Hey there, my name is Alyssa Matesik, and I am a professional book editor. I worked at two of the big five U.S. publishing houses, as well as a leading literary agency. One of the questions I get asked the most by my clients is, How do I get my book published by a big five house? I had no idea how the book publishing industry worked before I experienced it for myself, and it can be a very strange enigma of a world. Today, I'm going to demystify the publishing process and lay out the steps you'll need to take if you want to get your book accepted by a major publishing house. Now, when I refer to the big five publishers, I'm talking about the five biggest publishing houses in the U.S., and they dominate the book publishing market. Now, technically, with the recent acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House, there will only be big four going forward, but you'll still hear me and others refer to the major publishers as the big five. Note that the process that I'm going to

outline is geared towards novels, as that's primarily what I have experience with. I know that this video is going to be a really high-level overview of the publishing process, but I'll dive deeper into specific areas in future videos. So, let's get started. Step one, and this is a big one, is to finish your novel. You want to have a workable draft that you can revise and workshop and ultimately pitch to agents. This might be the hardest part of the whole process, so if you're watching this video and you have finished a draft of your novel, major congrats! It's honestly a huge achievement. So, what do you do after you finish your first draft? It may be scary, but it's time to put it in the hands of readers. You might consult a group of trusted beta readers who could be friends or maybe members of a writing group. Or at this point, you might hire a professional editor for an editorial assessment, which is a big-picture critique of what's working and what could be improved in your current draft. If you're interested in learning more

about what an editorial assessment is and how it differs from a developmental edit. Check out my video that outlines these two types of structural editing. Now, once your trusted readers or your editor have provided feedback, it is time to take a deep breath, sit back down with your draft, and revise. Allow this process to take as long as it needs to. Sometimes, distancing yourself from your draft for a few months or even up to a year can give you the insight you need to come back to the pages with a fresh perspective. Once you have a revised draft, it may be time to share it with your beta readers or your editor again, which can be especially helpful if you're struggling to work out certain elements. But let's fast forward. Once you're happy with and confident in your revised draft, it's time to start thinking about literary agents. Your literary agent will be your partner in publishing. They will represent you and submit your novel to editors at the big five publishing houses, and you'll pay them a commission, which is a percentage of your book deal.

sales big five publishers don't typically accept unagented manuscripts. So, if you have your heart set on being published by one of them, you're going to have to get an agent. But where do you start? There are tons of resources and databases out there that will help you find a literary agent that specializes in your genre. One trick is to flip to the acknowledgment section in the back of some of your favorite books to find the name of the author's agent. I recommend creating a dream list of agents who you want to reach out to. Keep their email addresses documented, as you're going to need it. Once you have a solid list of agents who you'd love to work with, it is time to start writing your query letter. The query letter is your email pitch to the agent where you'll describe your book and also include some sample pages. Writing a killer query letter can be a tricky task, so you might want to consult your beta readers or that trusty editor again to get their eyes on it. You want to make sure you're enticing

the agent while remaining clear and concise. I have another video on the top five elements of a successful query letter, so check that out if you're working on your query letter currently. Okay, so now you're feeling good about your novel draft, and you have a strong query letter. That means it is time to send out your queries. I recommend sending a batch of queries. The number is up to you, but there's no need to send one at a time. I compare the querying process to phishing. You want to cast your net wide, and ultimately, you really only need one to bite. Also, like phishing, though, querying requires a lot of waiting and patience because agents' inboxes are typically flooded with queries. It can take weeks or even months for them to respond to yours, and in some cases, the hard truth is that you might never hear back from certain agents if they are just unable to respond to all of their queries. If you've received projections from agents in the past, check out my video on the reasons why they may have rejected your project.

and hopefully you're able to understand their perspective and the process a bit more. The important thing to remember with querying is that it is not personal. The best part is you can always continue reaching out to new agents and sending out additional batches of queries. I recommend keeping a tracker like an Excel file or a Google Sheet where you log who you reached out to and when and if you got a response. One day, if you just keep at it, you just may get a fish to bite. Typically, if the agent is interested in your project, they will start by requesting your full manuscript. That doesn't necessarily mean they're ready to sign you on as a client, though. You'll likely have quite a bit of back-and-forth correspondence once they've read your full draft, and if all goes well, they'll make you an offer of representation. I wish I could say that the offer of representation is your golden ticket to publishing, but it still doesn't guarantee that your novel will be accepted by a big five publishing house. Firstly, the agent will more likely than

not have their own suggestions on ways to improve and strengthen your book, and they will help bring their expertise to allow you to position your book in the marketplace. That's all to say that you can expect to complete some more revisions to your manuscript before the publishers even lay their eyes on it. Then, once you and your agent are feeling good about your draft and your positioning, the agent will submit the novel to editors at the publishing houses for consideration. They write a pitch similar to your query letter, but it's directed at specific editors within the publishing houses. If one of the editors likes your novel, they will make an offer with your agent, and that's your golden ticket. You'll sign the book deal and start planning your collaboration with the editor at the publishing house. There's a lot that happens after that point as you work with your editor, but I'll stop here at the book deal because that's the biggest milestone. Those are the steps to getting a book published at a big five house in a nutshell. Again, this has been a really high level

overview, but I hope it gives you some behind-the-scenes insight into how the process works to get novels published and on the shelves at bookstores. If you found this video helpful, please hit the like button below and head on over to my channel, where I have a lot of other publishing resources, as well as advice on how to strengthen your novel or book project. I'd love to connect and hear more about where you're at on the writing journey, so leave me a comment below letting me know what you would like to learn more about as it relates to getting a book published at one of the big five publishing houses. If you like my channel, please hit that subscribe button so that you will get notified every time I post one of my new weekly videos. Thanks so much for watching, and happy [Music] writing [Music] you.

How to Get Published by a Big Five House | Traditional Book Publishing Process

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