How To Get A Book Published

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Hearty Guy
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Re: How To Get A Book Published

Post by Hearty Guy »

8ellen8 wrote:Thank you for the information. I had a children's book published two years ago. I took it off the market. All I was doing was the marketing and I was paying the publishing company instead of them paying me. I decided to do more research and just wait to see where I am led.
You should investigate republishing it yourself using Amazon's KDP program. The nice thing is that once you get it out there you can get feedback from real customers, from reviewers, and get help from the posters on the KDP forum— they're pretty good at offering advice and criticism too. There are plenty of videos and inexpensive e-books on different websites explaining how to self publish through Amazon. Amazon offers a way to paper published also I think it is called Create Space; that's something you can do later on.

If you do tackle the project I'll be happy to give you a little bit of guidance and point you in the direction of the most helpful e-books that explain all the How – To stuff.

Good luck with your plans.
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Post by samanthaeh76 »

I am an aspiring author and I am delighted to have come across this thread. There are a lot of good suggestions here. Once my book is finished, I will be excited to see which path will be best for me to take. Perhaps one day in the near future I will be able to come back to this thread and give some advice from what I will learn.
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Hearty Guy
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Post by Hearty Guy »

Eggroll wrote:I understand that, but I just wouldn't feel very inclined to read an obscure ebook. It comes off as cheap to me.
Just to look at it from another angle... suppose somebody, you perhaps just for the sake of example, were to write a 30 to 50 pages biographical memoir about someone in your family who passed away, a good friend of yours who has moved on to the happy hunting ground, a mentor of yours that deserves to be remembered with gratitude?

Few publishers except Amazon with their KDP program, Smashwords—which will put it up for free— and possibly a few others that I am overlooking, would take it a second look at your manuscript. So it would go nowhere. On the other hand, there might be self publishers who have already written and published memoirs of this length and are looking for contributors to add their stories to an anthology. It has to be built, one story at a time, one person, one contributor at a time. This is not something a normal publisher wants to get involved in, but it has a lot of value.

By no means is it cheap simply because it's inexpensive.

I'm going to look for some more opinions on this matter, to find out concretely what other people have published on their own that does have value.
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Post by kdyett »

ResearchScholar wrote:
Yes, I can understand this, especially if you are self-published.

However, for anyone who has a manuscript published by one of the known publishing houses, there is tremendous expectation that, after all the effort, the book is widely distributed. The reality out there is that many books merely sell a few hundred copies and even fewer. If a book sells 2000 copies and goes into a reprint, that in and of itself may be considered a success The icing on the cake is if the author also gets invitations to speaking events.

That is why I reaffirm the point I made earlier, upthread, that publishing a book is the easy part. It is marketing and distribution which is the real challenge. If aspiring authors have not given much serious thought to this issue -- and how they, and not others, are going to surmount it -- then I think they would be setting themselves up for great disappointment.
Wow. Never knew the bolded...
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Post by Hearty Guy »

Very, very true. The greatest challenges are the marketing and distribution of the book. Known publishing houses won't even take on a new manuscript unless they are pretty darn sure it's going to sell at least 2000 copies, and for many publishing houses the expectation is much higher, therefore the entry gate is much narrower. If you've never been published before your book had better be excellent. Better than any of the other submissions the publisher got within the last thirty days, for example.

That is a pretty high bar to reach, especially on your first attempt at writing! That's why e-books are really filling a need. There is a great need for people to get their story out. It might not be excellent writing but they want to write it; hopefully, the effort and the discipline of writing once, twice, three times will produce better and better writing as the attempts and efforts are repeated. You'll never get this chance from a traditional publishing house!
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Post by Daniel12345 »

This is a great article. I have a sister who would love this article. I will show it to her. Thank you!
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Post by lyndsie_anna »

I don't remember who said it, but earlier on in the thread someone mentioned that the world is changing. This is true of everything, even publishing. Now, you can publish your book on smash words, amazon…for me, I've been submitting to my school's anthology that they publish every year. While I've never actually gotten published, I've been asked by my professors to send my manuscripts in, so that tells me they're looking. It doesn't hurt that all of them are published too. So if you go to school, you might want to consider if they have a publication that's active. It's a small step, but it can help, because someone may notice you. If not, submitting to contests and publishing houses that are looking to put together anthologies is a good route, as long as you read the fine print and make sure you're retaining the rights to your work.
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Post by mariawritings »

This was really helpful and informative, thankyou :) I aspire to write one day
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Post by epearl »

This was really helpful. I'm curious about self-publishing though. Is that like giving up or is it best to just get your work out there any way you can?
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Post by Katherine E Wall »

epearl wrote:This was really helpful. I'm curious about self-publishing though. Is that like giving up or is it best to just get your work out there any way you can?
This is a really good question, and one I have discussed with several authors, self-published, aspiring, and traditionally published. As the industry continues to shift, and as self-publishing gains validity, this question will continue to be revisited. I think though the answer can be yes or no depending on your motivations. if you are dedicated to improving your craft, you workshop your book with other writers to hone it to the best it can be, engage the people you need to produce a quality product, and market it as you would any business, then no, you are not giving up, nor are you getting your work out there any way you can. You are conducting yourself as a professional, and if you choose to self-publish because you want to maintain control and develop your own brand (not that of a traditional publisher), then you are no different than any entrepreneur. Will you get rich? Not likely. Will you become famous? Not likely. Will it be hard work, long hours, and sometimes a thankless task? Possibly. Will you be able to take pride in the product you have developed? Absolutely.

The key is making a decision that is right for you. It is important to conduct yourself as a professional through every step. Learn everything you can. Hire people with skills you don't possess, whether this is editing or cover design, etc. Invest in yourself and your books. Please note the plural on the end. All the people I know who are making any money in self-publishing have multiple offerings, and in most cases, it took a fair amount of time to begin to see any cash flow.

One final thing, self-publishing is particularly good for those who can fill a niche market, one that most traditional publishers are not responding to.

If you decide to go that route, make it a decision you are proud of, not one that is a last resort for a desperate author.

Good luck.
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That's right, I have a muse. It is spelled MusE. My writing is influenced by the interactions of people I meet - us and ME.
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Post by kirjabug »

Thank you for your advice!
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Post by N_Simpson21 »

The world has changed in terms of getting published. But for me, I'll probably take the difficult route on my journey to being published. It'll be well worth it in the end, though.
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Post by thebookworm4ever »

Thanks so much for this post I usually try and search how to publish books but I never get a good answer. I will definitely try your advice!
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Post by moderntimes »

Good article, Scott, and thanks.

I may however add another venue... These days there are quite a few publishers who accept unagented material. They can be found on the internet or via recommendations from fellow writers. And I'm not talking about subsidy ("vanity") publishers whom you pay to have your book printed, but publishers who will actually pay you. Or, some may not pay you, but they underwrite the whole process and you get legit royalties.

I want to recommend this, especially to new writers... and I'm being as kindhearted as I can here, but let me also be fairly honest, okay? Self publishing is mostly a vanity thing. I'm sorry to say but it's true. It hampers you and may provide false images of your writing ability to be created in your mind, preventing you from really writing well.

I will tell all of you aspiring writers this: If you are good enough, you WILL be picked up by a legit agent or publisher and you WILL be paid real money! And, sorry to say, but actually getting paid real money is the division point. I know it doesn't sound "artistic" but it's true, true, true. You may not get a lot of money up front or on royalty, also true. But if you're paid $25 for a little article, accept it, photocopy the check and then cash it! Ha ha! Because that 25 bucks may be small but you've now got a history of being a paid writer. Most of us start very small. But I've been paid up to $1000 for articles, which is a neat sum regardless, right? And I started small.

My novels haven't made me a lot of money yet, either. But I'm still writing (3rd novel in progress) and I'm gonna work hard to get a larger return for that new book when it's finished this summer.

Keep working, keep trying, and keep trying to make actual money, however small. It does matter, believe me.
"Ineluctable modality of the visible..."
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Post by hcheartland »

Thank you for the article. I hope one day there is an article on Botique Publishing companies. I have run into a slight problem; some Indie book stores do not want to sell my book if I have used one of these companies. I love my boutique publishers! They help me in so many ways. And the little they gain by their working relationship with me is more than fair. They gave me the confidence to go forward with my goal of writing. However, when it comes to promoting my book beyond what they do for me, I am having trouble. It seems I either have to be with a big name publisher, or completely on my own. I find this a little difficult and was wondering if some other authors might have advice.

-- 26 Apr 2014, 02:34 --

I just wanted to let you know I find your posts very helpful. I am new to the forums but I wish I had a way to follow all your comments. You would think you have had more than 3 books publishes. thanks! :lol:
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