Hi, Xiouqe, and welcome to WriteWords.

Firstly don't worry about copyright. You own it and no-one is going to steal your novel. Saying that, plots, story ideas and character types cannot be copyrighted, only the sequence of words used to express them. So, basically, if anyone pinches chunks of your chapters and gets it published you can sue their publisher for copyright infringment.

As for publishing, get hold of a copy of the Writers And Artists Year Book - there should be one in your library - which will list the Agents who specialise in your novel's genre. Most will have websites telling you want they want to see in a submission (usually a covering letter, one page synopsis and first three chapters) and post them off. And good luck.

PS. Not sure what you mean by a 'glossary'.

- NaomiM

There is a lot of advice around these days on how to submit work to publishers. I thought I'd add something that might not crop up too often in the advice, probably because it's not easily quantifiable, and that's confidence. Publishing, as we writers are supposed to know, is a business; it just happens to be selling a product that contains a degree of creativity. But any business wants to see the same thing in anyone pushing a new product idea: that the owner of the product is confident about it selling. Okay, we're writers not salesman, so you could argue we're more like the backroom boffins than salespeople. Fine, so cheat. Write what you want to write but then find ways to sell it as a product to the publisher.

How do you get this confidence, especially when you haven't actually sold anything yet? Isn't that a classic Catch-22? In a way, yes, but come on, that's the challenge these days of getting your work into print. Always keep in mind that it is never, ever, going to be easy, but that you will put yourself ahead of the pack by being persistent and disciplined.

Off the top of my head, here are some ways that could gather some charisma of confidence which can make all the difference in your cover letter:

1. Write a lot, regularly. This may seem obvious but it's surprising how many writers don't seem to think they need to actually practice very much; that it makes them better writers; that, crucially, it lends confidence and style to their actual writing, rather than the stilted indecisiveness that bedraggles their prose when they don't.
2. Learn lots about the genre you're writing in: read the books in it (or at least skim through them in a bookshop); subscribe to the journals; read the online community stuff; go to conferences, etc.
3. Keep up to date with market news: partly so you know who to send your stuff to and partly so you know what's selling.
4. If you write novels, also write short fiction and submit it to the many markets available (obviously, pick the respected ones), because this will help your cover letter: it shows an editor that your work can sell.
5. Do all these things on the understanding that no one thing marks the difference between success and failure: it's a cumulative effect. Knowing stuff means your cover letter will on the one hand be watertight from knowledge errors and on the other shine with the right kind of enthusiasm.

Terry

Great advice, Terry.
And welcome to WW, X.
I suspect that if you have a glossary you have written a non-fiction book. In which case you'll need to put in a proposal. I did the same thing as you and wrote the whole book before contacting anyone, but the more usual ways is to put together the proposal which includes an excerpt from the book. You usually need a very good cover letter, an author biog showing that you are the best person to write the book and how you are qualified to do so, and also that you have a great platform for marketing and selling the book if possible. You also need your extract, a table of contents, and - perhaps most importantly - a document describing the book in a way which will really sell it as a product to the publisher. This would include comparing it with other books on the same subject and showing how yours is better. There are probably other bits I've forgotten - it's worth getting a book called Non-Fiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write by Elizabeth Lyon.
Good luck with it,
Susiex

Thank you, I'll be sure to check that out. =)

(PS: A glossary is a compilation of terms and their meanings. By including one at a book's end, the reader can refer to it if they stumble across something they've either forgotten about or don't know the meaning of.)

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Thank you, NMot, I'll be sure to check that out. =)

(PS: A glossary is a compilation of terms and their meanings. By including one at a book's end, the reader can refer to it if they stumble across something they've either forgotten about or don't know the meaning of.)

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woops. . . looks like editing comments on this site works a bit differently than others I'm used to.

Thanks for the tips, Terry.
Hmm, it looks as though I may have underestimated this a bit. My book's actually finished, so I'll probably just see if any agent/publisher would be interested in publishing it from what I've got (after letting them see a few chapters). But, if not, then I may have a lot to do.

Actually, susieangela, it's fiction. A glossary for all the terms, objects, noteworthy occurrences, etc. I've created seemed like a good touch to me, as it'd help any reader remind themselves of anything they may lose track of or forget about while reading.

Hi, as Susie says, a glossery would be for a non-fiction book; one would not be required for a work of fiction, although a few authors do use footnotes.


- NaomiM

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oops, glossary

Well, The Wheel of Time series includes one and I haven't noticed any down side to it.
I don't see how there'd be any actual problem with one, nor do I see what should define one as "non-fiction exclusive". To me, it simply seems like a basic yet helpful little inclusion.

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Though please, if there is any particular reason why it musn't happen, I should probably know.

Since it's a convention of the non-fiction genre, I'm not convinced an agent would take the submission seriously if you included one, or mentioned it in the covering letter. They are liable to wonder if it's required because the plot is too complicated for the reader to follow, and which takes it out of commercial fiction and into literary fiction which is much harder to sell.
Probably something to leave out until you secure an agent or publisher and then ask their advice on the matter.



- NaomiM

Hi David, and welcomd to WW.

how should I approach a publisher

For fiction, if you want to sell it to a mainstream publisher, then you need to go through an agent - Naomi's advice about how to go about that is good. A few mainstream houses and many more smaller independent publishers take direct submissions from writers, but it's wise to start by trying to find an agent. An agent will be much less enthusiastic about taking your book on if you've already tried and been rejected by publishers, because those avenues are then closed to them.

They are liable to wonder if it's required because the plot is too complicated for the reader to follow.

Yes, I think it would raise huge alarm bells in an agent or a publisher to see that there's a glossary; rightly or wrongly they'll assume that the book doesn't stand on its own for the vast majority of readers. Same would go for maps, lists of dramatis personae and other such. Generally speaking (and there are exceptions, such as maps in fantasty fiction) anything the reader needs, in order to get the most out of the novel, should be supplied by the text of the story itself.

If they like the chapters and synopsis you've submitted, and ask to see the whole thing, then you could include the glossary, on the assumption that they already like the book. On the whole, though, I'd be inclined not to mention it until the agent actually takes you on and starts talking about how they want to sell it to publishers.

it'd help any reader remind themselves of anything they may lose track of or forget about while reading.

The thing is, a book is driven by readers wanting to know what happens next. When readers lose track - not understanding words for example, or not knowing where - they're pulled outside the world of the book. They then lose emotional involvement with the characters, and so any desire to know what's going to happen to them. Chances are, they'll put the book down and not pick it up again.

So you do need to be careful before you make things difficult for them, and anything that needs explaining should be explained along the way through how the story is told. As Naomi says, one marker of literary fiction is that it asks the reader to do more work. The flipside of that is that if they can and want to, the satisfactions of literary fiction are huge. But the risk is that many readers can't or won't bother, which is why any agent or publisher would be wary of anything which suggests that a story is difficult to grasp and get deeply involved in.

I seem to remember that "A Clockwork Orange" had a glossary, but I can't think of any other novel I've read that had one.

There are a few things to be wary of here. First of all, Robert Jordan is (or was) in some ways a unique case. It's hard to imagine, for example, a series of books which deliver so little for so many sales - and it's not me saying that, it's most of his fans! And given the huge length of the Wheel of Time, there may possibly be a case for a glossary. However, it's generally best, even with a Fantasy novel, to follow Emma's point, that a story should contain all a reader needs to follow it within the text proper. This is especially so with your submission package. So, even if you plan to use a glossary in the finished book, I'd strongly recommend you don't mention the fact until your publisher has signed you up.

To emphasise: at this stage you need to think about how you sell this book to an agent and/or publisher. Yes, there is a still a market for 'traditional' fantasy but if your package carries too strong a whiff of Jordan/Tolkeinesque effects, you're not likely to get their blood firing. Because while it may be true that 'more of the same' is usually the default decision base that publishers rely on, initially at least an editor or agent wants to be excited by something that comes across fresh and different. Even in high/traditional fantasy.

Terry

Ah, okay, that's a fair point.
Thanks, I could've made quite an error there. 'Seems I've a few things to doublecheck before trying to impress those in the business.

That's a lot of good advice, Emma, thank you.
It's been made clear to me now that gimmicks such as a glossary wouldn't be as welcome as I'd thought. It's a bit of shame though, the glossary was fun to work on, as would concept art and maps (although, admittidly, I probably wouldn't need those two for this particular work anyway.)