I have always believed that the act of writing a novel is its own reward. But getting published, of course, is the prize we all seek. The aim of this article is to outline the options you face when selling a novel, which broadly speaking fall into two categories:

1. Finding a Publisher For Your Novel

This is the most obvious, and the best, way of getting published. You can do it either by submitting your novel directly to a publishing house, or else sending it to a literary agent, who will submit the novel (and hopefully sell it) to a publisher on your behalf.

But which way is best?

Opinions are divided, to be honest, but the consensus seems to come down on the side of finding a literary agent for your novel, and I agree. Agents have contacts in the publishing world, and they will know the best publishers to approach with your particular novel. And agents are good people to have on your side when it comes to negotiation and contracts and the whole business side of getting published.

And besides, publishing houses are increasingly refusing to even consider unsolicited novel submissions, leaving you little choice but to try to find a literary agent.

How do you find an agent? From publications like Writer's Market and The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Pick all the agents who specialize in your genre of novel and send them the first chapter and a 1-2 page synopsis (something similar to the blurb you read on the backs of novels). Oh, and don't be afraid to submit to several literary agencies at once. You might have to wait for weeks or even months for a reply, and life is simply too short to tackle them one by one.

2. Self-Publishing Your Novel

The second way of getting published is to go it alone.

What does self-publishing mean? Exactly what it says. When you have a novel published conventionally, the publisher foots all the costs and you receive royalties on copies sold. When you self-publish a novel, you foot the costs but the profits are all yours. Which is great! The trouble, of course, is that without the might of a publishing house fighting your corner you might struggle to sell any copies at all, at least beyond your local bookstores.

For all the pitfalls, though, there have been countless self-publishing success stories, and there really is nothing stopping your novel from being the next one.

To conclude, finding a literary agent is the best route to getting published. If that fails, you can choose to go it alone or you can revise your novel in the hope of making it publishable. The third option is to give up and quit novel writing altogether - but that isn't an option I would recommend.