Best Way to Get Published?

fedorasandpianos · Post by **fedorasandpianos** » 13 Mar 2013, 17:28

Okay, for a new author, what is the best way to get published initially?

I hear it's better to first self-publish and put your book on Amazon, what do you guys think?

All advice will be appreciated:) Thank you for your time!

jeffaaronmiller · Post by **jeffaaronmiller** » 21 Apr 2013, 23:36

Yes, you can go the self-publishing route, but be really careful with that. The lack of professional editing is the bane of self-publishing. I would recommend submitting your manuscript to some indie publishers first. Even if you get rejected, you might get helpful feedback. What we often need as first time authors is brutally honest feedback. It's the only way to really improve our writing, and we don't often get it from friend and family. Friend and family are too nice, quite frankly.

AlisonJack-Author · Post by **AlisonJack-Author** » 22 Apr 2013, 12:41

I think the answer to this question depends on individual circumstances. Before I started writing my début novel I did a lot of research into this subject and the results were a little disheartening to say the least. Most big publishers won't so much as glance at a new author's work (the words 'short sighted' spring to mind!) even if the author has an agent, and a lot of agents are now overwhelmed with clients too. Undeterred, I realised my dream and wrote my book, then fired off the manuscript to any publisher willing to take a look. Happily, one of these independent publishers liked the book and offered to work with me. The downside, however, is that independent publishers don't have a lot of funds at their disposal and I needed to pay rather a healthy contribution to the printing costs. I realise most aspiring authors don't have much money at the ready; indeed, I made a huge dent in my savings, and much as I hope my book takes off it's by no means guaranteed. For novel number two, which is already half written, I will probably try self publishing in e-format to start with, which is a route that has proved successful for other authors. Even taking this route I would recommend paying for professional editing. No matter how carefully an author self edits their work, there will always be mistakes that will slip through the net.
I hope my ramblings have been of use to you, and good luck getting published

junec · Post by **junec** » 22 Apr 2013, 18:32

There are other websites that I'm aware of, I think it's called Lulu or Hulu, one of them, that you can self publish. Amazon is the other one. I've personally never had the experience of publishing yet, but, I heard if you're not sure, to self publish chapters, do a chapter at a time and have people pay per chapter so you can get money and get an idea of feedback/popularity.

Towerdogwife · Post by **Towerdogwife** » 22 Apr 2013, 23:14

I am a new writer also. I have written all my life but now I am putting my writing out there. I just self-published my e-book. It is a collection of short stories and poems. I am working on my first book, and will probably use this same site. It makes you fix any errors in your book which is checked by your system, it will not let you publish til it is right. Then there is the Premium publishing it is still free but it is again reviewed by actual people and once they approve you your book is on a list for many major retailers.

AlisonJack-Author · Post by **AlisonJack-Author** » 23 Apr 2013, 03:45

junec wrote:There are other websites that I'm aware of, I think it's called Lulu or Hulu, one of them, that you can self publish. Amazon is the other one. I've personally never had the experience of publishing yet, but, I heard if you're not sure, to self publish chapters, do a chapter at a time and have people pay per chapter so you can get money and get an idea of feedback/popularity.

This information is really useful as I'm seriously considering publishing in e-format via Amazon. Thank you for posting. The publishing chapter by chapter idea sounds excellent, but I'd be a bit apprehensive as to whether my writing was being properly edited.

Sheryl_Gonzalez · Post by **Sheryl_Gonzalez** » 23 Apr 2013, 11:19

A friend of mine told me the best way to get published is to go on book and submit it there fore people are
Preferring online reading to the old fashioned have a hard cover book in your hand reading. What are your thoughts on this?

sophiagia10 · Post by **sophiagia10** » 28 Apr 2013, 06:13

The absolute first thing you should do is write some good short stories and focus on getting those published FIRST.

Dietzel · Post by **Dietzel** » 13 May 2013, 07:40

sophiagia10 wrote:The absolute first thing you should do is write some good short stories and focus on getting those published FIRST.

I absolutely agree with this. Even if you aren't focused on writing short stories and have no long-term interest in them, they are a great way to teach yourself how to write more effectively for audiences--it is difficult to write a complete story in under 1,500 or 2,000 words, so teaching yourself to do so helps you delete needless words and phrases and streamline what you want to say. And getting a couple short stories published is a great way to build a writing resume and get your name out there.

chereewolf · Post by **chereewolf** » 14 May 2013, 18:02

The most important thing is to write a good book and then get it edited. I agree with the posts above that state the problem with self-published authors is that the quality of the manuscripts wouldn't pass a traditional publishing house. If you can release a professionally edited manuscript, your potential for being picked up by an agent or publishing house is greater, and your readers will respect you and want to read more of your writing.

AmandaT · Post by **AmandaT** » 22 Jun 2013, 11:45

I think the main problem with self-publishing books is that you have no one to do any promotion for you so most people out there will never know that your book is even out there but I agree, getting anyone to look at new authors is really difficult. I often think when I go into a bookshop and look around, how many thousands of authors are in there and those are just the ones who managed to get published and most of them you have never even heard of. I would love to know what percentage of authors make enough money to be able to live off it.

summer101331 · Post by **summer101331** » 31 Aug 2013, 07:11

1-first of all, i would severely do my research. there are several publisher that have no shame what so ever and ask YOU the AUTHOR to pay for your book to get published. you should steer clear from these. they are called vanity publishers, if you are not sure if a certain publisher is a vanity publisher or not, i would check their FAQ's. hose that are vanity publishers tend to not have the question in the FAQ's if you are still not convinced you could always ask them if you would have to pay for anything. no good respecting publisher will ask you to pay for editing.
2- You should try and get an agent if you plan on hitting the big publishers, because they no no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. however that can sometimes be problematic because to be published you need an agent and to get an agent you need to be published so i would try my hands at smaller publishers at first. you wont always get the big £200,000 advance you were hoping for but it would be a starting point.
3-Unfortunately although there are a lot of good authors who deserve to be published, only a handful ever do, trust me i know. you will need to be extremely talented, or extremely lucky or both. however even if you do get published, that by no means whatsoever means you're book will take off. especially if you as an author do not do your best to help with the advertising such as booking author meets at a library or even sending your book to the local paper for a review.

KattPascale · Post by **KattPascale** » 02 Sep 2013, 20:20

Summer has some VERY good advice!!!! No matter how wide eyed and excited you are about your first piece of work.....you need patience and research under your belt. The industry has changed so rapidly, beware of crooks. If you have to put out a lot of money then it's a scam. If you have a lot of confidence in your manuscripts, then there is no reason why you can't just do it all yourself after learning the process.

And remember this.....it's not the publishing that's hard, it's the marketing that's hard!!!
Good luck! Hope to see your work soon.

Kat;)

summer101331 wrote:1-first of all, i would severely do my research. there are several publisher that have no shame what so ever and ask YOU the AUTHOR to pay for your book to get published. you should steer clear from these. they are called vanity publishers, if you are not sure if a certain publisher is a vanity publisher or not, i would check their FAQ's. hose that are vanity publishers tend to not have the question in the FAQ's if you are still not convinced you could always ask them if you would have to pay for anything. no good respecting publisher will ask you to pay for editing.
2- You should try and get an agent if you plan on hitting the big publishers, because they no no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. however that can sometimes be problematic because to be published you need an agent and to get an agent you need to be published so i would try my hands at smaller publishers at first. you wont always get the big £200,000 advance you were hoping for but it would be a starting point.
3-Unfortunately although there are a lot of good authors who deserve to be published, only a handful ever do, trust me i know. you will need to be extremely talented, or extremely lucky or both. however even if you do get published, that by no means whatsoever means you're book will take off. especially if you as an author do not do your best to help with the advertising such as booking author meets at a library or even sending your book to the local paper for a review.

srivolco · Post by **srivolco** » 03 Sep 2013, 07:02

Getting published is not an easy task, i have not had any publications yet but i have done a fair bit of digging on this subject. I have listed a few ways to go about it. The first is to get in touch with a literary agent , give them your manuscript , and if you have written a good book hope that they appreciate your writing and see value in it. The literary agent once won over will open door to publishing houses. The other way is the self publishing which will take a lot of your time and effort away from writing. Without a sense of how the book industry works and not having a business mind it is very difficult to cope with the book marketing , funding and sales. I have taken up a different route, i am posting my entire first book on my blog , to generate interest, gather reviews, feedback . i get to know what the market wants ,whether my book connects with the market, a free proof reading of my book, achieve a good market penetration, could leverage my page visits and hits when i eventually want to publish my second book.