I have never wrote a whole book, but have wrote alot in my life, so i need links,websites, answers form multible book publishers on how they started out, and all the info of getting a publisher, what it requires smart wise, money wise, knowledge wise.... also everything to do with finding a publisher, or self publishing. I need to know all this for when that time comes I'm not standing there dumbXD
Hi Eurlo That's a very big subject. I can only speak from a UK perspective rather than a USA one, but I doubt that my advice would differ much regardless of where I was. If you have a complete manuscript for a novel, then the best place to look for potential publishers is in a book such as (in this country) The Writers And Artists Yearbook, which as its name suggests, comes out every year. It has a wealth of useful information as well as a long list of publishers complete with addresses, phone numbers etc, names of the key people, and the genres of books that they may be interested in. It is incredibly difficult, however, for a new writer to find success by contacting a major mainstream publisher directly. A better method is to go through a list of Literary Agents, and to contact the most suitable ones. They will tell you what your prospects are and contact the right publishers on your behalf if they believe that your work is good enough. If, like the vast majority of budding novelists, you have no luck there, then an option is to use a self-publishing company. These vary enormously in price and quality. You may find one that provides a very basic service for a few hundred dollars, or one that does a lot more (and does it more professionally) for a few thousand dollars. It depends how much you want to spend, and whether you are willing to do all your own self-promotion or whether you want a self-publisher to assist you with it. The self-publishing company I used in England for my first novel was very professional. The completed paperback was of high quality, they sent me several free copies, and also sent a copy to each of the six national libraries in the UK (it is a legal requirement here to deposit a copy of your book with at least one of these libraries). They also had an ISBN number assigned to the book (you can't sell it without one) and they provided me with marketing merchandise such as a giant poster and business cards etc, as well as advertising the novel on Amazon. The promotion however, other than the above, was left to me, and I did require to sell hundreds of copies before I broke even (I think I may have just about achieved that in the end). How it works is that the book is retained by the self-publishing company as a digital file, and a copy is printed off whenever somebody orders one, from which the author is paid a percentage (royalty). A lot to consider, but good luck however you proceed.
re: thats what I've read from the internet does my parents need to be aware/help me with all this although I'm probably qualified to try and publish a book?
It is so tempting to want to jump ahead in the process, but really you should just write first, and worry about the other stuff when you are done. Prove that you can finish the job before wasting people's time with questions you aren't ready for yet. I'm not trying to be rude, that's just my philosophy. This website can be a great help to you along the way, if you ask the right questions at the right time.
Finish the book first. No publisher, or agent will work with you until you have a completed manuscript ready for them to read.
Your signature and your original post tell me you need to work on your grammar. Start with the basics, and don't skip steps, or you will end up disappointed.
...if you're a minor, they will have to sign all contracts, as you cannot do so legally... how old are you? being in a hurry does not explain the many mistakes you make in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. here and in your other posts/threads... nor does being 'cut' have anything to do with the poor punctuation, etc., in your sig lines... sorry to say, you do need to improve your basic skills in english and writing per se, before you'll be ready to write anything that is good enough to have any chance of being published... and you should be concentrating on that now, not on finding agents/publishers...
You are old enough to sign contracts on your own, although if your parents are interested you might use them as "first readers," to help you catch typographical errors in your rough draft. As a rule, writers have to work at their craft for a long time before they are good. That means writing a lot in whatever genres they want to write in, finishing stories, and reading a lot. Writing is far, far more useful than reading for developing your writing abilities. Reading is useful, of course, but it can only get you so far. It introduces you to plots, cliffhangers, pacing, and interesting narrative tricks, as well as vocabulary, but it won't give you the hands-on experience you need to tell a story well. Think of it as a ladder. Reading will get you a step or two up, but the rest of the way to the top requires you to write. Of course, if you don't read, you don't even make it onto the ladder. And if you do reach the top and get published, congratulations! But keep climbing, because professional writers generally become known after multiple books. There are exceptions, but not many. And of course, if you're going to make a living by the stories you tell, multiple books or stories are practically a requirement. There are a couple exceptions -- Patrick Rothfuss's first published novel, The Name of the Wind, was bloody awesome and made him enough money that he could write full time -- but even there, a great deal of the buzz he got was because all his readers knew that he intended to release the second book in only a few years. A final note. Yes, your grammar is imperfect. Honestly, that's okay. Most people know the rules of their language pretty well by age 12 or so, but knowing the rules and using the rules are two different things. Using the rules is harder and requires practice which most people don't get. (Consider: an English class in high school might require an essay every three weeks, for a grand total of maybe 10,000 words max over a semester. That means writing a single book on your own will give you more writing experience than four years of high school English.) So keep writing. As they say, the word for a writer that doesn't give up is "published." (I think that's a J. Konrath quote, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's someone's sig.)
Yeah, sorry kid, but not so much. When you can write a clean sentence, then maybe you can say you're very good with English. Keep working on the craft; you've got a long way to go before you have to worry about publishers. Learn how to drive first, then start worrying about how to get into the Indy 500.
That's lazy talk my family begs me to quit correcting them 24/7 also I make have always made a,b in english mostly "a" though so yes I am good I have memoried every english thing possible to a fine tip...so hah!!
No one cares what your grades were. You write like a complete illiterate. Sorry, but that's what's right there in your posts for everyone to see.
Okay, okay; semi-literate. He does have some ability to form actual words, though I still see no understanding of punctuation or capitalization. And a very, very great deal of unwarranted arrogance.
Two points: 1) There is no need to be insulting. You can get your point across without name calling. 2) Eurlo, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to agree with everyone else- from the evidence on display your command of English grammar, spelling and punctuation quite simply isn't up to scratch to be a professional writer.
Tis the younger generation's challenge: transitioning from texting to writing. Texting has dumbed down written communication.
I understand the value of believing in your abilities, of swagger and confidence. But you'd do better to apply that swagger and confidence to what you can someday be, and work like mad to get there. Even the best writers worked hard to acquire their skill; they didn't just get it from English class. Working hard to master a skill isn't something that lowers you. You get As in English; that's a good start. But it's not enough to make you a published author. I'd guess that there are several students in every single English class in the country that are making an A; not all of them have the ability to write a publishable book. In fact, very few of them do, and those few are going to have to work long and hard to get to that point. If you want to be one of those few, you need to do the "work long and hard" part. So what's my specific evidence that work is needed? Well, people complained about your English, and you said that for your first post, you were "in a hurry". That can explain some mistakes, but there are some basic grammatical errors that most writers simply wouldn't make, no matter how fast they were writing. For example: "I have never wrote" should be "I have never written" "but have wrote a lot" should be "but have written a lot" "does my parents need to be aware" should be "do my parents need to be aware" These are, again, basic grammatical errors. I'm not pointing out the spelling, punctuation, and other errors, but I will say that I haven't seen even one entirely correct sentence in your posts in this thread. Sure, you're in a hurry, sure, it's just a forum. Maybe your posts don't reflect your best writing. But if it's too much work to write a few correct sentences in a forum post, in a forum _about_ writing, how will you write tens of thousands of them in a book? Writing correct sentences needs to be automatic and easy. You need to acquire those basic writing skills and be completely comfortable with them before you can start to explore what you can do as a writer. If you're getting As in English, then you've started acquiring them, but they don't appear to be automatic yet. Maybe you're thinking "correcting errors is the editor's job". But it's not. An editor at a publishing house is not there to clean up thousands and thousands of errors. A manuscript needs to be essentially error-free before it's even submitted to an agent or publisher. I'm sure that you can improve your writing. I don't know if you can improve it to the point of being published, but I don't know that about anyone who isn't published. But you're not going to improve it without working on it. Again, direct that swagger and confidence toward how much you can work on your writing, how much better you can get. If you just stop here and say that you're already good enough, you're never going to get to the point of being good enough. ChickenFreak
Exactly, my post are poor, but trust me my real writing is far more superior than what I allow to be seen. I understand hard work so read this: -I loose sleep to write stuff -I gave up my favorite sims game to muster all my attention on writing my book -I sacrifice family time for writing often getting in trouble in Order to get done what needs to be done -I get in so much trouble my pc is taken away,or I'm grounded from writing -when ever I have time I'm on my book or doing research to expand my knowledge for writing So don't say/think I don't work hard because I work my ass off on this book, giving it as much attention as I'm allowed all day if I'm able, when my parents both work days/nights at the same time I spend every hour thinking/writing. So please don't assume because of what you see here,and FYI I correct my own grammar/spelling
I purposely do not correct those. I don't have the time,my book needs it more than this post,or to impress any of you... So drop it please? I have had this fight once before and all hell broke loose(this time I used it correctly,on purpose,I know the difference between the two) Loose-not tight,weak,ect Lose-did not win,loser,less intelligent person,ect There not perfect definitions but ya get my point
