Has anyone ever published anything? Books or anyting like that. Any advice on how to break into the industry

Question

I would like to write some non fiction books and break into the industry. I see amazon does publishing and have some how to books. Has anyone published and does anyone have some 1st hand advice on how to break into the industry and get a book published?

Not for a job, just for an extra thing to do.

Answer 1

Try and stay away from agents. They really are a pain in the b*tt. I sent my first book to a small publisher who liked it and sent me a contract. They offered to buy the manuscript outright for a sizeable sum or offered royalties on each book sold. I opted for the royalty deal.

The publisher pays for everything to do with publishing, proofreading, cover design, ISBN number....the lot. Every book sold earns me 10% of the retail price. I get paid quarterly throughout the year. Should the publisher not reprint or not sell more than 80% of the first print run within 12 months (likewise with all subsequent print runs) then copyright reverts back to me.

This way of doing a deal worked well forme as the book has sold a lot of copies. I earned far more money than had I sold the rights to publish for a set fee. I was lucky!

Also, the only rights the publisher has is to publish the work in book form and in English only. All other rights remain with me.

I strongly advise all would be authors to contact small publishing houses to begin with. The big ones won't touch an unknown writer. Do try to avoid agents, they really are money grabbers who don't do anything you can't do yourself, despite what many people write on here.

Good luck. If you want to know more have a look at www.stephenleather.com

PS.....I am NOT Stephen Leather! I read his books and found his web site very useful....esp the bit about agents! My sentiments exactly!

Answer 2

Wow. Poor, poor chrchrbrt. He just doesn't know what he's talking about.

Agents are not a bad thing. Like any industry, there are a select few who are not representative of the others, and may rip you off. Just like there are bad contractors or doctors. But on a whole, an agent is worth every penny. They make 15% WHEN THEY SELL YOUR BOOK. And not until then.

But truth be told, they make a sale for you that you could not have made yourself, 99% of the time-- they know all the editors in your genre and can call them up at any time to pitch your work. They can get 15 editors to read your work in the time an author could get ONE editor to read it. If you send it yourself, you'll sit on the slush pile for quite some time before they get to you. If they will at all -- most major pubs do not look at unagented submissions.

Also, chrchrbrt got the raw end of the deal. Publishers should be paying you an ADVANCE and ROYALTIES-- NOT either/or. An advance is the publisher's best guess as to how many books you will sell. Say you get a 10% royalty on a $10.00 book. If they think they're going to sell 1000 copies (say its a small publisher) then they would give you an advance of $1,000. (These are really rounded numbers for illustrative purposes.) Then, when your book sells more than 1000 copies, you get 10% of each sale, and it would be paid periodically, with using a royalty statement.

The fact that he got to choose either/or means if he'd had an agent, he would have gotten a better deal.

Agents are not scammeres or crooks or any such thing. My guess is that chrchrbrt queried lots and lots of agents with no luck, or he didn't do his research and got scammer agent. Or maybe he just knows someone who did or heard some horror stories. He's grossly misrepresenting them though.

I have an agent. I have not paid her a dime out of my pocket.. She's been working with me on two manuscripts for 6 months now, and both are now leaps and bounds ahead of where they were before. The biggest publisher in America has talked to her about one of mine, and as soon as I'm done with the final round of revisions (which she just mailed to me last friday), it will be sent to them.

So, while you dont HAVE to have an agent to go through the smaller publishers, and even a select few editors at the bigger ones, it is my opnion that agents are well worth it-- so query some!

Answer 3

It is tough. My initial suggestion is (after the book is written), go to the library and hunt down "Writer's Handbook".

Get to the section on publishers that might be interested in your book. (It is separated by genre)

Many have websites to see what the submission policy is.

Some take unsolicited manuscripts; others don't, requiring an agent.

And you must be diligent.

Answer 4

for starters get the writers market books.... go here...

http://www.writersdigest.com/


they have many market books. --- these books are indexes of publishers from small press to large. this is like a yellow pages full of publishers to choose from. read their guidelines and always provide a SASE.


advice, have patience, listen to input and when they break your heart try and try again.

:D

good luck.

also branch out to small press, there's many sites online that will publish short story and other written materials who take simultanious submissions and unsolicited submissions.

it's also who you know.. get friendly with the editors and publishers. show interest and support them they have it hard also.

and stay away from vanity presses. those who want money up front, don't do it! also for poetry stay away from places like "poetry.com" and "literary press"

there's lists for them also, all over the net.

there's many people looking out for the artists and writers, do pay attention for scams!

two things to remember, don't flood them with requests after you send them something (take your time, they're flooded already) AND never EVER EVER fax them their stuff... that's a big no no no!

good luck!

remember start out small and work your way up. go online in google.com and key in....

'submit your short story '

and start there.

there's many online right now who really need works to start.

Answer 5

There's tiers to this whole publishing thing. So you have different angles of attack, depending on what you're writing. We'll start with cautions, though:

DO NOT pay any money to anybody to get your work published. Anyone who wants a payment is a crook. Seriously. The flow of money is ALWAYS toward the author (even if it's not a big flow). Second, do not expect to quit your day job. I'm told most frequently published writers of non-fiction travel-type books just about break even with their expenses (which is great, if you think about it - they get to travel and have great experiences and other people pay for them). There are, of course, some few full-time authors, just as there are a few professional athletes. The comparison is apt. Finally, do not get discouraged! A typical PUBLISHED book is rejected more than eight times. This is the way the business works! Almost every major author has a wall covered with rejection letters.

Okay. Now that we have those out of the way, the different approaches... probably in order of preference.

You can approach a major publisher. If you can get a major publisher to want to print your book, everything else can fall into place. They can easily churn out thousands of copies and throw more money into advertising than you can imagine, and can do so at the drop of a hat. Further, major publishers will turn you into a 'brand'. They want people to buy books for no other reason than because you have written them (this is great for you!). It's easy to tell a lot of books from major publishers because the author's name is larger than the title, while all they claim for themselves is a small logo on the side. The bad news: there aren't really many such companies, and the competition they have is fierce. This means they don't want to take risks, and they are inundated with submissions. I've heard editors of major publishing companies bemoan the really good works that they weren't allowed to publish because they couldn't justify them to their boards of directors. However, owing to the advantages above, all major authors eventually migrate to this source of publishing.

Slightly less good is to get a good agent. An agent DOES do things you can't possibily do, as well as things you're not likely to do. For one thing, they look at hundreds of contracts, so they know a good one from a bad one, and they know it within seconds. It's like the difference between processing your own divorce or hiring an attourney. The professional knows exactly what to look for and undoubtedly has considered optioned you have probably never even thought of. Furthermore, major publishers are used to working with agents. Your agent knows all their phone numbers, who is looking for what kind of work, and probably has lunch with the bigwigs to shmooze them on a regular basis (good luck doing that on your own). The bad news: agents can be as selective as major publishers themselves. An agent only makes money if they can sell your book, and further since they only get a fraction of what you get, they really want to sell dozens of your books. So if you can't demonstrate that you're a reliable, prolific, and profitable author, many agents will have no interest in you. I know of no well-known author who does not have an agent.

I've intentionally made the above two options look bleak, because practically speaking they ARE kind of bleak. But let me pause a moment to point out why it's not hopeless. Both publishers and agents really, really want to be the one who finds the NEXT big author. This pays not only in money, but in prestige, and prestige goes a long way in their business. Once you prove yourself, they'll both be fighting over you, but until you do, you'll have to fight for their attention. Both go through reams of horrible, horrible work to find the pearls within, and usually do this in their FREE time. You have to love your work to do that.

First-time authors often have more luck with the independant press. Independant publishing companies do not have a ton of money nor a vast reputation. They are trying to establish THEMSELVES as a brand rather than you - so their hope is that people buy a book simply because they printed it. They get by with print-on-demand service instead of huge printing facilities and warehouses full of books, and bookstores are often less willing to make use of their services because they can't eat the loss of unpopular books like major publishers can. So expect to see a lot more on-line selling and having to do the promotion for your book yourself. On the other hand, a good independant publisher is great for unknown authors precisely because you can piggyback on their reputation instead of the other way around. Likewise, because there are so many independant publishers, it is fairly likely that you'll find one who specializes in your kind of work, no matter what it is.

Outside of that, there is always the sideways approach: gaining a reputation for writing BEFORE you publish a book. You can do this by getting everything possible printed - the more printing credits you have the better. Magazines can be a great help, though online stuff isn't respected anywhere near as much as print stuff. Write a bunch of short stories, or try to serialize your first book. Some break in by writing other stuff too - journalism in newspapers, scientific reports, or even holiday cards. All of those things prove you can at least string words together and make SOMEBODY a profit.

Hope all of that helps! Good luck!

Answer 6

try to publish something in your local paper, they'll not pay much but it builds your portfolio

Answer 7

Chances are 1:1,000,000 to actually sell enough to live off of.

A job a day keeps the welfare system away.