HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK IN PRINT

TWO OF AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST PUBLISHERS SHARE THEIR TOP TIPS

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Is there a story inside you that's just busting to come out? Or maybe you've spent every weekend tapping away at your keyboard for months, and now you've got your words down on paper, your thoughts are turning to how to get your hard work published as a book.

The best place to start is by researching novels that are already available in the same genre as yours.

“Just pop into a bookshop and have a flick through similar ones and see if they have any literary agent's details inside or who the publisher is,” Cass Di Bello, a publisher from Allen & Unwin, tells WHO. “From there, you can reach out to individual agents for representation or visit publishers' websites to see what their submission guidelines are.”

Most publishers will open their doors to accept submissions for at least a few months per year. They will specifically outline whether they will only take a full manuscript or are happy to review just a few chapters. They may also request supporting documents, such as a synopsis, a detailed chapter outline, an author bio and information on comparable titles already in the market.

“If there is a killer one-line pitch that shows the story has a really good hook to it, that's something I can't wait to dive into to find out more,” Di Bello explains.

If you're not hearing back, it doesn't necessarily mean you should be discouraged. Today, Liane Moriarty is one of Australia's most successful authors with 10 internationally bestselling novels to her name. But before finding success, she was a novice who penned a children's book that resulted in nothing but a pile of rejection letters.