How do you get your book onto the shelves, anyway?

When I started writing fiction a few years ago, I didn’t have a clear goal to get anything published. It was more of a “one-day-maybe” kind of dream. But as time went on and I kept writing, that vague dream started to feel like a real goal.

But I recently realised I knew almost nothing about how traditional publishing actually works.

That’s why I paid to go to a full-day seminar featuring panels of literary agents, publishers, and debut authors, held at the International Literature Festival in Dublin, Ireland.

In this article, I’ve done my best to distill the most useful takeaways and insights from that day — things I didn’t know before that seminar.

Although the panels of agents and publishers were separate, there was a lot of overlap in the advice and insights they shared, so I’ve combined and summarized them as follows:

• Advice from Agents & Publishers: Key takeaways on the “Book Business” in 2025.
• What the market wants & how to get noticed: Advice on standing out to Agents through the submission process.
• The Elephant in the Room: AI and the future of writing.

Note: the points below are focused on fiction, as the path to getting non-fiction published is a bit different.

Agents vs. Publishers

First, I’ll quickly explain what a literary agent and publisher do, because I was confused myself before the seminar.

A Literary Agent is someone you find to represent you to try to get a deal with a publisher. Although you don’t need one, getting an agent is the route many authors want to take because:

• Market knowledge and contacts: They know what publishers are looking for and how to best position and pitch your book.
• Publishing contracts: These are notoriously complicated, but a good agent…