Now that I am officially published, I feel more confident answering this question. It is the first thing everyone wants to know when I tell them I have a book out.
First, I got published by writing a quality novel. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if your writing is no good then nobody will want to read it. It may be that you just aren’t ready yet — practice does make perfect.
How do you know when it’s good enough? If you ever figure that out for sure, please let me know. Even the best writers go through stages of doubt. Orson Scott Card once said that, “A good writer simultaneously believes that he is the best writer in the world and the worst writer in the world.”
There is a reason that my first posts under “Tips for Writers” were on critique. Get feedback. Find out what people think. Improve your work. And then one day, far short of being absolutely certain that it’s perfect, just send it out and hope for the best.
Then comes step two: sending it out. You’ll want to get a copy of the most up-to-date Writer’s Market and start looking through it for publishers that are interested in the kind of thing you write. There are publishers for everything…fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories…Find them, find out what their guidelines are, send out a professional package or query, and then wait…
and wait…
and wait…
Finally, you get to step three: receiving rejection letters. Trust me, even the best get rejection letters at some point. You will too. Just chuck the letter in the trash, get a package together for your next choice of publisher, and send it out.
Always start with the publisher you are most interested in and work your way down. You are welcome to use any criteria for deciding what makes a publisher the most desirable to you. If you choose to go with the big houses, you will also want an agent. (In fact, you may need to get an agent first in order for the big houses to even look at your manuscript.)
You can find all the details in the Writer’s Market.
The biggest bit of advice I can think of to conclude with is a question: What do you have to lose? Yeah, dreams come true, but only if you work for them. At least, nothing in my life has ever landed in my lap!