John writes:

Hello,

Dear John,   

Good luck with your writing. I hope the hip is getting better

I think you would be best served by an agent. They would be able to judge if your books were the kind that would appeal to mainstream publishers and help place them, if they are. To get a publisher you need to put together a book proposal for each title. I'd recommend reading Michael Larsen's "How To Write a Book Proposal" for tips on this. It is written from a US point of view, but I'm sure agents in Australia would appreciate a clear, full proposal as much as any in the States. And, of course, there is nothing to stop you trying to get a deal in the US.

Fiction is difficult to market and it doesn't sound to me like you have a burning desire to self-publish and take on all that marketing and promotion work too. Not to mention that it might be especially difficult in a land as vast and relatively sparsely populated as yours. That's why I recommend going the traditional route.

Don't let one or two refusals set you back. Take any feedback from agents on board, and decide for yourself whether or not to revise your work accordingly. Keep querying lots of agents, because so much success in publishing depends on luck and timing: your proposal might fall on an agent's desk right after they have signed an author who has written something similar, so you get rejected. Likewise, your manuscript might reach an agent just as they get back from lunch with an editor who has been complaining that no-one is writing about Irish immigrants carving out a fortune in the outback, these days...

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I’d love to hear your comments on this article: was it helpful?  Have a question about getting started with self-publishing? Is there anything I missed that you would like to know about? Send your comments to .