this seriously.

Step 7: Hire a Professional Editor

This is an optional step for anyone hoping to get their book traditionally published. However, if this is your first book, you may find it worth your time and money to make such an investment. An independent edit shouldn’t only improve this book – it should give you the learning tools to improve your writing, editing and revision skills for all your future books. 

You’ll want to consider the stage your writing is at before deciding what type of professional edit you need:

• Do you need a structural or developmental edit, looking at issues such as the flow of the overall story, pacing, tension, conflict, character development, world-building and so on? If you’ve received feedback that readers didn’t connect with your characters or story, struggled to follow what was happening, or didn’t feel immersed in your world, a developmental edit might be in order.
• If you’re looking for qualified structural editors, check out the Fictionary community, where you can make contact with many such trained editors.
• Have you received mediocre feedback on your voice and writing? In which case, a professional copy edit could be just what you need.
• Have you received feedback that your spelling or grammar needs work? If so, a professional proof-read might help.

Step 8: Revise Again

If you hired a professional editor, then naturally you’ll want to revise your manuscript once you’ve received their recommendations.

If you skipped step 7, then I suggest putting aside your manuscript for a period – how long is up to you – and returning to your book once you’ve left it long enough for those rose-tinted glasses of love to fade. You want to be able to assess your story with a clear, objective gaze.

Once you’ve reached the stage where you’re convinced your manuscript is ready, you can move on to the submission process.

Step 9: Research Literary Agents

This is when you’ll start to be very grateful that you followed Step 2, clarifying your genre as you edited your manuscript. The clearer your idea of your book’s genre and comparative titles, the better position you’ll be in to start finding your ideal agent.

If you’re hoping to get your book published by one of the Big 5 Publishing Houses, you’ll definitely need to be represented by an agent. The Big Five publishers are:

• Hachette
• Harper Collins
• Macmillan
• Penguin Random House
• Simon and Schuster

Although some smaller independent publishers may accept manuscript submissions by unrepresented authors, the larger independent publishing houses, such as Bloomsbury, usually only accept submissions from literary agents.

There are various ways to research agents. You can:

• Research agents through simple online searches.
• Follow literary agents on social media channels, and familiarise yourself with the agents who post regularly about the types of books on their wish list.
• Read the acknowledgement sections in your favourite books to see who represents these authors.
• Get hold of a copy of the Writer’s and Artist’s yearbook (usually available in libraries) which is updated every year with agent details.
• Join one of the various writing communities which exist to connect literary agents with unrepresented writers. Many of these communities offer paid one-to-one sessions, in which writers can pay to meet with literary agents, who will read their submission and feed back on its strengths and weaknesses. These communities may have their own databases of agents you can access.
• Speak with other writers (who you can meet through online writing communities and courses) about their experiences submitting to agents. This can help you find out which agencies are open to submissions and which agents might suit your personality better than others.

Once you’ve researched agents, make a list in order of preference as to which agents you’d like to approach.

Step 10: Prepare Your Submission Package

Every agency has their own requirements and you should always read their website carefully to see what they request. It can be helpful to have a standard package which you alter according to each agent. This will include:

• A one-page synopsis of your story.
• A standard cover letter.
• The first three chapters of your book.

However, once you’ve prepared this, it’s crucial you don’t send the same submission package to every agent on your list. Not only will you want to read their requirements carefully (some may request a two-page synopsis; others a three-paragraph synopsis) but you’ll also want to tailor your cover letter carefully to your research of what each specific agent is looking for.

There are various writing communities online where you can – often for a small fee – pay someone to look at your standard submission package. This may provide some useful tips, but you should never take this advice over the agent’s own guidelines!

Step 11: Submit Your Manuscript

There’s no right or wrong way to approach this, but it can be advisable to send your submission to about five or ten agents to start with, before waiting to see what kind of reaction you receive. The type of reaction you received may indicate whether you might want to do further work on your submission or not.

If, for example, you receive some full manuscript requests, but no offers of representation, this suggests there may be a structural issue with your manuscript which would benefit from further work. If agents have requested to see more after your initial submission, this suggests they like your writing and see commercial potential in your story, but this didn’t play out in your story as a whole.

If you receive no interest, it may be that you’ve simply approached the wrong agents. Or it may be that your writing needs further work. Or it may be that agents do not believe your story has current commercial potential.

In this case, it might be worth considering paying for a one-to-one, so you can get a better idea of the issues at hand.

If the problem is with the commercial potential of your story, you might instead choose to consider small indie publishers, who you can approach without an agent, or self-publishing your story. There are certain niche genres which can do well in the world of self-publishing (if the writer invests enough into ensuring the story is strong and well-marketed) but will be unlikely to succeed in the world of traditional publishing.

Step 12: Pick the Best Agent For You

It can be easy just to choose the most experienced agent, and indeed, that may be the best choice for you.

However, you’ll be working closely with this agent, and hopefully building a professional relationship to last many years, so it’s also worth taking into account things like:

• Do your personalities mesh well?
• Do you share the same vision for your book and writing career?
• Do you find this agent’s revision suggestions helpful and easy to apply?
• Do you trust your agent to continue representing you if they can’t get your first book published?

Once an agent agrees to represent you and you accept their offer, expect to sign a contract agreeing to give your agent a percentage of the sales profits from the publishing deals they arrange.

Step 13: Submit to Publishing Houses

Prior to submitting your book to publishing houses, your agent will likely ask you to revise your book further according to their requirements. Once this has been done, your agent should discuss with you the publishing houses and editors they’d like to send your book to.

Your agent takes charge of this task, but in a good relationship there’ll be discussion between the two of you, keeping you up-to-date on each stage of the process. 

If multiple editors make an offer for your book, your agent should discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each offer, and consider whether or not you want to put your book up for auction by different publishing houses. Although your agent should advise you at this point, the decision which offer to accept should always rest with you. 

Step 14: Sign a Book Deal

Once you’ve reached the stage of deciding which publication offer to accept, you’ll be ready to sign a book deal. At this stage, your agent should leap into action to help you obtain the best deal. Although you’ll need to give your agent a percentage of your profits, they should earn their money now by ensuring your contract is as favourable to you as possible.

If you haven’t obtained representation by an agent but reach this point through alternative means (perhaps through having a direct relationship with a book editor, or through being accepted by a small independent publisher), then you might want to consider seeking advice on your contract before signing. The Society of Authors is a great place to seek independent advice. 

Step 15: Finalize Your Book

The work isn’t yet done! Once you’ve signed your book deal, you and your editor will collaborate to turn your manuscript into a marketable, polished book.

Tips for Getting a Book Published

Tip 1: Write a Strong Book

This seems so obvious, yet is so necessary to say.

Your best shot at getting published is to have written the most wonderful, marketable book you can – one which is full of unique voices, gripping action and dialogue, and strong commercial potential.

To get your book in the best shape possible, you want to become a strong writer and a strong self-editor. The more you can learn about story structure and creative writing, the better.

A great way to start out your writing journey is to check out the Fictionary Community, and take a look at all the free webinars and courses on offer. 

Tip 2: Don’t Give Up

For most writers, the difference between success and failure comes down to perseverance and dedication. Writing is a craft, storytelling is a craft, and both can be learned with sufficient hard work, grit, and determination.

However, there’s often a degree of luck involved in getting traditionally published. It can take years to write a book, and when you start writing it, you’ve no idea what type of book will be popular with publishers by the time you’ve finished. Your first book may be a great book, but still not seen by agents as commercially viable.

If your goal is a traditional publication deal, you may need to write more than one book before you successfully sign that book deal.

You have to love the acts of writing and storytelling enough to enjoy the process – even if your first book doesn’t lead to a book deal. As long as you love writing and love learning, the time spent will never be wasted. You’ve the potential to learn so much about yourself and the world as you write.

But if you’ve written a great book, don’t give up. Even if your book isn’t published immediately, you may be able to publish it in the future. The best thing you can do to improve your chances is to keep writing, keep learning, keep revising, and stay inspired. 

Tip 3: Learn From Other Writers

You can’t beat the value of hearing from other writers about their own personal experience. Inspirational stories from world-class writers abound – Stephen King, for example, wrote many books before his first publishing deal, with Carrie.

Some of the best support, however, can come from making friends with other unrepresented or newly represented authors. Writing friends can often direct you towards suitable agents, writing competitions, pitch competitions, courses for improving your writing, one-to-one opportunities and so on. 

Having friends to cheer you on towards success, or commiserate with you through the tough times, can go a long way to helping you not give up. So, come check out the Fictionary community and start making some new friends!

How Hard Is it to Get a Book Published?

Now for the news you may not want to hear: it is indeed very difficult to get a book published.

According to Jericho Writers, agents received on average about 2,000 submissions a year, and will accept about 2 or 3 of those submissions. That would put your odds of gaining representation at about 1 or 2 in 1000.

Of course, you’ll apply to more than one agent, which increases your odds. The more agents you apply to, the better your odds. 

Since exceptional books may receive more than one offer of representation, it’s of course the case that the quality of your book is what will most impact your odds of gaining representation.

Once you’ve leapt that huge hurdle and gained representation by an agent, the next jump comes up: gaining an offer of publication.

Jericho Writers estimates the chances of gaining publication at this point are somewhere between 10 percent and 66 percent – with much here depending on the quality of your agent, and the quality and commercial potential of your book. 

So, whilst it’s not impossible to get your book published traditionally, it’s a substantial challenge to set yourself. 

Thankfully, if you’ve managed to write and self-edit and revise an entire book, chances are you’re someone capable of rising to a challenge.

However, with odds like these, you’ll want to grab every opportunity you can find to increase your chances. 

And that’s why so many of the steps set out above focus on how to write a high quality, commercially viable book. Because this truly is what will make the most difference to your odds of getting published.