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Getting published

When I had completed my manuscript I was hit by the realisation that I had no idea what to do next. A bit of quick research online told me that I needed to start by finding out which of the many publishers out there accept unsolicited texts. Once I had a list to work with I quickly found that each of the publishers ask you to complete a proposal form and send it to them. They are all different, but they all include the same sorts of thing

  • information about you
  • synopsis of the book
  • suggested audience
  • what sets your book apart from others on the market

This last one floored me, but it made sense to have to answer it. I guess that publishers don't have the time to read all the manuscripts they are sent, so a short proposal form helps them decide which they can look at in more detail and which to reject completely.

The problem I was then faced with was to actually 'sell' the idea of my book. In my experience, selling ourselves is not something that teachers are naturally good at and I am pretty terrible at it to be honest. I can remember at Uni my English lecturers thinking that all the teaching students would be outgoing and confident, when we were anything but, and that has been the case for almost all my colleagues and myself since then. I suspect that it might be different for the new generation of teachers, as I have met some quite outgoing potential employees in recent interviews I have held, but there are still some old school characters out there.

For me personally, I feel like anything approaching self-confidence on my part will be interpreted as baseless arrogance, but I am going to have to get over it if I am going to make it as a writer, I guess. 

Typically for me, I have found a workaround that means I can stay true to my feelings of averageness. I have identified what makes my book different from the others on the market and it is the fact that I am/was just an average head teacher, not one of those super heads you read about. That's my selling point, the stuff in my book is realistic and achievable. 

I have sent off three proposals so far and I think I will leave it for a bit now as I don't want to burn all my bridges at once. There I go again, I need to be more confident!

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