Book Cover Illustrations

You’ve got a great book idea. You’ve got your manuscript finished and polished (and if it isn’t near perfect, stop reading now and come back when your manuscript is as close to flawless as is humanly possible for you to make it).

Now what? How do you get that manuscript into print?

Right at the moment it isn’t as easy as it once was. With ebooks just getting started and the economy in a slump, the big publishers have become cautious. Unless your name is something like Stephen King, the odds are stacked against you. (Hopefully that will change soon, but right now, that’s where we are.)

Yet even in the worst of times, books are printed. Often the secret is not only talent but persistence. Persistent authors get into print one way or another and those who give up easily do not.

Of course persistence is useless if it isn’t directed in a profitable direction. So how do you discover where to fire off copies of your manuscript to? How do you target likely publishers who might publish your title?

Back when I was writing seriously (13 novels with HarperCollins and Avon Books and 80-some non-fiction books with small presses), I found the Writer’s Market invaluable for locating publishers and markets for what I wrote. So if you haven’t already discovered the Writer’s Market, that’s the place I’d recommend you start your quest. (You can order it here.)

Since today’s market is really tight for beginning writers, some beginners (as well as more established writers) have turned to self-publishing. Hopefully the economy will expand soon and publishers will buy more manuscripts. But in the meantime, a lot of writers are opting for self-publishing which is a whole other game. And — who knows — this may very well be the wave of the future.

To do self-publishing right, you need to hire someone to edit your work (one place to consider is the Editing-Writing Network), hire a graphic designer to lay the book out (Book Wrights does great work), and hire an illustrator (shameless plug: me). This will give you a professional-looking book when you’re all done.

There are so-called vanity press companies that do most of this for you, but searching out the individual freelancers can save you a bundle and also gives you a bit more control over the process.

Currently POD (print on demand) is a good way to quickly get a book into print with only a small expenditure of money at any given time for printing costs. And a POD like CreateSpace automatically gives you a store front, handles shipping, and gives your title an Amazon.com presence which can be a big plus in getting your book out there. (CreateSpace also will give you an ISBN substitute, though I’d recommend shelling out a little money and getting an actual ISBN if you want to see your book get distribution by someone other than Amazon.com.)

Whichever route you take, read up on the process (via Writers Market and web searches), break your task into ordered steps so the whole thing isn’t overwhelming, and then tick off each step as you get closer to your goal of getting published.

If you’re persistent, pretty soon your manuscript will be in print.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator who has done work for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and many other publishers — and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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