Anyone Know How To Go About Publishing A Book?

[rider_of_the_last_queen]

Just forget I mentioned this. K?

[Feena_bronze_rider]

I wouldn't know a thing about that... but I'd like to!

[Bamy]

so would I. I have a work in progress that I would like to get published if possible. It is meant for young adult/teenagers and is fantasy.It should, theoretically come out at about 130,000 words or so.

[Ian]

In this country I'd say get hold of the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook (most decent libraries should have a copy). That has plenty of good advice about publishing, including details of lots of publishers & the type of material they deal with. I presume other countries have something similar. One piece of advice though - never pay for publishing, reputable publishers won't ask for money to publish anything.

[Lady of the weyr]

I've started on fanfiction- but now I have 2 versions. The fanfition and my own version- which IF its enough, I could publish. I've also been asked ny Poetry.com to enter another poem- not that im buying the book!!!!!

[Brenda]

Poetry.com is a scam. They do not care if it's poetry. I know someone who sent in their grocery list and Poetry.com accepted it.

[Anareth]

What Brenda said. Send poetry.com nothing, least of all money. Don't waste time sending them poems, either. All you've done is flush your FRNASR for that poem down the toilet, possibly all rights.

Publishing a book, the short version: write a book. Reread, see where it sucks, rewrite. Shop to agents. If you're lucky, get an agent. Agent shops to publishers. If you're lucky, someone buys. If you're not, back to square one. Or: submit unsoclicited manuscripts and hope you're plucked out of the slush pile. Or: pay to self-publish and market the book yourself and hopefully an agent will take interest from that. During all this, work on other books so you have something else to show you're not a flash-in-the-pan with a vanity project.

[Ghyle]

Writer's Digest Books publish a number of market guides, one of which is general, one of which covers fiction. They're worth the money: I regularly get two, and will, from next year, start getting the fiction book as well. The Writer's Market book covers publishers, both large press and small press.

Again, don't pay to be published. Entering competitions is another thing. There you may have an entry fee.

In addition, if you're interested in submitting to magazines and the like, hunt around for email newsletters, market guides, and the like, on the internet. I've found a few newsletters I subscribe to, and I occasionally find a suitable market. I also have a few speculative fiction marketplaces ready.

Learn how to make a book proposal, especially if you want to write non-fiction. If you can, shop around for agents, to cover the basics of submission to potential publishers. Many only deal with agents, and many don't, so it's up to you.

Don't forget conventions. They can be a great place to mingle, and get to meet people.

And read, read, read, in whatever field you want to write. You can thereby gain an idea of what's been done, and what works. Also, you can try to determine what you like, and what's worth emulating, even what's worth avoiding.

I hope that this has been helpful.