My question again...

As I've not read any of it, I can't say whether or not you should give up. However, it strikes me that a book about Islam and your experiences with it, given the current sociopolitical climate, could sell quite well. Querying is difficult, getting a book published is difficult, but it isn't impossible.

There are a couple of things which could be at fault - your query letter may not be up to scratch. We have a place specifically for workshopping query letters. If you are getting rejected from query letter without them ever having seen your MS, then chances are that you've not written a great query. And that's okay - queries are tough to write.

Your writing also may not be up to scratch. We have other areas where you can post a snippet of it.

You don't have to give up just yet.

First let me say.....

Welcome to AW. Hope you enjoy your stay with us.
How do you like your popcorn?

If you go to the bottom of the page to the ‘forum jump’ you can scroll down and find all the areas of this place. Most of the SYW areas require the password of ….vista. Good luck.

Now, about your looking for an agent. It may take a long time but have no fear, keep plugging away. Even those born and bred in the USA or the UK do not find it easy to get an agent/publisher. It is a long and stressful trip to say the least. Just remember this, they won't know what you have to offer if you don't send out the query. Rejection is tuff and it is easy to get depressed when on the receiving end of one.

During the waiting time why not write another book? It will help take your mind off the clock. Best wishes with your book.

Just a casual comment . . . a book like you described might be interesting to me as long as it's not heavy on the political points of view (it would be hard to avoid that entirely).

I have a large book, The World of Islam, edited by Bernard Lewis. I'm more interested in the history and culture than about the current political problems (I can watch the TV news for that). It sounds like your book would be more in that vein (recent history, culture, experiences, and way of life).

I'm say if your English is good (and it appears that it is), then keep plugging to get the book published in the west. It's a long and difficult road sometimes, but might be worth it in the long run.

Salim, I suggest that you take a look around AW and learn a bit about how the process actually works. You shouldn't be calling agents and publishers. You need to approach them through writing a query letter. This is a way to pitch your books to agents or publishers.

Go visit our Query Letter forum. The password is "vista." Read and learn a lot more before you give up.

As above. you can post an excerpt on the SYW forum, and your query letter as Kate suggests. whether it would be interesting depends on the content of course. but try getting it published (by someone who doesn't charge you!) before putting it on the net.

I think literature lovers would read anything, from any culture, as long as it was written in a way that appealed to their hearts and minds.

To add my two cents to this thread, I'd say go and explore this forum. Stalk as many threads as you can, in all categories that apply to you, including Grammar & Syntax, Querying, Novels, and AW Roundtable. It will give you invaluable info on how the industry works, what you should do, and what you should expect. A lot of people here are actually acclaimed writers, and their input can make all the difference in the world.

Good luck, and please remember that failure is nothing but our own choice to give up. Rejection is an inseparable part of the game, no matter your sex, age, ethnicity or anything else for that matter.

Salim said:

To tell the truth, the most irritating thing is the "humiliation" part; the process of looking for agents or publishers, contacting them, waiting for any of them to finally respond to me after weeks, and at the end I get rejected!; that's actually humiliating, and to me it sounds like begging, although I understand why it goes like this as there is a very huge number of writers trying to publish their books.​

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With your upbringing, you may find humiliation harder to bear than some others do. It's good for the soul, but hard on the ego, and I think Middle Eastern men tend to get stuck in what to me seems the teenage attitude of "Don't disrespect me, man."

It sometimes helps to think of it this way: (a) People are not rejecting you; they are deciding that your work isn't what they want to publish or represent. You've offered a red dress in size 8; the buyer wants blue jeans in size 16. That's not a humiliation; it's just a fact. (b) It's part of the process, just as falling down is part of the process of learning to walk.

Also, note that many, perhaps most, of the people who reject your manuscript have themselves written things that have been rejected. They aren't "above" you; they're just people like you.

I'd also say do a lot of research on the agents and publishers. It's a waste of your time to query agencies and publishing houses who just don't work with the kind of book you've written. You need to target the likeliest prospects.

Take a look at books similar to yours, same subject matter etc and see who publishes them and what/who else is on that publisher's list. It might be you have to go with a smaller, more specialist publisher. One advantage there is that the smaller ones may be more open to unagented submissions.

Same with the agencies. Do some research on the authors of books like yours and see if you can find out on the Internet who represents that author. Or it might be easier than that! Some writers will have the name of their agent in a dedication or aknowledgement. Then go and research that agency and if they seem suitable put them on the list to query.

Good luck!

Salim said:

Another publisher agreed only for an author funded publication because I am an unknown writer and my book is of a controversial nature; so he kindly suggested for me to pay him 8 thousand pounds which are the costs of 500 volumes, and I rejected this very generous offer.

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Just to point out, this isn't a generous offer unless you're going for the self-published route. Your book doesn't sound unpublishable so I'd go for the traditional route of searching for an agent.

Hi Salim,

I'm glad you re-posted your questions. You asked: "Anyway, am I doing the wrong thing by giving up hope and publishing the book on the Internet?? And do you have any ideas??"

For the first question: I think you are being a bit premature in publishing your book on the internet if you'd like to see your book come out in traditional form and haven't spent some time (and it will take time) trying to find an agent.

For the second question: As others have pointed out, you've come to the right place for ideas and help. You'll need A) a query letter first, then B) a list of agents who represent books similar to yours, and then C) some thick skin and patience while you send out queries and wait for the responses, most of which will be rejections. It's just the way it works. It may take 100 query letters and 6 months or longer. Or not!

There is all kinds of help on the internet for how to craft a non-fiction query. Good luck!

I found it interesting that you identified yourself as an ex-Muslim. Does that translate into criticism of Islam in your book? If so, then your book could very well be controversial and all the more publishable.

If you have sent out many query letters (30 or more) and have been rejected or ignored by all or most, then I would look at the letter and or the quality of your sample pages you have sent.

Have you asked any professional writers or editors to critique your manuscript? If not, there are people here at A W who may do it for free. I would advise that you post your query letter in the "Query Letter Hell" section of the Share Your Work forum, the password is "vista"

If you have already published you book on a website, it will most likely be considered published. This will make it harder for you to obtain representation from an agent, and harder to get it traditionally published. If you haven't done so yet, keep this in mind.

If you really want to get your work in front of the public, via the internet, Post the first chapter only. If that chapter gets thousands of hits, it will give you good bragging rights in your query letter.