Pathway to Publication

How new fiction writers can make it into print

Peggy Graham. 120 pages 2003

ISBN 1 875750 19 3. £12.95

Peggy Graham has succeeded as an author — not among the few millionaires whose names feature in the top selling lists, but at a level to which most writers can aspire, achieving publication of her fiction works on two continents, and sales worldwide.
This is the advice which makes a difference based on her own experience and that of other authors, together with inside advice from agents and publishers on just what makes the difference between acceptance and rejection.
Peggy writes: Books have been written specifically for writers seeking a market for fiction work, but I have not come across one which mentions the present oversupplied publishing marketplace or the current depressed economic climate of the book publishing industry.
The fiction-publishing landscape has changed and this book gives advice on how to achieve success in such a marketplace.
The object of this book is to enlighten, encourage and give helpful information to the writer, and especially the novelist, seeking first time publication, so they can improve their chances first time around; also to equip them with enough prior knowledge to sustain and prepare them for the disappointments which plague the path along the way to eventual publication when their manuscript finds the right desk, at the right time, in a publishers office. Forewarned is forearmed.
The intent is not to deflate hopes, but to encourage perseverance, patience, and persistence. Rejections go with the writing territory. The only way to avoid them is never to submit manuscripts; wannabe’s never get them; writers do.
I have included a section which gives the names of some of the most famous writers of the past century who have received many rejections on the way to fame. Such information can recharge deflated hopes and restore flagging confidence if and when the rejections come, and certainly will hoist up self-esteem when it plummets.
It can be a great consolation to writers to know that many manuscripts which eventually became best selling books were previously passed over by many agents and publishers before success: Which shows that persistence pays in the end.
So stay on that path or you will never know where it will lead.
The book is illustrated with cartoons by John Broadway.

About the Author
Among the books written by Peggy Graham are Scarlet Angel, Face Value, Witch of the Woods and Stone Walls.
These have been published in the UK and Australia and most are also distributed in the USA. However, Peggy did not meet with immediate success -- after many rejections she published her first novel herself and went through the difficult course of selling copies herself to individuals and bookstores. One of those copies made its way into the hands of a publisher...

More information here.