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).