How to publish a book (I): Literary Contests

We could be hours talking about how to publish a book, but when you already have a novel you do not feel that you have time to think about everything, you want it already. In that case I will try to explain the four most effective or best-performing results.

-          Literary contests: Will be described in the following article.

-          Editorials

-          Self-publishing: I will add everything you need (ISBN, intellectual property register, distributors, paper or digital ...)

-          Editorial agent

Source: formacionyestudios.com

I have always thought that the way that less headaches brings are the traditional editorials. We could say that we have three ways for an editorial to publish us, which are the literary contests, a literary agent or directly an editor.

Let's focus on the first series, it is true that it is very difficult to win, although to be honest, if we are starting we do not expect to win the contest Premio Planeta, which has a prize of about € 600,000, let's look for something simpler. Although nothing is lost with try.

From my point of view is the best way, since 'Jamás debimos volver' came from losing the literary contest of the Editorial Tandaia. They were interested in publishing my book despite the defeat.

The first thing we will do to start looking for a contest, I personally go to escritores.org (http://www.escritores.org/recursos-para-escritores/concursos-literarios). They are contests for Spain and Latin America almost all, although they publish some for USA. There you will find all or the great majority. Each year they are updated and you can select categories that interest you.

Once you have checked all the contests, keep those that interest you. I recommend having a Word file to point them out. Always check all conditions to make sure you have them.

The next step is to add them to the calendar, I usually use Google Calendar. That way, when the end date approaches (I scheduled it a week before), I check the manuscript and send it.

Now we are ready to send our manuscripts, remember to respect each of the clauses. It is important to ensure that you do not run into multiple competitions at once if one expresses clearly that cannot participate in another being still in force. In this case you must wait for the contest decision to come out.

The more you can participate, better. In this way increase your chances, I think that if they see your name at the end you can get a mention, Is not as rewarding as a victory but often they choose some contestants who have interested them to publish their novel. I was one of those chosen with the first one.

Finally, to be honest, it is very difficult to win a literary contest. You think that there are people with a high level participating and some are consecrated authors, But that does not take away the spirit, We all leave with the same possibilities. Much encouragement to future writer, I know you can with everything.

Do you think I left anything? Do you think the same as me? Do not hesitate to leave your comments to see the different points of view.