This week I read a great post by YA author Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver Trilogy) titled ‘Publishing Does Not Want To Eat Your Heart Out.’
It is a great post for all aspiring authors. She was asked a question from a fan about how to get an agent to say ‘Your book is interesting and yes’ instead of ‘Your book is interesting but no.’
Maggie says: ‘Here is the thing you need to know about traditional publishing: it does not want to eat your heart. It doesn’t even want to wither your soul to nothing. It just doesn’t care that you exist.
I’ve always been fine with that. I don’t need Publishing to be my friend. I don’t even need Publishing to like me. As a writer, I’ve just wanted Publishing to give me a career. And as a reader, I’ve just wanted Publishing to give me books I want to read.’
She says that if you remember two things as an aspiring writer you will be OK: 1) Publishing tries to give people books they want to read. And 2)Publishing is run by readers.
She reminds us that an agent has to absolutely love your book to buy it because they will have to champion it to lots of people over a long period of time.
She promises that ‘…Publishing is actually pretty fair. A little mercenary in that it prefers novels that appeal to a wide group of readers rather than novels that appeal to only a few. But in my experience, it’s very rare that a great, commercial novel goes unnoticed during querying. As soon as I wrote something worth reading, I got published. Not a moment before (a fact for which I’m grateful, as my name would be on that first effort forever), not for lack of trying.’
In the post she has a link to a post she wrote about query letters, so it’s two tips in one. This post is really worth the read so check it out at:
http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/publishing-does-not-want-to-eat-your.html
Inside My Worlds 
Sounds like a really great article, I’ll have a read. Interesting perspective – I like to hear the other side to the stories of the publishing industry. There’s so much negativity surrounding it – even from published authors. A dose of reality never goes astray!
She is definitely candid in the article, which I thought was good. It is worth the read, and the link to query letters is a good read too.