Publishing Tips??? [help is much appreciated]?

Question

I have a book written and I need to know information on publishing. A reputable legit place to go send my work to. and so on so forth.. thanks!!

Answer 1

Query letters are your best bet.

1-2 pages minimum. But for first-timers, keep it short, keep it brief--and just be HONEST with what you're plying towards.

Don't sound amateurish.

Mass-submit to as many agents as you can--as most publishers (80% or more) these days no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts and/or queries.

But you also have to have your book in tip-top form--professionally edited--or at *least* edited enough for the years that you've ironed out 90% of the bugs in them.

Also, get a writer's market guide from your local bookstore and peruse your way through the listings.

This is as 'legit' as you'll get.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Some advice by Crawford Killan:

Researching Publishers and Agents

Too many people submit manuscripts to publishers.

Simply to read enough of those manuscripts to judge them unworthy would take the full-time services of several salaried editors. Most publishers simply can't afford to plow through the slush pile in hopes of someday finding a Great Novelist.

So they indicate in Writer's Market that they will consider only ``agented submissions''--work that a professional literary agent, who knows the market, thinks has some sales potential.

That simply draws fire onto the agents, who now find that they too have huge slush piles. And, like the publishers, the agents can't make money reading unsalable junk.

Where does that leave you?

In better shape than you think. If you've hammered out a credible but surprising plot about interesting people in a h**l of a jam, and you're showing them in action instead of telling us what they're like, and your grammar, spelling and punctuation are first-rate--you're already ahead of 80 per cent of your competition.

Now the problem is finding the right market. Too many novice writers simply fire off their work to a publisher they've vaguely heard of, or one that's supposed to be prestigious, or even one that happens to be conveniently located right in town. (Those were precisely my three motives in submitting my first children's book to Parnassus Press. They bought it, which shows that sometimes even ignoramuses can get lucky. By rights I should have had to send the ms. to a couple of dozen houses before hitting the right one--if I ever did.)

Publishers tend to carve out special markets for themselves. A couple of sharp editors can dominate a genre; because they know how to reach a certain kind of reader, they attract a certain kind of writer. Or a publisher may be passionately devoted to supporting a certain kind of fiction, but is deeply uninterested in any other kind. A feminist publisher wouldn't have the faintest idea how to market a men's action-adventure novel, and wouldn't care to learn. A children's publisher won't care how well-crafted your murder mystery is. And so on.

So step one is almost embarrassingly obvious: Notice which houses publish the kind of story you're working on. Look carefully at the story elements in the titles they publish; Del Rey fantasy novels, for example, require magic as a major component, not just frosting or a gimmick to get the hero somewhere interesting. Out of all the publishers in North America, only a few are potentially yours.

Then consult those potential publishers' entries in Writer's Market and see what they have to say about their own needs and who their editors are in specific genres. You may learn that your work in progress is too long, or too short, or needs some particular quality like a heroine aged over 35. You may also learn how long it takes them to respond to queries and submissions. Don't take those statements as legally binding promises; responses almost always take far longer, especially for unagented submissions.

Writer's Market also lists publishers by the genres they publish. This list can lead you to houses you're not familiar with, but don't just rush your ms. off to some publisher in Podunk. Check out the entries of these houses also, and also track down some of their recent titles in your genre. If they strike you as dreadful garbage, avoid them. Better to stay unpublished than to be trapped with a bad publisher.

Another useful source of research information is the publishing trade press. Quill and Quire in Canada, and Publisher's Weekly in the US, are much more up-to-date than any annual can be. So if the top horror editor in New York has just moved to a new publisher, or a publisher is starting a new line of romance novels aimed at Asian women, you may adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Magazines like The Writer and Writer's Digest supply similar market news.

If every possible publisher warns you off with "No unagented submissions," you then have to go through a similar process with literary agents. You should be able to find an annually updated list of agents in your local library or the reference section of a good bookstore. Some agents, like Scott Meredith and Richard Curtis, have even written books themselves about the publishing business; these are worth reading.

As a general rule, you probably need an agent in the city where most of your publishers are. That, as a general rule, means New York City. You also need an agent who knows the market for your particular genre, so your work will go as promptly as possible to the most likely markets. (Some agents may submit a work in multiple copies to all potential publishers; this can really speed up the process.)

But also bear in mind that the phone and fax can put almost anyone in close touch with the New York market, so an agent in Chicago or Los Angeles or Miami may be quite as effective as somebody in Manhattan--and may a

Answer 3

First of all, make certain that your book is in the best shape it can be. No typos, no grammar errors, no weird formats. Next, write a good query letter. There are lots of places on the web to teach you what that contains, but it should only be one page in length.

Now, you can start looking for an agent, or a publisher. A good place to start is the Writer's Market guide to getting a book published. It comes in a book version that your local library probably has, or you can go to their website (there's a fee to join) www.writersmarket.com.

Pay attention to those agents and publishers that represent or publish your genre of book. Do not try to get an agent who deals in romance to represent your horror novel. It only wastes their time and yours. Also, pay attention to the submission guidelines and follow them precisely. Do not send them the whole manuscript if they've asked for 50 pages, etc.

Good luck. Here are some author blogs that talk about their experience. They may be of help:

http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com