Market Mondays – Part I of Steps to Getting Published with Sid Frost

The first and last Mondays of this month of August I’ll feature a special friend, Sidney W. Frost, from the John 316 Marketing Network, who shares his Steps to Getting Published. Today is Part One – come back on the 29th for Part Two. Sid also joins us on Tuesday, August 9, to talk about his work. And in the meantime, visit with Rowena Kuo of Written World Communications, who talks about The Small Press on the next three Mondays.

Welcome, Sid.

Note: This post originally appeared in its entirety at Christian Bookmobile on June 15, 2011.

How to Write and Publish a Novel

1. Read the type of novel you want to write. Lots of them.
2. Study genres and subgenres. Which one best suits the story you have in mind?
3. In the selected genre, what are the publisher’s length constraints?
4. Make a list of possible publishers. What are they looking for? Do they accept queries from authors, or only agents?
5. Learn the craft. Take classes. Read books on writing. I found some great online classes.
6. Write a synopsis. Include story question, main characters and settings. See sample synopses.
7. Write an outline of scenes. Identify point of view character, scene goal, conflict, and, if it is important, date, time, weather. Estimate 2,000 words per scene.
8. Prepare bios of the main characters. Add other characters as needed.
9. Write the first three chapters. Don’t ask me what a chapter is. You’ll know it when you see it.
10. Revise the synopsis when needed.
11. Revise the outline when needed.
12. Edit the first three chapters until you are ready to share your writing with others.
13. Join a writers’ support group where others will critique your work in return for your comments about their work. There are a lot of ways to do this. Some publishers will get new authors together to help each other. Organizations such as the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) have local chapters or online groups that do this. Romance Writers of America have subchapters. You Write On.com where you are assigned readings randomly. For each story you critique, you get a credit for a critique of your work.
14. Send copies of your work to your friends and ask for honest feedback, but believe in yourself.
15. Find manuscript contests you can enter. This is an excellent way to get useful feedback. The first level of the contests are usually handled by authors. But, if you come in first, second or third, you have an excellent chance of getting your work read by an agent or a publisher’s editor.

Don’t stop here! Come back on Monday, August 29, for the rest of the story.

Come back on Tuesday, August 9 to get to know Sid a little better and learn how he made his system work!