Writing a novel is something that plenty of people want to do, fewer people actually start doing, and very few finish. If you've finished a novel, then you are in a very small group of people. However, you aren't out of the woods yet. Now that you've finished, you've got to find an agent, who can then find a suitable publisher for you. Unfortunately, this can take just as long as writing the novel itself. So how do you go about doing this? Keep reading, as you're about to find out.
One of the things that you'll come up against is that plenty of other people are in your shoes. And while there are plenty of agents out there, most of them will be looking for somebody who has already been published, and who already has a group of loyal readers to sell their next book to. While this can seem difficult to overcome, there are plenty of ways.
The first thing to do is to summarize your novel in about two paragraphs. Make it sound as exciting and intriguing as possible. Use plenty of powerful adjectives to describe the plot and the characters. Remember, you're trying to sell your novel to an agent, so make it sound good. Remember that agents get proposals from hundreds of people every day, so yours needs to really stand out from the crowd. An agent is worried about selling it for a profit, so make it sound like that will be easy.
Next you should make sure the first three chapters are as compelling and intriguing as possible. Often times an agent will ask for the first chapters when they are interested, and then ask to see the rest of your manuscript based on the first chapters. Make sure to go over these until they are completely polished, the writing is tight and succinct,and they leave the reader wanting more.
Perhaps the most important step is to realize that finding an agent and getting published is purely a numbers game. There are plenty of people out there trying to get there books published, and only so much space on the bookshelves. Find as many agents as you can, and send your first three chapters to each and every one of them. There are plenty of websites with agent listings, and plenty of agents today accept queries by email. That means you could easily send out twenty a day in less than an hour.
It takes much more persistence that you may have expected to get published. However, if you keep on sending out queries day after day, you will eventually find somebody that's interested. It's just simple matter of not giving up. And since it doesn't take very long to send out twenty emails a day, you'll have enough time to start your next book.