Acclaimed editor, writer and academic Helen Moffett has some excellent advice for aspiring writers. In a post on BOOKSA, she begins:
Everyone in the book business is familiar with the Sidle Query: you’re at a party, lecture, bar mitzvah, wedding or memorial service when someone sidles up to ask if you have any ideas on how they can get their novel/poetry/memoir published. There are a number of responses: one writer asks, “What are you reading right now?”, and if she gets a blank look, she makes a hasty getaway.
My preferred method is to ask what local authors the Sidler reads, and which local publishers they see as a good fit for their MS. Nine times out of ten I get either the blank look or a frank demurral – “Oh, I don’t read local stuff!”, at which I become very stern, and the unfortunate Sidler scuttles away.