Publishing houses | The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard

Happy Monday everyone!

My virtual book tour is up and running! Sponsored by my wonderful publisher 5 Prince Books, for the next ten days I will appearing on different writing sites around the internet promoting my new novel Permanent Spring Showers. On some there will be an interview, on others there will be an exclusive post written by… this guy. Me. Hi.

Today, I am on the Long and Short Review with a guest post filled with some of my writing advice for new authors bravely considering taking on the publishing world. The post is called “Hope, Feathers, and Flogging.”

Here is an excerpt from the beginning:

Being a writer is not easy.

I’ve been chasing this dream since I was a teenager. I have had three different agents in my time, worked with numerous publishers and I have had highs (for example, the publication of my new novel Permanent Spring Showers) and lows. I’ve gotten close to achieving some of my dreams, and I’ve fallen a few times from them as well. There was even a point where I walked away from writing for four years.

Four years.

That is not to say I wasn’t getting ideas during that time and still dreaming something might happen, I was just exhausted and nothing felt worth the inevitable disappointment that I was sure would follow. Everything looked like a negative query letter waiting to happen. Yeah, I was fun to be around.

You can check out the rest of the guest post here.

The Long and Short Review also has an excerpt from my new novel, as well as a giveaway that will be running throughout the tour to win a copy of the book. But wait… there is more!

The eBook of Permanent Spring Showers will be on sale during the tour. It will be on sale for only $1.99 soon. So there is no better time to grab a copy! You can find it on amazon here.

I’ve written quite a bit on the site already about the many pitfalls in being a writer in today’s world.

The fact is literary agents (and managers) are, in many ways, the gatekeepers for the publishing houses, with many of the bigger publishing houses declaring that they only will look at material that is represented. And, honestly, agents want to sell your book, because that is how they make their money; and the more successful deal, the better for them as well. Who wouldn’t want that in their book’s court?

With today’s over congestion of writers—newbies, recent writing graduates, struggling older writers,etc.—your work needs all of the help it can get to be noticed, and an agent can be that for you. Here are five things to consider when looking for a literary agent for your masterpiece. Continue reading →