Getting It Out There

You've written you book. And re-written it a number of times. You've sent it through critique groups, re-edited and sent it back to the critique group and repeated the process till you and your group decide you've written your story in the best possible way..
No it's time to submit it. What do you do? Look for an Agent to do it for you?
Send directly to publishers? Both of the above.
Rules have changed. In the age of eBook and self-publishing, very few publishers claim the right to exclusively sit on your manuscript while they take six or seven months to decide if they wish to see more of your work.

The Right Agent.

Method one: You can put together a list of recent books that you admire or that you think are similar to your work. Then, find out who represents those authors.. Many authors list their agents on the acknowledgments page in the front or back of their books. If you can’t find the agents this way, contact the publishing companies of the books on your list and ask their publicity departments who agented the books you are interested in.

 Method two: Go to AgentQuery.com, The internet's largest free database of literary agents. There you will find all kinds of wonderful tools to help you come up with a list of agents to query. Put in the keyword "Juvenile" and it will bring up another list.  I choose this method.

Method three: Go to Manuscript Wish List. This is the twitter link/site. Search the tags for your type of book.

Here's a link to the FAQ sheet for Manuscript Wish List.com

Bypass the Agent. Go to the Publisher

Submit directly to a publisher. SCBWI publishes The Book with a list of publishers. Author's Publishing is a free magazine which tells who is accepting manuscripts. I know there are other methods. I use these.

However you choose to do it, get it done. I know how hard it is to submit. I sent one out yesterday. Good luck to all of us.