Hey, I'm 16 and new here, I've heard of young writers publishing and selling quite a lot of copies of their story but I'm wondering how would you go about it? Any little things that would make it easier to get a traditional Publisher? My Story is currently about 40 thousand words and I think I'll hit around 60k+ when I finish, It's a medieval/fiction. (I know that's a pretty clechae genre, but all the idea's I have done are mine, I have tried my best to stay away from themes and idea's that are already mainstream). At the moment i am writing it on an Ipad APP called Pages and to be honest i don't know what to do when I've finished, I will get my mum and sister to proof read it (Mum used to be an English teacher and my sister is studying english in University). I don't know hardly anything about the Publishing world and any advice you guys/girls could give would be great. I don't want to make any money from it, I would just love to get it out there and have people read it but not like on eBay or something, like a propper novel. I'm from Australia by the way.
Hello, and welcome. Great to hear you are about to finish your novel when some take their whole lives to complete a novel. To answer your question I don't think there is a different set of rules for minors when it comes to old school publishing process, which is the route you want take. Before that, I gather you are still to write estimated 20k more words. Complete it, and then edit, edit, edit, until you say there is no more I can do to improve my novel. Then proofread it, which should be easy because you have your mother and sister to help. Then prepare your manuscript. There are rules when it comes to preparing your ms, which I think you will find here if you search a little in the discussion forums complete with links to websites where how-to is discussed in details. You then prepare query letters (discussions also available in this site) and send them to agents and publishers. And then you wait until someone show interest in your ms. In short, there is no shortcut. May be this isn't about money to you, but to the publishers this is very much about money and their reputations. This is what I know and I have to tell you I am no expert in such matters. Please wait for other members to respond. Good luck.
minors do the same as adults with only one difference... you can't sign contracts, so a parent/guardian has to do that... you don't get any breaks for being young, either... your work has to be well written and eminently marketable for any agents or paying publishers te even want to look at it, much less take it on... there are many threads on this site providing all the details about how to get a book published, or self-publish your work either as an actual book, or an e-book... do a site search to avoid making members have to repeat themselves here... meanwhile, congratulatons for having completed such a monumental task and welcome aboard! love and hugs, maia
If I were you I'd be entering all the international under 16 writing comps I could before I got too old. Get a name for yourself as a child protégé and then hit the publishers with all your titles... winner of this, winner of that, then battle it out with the oldies. I doubt however that any publisher would give you brownie points for being young. Your MS will be read and bought or dumped as quickly as any of ours here. I'll echo Mamma and KB and congratulate you on being two thirds through your book at such a young age. I'm ahem42ahem and still only half way through. Well done and stick around here and never be afraid to ask no matter how trivial you think it might be.
