How would I get published

[bugsy]

I have finished a story but don't know how to get it published withoug getting riped off.

:help:

[Anareth]

Well, you research your market (you said "story", so I assume it's a short, which means magazines and on-line magazines, mostly) and see who might be interested in buying a story like the one you wrote. Then you read their guidelines for submission or ask for them and read them. Then you send the story in to one of them and hope they buy it. If they don't, send it to someone else, or rewrite it, or write something else. (Write something else anyway.)

If by story you mean "novel", then the answer is: be very persistent and get really lucky. You can send it in to publishers--some accept unsolicited manuscripts, some don't officially but will dump it in the slush pile and it might or might not get read sometime this century. (Some will return it unread, so check their guidelines carefully.) You can also try shopping it to agents who deal in the genre you write in. (Some legitimate agents MAY ask for a reading fee, but most won't, and none will demand money up front to represent you--they get a percentage if and when they sell the book to a publisher.)

There's a thread in here somewhere with information about markets, so you might want to browse through the forum. Remember: if you're worried about getting ripped off, unless you're self-publishing, anyone who charges you or guarantees publication sight unseen is ripping you off. (Self-publishing is expensive and requires you to do all the marketing yourself, but it can pay off sometimes so consider carefully if you have the means and if the traditional avenues haven't panned out.)

[Deb Krol]

Ditto what Anareth said--getting published takes time, patience and endurance. Plus, if you're expecting to make a gazillion bucks for your very first piece, rest assured--you're lucky if you can get anybody to pay you, period! Many literary journals pay only in copies; my one and only fiction credit, in the North Dakota Quarterly, paid two copies [I gave one to my mom].

Here's some other pointers:

Do you attend college? Many colleges have creative writing contests, which don't normally charge an entry fee. Enter them--that's how I got my start. I made the princely sum of $225 for my first year of serious writing, all from college writing awards.

There's also other contests, such as Writers of the Future, that don't charge entry fees. If you're just starting out, unless you're already working in the field [I'm a freelance journalist], you'll want to stay away from contests with entry fees. They add up really fast...

Keep writing.

Then there's fanzines. They don't usually pay anything, but you need credits right now. Take whatever you can get--if you're any good, don't worry. Free work always leads to paid work. Paid work leads to more [and better!] paid work.

Keep writing.

Don't take rejections personally--submit it again. And again. And again [to different outlets, of course! :-)].

Keep writing.

Always have something new on the burner to give the editor who rejected your last piece [especially if she/he wrote you a personal note--that means they actually read your piece!!]

Keep writing.

As for myself, I've been in this game now for 10 years--and I'm finally making decent money at it. And I only have one fiction credit [-sigh]. I discovered years ago that nonfiction writing is where the money is.

Hope this helps.

Deb