So, I've recently finished a third draft of a novel I've been writing, and now I'm grappling with a single question I can;t seem to answer: What do I do now? Seriously, I haven't the faintest idea what to do at this point. I haven't the foggiest about agents and editors and publishing and what not. It's all very intimidating, especially given how little confidence I have in the finished work (It is too long for one thing). In all honesty, I never expected to get this far in the first place, so I didn't really plan for this eventuality. Can anyone offer me some advice on what to do next, or put me on the right path? Thanks a lot!
If it's too long, odds are that the next step is the fourth draft. When it is as perfect as you can make it, I believe that the traditional next step is to seek an agent. The blog Author! Author! has a lot of information, even though I think it's no longer being updated. It's at http://annemini.com/ Edited to add: I should submit that to Resources, huh?
There's also a post with rough ideas at: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/so-you-wrote-a-novel-and-want-to-get-it-published.148510/
These are my recommendations: 1.) Hire a copy editor to oversee your work to ensure it is grammatically and punctually sound. (If you are very NEW to writing, you may have to consider getting a comprehensive editor that will go into much more detail about your manuscript from syntax structure to plot development. 2.) Once that is finished, then hire a book cover designer and an ebook/print book formatter. 3.) Choose a self-pulishing agency such as CreateSpace or Ingram Spark. Test your book out. 4.) Use an ebook distributor such as Smashwords.com to get your book on ebook. These are just the basics. If you want more detail on a particular subject, let me know. There are MANY different ways of skinning a cat.
That assumes that he wants to self publish instead of traditional publish. Since an agent was mentioned, that feels like the less obvious assumption.
No offense, but a writer who does not have any fundamentals on the publishing business and has no clue where to start after he/she has finished there book is better off testing the self-publishing market. Traditional publishers are reserved for people who already have a following. The days of query letters and hoping to get picked up by reputable literary agents are numbered... For every success story there are probably a million fails. That's why I recommend self-publishing.
I'd recommend the absolute reverse. I'm a hybrid writer, and I think working with a publisher is the best way to learn the industry and learn about writing, editing, etc.
...no. That is, it's true that in self publishing, for every success story there are probably a million fails. That's why starting in self publishing, and using up first publication rights for your book forever, thus making it much harder to sell, strikes me as terribly unwise. Are you fully prepared to tell us what percentage of new traditionally published authors started out in self publishing? By your argument, it should be the vast majority. Got those stats?
If people would stop spreading misinformation, then others wouldn't have to keep correcting it! No. In fact, that's much more true of self-publishing - most copies sell to the author's friends and family, so authors with a following are the only ones likely to sell more than a handful of copies of their self-published book. Self-publishers have been saying that, and wishing it were true, for over a decade. Nothing has changed. Again, very true for self-publishing.
Literally, the most HILARIOUS thing about this question is I can literally name SEVERAL big authors who started off in self publishing, then got picked up by big publishers!!!! TO NAME A FEW: Tucker Max, Justin Halpern, Chad Kultgen, David Sedaris, Neil Strauss, Maddox, (I COULD NAME ANOTHER FIVE) and THAT IS LITERALLY only in the genre I love which is probably the smallest: Humor. I am sure PLENTY fantasy/thriller/mystery can name a lot as well in their respective genre. Hey ChickenFreak, you want to keep waiting for that approval letter from big traditional publishing, you may be dead before you see your book hit the shelves... Enjoy the five cent royalty per book when you do get picked up though!
What are you talking about? Lots of first time writers get agents. That's how there continues to be a supply of new writers. None of us have any idea about the quality of this author's work, but just because he doesn't know much about the industry doesn't mean he can't learn, and doesn't mean he shouldn't try to get an agent and work with publishers in order to learn faster and better. If Tenderiser or I want to talk to "people who are literary agents", we'll talk to our own agents. And neither of us signed with our agents based on having built up a following through self-publishing - we signed based on having books the agents thought they could sell. Take things down a notch, okay?
Where is the five cent royalty thing coming from? You're the second person in two days who's mentioned it, and it's total nonsense... Maybe you're the same person as in the other thread, but that person seemed a lot less histrionic, so I think there are two of you.
I was wondering this too! I make a whole hell of a lot more than that per book - anywhere between 30-40% of the selling price based on format and the platform it's purchased from. Even if my ebooks were $0.99 (which they aren't) I'd make more than that. I'm really starting to get annoyed with people who have gotten agents and/or are traditionally published without having ever self-published being told that they're some kind of rare unicorn who somehow "slipped through the cracks." It's utter BS.
It's a weird situation, for sure. I think the self-pubbing hype-men are just really, really effective at spreading their misinformation, and then their disciples spread that information as gospel truth. But I'm not sure what the motivation of the original hype-men is.
My guess is it's a sense of feeling like they've fixed the all the problems in the traditional publishing industry while simultaneously sticking it to The Man.
I am not even sure what you are saying. Are you saying that you have received 30-40 of retail price of a book through traditional publishing or self-publishing?
Traditional publishing. I get 40% if my book is purchased directly from Less Than Three's website, and 30% if it's purchased on Amazon, B&N, Itunes, etc. It's comparable to what most other publishers in my genre pay.
Because if you are talking about self-publishing than you are agreeing with my point because I am on the side of self-publishing, or any side that Interesting.. What traditional publisher might that be?
Are you quoting yourself and asking what you're talking about? Because... yes, I can see how it might not be clear, but I'm not sure asking is really going to make it any better. What traditional publisher produced the 5 cents/book idea?
And what book have you published through a self I am perplexed. A user asks a question, I answer it. You challenge my answer, and I challenge your response. Why are you replying to my comments of what MY OPINION is? Why don't you just answer the question that is posed? I am literally the only user here who has provided this user with ANY relevant support to his question out of the gate. If you believe traditional publishing is better suited for this author then teach him about query letters, where to find literary agents, how to get recognized. Why are you just challenging what my opinions are, and not providing any context to helping this aspiring author? Just saying.....
Less Than Three Press - www.lessthanthreepress.com Also, I can see I was a little off on saying 30-40% (it's been a while since I looked at their royalty rates). It's actually anywhere between 20-45%. From their submissions page: General Ebook 45% of cover price for all sales through LT3’s Book Market 40% of gross earnings for sales through 3rd party distributors Author copies General Print 20% of cover price for all sales of print books Author copies Anthology Fiction One-time payment of $200 Author copies of ebook and print I've sold a fair amount of books and have received timely royalty checks that clearly reflect the terms above.
Sorry, your quoting and punctuation is making it a bit hard to understand what you're saying. Did you mean to ask me what books I've self-published? About ten of them, now, if we count re-issues of books that were originally with publishers. Probably only five or six that were self-published from the start. I'm a hybrid author. I'm not for or against any type of publishing; they all have their place. I'm just against misinformation and hysteria, which is why I responded to your post. ETA: And I am genuinely interested in the source of the 5-cents/book idea. Coming up twice in two days seems like a strange coincidence...
