How do you get your book published?

Question

Hi,
Please inform me on how to get a book published.

Answer 1

I noticed someone said to try lulu.com. I dont recommend them. A 300 page hardcover book will cost you 21 dollars to print with them. Then you have to sell your book for so much more you are not competitive with other books out there. On top of that they take 20% of your profit. Even the paperbacks cost you about 11 dollars each to publish. I guarantee, they are printing those books for less than 2 dollars each and are making 9 dollars everytime you have a book printed. Look for a local printer and shop around. You can find plenty that charge half the price that lulu does.

Answer 2

If it's fiction or general reading, you'll probably need a literary agent. Contact various agents and see who will take a manuscript and review it and see if they'll promote it.

If it's technical, contact publishers in that field and ask to speak (or get the name of) an acquisitions editor, and then you can pitch your idea to them, letting them know your credentials, of course.

Finally, you could do "subsidy publishing" which is pay for it yourself. A few places, like iUniverse (I think the name has since changed) could get it listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for a few hundred bucks, and they'd print them as needed, but it would be up to you to promote the book, unless they found it particularly exceptional.

Answer 3

Write, submit to agents and publishers, keep writing.

Nowadays, you have to fight to get into the mainstream. It's no longer considered 'easy' to do.

If you can't get in through an agent or publisher, you can try subsidy publishing (also known as: "vanity-press". (lulu.com, IUniverse.com, Publish America, Trafford...) ), but this is usually reserved for those writers who just want to print their works 'as is' and have their name on the front cover.

Self-publishing *is* expensive, but so is traditional publishing--when you think about how you much time, effort, and money you have to spend promoting and advertising yourself.

Either way, there is no 'cheap' way to publish, no 'cheap' way to get in and get published. This is a money-driven industry, and in order to make it, you have to write the damned best you can, and make yourself heard.

Answer 4

i dont think theres one right answer to that. I know you can either sell to a publisher, editor or self-publish but that one's pretty expensive. Dont get discouraged if your first try fails though. it doesn't necessarily mean you're no good.

Answer 5

try LuLu.com-they publish on demand.