Every writer dreams of having their novel picked up by a literary agent who lands a deal with a major traditional publisher and the book is out in bookstores worldwide. From there, a movie deal may be a possibility. It happened to Andy Weir with his The Martian. Regrettably, this rarely happens and the vast majority of writers can only dream of such success.

What do you do if you actually follow that dream?

The first necessary step, of course, is to write that novel, edit and polish it —tools such as Grammarly and AutoCrit can help identify those pesky little bloopers you missed — and you’re off. Well, not quite. Even if an author happens to be a good editor, it is always a wise idea to send the final version of the manuscript to an independent proofreader. Proofreading tools help a lot, but some of their ‘suggestions’ can be misleading. In the end, you must rely on your knowledge of English grammar and word usage.

So, the manuscript is done and you’re ready for the next step – sending queries to a literary agent. There are two steps here. The first is to write a query letter. The Internet is full of articles and examples of query letters and how to write one. The second is to find an agent. Websites such as QueryTracker, AgentQuery, and Reedsy, to name a few, list agents, what they handle, and their submission guidelines. Some will want sample chapters or the complete manuscript. It is critical that an author follow those guidelines to avoid landing in the slush pile. Multiple submissions are permissible, provided the query letter mentions this. You sent out dozens of queries and hope that one agent will be interested … then wait. The waiting part can be frustrating, as a reply may not come for several months.

A cautionary note … Anyone can call themselves a literary agent. Before making a submission, do your research and ask what authors that agent handles and book sales they made. Never pay an agent to represent you. Agents get their return from your royalties. Another thing an author should do is examine an agent’s representation contract. The Internet provides lots of good examples.

An author can short-circuit the agent submission process, or supplement it, by submitting queries directly to a traditional publisher. The Internet provides many publisher listings, As with an agent, the author must follow submission guidelines. Then you wait…

At this point, an author must take care. The publishing game is replete with vanity publishers waiting to gobble up the unwary. Their websites can look very professional with glowing promises of huge sales that sets off dollar signs spinning in the author’s eyes. These days, most call themselves hybrid publishers, which sounds more respectable, but they are still disguised predators. It is easy to distinguish a legitimate traditional publisher from a scammer. A traditional publisher will never ask you for money to publish your book. Publishing is a hard business, and publishers get their money from sales, while dribbling a royalty percentage to an author. If a so-called publisher asks you to ‘contribute or collaborate’ in the publishing process … run! If you happen to get an offer from a traditional publisher, go over the publishing contract with care. Getting expert advice here would be prudent.

All this is very good, but the process could take months or even years while an author accumulates a stack of rejection notices — if one is even sent. The obvious solution is to self-publish your book. Most agents will be prepared to represent a self-published author, and so will many traditional publishers. Their guidelines will say if they don’t.

These days, self-publishing is easy, and there are three major publishing platforms: Amazon Kindle Direct (KDP), Draft2Digital (D2D), and IngramSpark (IS). D2D and IS have almost identical distribution channels, and both use LightningSource as their printer. There are other outlets, but these three hold the marketplace, and are the ones an author should really consider. KDP offers ebooks, paperbacks, and hardback versions. D2D publishes ebooks and paperbacks only, while IS publishes all three versions, with an option to produce a dust jacket for a hardback edition, which the author must provide as a ready to publish file. There are lots of cover artists who will create one for the author. For an ebook/paperback/hardback, the author must get covers done, which are uploaded at time of publishing setup.

Why self-publish? The answer is simple — you have your book out there available for sale earning royalties and getting yourself known.

An author must be wary of social media advertisers who offer to publish your book because most likely the author does not know how to do it himself. These schemes cost a lot and don’t always deliver what the author expects. With a bit of homework and some practice on the computer, the author can do all the necessary steps from formatting to publishing.

Formatting … an important step. For an ebook edition, the author should follow the KDP guidelines, create a Word file, and upload the .docx. That file can then be used to publish with KDP and D2D, which will not create a problem having the book simultaneously listed on these platforms. KDP offers excellent formatting guidelines. Each platform offers a free ISBN, which can save the author a lot of money having to purchase their own. IS provides a free ISBN to US citizens only. Never buy a barcode! These are provided by the publisher at time of publishing setup.

For a paperback or hardback, the author should look at any printed book from a traditional publisher and format the manuscript to look the same. The Word file is saved as a PDF, which is then uploaded to the three platforms. A note of caution: publishing a paperback/hardback with IS, the author should never tick boxes that allow returns from bookstores. This could end up costing the author many thousands of dollars if the book doesn’t sell!

Self-publishing is fun … until it comes to marketing, but that is another story.