By Sascha Illyvich

Last week we discussed the first few things aspiring writers needed to know about this business. Let’s recap:

1. Write
2. Decide if this is a career or a hobby.
3. Decide your genre
4. Decide the medium you want to be published in. Traditional Publishers are falling flat, e-pubs aren’t. Ultimately, you will probably end up in both if you sell well.

The next step I’d take as a new writer would be to learn my craft. Through our first step, we tell stories. Next up, we need to find critique groups. Again, this being geared towards romance writers, I’d suggest Charlotte Dillon’s Resource Page for starters. It’s a good primer for research, getting down formulas for query/synopsis letters and again, that all important aspect: the actual writing.

I’d also suggest you visit the Erotica Readers and Writers Association. They have very active mailing lists. You’ll learn craft, network, and find out about upcoming calls for submissions.

At this point we have our target market, we’ve received some feedback, we’re ready we think to submit to publishers. If we went the e-route, an agent like Saritza Hernandez may be a good idea but isn’t required. More on why I chose her later. Most of the old standby e-publishers do not require agents to query the way many traditional print publishers do but turn around time is lengthy in some cases. After you submit your manuscript to an e-publisher they’ll evaluate it in the SAME MANNER as a traditional publisher will. Upon acceptance, a contract is issued, signed by both parties and then the process of taking your story from your fingers to your readers for a profit begins.

While you’re waiting for acceptance (or that dreaded rejection) on one story you ARE still working on another one, right?

Of course, you are. You’re improving; you’re learning your craft. Each book gives us a new skill, lesson or piece of the puzzle that helps us become better writers. At the same time you’re crafting your environment and figuring out just how you write best. You’re doing more research on your characters, growing your story lines; do you see a pattern here? And then you’re submitting your finished stories to other publishers.

If you went the traditional route, the only step not included would be the solicitation of an agent who would represent your story or perhaps your entire line of work. Robert Raymond Brown of Wylie-Merrick picked up my publicist’s entire stock of work because he saw how marketable she is, even among the changes happening. She’s still money. Some agents will only pick up the one book from you and gauge future representation based on your track record and how well you work together.

In the end, this is a team effort. Your agent, publicist, publisher(s) all have one goal.

Side note: For SEO purposes I will probably go over the query process in another article. But this is the basic “how to get published guide.”