I am in process of writing a story. It is a friendship / romance story and eventually I would like to see it hit the shelves. I want you to know that this is the first book I will publish and is probably only my 5th writing in my life. I however was told that I am a good writer and I need to cultivate these skills so I will.... First question... Do I need to gear this writing to the Audiance? Or should it remain as natural as it occured to me? It is a non-fiction story. It is about a girl I helped through a crisis in her life; however, in this story... I never actually MET the person I'm writing about in person. It happened over a 2 year period online. The idea in the story is that I healed her... over a computer... When I met her, her life was in shangles and today it's like speaking to a completely different person... I believe it deserves to be on paper... Second question... When the story is complete, how exactly do I have it published? Is it possible to publish your own books? If so, how?... I know these are probably newbie questions but I have to start somewere and I have to start today... Thanks for the recognition... Also, what are my options for selling this book? I might be an idiot but I always thought publishers also marketed books? If not, how should I start off? In person? If I am in person, how should I come off to sell them?
No. If the story is good, then your audience will understand it. Unless the story is for children, or for young adults, I don't think you'll need to "write to an audience." That's certainly what I would recommend. Now, that's going to be very difficult to write, I think. Most stories require some action to make them interesting. As it is, I have to wonder if a story about talking to someone through a computer is going to interest me. It is possible to publish your own books. The only one that I've ever heard good things about was "Lulu Publishing," or something like that. Realize though, if you self publish, you probably aren't going to make much money. You'll have to pay for them to publish it, and they won't market your book, they'll just make it available for you to market it. Most writers, agents and publishers don't recommend self publishing. No problem. Well yes, if you decided not to self publish, you'd publish through a company that would also market and try to sell your book. After all, if you're not paying them to print the book, the publisher wants to make money too, so they go out and sell it. Now, the issue is, there are a lot of people out there that want to be published. I don't understand what you mean by "in person." Are you asking if you should just walk into a publishing company and ask them to publish your novel? Well, I would probably recommend against that. Most publishers require submissions in a specific format, take a few months to review your work, and then either accept or reject your work. Most people's books are rejected. J.K. Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter books, for instance, was rejected dozens of times before someone finally bought her book and decided to print it. Publishing a book is a very complicated process. I've also been told that I'm a good writer, but I have yet to sell my first book as well.
Well, there was alittle conflict but mainly it is a friendship/romance and a document of how incredible this person has changed and how this person has inspired me to change... ...Would you happen to have any recommendations? So this means I can get an Agent / Publisher for free and when the book is marketed and sold, I pay them? Basically I was asking, if I decided to publish the book myself, how would I market my own book? How will it hit the shelves? So I'm dealing with a matter of time, patience, alot of editing, and ALOT of luck?
I'd use a lot of metaphor, probably. I don't know if that would work, but adapting the conversations to make the readers care is essential. I'd probably have to see the bare bones of the story, and I'd tell you what I found interesting. If you manage to find an agent, and a publisher that is willing to market your book, you probably won't have to pay them anything to sell it. Someone that I know has said: You should never pay for your work to be published. Whether you believe him or not is up to you. Thats the problem with marketing your own work. I know that Christopher Paolini did a national tour of middle and high schools to market Eragon. But he was eventually picked up by Random House, or I doubt that any of us would have heard of him. To tell you the truth though, I don't know how you'd get a self published book to hit the shelves. Yup.
I heard Mr. King now self-publishes all his work. But of course he's already successful and wealthy so it works for him.
