2 Publishers Accepting Unsolicited Manuscripts & A "Publisher" To Stay Away From

   You always want to do research on publishers and literary agencies before you query them. There are multiple ways you can do that, for one (this is what I do 'cause I go in the bookstore "A LOT") you can look at the books that they've sold, or are representing. If you reccognize one as a best seller than you should go for it! Another way is you can Google them, I'd suggest both if you're just starting out.

   But anyways, here are two publishers that are accepting submissions.

   Entangled Publishing

   Sourcebooks

   Send some submissions!!! Take a chance, you'll never know!

   And now a warning. I recently sent a manuscript submission to Dorrance Publishing without researching them and found out that they're a big, fat phony publisher. They're just out to get your money. So stay AWAY from them!
   See? This is what happens when you don't research a publisher. You can get stuck with someone that's out to get your money and won't do anything to help premote your book, or is just a bad publisher. Watch out for this stuff!!!

   Here's a link for the different types of publishers: Types of Publishing Companies

                                                                                                             --
                                                                                                              Ashley
P.S.
   Comment!!!

Chapter Combinations

   You can open any book, fiction or nonfiction, and see that a lot of books have different chapter presentations. I know I've talked about it before, but I'm going to put more pictures, and examples, so it'll be a little different.

   You can have the chapter in all caps

        CHAPTER ONE

   You can add a chapter title

        CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER COMBINATIONS

   You can change the 'word' ONE

              CHAPTER 1

   And you can add chapter titles after that

              CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER COMBINATIONS

   If you have a copy of The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, open up to the first chapter (or any chapter, either way). You will see a picture of a seashell above the chapter.

                                                               FICTION

                                     The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

  
   You can put a picture above the chapter, put the chapter number, and (if you want) you can add a chapter title.

                                                        
                                                    Fang by James Patterson                    

   You can just put the number of the chapter on the right, or left side of the page.

                                         
                                The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

  
 Or you can put it in the middle of the page, like in the picture above.

 

 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

   You can put the number of the chapter inside a design, like in the picture above. You can put it in a shape, or a design.

                                                  Wake by Amanda Hocking

   You can put the number of the chapter (in words, or just the number), a design below it, and then the chapter title.

                                                 Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

    In Nightshade there is a page that has a picture of the moon. With each chapter the moon becomes fuller and fuller. Then once the moon is full, the moon begins to to descend.

   Then, on the next page is the beginning of the chapter.

                             Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

  
   You can have an artist design a picture for every chapter, then place it above the chapter title, or use any of the other chapter designs I've showed you. You can find artist to do this on the Web, or if you know an artist, or know someone who knows an artist you can get them to sketch something different to go with every chapter.

                                                Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

    This is a plan, easy chapter design from the book, Twilight. It basically just has the number nine, a period, and the name of the chapter.

                                                                    9. Theory

                                         Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber

   See the design down the right side of the page? I thought it was pretty cool :) but this isn't my fav, chapter design. I'm saving the best for last! What I also liked about this chapter design was that the number of the chapter is up in the top right hand corner, and then right below it is the chapter title.

                                               The Hollow by Jessica Verday

   I LOVE this book, and this chapter design! The book is great! To check it out you can click on the link I put under the book cover, you can do that with any of the books I placed on this page.


                                                            NON-FICTION

                                    Getting Your Book Published for DUMMIES

   This book is easy to understand for first time authors. I recommend reading it! The chapter placing for this book is perfectly designed too!

            How to Publish, Promote, & Sell Your Own Book: The insider's guide to everything you need to know about self-publishing from pasteup to publicity by Robert Lawrence Holt

   This book I recommend too! It is great for someone who wants to self-publish their book!

                                                                            END

   You can design the chapters anyway you want. It can be in different fonts, you can put designs on the page in the beginning of the chapters, you can get an artist to sketch a picture for you (like in Harry Potter). You can do whatever you want!

                                                                                                --
                                                                                                 Ashley

Learning More About Self-Publishing

   When I first began this blog I said that I didn't know much about self-publishing, but now I'm starting to learn a lot more since I plan to self-publish an eBook sometime in the next two months. So that is why there is a lot more self-publishing information on this blog.

   Thank you for reading this and my other posts!
                                                                                           --
                                                                                            Ashley

25 Things You Need To Know About Self-Publishing

 Self-Publishing A Book: 25 Things You Need To Know

Rejection Part 2

   Once an agent (or publisher) comes back with a rejection you should accept it and not reply back to the rejection you have been given. Once you are rejected you should never reply back. Not something sarcastic, and not even a 'thank you for your consideration.'

                                                                         --
                                                                          Ashley

How to Find a Literary Agent Part 2

   Another way to find a literary agent is to go to your bookshelf, pick up a book, and flip to the Acknowledgements page. Read over the page carefully. You are searching for a name of a literary agent. You can than take that name and Google:

   (The name of the literary agent you have found) literary agent.

   A bunch of pages should pull up, so all you have to do is click on a page and see if it says what literary agency it's from.

Recommended Books

       I've only read one book on how to get published, the rest I Googled. But I've also read one Self-Publishing book. I want to share them with you, they were really helpful to me.   


The self publish book (if you are interested) is called:   How to PUBLISH, PROMOTE, and SELL your OWN BOOK (the insiders guide to everything you need to know about self-publishing, from pastup to publicity)-- by -- Robert Lawrence Holt   

 
 The other book is: Getting your BOOK PUBLISHED for DUMMIES -- by -- Sarah Parsons Zackheim and Adrian Zackheim (including hot tips from top publishers and agents)

Paying Attention to Submission Guidelines

   Okay, now that we've covered 'how to find a literary agent' it's time to tell you what to do once you find one that you want to send a query letter to. (This will be an example of what to do when you find a literary agent to wish to Email online).

   On every literary agency website there are guidelines they give you. They can either be found in About Us, Contact, or Submission Guidelines (or just Submissions). You will click on it and read what they are looking and not looking for in books. You will read that, and then you will scroll down and read what they want you to send them.

   Example: I just Emailed a query letter and the first 25 pages on my novel to Bernadette Baker-Baughman with Victoria Sanders and Associates. (This agent has a blog called: Baker's Mark). On her blog is the Email she accepts submissions from, and submissions guidelines saying:

  
   I prefer a query via email, along with the first 25 pages pasted into the body of the email below your query. You can query me at: queriesvsa@gmail.com. Please address any queries for me to my attention (as this is the general query box for all VSA agents). You can learn more about my interests prior to querying me by clicking on the “Know Me” link. You can view the submission guidelines of Victoria Sanders & Associates here.

   Please send a query with the partial in the body of the email before submitting any additional material. I will request a full or partial manuscript be sent via email if I am interested in seeing more. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be considered. Queries sent with attachments will be deleted and unread. Typically, I review all materials in 4-8 weeks from receipt (I try to be faster, though).


   Back to me

   All the agents that I know of have Submission Guidelines, so pay attention to them! On one of the agents that I queried it said to send 20 pages, but I only sent the prologue (which is one page). An Email came back a month later (you also loose time when you don't send what they ask) to send the query again and the correct amount of pages.
   I had to resend the Email, and 2 weeks later I got a response from that agent saying that she was sorry but the novel did not sound right for their agency.
   So pay attention to those little things! You might think that it won't matter how many pages of your novel you send, but trust me, it does.

   Comment! Thanks for reading!
       
                                                                  --
                                                                   Ashley

How to find a Literary Agent

   The way I find my literary agents is I Google: literary agents that accept YA (young adult) novels.

   But there are other ways. You can use Writer's Digest, or you could go to the nearest bookstore and look for books that tell you about agencies and what they accept. I bought one, and I'm sorry to say I don't remember the name of it, but I took it back. I didn't like spending hours looking for an agent that accepts the genres I'm looking for, but also accept YA fiction (all my novels are YA, I am a teenager after all). But that was when I was just getting started with my research, it was sometime around January when I bought it.
   Anyway, I prefer to look for agents by Googling.
   But you should research agents the way you prefer. It will take a while to find the way you like to research agents and such, once you really get into it you'll figure it out.

   By the way, I'm actually sending queries to agents now :) I wish I was writing instead though. Maybe later, I guess.

                                            --
                                             Ashley