Hello Book & Reader Community,
I often get mail and email from aspiring authors on the "real" steps to getting published. Here is a handful of tips that served me well and could potentially benefit you as well. This is intended to prompt questions, so don't be afraid to ask them and I will do my best to answer them. For more information on my writing you can look me up on Amazon or check my website at rjpineiro.com. Best of luck in your writing career.
What prompted you to write fiction?
I've always love to read, particularly fiction. I was (and still am) one of those readers who's always critiquing stories. About twenty years ago I decided to see if I could do better, and just like that my writing career began, without any formal training. I surrounded myself with plenty of books on plotting, character development, and style, and just wrote, and wrote, and wrote.
How long did it take you to get your first novel published?
About four years. I started writing fiction in 1989. The story's premise was guerrilla warfare in Central America. I finished it around December of 1989 and it was good enough to gain me representation at the William Morris Agency in New York. The fall of the Berlin Wall in that same year, however, dated my story, so my agent asked to write another one. I did, it was Siege of Lightning, which was published by The Berkley Publishign Group in 1993.
I am working on a novel. What steps I should take to get it ready for submission to an agent or publishing house?
Make sure to finish the novel first. If you don’t have any formal fiction writing training, then you might chose to do what I did, and use self-help books on the elements of plotting and character development. Be sure to write about what you know as both agents and publishers always look for non-fiction hooks to sell/promote your work of fiction. After you get it as clean as you possibly can, I recommend that you contract the services of a copyeditor. You should be able to find such services advertised in the back of trade magazines like Writer's Digest and Publisher's Weekly. I used a copyeditor to check my first three novels. After that my "writing muscles" were strong enough to do it all on my own. The copyeditor was my first line of defense before making an official submission to an agent or publishing house. You should receive an editorial letter along with a copyedited manuscript. Follow the copyeditor's advice closely. I did, and as a reward I got four agencies wanting to represent me.
Should I get an agent?
If you intend to sell book-length fiction to a major publishing house, the answer is absolutely yes. Most publishing houses will not consider submissions sent directly by a writer. They use literary agencies to "screen" the submissions to avoid wasting their own time. If you are writing non-fiction or magazine articles, you might be able to get away without an agent, just beware that you will have to be savvy enough to negotiate contracts.
How do I find an agent?
There are many publications, including Writer's Market, that have a section listing most literary agencies in the United States. Make sure that the agencies you select do represent your genre. Also, read the guidelines and rules of each agency you intend to make a submission to. Finding the right agent will be the most critical step in your fiction-writing career. The right agency will get you hooked up with the right publishing house.
What are agency reading fees?
These are the fees that some agencies like to charge to unpublished writers to read their work before deciding to represent their work. I refused to pay these fees and did not consider any agencies that charged them. A reputable agency will make its money from the commission it will charge after selling your work to a publishing house.
How long does it take you to write a novel?
Somewhere between six and eight months, depending on the amount of research involved. That includes about three drafts of the story and a final polishing pass.
How do you go about writing a novel?
I start with a very neat idea, something that hopefully hasn't been done before. Once I have come up with the basic premise, I begin to work on the characters. I usually do a brief outline (a few pages) and also backgrounds on all main characters. I always know how the story will start and how it will end. However, I not always know how it will flow in between. Most of the time the story almost "writes itself" once the action gets rolling.
How much research do you do on a novel?
It depends. If the topic is related to what I know, like computers, martial arts, firearms, or flying, the research is minimal because I have done (and continue to do) those things, so it's almost second nature to write about them. The same applies to the locales, since I have visited just about every place where my novels are set. The challenge comes when I want to write about a topic that I'm not familiar with. First thing I do is download everything I can from the Internet. That usually gives me a reasonable head start. I then complement that knowledge with recently-published books on the subject. Lastly, I might opt to interview experts on the subject, and even ask them to proofread relevant sections of the manuscript for technical accuracy. For example, during the Writing of Ultimatum, I interviewed Navy pilots who fought in the Gulf War.
I often get mail and email from aspiring authors on the "real" steps to getting published. Here is a handful of tips that served me well and could potentially benefit you as well. This is intended to prompt questions, so don't be afraid to ask them and I will do my best to answer them. For more information on my writing you can look me up on Amazon or check my website at rjpineiro.com. Best of luck in your writing career.
What prompted you to write fiction?
I've always love to read, particularly fiction. I was (and still am) one of those readers who's always critiquing stories. About twenty years ago I decided to see if I could do better, and just like that my writing career began, without any formal training. I surrounded myself with plenty of books on plotting, character development, and style, and just wrote, and wrote, and wrote.
How long did it take you to get your first novel published?
About four years. I started writing fiction in 1989. The story's premise was guerrilla warfare in Central America. I finished it around December of 1989 and it was good enough to gain me representation at the William Morris Agency in New York. The fall of the Berlin Wall in that same year, however, dated my story, so my agent asked to write another one. I did, it was Siege of Lightning, which was published by The Berkley Publishign Group in 1993.
I am working on a novel. What steps I should take to get it ready for submission to an agent or publishing house?
Make sure to finish the novel first. If you don’t have any formal fiction writing training, then you might chose to do what I did, and use self-help books on the elements of plotting and character development. Be sure to write about what you know as both agents and publishers always look for non-fiction hooks to sell/promote your work of fiction. After you get it as clean as you possibly can, I recommend that you contract the services of a copyeditor. You should be able to find such services advertised in the back of trade magazines like Writer's Digest and Publisher's Weekly. I used a copyeditor to check my first three novels. After that my "writing muscles" were strong enough to do it all on my own. The copyeditor was my first line of defense before making an official submission to an agent or publishing house. You should receive an editorial letter along with a copyedited manuscript. Follow the copyeditor's advice closely. I did, and as a reward I got four agencies wanting to represent me.
Should I get an agent?
If you intend to sell book-length fiction to a major publishing house, the answer is absolutely yes. Most publishing houses will not consider submissions sent directly by a writer. They use literary agencies to "screen" the submissions to avoid wasting their own time. If you are writing non-fiction or magazine articles, you might be able to get away without an agent, just beware that you will have to be savvy enough to negotiate contracts.
How do I find an agent?
There are many publications, including Writer's Market, that have a section listing most literary agencies in the United States. Make sure that the agencies you select do represent your genre. Also, read the guidelines and rules of each agency you intend to make a submission to. Finding the right agent will be the most critical step in your fiction-writing career. The right agency will get you hooked up with the right publishing house.
What are agency reading fees?
These are the fees that some agencies like to charge to unpublished writers to read their work before deciding to represent their work. I refused to pay these fees and did not consider any agencies that charged them. A reputable agency will make its money from the commission it will charge after selling your work to a publishing house.
How long does it take you to write a novel?
Somewhere between six and eight months, depending on the amount of research involved. That includes about three drafts of the story and a final polishing pass.
How do you go about writing a novel?
I start with a very neat idea, something that hopefully hasn't been done before. Once I have come up with the basic premise, I begin to work on the characters. I usually do a brief outline (a few pages) and also backgrounds on all main characters. I always know how the story will start and how it will end. However, I not always know how it will flow in between. Most of the time the story almost "writes itself" once the action gets rolling.
How much research do you do on a novel?
It depends. If the topic is related to what I know, like computers, martial arts, firearms, or flying, the research is minimal because I have done (and continue to do) those things, so it's almost second nature to write about them. The same applies to the locales, since I have visited just about every place where my novels are set. The challenge comes when I want to write about a topic that I'm not familiar with. First thing I do is download everything I can from the Internet. That usually gives me a reasonable head start. I then complement that knowledge with recently-published books on the subject. Lastly, I might opt to interview experts on the subject, and even ask them to proofread relevant sections of the manuscript for technical accuracy. For example, during the Writing of Ultimatum, I interviewed Navy pilots who fought in the Gulf War.