It's Finished

I'm finished. What do I do Now?

Yay! Congrats to you. You've finished your manuscript.
You've revised several times, gotten a good critique and
revised again so it's perfect - or as perfect as it's going
to get before it sees an editor. Now it's sitting on your
desk just waiting to be shipped off. Manuscripts, by the
way, are very impatient sometimes so it's probably screaming
at you to just mail it off to 20 publishers so do you listen
to it? NO!

First if you haven't already done this, research the market
somewhat. Do you write in verse? Is your story a picture
book, a silly chapter book, a serious mid grade or a YA
dealing with a controversial subject? Check who publishes
the same type of story. Write down a few names of those
publishers.

Okay you have a publisher - what about an editor? Check out
the writer's boards like Verlakay.com and the SCBWI. You'll
see names of editors and sometimes you'll see which editor
acquired which book. Check out writer's blogs and websites
too because a lot of times they post conference notes saying
what certain editors are looking for.

Now you have an editor that's looking for the type of book
you write and you're manuscript is screaming 'SEND ME! SEND
ME!' but do you? NO!

You query first. You may be thinking - why do I need to do
that? I have the whole book done. Why can't I just send it?
Why waste time with a query? Well because a lot of
editors/publishers won't even look at that wonderful
manuscript unless they asked for it. If you've ever seen the
piles on an editor's desk you'd understand why a single
query would get read faster than a full manuscript.

Query Letters -

A query letter is an editor's first look at your writing so
make it good. It has to be professional, grab the editor's
attention and give the story and flavor of the book all in
one page (and you thought writing the book was hard).

Actually, writing queries isn't hard once you get the hang
of it.

First off you have that editor's name right? Use it.

Dear Mr. Hottie (butter 'em upJ. Have you seen some of those
editors??? Mwwah.)

Really though use his/her name and spell it RIGHT. It's a
big turn off to get a letter with your name spelled wrong.

Next. Paragraph - write three or four sentences about your
book.

GRAB their attention. (If you met them at a conference you
can say that here too)
Here's what I used for Walking on Glass:

Mercy or murder? When Darwin's mother attempts suicide and
ends up on life support, Darwin contemplates whether or not
to unhook her. But if someone made your life miserable is it
murder to unhook her life support?

Next Paragraph:

Title of the story - some people put the word-count and
target age group here just to give the editor an idea. I'd
put:

Walking on Glass is a 7500 word (it's only 5000 now but it
was more before editorial revisions) young adult novel
written in free verse. It's the journal of a
sixteen-year-old boy.

Next Paragraph: Anything about why you are qualified to
write the book (if there is anything). Tell them here if
you're published (it helps if it's the genre you're book is
in). You can also let them know if you're in a critique
group or if you have gone to any conferences.

Last Paragraph:

Thank you for your time. SASE enclosed. I look forward to
hearing from you.

Best,

Your name here.

So now you've mailed off the query and you're waiting to
hear back. You get a letter from Mr. Hottie requesting your
manuscript in full (or maybe the first three chapters).
Check it over really well. Print it off - write a cover
letter. Most editor's just want to see a basic cover letter.

Dear Mr. Hottie:

Thank you for requesting to see (story name here). I look
forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Your name here.

And send it to him. Making sure you put REQUESTED MATERIAL
on the envelope. (don't use staples an elastic band to hold
the thing together is fine).