Novel writing, Querying and getting Published

[DiscoPistol]

After over 20 years of writing I finally finished my book earlier in the year.

I'd never really thought about what came next but after some encouragement from an agent I met at Bournemouth Writing Festival last year decided to start querying it around for an agent.

I know there a few other authors/writers on the forum so I was wondering if anyone had had the same experience as me.

In short, it's brutal.

Despite paying to get my query letter and synopsis professionally edited, it's just been a tirade of generic rejection emails.

One even read 'after careful consideration' whilst rejecting me after 20mins ?

It looks like for it to see the world I might have to self publish but that will inevitably mean all my family get a copy for Christmas and it ends up in Oxfam by March. Plus it still means I need to spend money to get it professionally edited.

Has anyone had any luck trying to get an agent? Any advice? Anyone know an agent desperate for a noir comedy based around a missing Penguin set n Las Vegas?

[LaGoosh]

My wife is a Commissioning Editor at one of the biggest fiction publishers in the country so this is second hand advice I've gleaned over the years from when anyone has asked her the same thing you're asking (it happens alot - there's a lot of wannabe authors).

Get an agent! It's the most important thing you can do. Send your work to every possible agent you can find. Most of them won't even get around to reading what you send them due to sheer volume but do it anyway. Do it multiple times. It'll be incredibly hard but without an agent most publishers won't read anything you submit because it's against company policy. So just keep at it but don't expect quick results. Find literary events where you know agents will be and get in front of them in person.

Edited October 12, 2025 by LaGoosh

[Chris B]

Part of the problem is that it's never been easier to get your stuff out there, but never been more difficult to get it seen. The publishing industry is a bit of a mess at the moment, and it's difficult to get agents and publishers to take risks.

I've known one writer who absolutely nailed their debut and got five stars in the Guardian and the Mail (so, y'know - broad appeal), but because it didn't sell like they hoped, the publishers and agent stopped trying almost immediately. He didn't even get a notification of his US release date for the last book.

My own experience was getting the first agent I applied to, who loved my first book (but couldn't sell it) and didn't like my second (which I immediately published through a small press). She then almost immediately quit the business. When it's all aligned, it's a great process, but quickly can become really frustrating. I've also known someone who got utterly ghosted by their agent, and it killed his interest in writing at all.

I'm biased, as I've run one for 15 years, but I'd honestly suggest going to - or setting up - a writing group. It's really useful to talk to other people in the same boat, whatever experience levels they have. And it's such a batshit industry that it's useful to get more of a sense of how it all works.

One other point - don't take rejection personally. Agents get absolutely hammered with submissions and they really have to concentrate on the books they think they can sell. That means a match, it doesn't just mean quality - they might think a book is very good, but they're not the right person for it.

And @LaGoosh, your wife is a commissioning editor? Have I mentioned what a great poster I think you are and how handsome you're looking?

[BomberPat]

One thing I will say in favour of self-publishing is that it doesn't have anything like the stigma that it used to; it used to be seen as the preserve of egotists and of very dull local amateur historians and the like, but a surprising number of really high selling books these days are self-published, and have done well through hype garnered on social media. 

That said, it does create a lot of work for yourself. My book was self-published, and I'm fortunate that I was able to get the cover art done for the price of a few pints by a graphic designer mate, and that it's done alright with no marketing budget, as otherwise you have to do everything; I edited it myself, had to choose fonts and page layouts and figure out how page formatting works for different sizes of paper (I still don't fully understand this), and make a lot of decisions that I just knew nothing about, so you are getting in at the deep end if you take that route. I also went for Amazon KDP, and I wouldn't make that choice again - it's easy to manage, but even aside from moral quandaries about working with Amazon, it makes it difficult to get your book stocked in conventional book shops, and there's a part of me that really wants the buzz of stumbling across it on a shelf somewhere!

Unfortunately, you do just need to get used to rejection. I had a publishing deal initially, and it fell through, and that was with a niche specialist publisher - one of the reasons I decided to go ahead with self-publishing was that I figured a publisher had agreed to it, and an editor had looked over it and made suggestions, and that was enough of a seal of approval to say that it was worth publishing and that I wasn't a complete fantasist in thinking that. I plan to write a novel eventually, and I'd be less inclined to self-publish that purely because it's uncharted water for me.

[LaGoosh]

Also maybe worth pointing out the two main things publishers/agents look for from submissions:

- will it sell? If your book subject matter is commercial, incredibly original or in a current profitable trend it'll naturally get more attention when submitted rather than just get thrown in what they call the "slush pile" which is basically submissions they get round to reading eventually when they have nothing else to do and they'll bin if they aren't invested by the end of the first chapter.

- what they refer to as a "voice". That is to say your writing feels fresh and original, unique specifically to you and with potential. Your book can be a very unpolished gem filled with problems but if they see something special in it that with their help they can bring out then they'll be interested.

If you want to self publish then go ahead, but as @BomberPat says then just be aware that the work usually done by a team of experienced people full time will be done by you and you alone. It'll be hard. And a successful self published book doesn't mean that a publisher will notice you. They probably won't. Major publishers/agents tend to ignore self published authors.

Worth pointing out as well that the publishing industry is a messy business. Filled with people willing to work insane hours on low pay because they love books. But also this means that they're often pretty terrible at admin, scheduling, marketing and everything else other than the books themselves. They're all over worked and behind schedule so you're submission your desperate to hear back on, well unless you've managed to get yourself a reputable decent agent who is really fighting for you then no one's really going to make the time for it.

And if you are very lucky and get your book published well bad news, no one buys books anymore so unless you sell huge numbers you're never going to be able to quit your day job.

[DiscoPistol]

Some really good and helpful advice - thanks to all.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

One thing I will say in favour of self-publishing is that it doesn't have anything like the stigma that it used to; it used to be seen as the preserve of egotists and of very dull local amateur historians and the like, but a surprising number of really high selling books these days are self-published, and have done well through hype garnered on social media. 

Even Self-Publishing is a minefield I've found. I have a couple of books based around my match reports on KDP which was easy enough to set up but that was just me messing about (Number 1 in Non League Football Kindle Chart for day though ?).  Now I've found Ingram Sparks and Lulu and D2D and so on. It's as exhaustive as it is exhausting. And that's before you even look at Troubador and some of the less savoury 'vanity' publishers (which you should never touch).

25 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

And if you are very lucky and get your book published well bad news, no one buys books anymore so unless you sell huge numbers you're never going to be able to quit your day job.

This is one that I've not struggled with - I have no illusions that I'm going to be a full time author and I'm happy with my job - although I may be working for the 50% of NHS England that gets binned so ask me again in 6 months. Not that my book isn't excellent of course ?

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

there's a part of me that really wants the buzz of stumbling across it on a shelf somewhere!

 

This is where I've landed I think. Even if I have to go to a local shop and ask them to stock it myself ?