By now, everyone is starting to understand that Twilight the book and Twilight the movie are quickly becoming the next cultural phenomenon, much like Harry Potter was. But, as a writer, one of the most amazing things about Stephenie Meyer’s novel, Twilight, is the fact that it destroys many of the myths about getting yourself published. And more importantly, Stephenie provides a wonderful play-by-play of her experience getting her first book, Twilight, published.

Twilight the Book offers New Writers Hope

Stephenie Meyer’s completed her spellbinding manuscript of Twilight the book in only three months. This is an amazing feat, regardless of the fact that she describes how the process of writing it became almost like an addiction. She couldn’t stop thinking about it, but was at least able to control the desire to write enough to only write at night after the kids were in bed. Her description of the writing process, which she provides in detail at her website, is almost as intriguing to me as the novel itself. Every writer out there can feel the sort of emotions she describes as she struggles to get the words on paper in the same way it appears on the movie screen of her mind. Soon enough, the book would become Twilight the movie. But first, she needed to get published.

How to Get Published Using Twilight, the Book, as a Guide

The story that Stephenie describes is a wonderful lesson in humility and perseverance. Every new writer who has ever attempted to publish a book can feel the pain and rejection she describes when receiving rejection after rejection, some more harsh than others. She describes one case in particular as follows:

The only rejection that really hurt was from a small agent who actually read the first chapter before she dropped the axe on me. The meanest rejection I got came after Little, Brown had picked me up for a three-book deal, so it didn’t bother me at all. I’ll admit that I considered sending back a copy of that rejection stapled to the write-up my deal got in Publisher’s Weekly, but I took the higher road.

The Process of Getting Published

The process she describes to get published, however, is a perfect outline for all new novelists to follow. Unlike common belief among young writers, you do not simply mail off your manuscript to every publishing house you can find. The first step is the most difficult, you need an agent. It may be a long and difficult road, but a good writer with excellent skills and an amazing storyline will ultimately find success, just as Ms. Meyer did. The road she took to final publication was as follows:

• Subscribed to WritersMarket.com in order to find publishers and literary agencies that accept unsolicited submissions
• Listened to advice regarding “good” literary agencies with an established reputation
• Sent out multiple queries to all of those contacts
• Suffered through countless rejections until Writers House asked to see more of her book

Her description of the moment Writer’s House asked for her entire manuscript is every writer’s ultimate dream. She writes:

It was a very nice letter. She’d gone back with a pen and twice underlined the part where she’d typed how much she enjoyed the first three chapters (I still have that letter, of course), and she asked for the whole manuscript. That was the exact moment when I realized that I might actually see Twilight in print, and really one of the happiest points in my whole life. I did a lot of screaming.

Every Writer’s Dream

A month later she was picked up by Jodi Reamer, an agent with Writer’s House. After a bit of editing work and Jodi promoting her book, before long Stephenie’s novel was picked up by Little, Brown and Company. The entire process? Six months. The book is not skyrocketing in popularity and is due to become a blockbuster hit as Twilight, the movie, is set to break records. It’s an amazing tale isn’t it? Stephenie’s tale, that is. And every writer out there, the successful and the not-so-successful, find a bit of solace in her success, because if it’s still possible for new writers like Stephenie to realize such wonderful success - then there’s still room in the world for future success stories just like hers.