How do I get a publisher to actually read my work if I don't have an agent?

Question:

How do I get a publisher to actually read my work if I don't have an agent?

I am trying to publish a book on my own without an agent and NOT do self publish. But people have told me that without and agent publishers won't actually read my work. How do I prevent this from happening?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I've been a professional writer of fiction and non-fiction for twenty-five years.

You're right that publishers increasingly say that do not want to see unagented unsolicited work. However, it's helpful to understand why this is the case. In recent decades, the emphasis in big publishing houses is on increasing the bottom line. In the good old days, companies like, say, Doubleday, were small or family-owned. The owners wanted to make enough money to stay in business, but mostly they loved books. Being an editor meant actually editing, not only selcting work, but helping the writer to make the book as good as it could be.

Now the major publishing houses are owned by huge media corporations. The number of editors per published book has been slashed to save salary costs, and editors are under great pressure to find books that will make big money immediately. The result is that editors are still people who love books --- that's why they go into the business --- but they have little time left for editing. They have to find manuscripts that don't need much additional work, authors who can work with little guidance or help, and above all, titles that will be big sellers.

There are editors out there who would love to be able to look at not-quite-ready manuscripts and help and encourage writers who need it. But no editor can do that now. They don't have the time.

So agents help editors by being gatekeepers, by bringing to the editors only those books that the agents believe will sell. Since the agent doesn't get paid unless the book sells, the agent, like the editor, has an economic incentive to look only for books that will sell now. Agents will represent more books than the number that actually WILL sell, but all of them will be books that the agent, a person with experience in the business, thinks will sell. So the editor doesn't have to read manuscripts that are completely unsuitable, or even ones that need a little work. The editor gets the luxury of reading just the "best," at least as judged by agents.

The thing is, or course, that every editor would love to find an unexpected and unagented gem. But no editor wants to read lots of unsuitable manuscripts in order to find a good one. Time is scarce!

So if you can contact an editor in a way that requires very little reading and at the same time demonstrates that you might have that unagented gem, you can get the editor to ask to see your manuscript. Then the manuscript is still unagented, but now it is solicited!

To get your foot in the door, you have to do market research. You have to figure out which editor at which publishing house is going to be looking for a book like yours. This takes detective work, starting with going to the bookstore and looking for recent books that are like yours. What publisher published those books? Who was the editor? If necessary, you can call the switchboard at the publishing house and ask who the editor was for that book.

Then write a very short query letter, telling the editor that you know that she edited the book like yours. In a few words, tell the editor how your book is like the one that it's similar to. (Of course, if it's too similar, the publisher may not want two books that cover the same territory!) Ask the editor if she'd like to see either a synopsis and sample chapters or the whole manuscript. Enclose as SASE for the reply.

If your letter conveys the message that you are a precise writer, if it shows that you are a businesslike person, and if (biggest if of all!) the editor thinks she can sell your book to the public, then she'll tell you to submit.

Hang in there. It's a tough market. But if you have the right project and send the right signals, it's still very possible to sell a first book without an agent.

I write short stories, by the way. www.shortshortshort.com