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You are now at the stage of trying to decide whether to send your query letter to a literary agency or a publisher. There is no right or wrong answer with choosing either. To be honest, I did both. Until one of them requests to see your manuscript, you are open to sending out as many letters as you want. Keep in mind, if your manuscript is being reviewed, don't mail anyone else a query letter until they make a decision. Ask them to give you a time limit on when a decision will be made so you can move on if they don't take you on as a client.

An agent should be told from the beginning that your letter is a simultaneous submission. I added that information into my query letters so it would not be questioned. Some may not review your manuscript if anyone else has already looked at it.

Keep a record in your computer on every agent and publisher that you had contacted. List the person's name, date, email, telephone number, what was sent, a date for a call back and who rejected your letter. This keeps you from sending the agents multiple letters. Repeated letters may cause them to reject you.

There are many ways of finding the names of agents. The Writer's Market Book lists agents with their requirements and what to send them. Each one may request something different from you so be careful to read everything in their write-up. The agencies will mention which acquisitions editors to send the query letter to, how many books they publish a year, what percentage that they pay for royalties and their recent book sales.

Agencies do not accept all categories for books. Again, read everything. You don't want to waste their time or your postage on a company that only welcomes romance novels when your is fantasy or a memoir.

Always include a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). If you don't, they will not reply back to you. Don't send anything they are not requesting, like photos. They will list how long it will take to make a decision. Wait that length of time before you email or make a call to them. Your letter is not the only one sitting on their desk. They are out straight working on projects for other clients. If they have not requested your manuscript, you should continue sending the query letters out.

Agents are not suppose to charge any fees for their work until your book is published and you start to receive royalties. Watch out for this when they try to explain the need to charge a reading fee or their editors have to make changes in your manuscript. Find all these things out before you go with one.

Don't stay with an agent if you have been with them for years and find that they are doing nothing to find a publisher. Make sure you request a time limit for the contract.

This is your book that you have been working on for years. You put your heart and soul into it. Don't be intimidated by agents. They will be working for you.

Ask for names of other authors that had their books published by them and the name of the books. How many did they publish in a year? Check every detail out before you sign a contract. Read it carefully. It may state that you have so many months to decide to get out of the contract if you change your mind.

If you don't understand the wording, take it to a lawyer. READ EVERY SENTENCE. Don't sign anything you don't understand because of your excitement that an agent wants you as a client. Agents don't publish your book. They have to work at finding a publisher the same as you would. If they have sold a lot of books, they can open doors for you.

Ask other authors who they went with and why. Who they didn't choose and why. Again, a writer's group is excellent with their input.

If you hear back from an agency after they read your manuscript, and they want to publish your work, don't make that move if you see warning signs that make you uncomfortable. When you have received rejection after rejection for months, don't sign just to have anyone publish your work.

I had a literary agency that wanted to publish my book. I did not act on it. Believe me, it was hard and painful after receiving rejections for over eight months. My first red flag: they wanted to charge me $99 to have one of their editors double check my work before sending it out to a publisher. Second red flag: they had no telephone number so I could contact them. They stated that if I became a client, the number would be given to me. Third red flag: I requested a list of their books that had been published. I found one book that had been published four years earlier and one waiting to be published. I did not like the odds.

Another publishing company wanted to charge me $30 just to read my synopsis stating it was not a reading fee. They said they had to charge because it would take time to read it. All I had was a two page synopsis! I was uneasy with it. If they charged this amount of money to see my synopsis, what would they charge to read the 243 page manuscript? Would there be a charge calling on a publisher? I wanted my book published so badly that I tried to convince myself that the fee was not high. I finally went with my gut feeling and did not reply back to them.

Those are a few examples of what to watch out for when dealing with agents. This is your work you are trying to get in the market so make sure you are in charge of getting it there. Forget about being embarrassed, scared or having the feeling you owe them something because they are being nice to you. The author has to be 100% in control of making their own decisions with their manuscript.

Always check their website on line before contacting them. Sometimes their website will list a different editor to contact compared to the one in the Writer's Market Book. See how professional their site is with design and information. Do they list the books that they had published for authors, is there a list of the clients they represented, do they supply the informative on what they do step by step to get started? These first impressions are very important on deciding which agent or publisher to go with.

Before you send any material out to an agent, I highly suggest going to the Predators & Editors website. It lists agents and other representation to be aware of. Agents that are not recommended to work with are high-lighted in red. It gives other red flags on what to watch for. This site is www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm.

**Two other web sites for great information on scams and rip-offs: www.speculations.com and www.sff.net/people/VictoriaStrauss/beware.html

If I didn't join a writer's group, I would not have found out about this site. When I mentioned the agency above that wanted to publish my book, a man in our group said he saw a red flag next to this agency on the Predators & Editors site. There are a lot of advantages belonging to a group.

Agents can open doors for you with publishers. They know all the in and outs on who to contact. Their company has already build a trust with the publishers. You may have to share a percentage of your royalty with them, but they do all the legal paperwork and they get you the best deals. After all, they benefit if you get published. Signing contracts can be confusing with all the legal terms that seems like a foreign language to us. A good agent knows when something is not right for you or them.

If you connect with a publisher right away, you can save on sharing your royalty with an agent. I had read that some authors find an agent after they get a publisher to help them through the final stages. You will have no problem getting an agent to represent you once a publisher has been hooked. If you do hire an agent, and they want their normal 15% royalty from your sales, work out a lower percentage with them since you did the leg work. Don't be embarrassed or feel awful asking for the cut. Learn to fight for the hard work you did on your own.

If you decide to stay with the publisher and skip by an agent, spend your money to have a lawyer look your contract over before you sign it. Wording can be tricky in a contact. Don't over-look the agreement because you don't understand it. Your excitement in having your book published is no reason to sign anything without knowing what it truly means. Those small details can land you out of the picture with the publishing company making the money off your novel.

It's scary taking steps to finalize your book. Don't let that stop you from moving forward. Any unknown can bring on fear. After all, you worked years to get your book completed. The last thing you want is for a publisher to be the only one benefiting from your writing.

It's normal to have one rejection letter after another come through the mail. have to develop thick skin to make it in the publishing industry. I started to weaken myself after nine months waiting to hear, "We want your book." Don't lose belief in your hard work. You have to be persistent. Take a deep breath and continue up the hill. Don't lose sight of your dream.

I found my publisher through another author in my writer's group. My publisher is PublishAmerica and you can go to their site at www.publishamerica.com. They publish thousands of books a day. Other publishers may take a year to get a book in print.

No matter which publisher you decide to go with, you become the sales person for your book. It's not going to be easy work getting your book out there, but if you sit back and depend on the publisher to do it all, it will collect dust. Until readers come to know who you are, and like your writing, you have to be seen at public events.

Once you have finished your book, start writing another one. Don't wait until the first one is published. It could take years. I know that sounds depressing but it's a fact. Publishers like to know that if an author does well with selling their first book, that there is another one waiting to be presented. PublishAmerica had my book in print in two months after all my editing. Other publishers make you wait a year or two before it goes to print.

What is Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing means that you deal directly with the editor, publisher, book designer, the printing stage and the marketing and distribution of your book on your own. You take on all of the responsibilities and cost from start to finish.

After years of rejection letters, authors will sometimes decide to put their money out with a self-publishing company. Writers, who go with this kind of publishing, have been told that they have more control over their book being published.

With a traditonal publisher, you don't spend any of your money to get started. They do all the editing, printing, book cover and some advertising themselves. Once your book is published and the royalties start coming in, then they take their percentage before you get yours.

The book industry can be confusing for first-time authors. With all of the possible methods of publishing, authors must first determine which method of publishing is best suited to their needs, timeline and budget. There are advantages and disadvantages to both traditional publishing and self publishing.