HELP! Does anyone out there have the same promlem as me?

Oh god, we've all been there at some point, Abby. I used to use my rejection letters as wallpaper. First of all - I have to break this to you gently - friends and family will ALWAYS tell you your work is good. I wrote a novel once which was utter sh*te; it took me years to realise this. Your work may be good, but don't assume it is just because friends/family say so. Self-belief is more important. Get some good honest feedback from people in the business (not just pretentious tweed-wearers in writers' groups). There's three ways of getting into print: In-the-know and networking; writing something so damn amazing, publishers will notice yours amongst thousands of others; and by accident. If only any of them were easy! Agents will tend to be more polite (actually bothering to send your script back with a letter of rejection) than publishers. But they're both tough nuts to crack. You ARE sending a stamped-addressed envelope with your manuscript, aren't you? Best of luck.

How long has it been, too? Cos I was reading about this yesterday in the Writers Handbook, and it said that you should be prepared to wait around 2 months for a reply. If it gets to this point, it suggested sending a breif but polite letter, along the lines of 'I know how busy you must be, but...' - check the section on sending manuscripts in the Writers and Artists Handbook (or some very similar title). Paul has a good point about the sae too (wouldn't have thought of that had I not read about it).

I agree, Beef. I recently got someone signed to a literary agent. The agent loved her stuff and signed her within 48 hours of getting back to me about her but it still took 2 months. And I knew the agent! Having patience, making sure you send it in the right format (call the company you're sending it to if you're unsure but generally typed, double spaced, single sided on A4 paper with wide margins and an SAE is the form) and ideally, sending it through an agent as it's way more likely to get taken seriously (Get The Writers' Yearbook for a list of agents and the kind of work they represent - it's a worthwhile thing to spend those Christmas book tokens on.) are all good ways of getting in there. And don't give up. Many classics were rejected at first (as have been many bad books!) Enter writing competitions too - it can be a good way of getting agents and publishers to notice you. Good luck.

Maybe we can help? See www.publishbritannica.co.uk.

I looked at this site. Sounds great but no details of what they've published so far.

For a track record, see our parent company's site at www.publishamerica.com.

Hey - I've only sent something to be published once (it was refused, go figure) so I'm not an expert on this, but I've read a bunch of stuff about getting published and it says that you gotta have patience. Publishers get shedloads of mail every day - it can take up to two months for a reply to come. The other patience thing is about getting rejected twenty million times but still plugging on - heaps of great authors like JK Rowling and Stephen King were rejected heaps of times and look at them! Good luck with it anyway :)

I would just like to thank you for your comments on getting published, I have been trying to find address to agents and publishers without success so thats my hurdle. I am glad your friend got his/her work looked at it does help if you know some one. regards

Its true what everyone says.Family ALWAYS say that your work is brilliant. As a tip,tipe your story out and send it to publishers.dont send e-mails. Just put a letter in with the story.Easy! Remember to enclude your address.If you want to get published send to LOTS of pulishers!!!!!!!!!!!!

This might be an old saying, but still rings true to someone who has had countless rejection letters - All good things come to those who wait. Yup, as a writer who has been writing for the best part of ten years, trying my luck at getting published for the last year or so, the only thing you can do is keep trying, so chin up. Good Luck to anyone who's been in the same boat as long as I have- and Thanks.

Must say I like the look of the PublishBritannica site. I wrote one novel many years ago, got endless rejections and never had the strength to do another. But now with the new routes available, I've got a quarter novel that I'm really determined to turn into a 'whole one' :-))

Get a copy of the writers handbook. It's got lists of all agents and whether they accept unsolicited manuscripts. Also look at their current authors - that will give you an idea of the type of work they publish. There is a less detailed version on-line - which you can find at

PublishAmerica (the parent organisation of PublishBritannica) are publishing a collection of eighteen of my short stories under the title "The Rainbow Man and other Stories". We have got to the final page proof stage. It took them a couple of months to make a decision but they have been pretty quick at getting things done since that. Fellow ABC author Ed Bruce also has a collection coming out with them. As far as I can tell the company is kosher, but it's small as publishing houses go and you will have to be prepared to do a lot of the promotion yourself if you go through them. I'll keep you posted on future developments.

OK, as someone in the publishing industry and with a publishing qualification - some do's and don'ts (some of these may seem patronising, but even smart people sometimes neglect them): DO do your research - send personalised letters to publishers/agents (agents are best for fiction) who you know publish stuff in a similar vein to your writing, saying why you want to go with them. Remember, you choose your publisher as well as them choosing you. Read stuff from the house you send to! DON'T send round-robin emails to every publisher you can think of. It looks unprofessional, and at least 90% of those publishers won't even publish fiction. DO send a covering letter, a brief CV, a synopsis and a sample chapter. DON'T compare yourself in your material to other authors. That's the call of whoever reads your stuff, and you will only look bad in comparison on the whole. DO (as has been said) include an SAE DON'T include a massive marketing plan, or say 'this will be the next Harry Potter/White Teeth etc'. There are marketing departments for this! I have seen all of the above, and that was just at the time I worked for a social care publishing company that wasn't even IN fiction. So think how many of these mistakes an average fiction publisher sees!