It's crossed my mind that most people wouldn't have a clue about how high the odds are against an unpublished author getting into print. I thought that, in order to put my trials into context, I'd describe just how tough it is...
Once an author has completed his or her novel ( in itself a major achievement ) the submission process begins. This initially involves sending to a literary agency a synopsis and three sample chapters of the work. If the agent likes the submission, then they will ask to see the whole novel.
There are perhaps eighty or so reputable agents listed in The Writer's Handbook. Each receives anywhere between one hundred and two hundred submissions a week from prospective new clients. So that's an average ( mean ) total of 7,500 submissions per year per agent. I have it on good authority from one of those London agents that they will request a full manuscript about once a week. So let's call that fifty full manuscripts per year, out of a total 7,500. Of those fifty, the agent may choose to represent perhaps one or two authors as new clients per year....
So, it isn't easy to stand out from the crowd enough to earn representation from a good agent. The fact that I've had the full manuscript of my novel read by two major agencies bodes well, but of course in the long-run it was also rejected by those agencies. I'm close, I'm sure, but only time will tell if the novel is good enough to reach publication - once an agent represents the work, they then have to sell it to a publishing house, and then the competition is in terms of quality rather than quantity...
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