How To Get Published

One of the most frequently asked questions we get over the telephone is: how do I get published? And while this isn't the definitive response to ensure your book goes to print, here are a few suggestions and starting points:

• Go to your local public library and request a reference book entitled The Book Trade In Canada (if your library doesn't have it on hand, you can request it through the inter-library lending system). This is a big hefty book that lists all the book publishers in Canada, the kinds of books they publish, and contact information for each company. From here, you can compile a list of publishers who deal with the genre you have written (e.g. poetry, non-fiction, children's). Not all publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts - in some cases, for them to look at your book, it would have to be presented by an agent. To save yourself the money and time of sending a manuscript that may end up in a recycling bin (no matter how good it is), contact the publisher before mailing to ensure that they'll accept it. (The American counterpart of The Book Trade in Canada is Literary Market Place.)
• Check out your local community colleges for writing courses. Apart from the help these courses may give you in your writing, they're a good place to network and talk to other people about their experiences trying and succeeding in the quest for a publisher.
• Take a look through magazines and periodicals geared towards the writing and publishing communities. Publishers may be actively soliciting manuscripts on a particular topic or theme (especially for anthologies), so check out the Calls for Submissions.

Good luck!