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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29861
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

- If you are going to have it professionally edited, do that first before you do any other steps. These days, manuscripts must be 100% print ready before submission.
- A query is an introductory letter you send before submitting a manuscript so you don't waste your or your prospective publisher or agent's time. If you take the time to learn how to write these well, you can _dramatically_ increase your odds of being published. Writing them is a gatekeeper skill that can be mastered. There are online resources, as well as published instructional manuals for queries.
- If you aren't looking to make a living off writing, an agent is probably _even more_ important. It's not notably easier to find an agent than to get published, but they'll take over a lot of work you probably neither want to do nor are qualified to do after you get them. (I sold the one book I published traditionally without an agent, but now wish I had gotten one, it would have been well worth the percentage.) If you do wish to approach publishers directly, you can ask one to recommend an agent to you after you are accepted. This is a little unusual, but not completely unheard of.

As a side note, you'll want to submit exclusively to Italian language publishers and/or agents. There's no possible reason to submit your Italian-language book to an English oriented firm or agent. According to [this site](http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory/language/italian-publishers/) there are nearly 300 Italian publishers.

BTW, user8183921's advice is excellent, and can be equally applied to agents. For English speaking agents, this is a good starting place: [AgentQuery](http://www.agentquery.com/) --I'd be surprised if there isn't an analog for other languages as well.

Original score: 9