by Jennifer Walker

Created on: June 02, 2008

A few months ago, a young friend of mine shared some very happy news with me. Her book had been accepted by a publisher! It was the first she'd ever written, and it was accepted on her first submission attempt! Trying not to show my skepticism, I congratulated her and asked her who the publisher was.

"Publish America," she answered.

I went home that night and did what I often do when I hear something odd: I turned to the internet. I googled Publish America and found reference after reference to how much of a scam they were (too much to discuss here, but in short they overcharge for poor quality books so you're not likely to sell many, and they keep the rights to your book for seven years). I found two sites that were of particular help: Predators and Editors and AbsoluteWrite.com. I felt terrible for my friend, but I had to tell her the bad news. She took it pretty well, thankfully.

I offered to look her manuscript over, and I soon realized the book was nowhere near ready for submission. It was filled with grammatical errors and plot inconsistencies. She's going to keep working on it, with what guidance I can give her, and will submit again later when the manuscript is in better condition...to a legitimate agent or publisher.

I spend a lot of time on writer's forums, and I see the same mistakes over and over: people fall for the Publish America scam or others like it, failing to do research on publishers and agents before they submit. Others do their research and find the right places to submit, but get excited and send out queries before their book is done. They must then scramble to get the piece finished when someone actually asks to see it. Make sure your work is complete and edited before you submit!

If you want to be a writer, the first thing you should do is learn how to write well-take classes, read books, and study grammar. I have an articles series titled "Common Grammar Mistakes" here on Associated Content-just click on my profile to find them. I also talk about lessons I've learned about fiction writing on my blog, Jennifer Gets Bloggy. There are a lot of great resources on the internet to improve your grammar, such as Michelle L. Devon's Editing and Proofreading Tips blog.

The next thing you need to do if you want to get published is educate yourself about the publishing process. Visit the writer's forums-Accentuate Writers is a great one-read everything you can there and ask a lot of questions. Research every publisher or agent before you submit, and

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>