Jobs in retail are far easier to find than a publishing contract or an editor willing to give you the time of day; however, guess which is more rewarding for a person with a creative bent? I’ll give you a hint: it doesn’t involve hawking Nikes to grandmas.

Now that I’m rolling on a novel for the first time in years, I’m starting to give some time and thought to finding a market for my novel. Of course, the best approach I can think of is the most direct: find out the publisher – and if possible, the editor – of the authors and novels that are in the same genre as what you’re working on, and send it to them.

Of course, you have to make sure your own work isn’t to imitative of the novels you enjoy as a reader; if so, yours will be just another sound-alike novel without the name-brand value that an established author brings.

Yet assuming the novel you’re working on has a voice all its own, it doesn’t hurt to send your submission to the guy or gal who handles the same type of book you’ve written. For example, it wouldn’t do much good to send a science-fiction novel to the person who specializes in celebrity biographies, would it?

While the Writer’s Market can be a huge help in cases like these, it’s best not to submit things to a generic submissions editor; if you can find out the name of a published author’s editor, that can sometimes help, although some authors are more willing than others to give out such information.

And remember, always register your completed novel with the US Copyright Office before submitting it anywhere. The government now has an e-version of the Copyright Office that lets you upload your completed work in PDF format for a minor, $35 registration fee ($10 off traditional mail-in registration), so it’s now more convenient than ever to protect your intellectual property!