As I have found out over the years, trying to get your book published is damn hard, and it isn’t getting any easier. There’s too many wannabe writers that want to know how to publish a book, and not enough editors to read all the submissions, which means that there is a real risk that the next JK Rowling is slipping through the cracks.

However, a lot of people get rejected simply because they are not following established rules, which guarantees that your manuscript is heading on a one way journey to the “slush pile”. Here are 3 ways to stop that :

1. Don’t write the whole book – This one is a real source of contention among both established authors and wannabe authors about how to publish a book. Some say to never approach a publisher until you have a completed manuscript while others advocate writing only a few chapters first to “test the waters”.

As someone who is friends with a successful author, and as someone who has been doing the whole manuscript submission routine myself, I would say the best approach is to write the first five chapters and then also provide a synopsis of where the book will be heading after that. A lot of publishers will be happy with that, and will make a decision based on the first five chapters and the synopsis.

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