How to be your own literary agent?

Today, a large number of writers are emerging in the literature world. Mostly, new budding writers are coming with new ideas. As soon as the writing work is complete and final manuscript is ready, the most difficult challenge for a writer is to find a literary agent to get the book published. When you search for agents and look at the work of the book proposals, you will find that most of them are rejected and the reason is failure to follow the guidelines for publishing.

It is very difficult to get your book published, if you are trying to be your own literary agent. There are publishers who are not interested in your manuscript if it is not through an agent. They follow the policy very strictly, and your work can be sent back unopened if it is not through an agent. For that, you will have to make a very thorough search in publishing market without help of any agent. There is a consulting Writer's Market which helps find publishers who will take your manuscript. Your work must be fine and perfect in order to get your work published without any help of agent.

There are many minute things that you need to look for (which agent takes care of), before you send your work to a publisher. There should be query letter and outline of manuscript attached with your original manuscript. The letter should be professionally written and the manuscript should be edited and polished perfectly. In old ages, the writers used to do all these themselves, but modern authors look for a literary agent who can give them crucial direction for getting their books published. They require a person who will get the book published and help them for long writing career ahead.

There are many technicalities involved which you have to carry out with your publisher, if you your own literary agent. When the publisher shows interest in your book, the most intricate task is negotiation. You need to talk with your publisher to get a good advance and good percentage in royalty. You can search for some good information online and from well wishers about how to negotiate smartly. You need to do a lot of homework before you approach your publisher. You can even find your other writers who have published their work through your publisher and what advance they have received. You can find out about royalty percentages and advances and accordingly prepare yourself to negotiate with your publisher. With this piece of knowledge, you can give assertive argument if you are being paid less.

Today not only publisher, but finding a good literary agent has become difficult. Even the literary agent goes through your work and then decides depending on how promising you are. This makes the literary agent well established in market with delivering good stuff and writers. Therefore, their job is also very difficult. It is the duty of a literary agent to respond correctly at the requirements of their writers.

Written contracts are the most fearful and complex work involved. The writers seek for literary agents due to this overwhelming process. With all the negotiations of royalty, creating a contract is a maddening process. If you have decided to be your own literary agent, you will have to gain full knowledge about all these formalities. You need to study thoroughly in this subject matter. Just signing away the contract blindly can be risky. There are American rights and overseas rights, and they are different from each other. You might get different payments for these rights. But these are important to make your work international. You can submit a manuscript to different publisher to get your book overseas. There are reversion rights and negotiations involved in it. You need to have good knowledge about these things.

Marketing is very important to get your book known. Only writing a good book and getting it published is not enough at all. You need to make the book known among the readers. Today, writers themselves do the marketing. As you are your own literary agent, you will have to think about the marketing strategy to get your book noticed. You can create websites and highlight your work, get good reviews, write blogs on your work, you can even add some personal information about the journey in writing the book to attract your readers.

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