| Path | What it involves | Planning use |
|---|---|---|
| Agent, then publisher | An agent reads manuscripts, chooses the ones they think they can sell, offers them to publishers and negotiates the contract terms with the editor. | Choose this if you want a publisher to acquire the book and you can wait through each selection stage. |
| Direct to a publisher | Some authors have no agent, but most major publishers find most of their books through agents. | Treat it as a secondary option. Read the publisher’s own submission page first to see whether unagented work is welcome. |
| Self-publishing | The platform says no agent or publisher approval is needed. You arrange editing, an ISBN for retail sale and the book description yourself. | Choose this if you want control over every step and accept responsibility for each one. |
The path descriptions draw on the Publishers Association’s explanation of how publishing works and IngramSpark’s self-publishing guide.
How to get a book published comes down to one early choice: find a literary agent who sells your manuscript to publishers, or self-publish and take on the editing, production and marketing yourself. Your patience and appetite for promotion decide which.
If you already know you want an agent, start with our guide on how to find a literary agent. If you lean toward doing it yourself, how to self publish a book covers the production side in detail. The sections below help you choose a route, prepare the manuscript, submit it and judge what each path asks of you.
Choosing your publishing route
Each route is a trade between access, control and workload. The agent route gives you a professional advocate and a publisher’s backing but asks you to get through selection. Self-publishing removes the selection but hands you every job. Decide this before you spend months polishing a query, because the preparation differs.
The agent route to a traditional publisher
The Publishers Association, the UK trade body for publishers, states that some authors don’t have an agent but most major publishers find the majority of their books through literary agents. Agents read a lot of unpublished manuscripts and decide which ones they think they will be able to sell. If an agent takes you on and a publisher shows interest, the agent negotiates the contract terms with the editor.
That makes the agent two things at once: your first filter and your negotiator. A “no” from an agent usually means they doubt they can place the book, which is not the same as the book being unreadable. It also means your pitch has to persuade someone whose job is to predict what publishers will buy.
Author Jenna Rainey’s account of writing and publishing a book is candid about the cost. Traditional publishing can be competitive and may take longer to secure a deal, and for her it took a lot of pitching practice and a refined pitch email. Choose this route if you want a publisher to take the book on and you are prepared for a slow, selective process.
Approaching publishers without an agent
Rainey’s advice is to reach out to literary agents or publishers with your manuscript, so approaching a publisher directly is part of the picture. The Publishers Association’s wording, though, shows that agents are the main channel into major houses. The sensible reading is that a direct submission is worth making only when that publisher’s own submission guidelines welcome it.
Read those guidelines before sending anything. If a publisher’s page does not invite unagented manuscripts, go through an agent instead. If it does, follow the format it requests exactly, because the guidelines are the publisher’s way of telling you what it will read.
Self-publishing
Self-publishing platforms such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, IngramSpark and Smashwords let you publish without anyone approving the book first. IngramSpark puts it plainly: there are no gatekeepers, with no literary agents or publishers standing in your way. It also argues that with a traditional publisher, the publisher has to take its cut, so a self-published author can keep more of each sale. That is a vendor’s claim and comes without figures, so weigh it against the costs you will carry yourself.
Rainey summarises the trade-off well: self-publishing allows quicker publication but requires more marketing and promotion effort from you. If you enjoy the promotion side or already have readers, that is a fair exchange. If you hope a publisher’s machinery will find readers for you, it is not.
Which route suits which writer
- Choose the agent route if you want a publisher to acquire the book, you can tolerate a long wait, and you are willing to revise your pitch repeatedly.
- Choose direct submission only when a publisher’s guidelines explicitly accept unagented work and your book fits what it publishes.
- Choose self-publishing if you want control and a quicker route to readers, and you will treat editing, production and promotion as your own jobs.
- Wait before choosing any route if nobody but you has read the manuscript. Feedback comes first, and the next section covers it.
Preparing the manuscript before you submit
A submission or a self-published launch is only as strong as the manuscript behind it. Preparation is the same under every route, and it is where new writers can most easily save themselves rejections.
Finish a complete draft
Writer Alastair Humphreys, in his guide to getting a book published, makes the case for small, steady output: 2,000 words every week and after a year you will have finished the first draft of a book. The useful lesson is the pace. A modest weekly target that survives busy months is more likely to produce a finished draft than occasional bursts of effort.
Length matters when you start shaping the draft. Our guide How Many Words Per Page Does a Novel Have? Clear Guidelines For Authors (2026) helps you picture the manuscript on the page. For structure, How Long Should a Novel Chapter Be? Practical Word Counts by Genre (2026 Guide) gives chapter-level benchmarks.
Get honest feedback first
Humphreys recommends sending a couple of chapters to discerning, candid friends and asking for their honest opinions before you pursue publication. The word “candid” matters. Relatives who only want to be kind will not tell you where a scene drags or a character confuses.
If you lack willing readers, How To Find Beta Readers: 7 Proven Ways To Get Honest Feedback Fast (2026) lays out ways to find them. Gather the feedback, revise, and only then think about agents or platforms.
Edit for technical flaws
IngramSpark describes a copyedit as a review of technical flaws: spelling, grammar, punctuation and internal consistency. Agents and readers form their opinion of a book quickly, and careless errors give them an easy reason to stop. A manuscript that is clean at the sentence level lets the story do the persuading.
Editing is a stage to complete before you query or upload, not something to leave for later.
Protect and understand your work
Before you circulate the manuscript widely, understand how ownership of your writing works. How To Copyright A Book Or Song: A Clear 2026 Guide To Protect Your Work explains the basics, so you can send material out with confidence about what you hold.
Submitting to literary agents step by step
The agent route is a sequence in which each step prepares the next. Rushing the early steps costs you the best agents on your list, because a rejected query is rarely worth resending.
- Finish and edit the manuscript. Query only when the book is complete and has had honest readers.
- Build a shortlist. Look for agents who represent your kind of book, then read each agent’s submission guidelines.
- Write a tailored query. Address each agent specifically and follow the requested format.
- Send a small first batch. Keep most of your shortlist in reserve.
- Review responses and revise. Change the pitch before the next batch if nothing comes back.
- Follow up as the guidelines direct. Then, if an offer arrives, let the agent handle negotiation.
Researching agents and their guidelines
Agents decide what they believe they can sell, so the useful question is which agents sell books like yours. Submission guidelines are the practical part of that research: they set out what to include and how to send it. Ignoring them signals that you have not read the page, and busy agents are quick to move on.
Our dedicated guide to finding agents goes deeper on shortlist building, so use this section as the overview and that guide as the working manual.
Writing the query letter
The query letter is a short pitch that introduces you and the book. Humphreys is blunt about the biggest mistake: a generic cover letter or email is the top route to an instant delete from busy people. The cure is specificity about the agent you are writing to and the book you are pitching.
The Write Life’s advice on querying literary agents adds a nonfiction point: nonfiction queries have to be heavy on author platform, meaning the audience and credibility you bring. Fiction writers lean more on the strength of the pitch and the manuscript itself. For the wording of the letter, work through How To Write A Query Letter That Gets Read: A Practical 2026 Guide.
The same Write Life piece reports that 90 percent or more of queries are sent over email, a 2013 industry comment. Expect to send electronically unless an agent’s guidelines specify otherwise.
Sending the first batch
The Write Life suggests submitting no more than 10 queries to start. The reasoning is practical. If those 10 draw no interest, you can review and improve the pitch while most of your shortlist is still unused. Sending to everyone at once leaves you no second attempt with the agents you wanted most.
Rainey’s experience supports this approach: for her, success followed a lot of pitching practice and perfecting the pitch email. Treat early silence as information about the letter or the sample, not as a verdict on your writing.
When an agent responds
When an agent offers representation, the work shifts to them. The Publishers Association describes the agent negotiating the terms of the contract with the editor. This is where an agent earns their cut, and it is the main practical reason many writers seek one rather than approaching houses alone.
What traditional publishing pays and how long it takes
Money and time are where expectations most often go wrong. The figures below come from two sources and are examples of particular deals, not ranges that apply to every book.
| Item | Example value | Planning use |
|---|---|---|
| Advance | £16,000 in total, paid as four payments of £4,000 in one author’s deal | Expect an advance to be split into instalments rather than arriving at once. |
| Royalty and agent commission | 10% of sales to the author, minus the 15% cut the agent takes for negotiating the deal | Check how royalties and the agent’s cut apply before judging an offer. |
| Editing at a publisher | Usually around 18 months, though this can vary hugely | Plan for a long gap between signing and publication. |
The advance and royalty figures come from Alastair Humphreys’s description of his own contract, and the editing timeline from the Publishers Association.
Humphreys also warns that an advance is no more than a loan against future royalties, so you receive no further royalties until the advance has been earned out. Read an offer with that in mind: a larger advance is a bigger bet by the publisher, not a bonus on top of royalties.
The time cost goes beyond editing. Rainey says the process of writing, editing and publishing her book took 2+ years. For a fuller picture of stages and waiting periods, see How Long Does It Take to Get a Book Published? A Practical Timeline for Authors (2026). Anyone who needs a book out quickly should weigh that timeline against the self-publishing route.
Self-publishing in practice
Self-publishing is the route where you act as your own publisher. The choice is less about whether you are “good enough” and more about whether you want the work that comes with control.
The jobs you take on
Without an agent or publisher, the tasks fall to you or to people you hire. Editing comes first, following the same copyedit standards described earlier. Then come the cover, the book description, an ISBN if you want retail sales, and the choice of platform.
Cover design shapes first impressions in a crowded market. If you write fantasy, Designing Fantasy Book Covers That Sell: A Practical Guide For Authors And Designers (2026) shows how designers approach the genre. Platform choice is a separate decision, and the how-to guide linked near the top compares the steps in order.
Is self-publishing worth it?
It depends on what you want from publication. It is worth it when speed and control matter to you and you are ready to promote the book. Rainey’s summary applies directly: quicker publication, but more marketing and promotion effort on your side. IngramSpark’s claim that you keep more per copy because there is no publisher cut is plausible, but the marketing workload can offset it.
It is a weaker fit if you want a publisher’s name on the book, or if you would rather spend your time writing than promoting. In that case the agent route, with its longer wait, may serve you better.
Marketing as a self-publisher
Marketing is the part new self-publishers underestimate. Start with How To Market A Self-Published Book: A Practical 2026 Launch And Sales Plan for a plan geared to authors without a publisher’s marketing team.
Poetry and other special cases
If your work is poetry rather than a book-length prose manuscript, how to get poetry published is the better starting point than the agent-focused steps above.
After you have a publisher or a finished edition
Publication is the start of the reader-facing work. Whichever route you take, plan how readers will hear about the book. How To Market Your Book In 2026: A Practical 3-Step Plan To Reach Readers Fast is the general plan and applies to both traditionally published and self-published authors.
A launch event can give the release a focal point and a reason for people to share it. Book Launch Party Ideas: 30 Creative Ways To Celebrate Your Release In 2026 collects options at different scales, so you can match the event to your budget and audience.
Frequently asked questions
When should I follow up on a query?
If an agent’s guidelines give a reply window, follow it. When none is given, The Write Life advises following up after three months.
Do I need an ISBN to self-publish?
You need one if you want the book available for sale in bookstores or with online retailers or wholesalers, according to IngramSpark. What Is An ISBN Number? A Simple Guide To Book IDs, Uses, And How To Get One (2026) explains how to get one.
How long should my book description be?
IngramSpark’s advice is to aim for 150-200 words. For help with the wording, see How To Write A Book Blurb That Sells: A Practical Guide For 2026.
Should I mention self-published sales in a query?
Mention them if they are strong. The Write Life gives healthy sales as 5,000+ print books and 20,000+ ebooks. Weak numbers are better left out of the letter.
