Preparing Your Book/Files/Manuscript Part 2

Hey book lovers, I’m back again. You’ve made it through the first round and to give you a little refresher, this is what we discussed in Part 1 of how to Prepare your Book/Files/Manuscript: Traditional publishingSelf-PublishingIndie PublishingAnd a mixture of Indie and Self-Publishing We also went through how to: Prepare your book/files/manuscriptWhat to do after you've finished your manuscript like,Making a checklist,Writing a query letter,Researching, companies and literary agents,And the last, turning in your project. Now you are at the point where you've turned in your manuscript to several agents. Please note we are talking about traditional publishing at this point. I will cover self-publishing, Indie, and a mixture later. Turning in your book/manuscript/files to one or ten literary agents doesn't cut it. Unless you have an inside connection, you need to turn your manuscript into at least a hundred literary agents or more if you hope to hear something back. I'm not trying to discourage you. But this is the reality since so many people are writing and wanting to be published. Hearing Back from A Literary Agent If or when you hear from an agent, it will likely be a request to see your entire manuscript. Remember, they often do not read your book/files/manuscripts, only your query letter, unless it is the first three chapters.  But now they are interested, so they will request your entire book. Once the agent has read through it, they will either love it or leave it. If they love it, you may start to talk about signing on with them, or they will ask general questions to see if you are willing to change the title name, etc.  In short, they want to know if you are willing to work with them, at which point you can either decline or accept their offer. What to Do When You Get a Call Would you please not act like a moron when you get a call? At least not on the phone. Stay professional and giggle or pop a bottle of champagne AFTER you hang up. There is NOTHING wrong with being excited. For heaven's sake, you have been through the wringer and spent hours upon hours of your time seeing this project through. No, go ahead and celebrate once your meeting or phone call is over with the agent. What Comes Next? Do I accept the offer or not? When you have an offer to sign with a literary agent, take a day and consider if this is the person that you want to work with. No one can make this decision for you. However, it is worth noting that not everyone will even get one response, and by not everyone, I mean, according to Mark Malatesta, "your odds of getting a literary agent are 1 in 6,000. That does NOT mean 1 out of every 6,000 authors who try to get an agent will make it, and the other 5,999 will fail. It means the best book agents can get as many as 1,500 queries per month, and they sometimes only offer to represent approximately 6 new clients per year. Some writer representatives take on more. But, for this example, let's use that math. If a literary agent only offers to represent 6 new writers per year, that's one every two months. Or the odds of getting a literary agent in that scenario are 1 in 3,000. But let's assume, in this example, the chances of getting a literary agent are less. Because we're talking about one of the most powerful or famous literary agents here. In other words, 3 of the 6 authors that the most successful literary agents offer to represent each year are already published with traditional publishers. Those authors might even already have a bestseller or two—or they might have a very strong author platform. That's why your chances of getting a literary agent are 1 in 6,000." Those numbers do not favor the author, so consider the literary agent who has chosen you, but do not get too picky as that could be your only offer. Take a day, decide, celebrate, or keep looking.  I've Accepted. Now What? Now it's time to let the literary agent find yo...