Getting published
Award-winning novelist Lucy Atkins says it’s time to put down your pen and search for a literary agent
MONTH 10:
How to write a novel
This month we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get practical. You have taken this book as far as you can. You have been over it, tweaking and revising, choosing better words or images, cutting superfluous adjectives and adverbs, pruning, polishing and tightening. This is your absolute best shot. You want the world to read it. And for that, you’ll need a literary agent.
A literary agent’s job is to sell your manuscript to a publisher, then represent and support you through publication. Editors at large publishing houses are unlikely to read a manuscript unless it has come to them via a literary agent.