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Published authors, how hard is it to get a book published if it is well written and you have a talent..?

and determination? Is it like acting....don't even try... or is it likely to get published eventually (likely, after multiple rejections) if it is a genuinely good book and you don't give up?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The ease or difficulty of getting your book published really comes down to its marketability. This often doesn't have anything to do with whether a book is "good" according to any other criterion.
Talent and determination help a great deal, and first-time authors who submit unsolicited manuscripts to publishers do get published, but they represent a very, very small percentage of all the people trying to get published. It's quite possible that a good book will never be accepted by a publisher.
A good agent will really help, because they will have an idea of what's selling and not selling, and a strategy for presenting your book to a publisher who might be interested. What can also help is a history of being published -- a short story or an article in a magazine helps put your name out there and develop an audience for you, and publishers are looking for an audience. If you have an idea for a book, try developing a proposal (basically a summary of what the book's going to be about,) and have your agent shop your proposal around rather than a finished book; editors may be willing to help you develop your idea into something they can publish.

Don't give up, by all means! Just know that getting published is like making it on to Top 40 radio -- it's hard to predict, and being good isn't the only thing you'll need to be. There are quite a few famous authors (ranging from Beatrix Potter to Anais Nin) who had to self-publish their first works until the public caught on to them.