Publishing a book

[Ali]

Hi, DD, i have a few questions on publishing your own book, a friemd of mine presently has a series inthe works, any advice you could give for a starting author and editor?

[Agent M]

Ooh... I might need advice on that one too....

[Onua Wingstar]

Ooo, good one. I have a novel coming along, too, and I was wondering how hard it actually is to be published. (Of course, my story has a long way to go before it's ready for publishing, but still.)

[Gryphon]

Heh. DD, you can't stop us from being authors! Just about everyone (me included) plans on writing at least one book. I want to go into some career that invloves computers and stuff like that. But I have a well built up plan for a series. So, advice?

I'm threatening to ask you this question in May if you don't answer it now! :P

[Birdhead]

I think DD's answered this one already, and/or may not want to do so again. So I'm going to direct you to Neal Gaiman's FAQ on the topic, which is pretty good I think.

Sample:
"How does one get published?

How do you do it? You do it.

You write.

You finish what you write.

You look for publishers who publish "that kind of thing", whatever it is. You send them what you've done (a letter asking if they'd like to see a whole manuscript or a few chapters and an outline will always be welcome. And stamped self-addressed envelopes help keep the wheels turning.)

Sooner or later, if you don't give up and you have some measurable amount of ability or talent or luck, you get published..."

Anyway, that's what he thinks. *shrugs* he also says:
"The other thing I'd suggest is Use The Web.

Use it for anything you can - writers groups, feedback, networking, finding out how things work, getting published. It exists: take advantage of it.

Believe in yourself. Keep writing."

*shrugs*

*cries* R+J! So beautiful!

[Ali]

PK, do any of you know good publishers for fantasy/horror books, I doubt TOR would be willing to try something so new, and they are one of the few I know the name of. Help!!(I'm young, and the author is even younger, could this pose a problem?)

[talkingbeast]

Don't know if you are interested in writing for children or adults, but if it's kids you have in mind you might check the "Publishing FAQs" at the Children's Book Council website: http://www.cbcbooks.org/
You could also check your local library for some of the Writers' Market books-- they have info on which publishers take what.

[Peter Murray]

Here in the UK, there's a book called the "Writers' and Artists' Yearbook" which is published in a new edition every year. I don't know if there is a similar book in the US, or the 8th outer arm or... well, any of these places.

If there is something similar, you might be able to find it in a reference library if you don't want to buy a copy. The UK one lists literary agents and publishers, and the sort of material they want.

Doh! I suppose that's what the Writers' Market books are! Well, if you're in the UK, my answer might help.

[Aurora]

Hey, I'm not really planning to write anything... personally, I always preferred the editing aspect. If I write, it won't be fiction- it'll be reports and stuff, maybe in a newspaper, maybe in a magazine. But my fiction writing absolutely sucks... so yeah. I always did like the editing aspect though.

[Ali]

Yeah, writer's Market is an option, I'll have to get a cpy though, since I only have poet's market at the moment

[Kathy Li]

Ali, one more piece of advice (not necessarily to follow, but to learn from) on
George R.R. Martin's FAQ:

Given the realities of today's market in science fiction and fantasy, I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft. They are a good place for you to make the mistakes that every beginning writer is going to make. And they are still the best way for a young writer to break in, since the magazines are always hungry for short SF and fantasy stories. Once you've been selling short stories for five years or so, you'll have built up a name for yourself, and editors will start asking you about that first novel.

[Jezel]

I, also, have questions about publication. How can you start off when your a minor and have no connections?

[semiramis]

adding to kli6: also, it helps to hone your skills doing things on the net, like publishing short stories to writing communities like fanfiction or fictionpress.net, deviantart (which is technically an art community, but does writing, too) and so on. Most of them have some sort of commenting system, so you'll be able to know what works and what doesn't; a lot of them also have little side-thingies where you can apply for betareaders, often organized by the members themselves.

It isn't actually "publishing" in the traditional sense, no, but it helps you to get a feel for how to appeal to an audience, and how to keep yourself from making really horrible, cliche'd stock fiction (as, while most of the online writing community is fairly nice, there are plenty of flamers out there, and people have entire websites dedicated to helping n00bs avoid the attentions of these people). All of this may, in the end, help to keep you from making the common writers' mistakes that make publishers toss out manuscripts without even looking at them....

[Kathy Li]

Peer review/writing groups can be good and can be awful. Depends on the peers. :-) Also, I'm not sure I'd agree on the degree of usefulness of fanfic. It can teach you some of the things you need to learn, but since you don't have to create situation, world, or even characters, it can create empty slots in your toolbox. Might as well start out creating original works, if you really wanna learn to write a book for publication. Ya gotta take the training wheels off sometime.

BTW, here's another great Neil Gaiman essay on getting ideas for books.

[Ali]

Jezel, i was aking about u. Silly, told u i'd find out.