What advice would you offer to unpublished writers in approaching publishers for the first time?
A couple things. Start working on something new while you’re submitting what you’ve finished. That would be my number one rule—always be working on something new. Don’t depend too much on just one story. Secondly, do more research than just getting out the Writer’s Market book, looking up what publishers publish, and submitting to them. Instead, actually take some time to learn about those publishers. If you can, find out the names of the editors who work there, read their blogs, find out who they are and what authors they’ve worked on. Try to really understand the vision of every publishing imprint, and figure out what it is that they like and try to match your books to their books. Make sure you’re reading their books and finding the ones that are the best matches. But other than that, just keep on going.
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