M first real novel

Hi, I 'm Mary La Rosa (not my real name of course but I 'd love it to be ), and I have written my first novel last year, but I am currently editing it to make it even better and fix some things that need fixing.

It is a crime novel with the theme of Latin American drug traffickers, or narcos. I 've titled it 'Once upon a time on Roatán', and the plot is revolving around three young Latino men who met by coincidence in a bar on the island of Roatán near Honduras.

There they were noticed by a man in black who turned out to be the underboss of the famous Bahía cartel, one of the biggest in Central America. He offered them a job, they, of course, gladly accepted, and went with him to meet his boss.

They 've made themselves a new life and gained a new family in the cartel, but the idylla was broken by a group of evil DEA agents. I 'll say no more, so if anyone likes it, I 'd like to post it here because I am in no possibility to truly publish it.

 

Welcome, Mary. Happy to have you here. So the organized crime guys are the good guys in your novel and DEA agents are the villains?

 

Yes. The Bahía cartel memebers are the protagonists and they are not villains.

 

But those agents are also criminals, very bad ones, total bastards, and my protagonists are not evil eventhough they are criminals. I 'd say they have good hearts and bad temper.

 

It'll be an interesting challenge crafting a story where cartel drug traffickers are the sympathetic protagonists.

 

It 's already done, I 'm just editing. Well, there are some major edit projects in some chapters, but most of it is done.

I like to think I 've made it clear enough my characters are good. It doesn't mean they 're necessarily evil if they 're criminals.

I know and have heard of many people that have nothing to do with crime and are one hundred times worse persons than my characters

 

The Shield where the cops and the criminals are one and the same.

 

What makes you think you can't publish it? I mean, sure trad is hard, but don't self-reject before you've given it a shot if you actually want to publish it.

There's also self-publishing. If you were gonna "post it here", that is, in effect, publishing it anyway. Rather than wasting it on a forum, why not push it on Amazon if you're not interested in trad? Send the link to a few family members and friends, have them buy a few copies, it'll at least feel good.

This forum isn't the place for you to post an entire novel. There's the Workshop for critiquing work, but that doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.

However, once you make it publicly available online, as far as traditional publishers and agents are concerned, it has been "published" and they will highly unlikely be interested in picking up the book. Think twice and very carefully before you publish it online for all to consume for free. Even if this book isn't of the quality for trad publishing now, you might write something that would be of the right quality for it in the future, and then you could come back and fix this one up for publishing too. You might want to hold onto your book, even if you feel it has no future right now.

 

It 's not that I don't think it is valuable, because it is, but I can't publish it because I 'm totally broke, and I don't have anyone to help me with it.

 

Well, it 's a bit hard when you 're from a fucking middle of nowhere. Foreign publishers couldn't wait to snatch a good story from a young pennyless author. There are a lot of frauds in the publishing world today, especially when you 've no experience or backup.

 

No real traditional publisher would do that, those are the vanity publishers, who charge inexperienced writers to 'publish' their work. A legitimate publisher doesn't do that, they pay you. Moose knows a lot more than I do about this, in fact what little I know came from reading his posts on the subject. But you want to stay away from any so-called publisher who asks for money.

 

Sounds like you've got a lot of misconceptions about how trad publishing works. It's true there're plenty of scams out there, but those don't care about your story, those care about snatching yout money lol. Those scams are called vanity press. A legitimate trad publisher never, NEVER, asks you for money, and to get into the big pubs, you need an agent first anyway. And agents are paid on commission.

That you're in the "fucking middle of nowhere" doesn't matter one iota considering British and American agents regularly sign international authors. All that matters is your manuscript is written to English native-speaker proficiency if you're querying UK/US agents.

Sounds like you should perhaps do a lot lot LOT more research before you self-reject from trad pub.

Incidentally, I am in the Czech Republic. Hasn't stopped me getting two publisher offers, an agent call, and 23 full requests. None of it worked out unfortunately, but your location really doesn't matter. Like, at all. Getting trad pubbed is damn hard, but being from the middle of nowhere isn't one of the barriers here.

 

You've received plenty of good advice.

If anything, I'd try self-publishing first. Why? It will give you a feel for what it will be like going further.

As for the manuscript/final document, it sounds very interesting. Anything on Latin America, and my eyes and ears prick up as it interests me on a personal note.
I'll be keeping my eyes & ears open for this one . . .

 

I'm in central Wyoming out on the sagebrush steppe. Wyoming isn't quite the moon, but we can see it from here.

 

And how do I get into the contact with a publisher in the first place?

 

Crap! I was in Roatán a few months ago!! I had no idea about its criminal underbelly!!

Croatia is a lovely country too by the way!

 

Thanks, but in my novel the characters have just met on Roatán. They all live in the mainland actually, but it is interesting to hear that someone has been there. I 'm sure it was great.

 

I only wish to say I already had experience with those false vanity publishers and I know what it is, but I don't have much info on self publishing like that Amazon site.

To me it seems like fanfiction, when I publish my book there, everyone could read it, but I won't earn anything just like with fanfiction.

Only Amazon will earn and I don't have any use of that. I want to earn somw penny with my writing because it is all I want to do and my only talent.

 

Big publishers and their imprints don't take unagented (or unsolicited) submissions, so the only way to submit is through an agent. You can find agents either by googling, searching on something called manuscript wishlist (MSWL), or also Query Tracker. You'd need to send a query to agents who represent your genre, and you'll need to research into what a query is and how to write one. But essentially, a query is a pitch of your book and a little bit about yourself in 280-300 words total, with about 250-280 words devoted to what your book is about, or your "pitch" (not to be confused with a pitch as in an elevator pitch or a pitch you might write on Twitter. A query is also not a blurb or synopsis). Every agent will have their own submission guidelines, so you will need to check their agency website and see what they want - some will want a synopsis, which is a beat by beat summary of the entire novel, including the twists and ending. Most agents will want a sample of your book, which will vary from agent to agent. Some want the first 5 pages, most want the first 10 to 30 pages, or first 3 chapters. Some, especially UK agents, will want up to 50 pages (this is less common amongst American agents - samples for US agents tend to be 10-30 pages). Again, check each agent's guidelines.

Small presses or indie presses will take unagented submissions. If you're inexperienced and seem quite frustrated by the industry, I suggest for the moment you skip these until you have a firmer grasp of how the industry works and know how to filter which presses are legitimate, and which ones are actually vanity presses masquerading as a small press. You can also find legitimate small presses via Query Tracker. There are many authors who are very happy with small presses and small presses are perfectly legitimate way of getting published, however there are more risks involved. As I said, learning how to filter those that are legit and those that are actually vanity presses in disguise, learning how to negotiate contract terms and what clauses are standard (if you had an agent, she would negotiate the contract for you), and also learning to do self-promotion because usually small presses do not have the budget to market your book sufficiently and will expect authors to take a heavy role in self-promotion on social media. What they offer in terms of marketing campaigns - some don't offer one at all, others do but on a small scale - but either way they don't have the same budget or power as a big publisher to push your book. In other words, what they offer is different. Having said that, in small presses, you're more likely to retain more creative control, assuming a legit press with reasonable contract terms. You will want someone who's been around for at least 5 years because small presses regularly go under and then your book ends up tied with a defunct publisher, which is the last thing you want. Small presses generally do not give an advance and do print on demand. (Big pubs will usually give an advance and will do print runs) Once you've been out with a small press, it will also impact whether agents and big pubs might be interested in you in the future - esp if you don't sell well through the small press, this could hurt your future potential.

I personally would steer well away from any "hybrid" publishing, which is often vanity presses in disguise. I have not worked out how to distinguish a legit hybrid press from a vanity press, but honestly I'd run from anyone asking you for money.

Publishers get paid when they sell your book. You don't pay them. Agents get paid when they sell your book to a publisher - they are paid on commission. There are no fees when you're dealing with legit publishers and legit agents.

There are some black lists even amongst agents. Again, do your research, and take a look at Twitter, where people will often spread the word about whom to trust etc.

And unlike what @petra4 said about trying self-publishing first, that depends on what you want. Going self-published is to start your own business and if you want more than for your book to sit online gathering cyber dust, you'll have to sink money into professional editing, professional cover design, as well as investing in adverts, all of which also involves research and learning. Note: once a book has been self-published, traditional publishers and agents are no longer interested. Unless your book is selling like hotcakes, like 50 Shades of Grey, but those are outliers, not the norm. You've already said you don't have the money for this venture, so I wouldn't waste your hardwork on self-publishing until you do. There have been people who have been able to sell well without doing ads, but again that would take tonnes of research and probably more than a little business acumen to game the system like that - if it was easy, no one would be throwing thousands into ads. So, it is legitimate, but again it offers you something different from trad and indie.

 

I would really like to do it in the traditional and legal way eventhough all my stories are about illegal affairs hahahaa.

Thanks for the information. I could do with an honest agent who knows what they 're doing, but I am not really sure if the Americans would even consider my book since it is dedicated to the Latin narcos and the gringos get their snotty asses properly kicked in the end

 

American publishers (and readers) love good stories set in faraway exotic places, especially if there's a good dose of crime and drug lord intrgue. Or, well, bordering on faraway exotic places in this case I suppose lol. We don't only want things set in our own country or that are pro-America. Plus a lot of Americans hate America and its institituions (especially law enforcement!) And even many of those who don't are willing to see things from a different perspective. It's why crime stories are so hugely successful, everywhere, not just in America. That whole world is fascinating.

There was a show called The Bridge set on the border with Mexico about drug traffickers that was hugely successful, as well as the movie Siccario. They showed the border patrol and politics of it as not at all pro-America. The politicians on both sides seem equally criminal and underhanded, and the police and border patrol often come off as very much like the cartels. Actually in recent times Americans are becoming increasingly aware of corruption and bad politics in our system, and what goes on at the border is big news.

... And I hope you weren't just joking and I went and made this whole big post about it!