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Hi, I'm Josh Sundquist - author of the National best seller "Just Don't Fall" and my new memoir, "We Should Hang Out Sometime."

Today, I'm going to teach you how to get published. 
First, let's start with defining some terms. A manuscript is an unpublished work, like a text document of a future book.

Now, we're talking about publishing today and that word "publish" can mean a lot of things. Obviously, you could print the book yourself, that's "self-publishing," or you could write some fanfic, say about shipping two of your favorite YouTubers and publish that online. But what we're going to talk about today is traditional publishing, which means that a publishing house pays you for your manuscript. They print it, they distribute it to bookstores, and they help you market and sell it.

Okay, so step on is writing an amazing manuscript. That's the most important thing and the first thing you have to do. So go ahead and do that, I'll wait. Actually, that could take a really long time. Why don't you pause the video and come back after you've written your awesome manuscript.

Okay, so. Now, you've unpaused the video because you've written your awesome manuscript. What do you do now? You need a literary agent. Because if you submit your manuscript to a publisher without a literary agent, there is zero percent chance that they're going to look at it. It's going to end up in what's called the slush pile, which is where manuscripts go to be unread and die. The agent is a bouncer at the door who removes the velvet rope and let's you go inside to speak with the editors.

Now, before we get into how to find an agent, let me be clear that you want to make sure that you have a reputable agent. If an agent ever comes to you and says, "I'm gonna charge you money to read or represent your book," that's not the agent that you're looking for. Your agent should only make money if you make money.

So, what you need is what I would call a rockstar agent. That's an agent who has already sold successful books. Now, that means that they already have existing relationships with editors at publishing houses, so they'll know the editor who might be interested in buying your manuscript.

So, for that reason, you also want to find an agent who specializes in your genre. Now, some of you out there might be saying, "No, Josh. My genre is not a genre. It's literary." Well, okay. Let's put that argument aside and, for the purpose of this video, we're just going to say that "literary" is a type of genre.

Okay, so. Now, how do you find that rockstar agent who's going to represent you? Step One: List the top ten most successful books in your genre. Step Two: Look in those books in the acknowledgements section. Almost every book, in its acknowledgments section, the author will specifically, by name, mention their literary agent.

Step Three: You're going to need to find the contact information for each of these agents. First, you can go to this website, www.agentquery.com , which will give you contact information for agents and also tell you a little bit about what they're looking for.

Now, the thing to know, is that successful agents sometimes receive hundreds of query letters a day. And so sometimes they'll keep their contact information hidden. If so, here's a couple kind of ninja techniques on how you might find ways to contact them. First is a website called, www.everyonewhosanyone.com . And finally, if you can't find their address on either of those, try searching for the agent's name. Put the agent's name in quotation marks and then the word email. And, you never know. Sometimes people's email addresses pop up in like, long forgotten PDF documents.

Step Four: Send a query letter to each agent. The idea with a query letter is you're just trying to get them interested in your manuscript. So you write them an email that is as short as you can possibly write it. Your goal is not to sell them the book. Your goal is just to get them to reply to your email and ask to read the manuscript.

Now, many agents, on their websites, will have specific guidelines about how they want to be queried. If they do, then you should follow those guidelines. Remember that these people are very busy and so you need to be very respectful of their time. And, if they don't reply to your email, or if they reply and say no, don't take it personally. This is just a business decision.

Step Five: With any luck, you'll sign with one of the agents. He or she might take you through a few revisions of the manuscript. Then he or she will make a list of editors that could potentially be interested in your manuscript and submissions of your manuscript will be made to those editors. And hopefully, one of them will fall in love with it and make you an offer, buy the book, and then you will be a published author.

And this week's catchphrase is: "We Should Hang Out Sometime." Which, huh, also happens to be the title of my new book. For more information about the book, click on the link in the underbar to go to www.weshouldhangoutsometime.com .

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