I know this is a complicated one but here goes . I wrote a story,?

Question

thats 120 pages long . How do I get it published and sell it ?
How do I get paid for it ?
Do I get a editor ?
If so how do I get one , or how do I send the story to an editor ?
What typed format Do editors like ?

Answer 1

Boy!Whew!okay,here goes.Try finding The Best of The Writer's Markets &the library(It ain't cheap)You'll find listings editors who are looking for the type of story you want to have read(check for word count,they're strict about it)To do this,count the number of words in the 1st line,then,count the number of sentances on the page.Multiply the 1st w/the 2nd & you have your word count(or a closr approximation!)Now,is your manuscript one plain white paper?is it clean¬ marked up,even in pencil?Have you gone through for misspellings&punctuation?(very important)Pu yout contact info in the upper left hand corner(Name,address phone,e-mail)Upper right corner place wrd.count.Make sure your margins are 1 inch on 3 sides.From the bottom of you contact info,drop down about five double spaces,then place your title(in caps)Drop down 2 spaces,indent five spaces& start typing!That's how you present a "snail mail"manuscript(yes.they do still accept them)For e=mail submissions,check the guidlines they provide for you.
Got all That? Good!And Good Luck to You!TL

Answer 2

In order to get published most well established publishing houses require you to go through an agent (for example: http://www.levinegreenberg.com/). Most publishing houses or agents have in-house editors to review your work. Although it is important to have good spelling, grammar, and sentence structure you're probably not going to be turned down if you don't. The story is what really matters. As far as format just make sure you use hard returns after each paragraph. Sometimes pdf's are appreciated depending on who's doing the reading. As far as getting paid goes; you're going to get paid from the actual sales of the book. The average author does not make more than 25% of the gross book sale and many times they make as low as 5%. In some cases the publisher will give the author an advance, but most of that money will probably go to marketing and expenses. Going about getting published with an established publishing company can take well over a year, sometimes two or three or even more. If your serious about getting published check out booksurge.com (a subsidiary of amazon.com) or Xlibris ( a strategic partner of Random House). It would only take a few months to get published and they don't turn anybody down because they use Print-On-Demand, which means that they only print books as they sell (this eliminates the need to sell a certain number of books). With booksurge.com you would make 10-25% of the gross book sale and they have editing services for a fee.

Answer 3

120 pages tells me nothing. How many words? Industry standard is always in words - not pages. The standard is 250 words per page. Without knowing the genre, age of readers etc, I cannot tell if this is a novella, small chapter book or long short story.

Yes, for the most part, you need an editor first. You can find one through various sources - online you can search keyword editors or you can use one of the books like Literary Marketplace which is a reference book in the library. Make sure you always check the editor out first. Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write Water Cooler's Bewares and Background Checks, Writers Wall, Writers Weekly and others can help. An editor usually charges about 4 - 5 dollars per page based on 250 words per page for what is called a sweep edit where they check spelling and grammar and make margin notes regarding potential changes.

Now - what to do with it when it is edited.

Actually there are four ways. One is to sell them to magazines, one is to sell them to anthologies, one is e stories and one is contests. The magazine route isn't what it used to be. There aren't nearly as many magazines publishing fiction as there used to be. However, the anthology market is growing. The e story market is doing ok too. Contests are iffy.

But there are two very important things you need to know.

1) It takes a LOT of research and time to find sources and send them out. You can use Writers Market. They do list magazines - to an extent. You can also go to the library and use Literary Marketplace which you will find in the reference section. It costs 300 dollars, so use theirs and don't buy it unless you have extra money laying around. It is a reference book so you cannot check it out. Bring a notebook and take lots of notes.

You will also find publishers in there who are doing e stories.

As for anthologies - you will have to let your fingers do a lot of walking on the internet. Surf keywords like anthologies accepting submissions. An anthology is generally a collection of stories by several authors in one genre -- Permuted Press publishes a famous one with zombie stories. You kind of have to search them out. You can also join Absolute Write Water Cooler and other forums which list some and communicate with other authors who may know of some. There is no miracle place where they just smack you in the face. Would be nice if there was, but there isn't. Everyone scrambles to find sources. The ones who put in the most time at it are the lucky ones.

The same goes for contests. You kind of have to shop around for them. The general rule for contests is do not pay any entry fees, but there are exceptions to that rule. Some legit contests charge. If you have to pay, make sure the prize money is at least 6 times the entry fee or more. And I would advise you not to enter any contest where the only prize is publication and copies of your work. I know of someone who won a novel contest, got his novel published after almost 4 years of hassling with the publisher, and ended up selling THREE books. Hardly worth it. Contests tend to have a poor reputation. Check them out carefully. There are articles at Preditors and Editors and Absolute Write about entering contests. Read them carefully.

Just remember that before you send anything to anyone, you MUST do your homework and check the publisher or contest out. Start with Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Checks, then Preditors and Editors, Writers Wall, Writers Wall and any other writers sites you can find. If there have been complaints from other writers, you will find them. We are writers, when someone rips us off, we write about it.

OK - now you have a pretty good idea where to send your work. Here is the bad news. You won't make much money on it. The average pay for a short story in a magazine or anthology is something like 5 - 25 dollars or a penny to a nickel a word plus a couple free copies of the book or magazine. Not very much. There are a few contests that pay first prize of over a thousand dollars, but they are very hard to win. They get thousands of very high quality entries. For e stories you make a royalty. If the story costs $1.99 to read, you might make 50 cents every time someone pays to read it. But kids will copy it and share it anyway and you probably won't get many paid hits. You will not earn a living this way. That is for certain.

What this does do is give you a start. Self publishing a novel will not give you the title "published author" in the industry, but a short story in an anthology will. It is a gateway. There are people who do it because they enjoy it. They end up with a nice little shelf of books and magazines with their stories in them, but not much money.

If you consider the time it takes to write a story, and you sell it for 25 dollars, you would make more money per hour working in Mc Donald's. However, if you are doing it for love and pleasure, go for it.


Pax - C

Answer 4

http://tinyurl.com/2o9amj

If the above link works, you'll be in Amazon, looking at Writer's Market 2008. It tells you all that stuff. You can probably get earlier editions at the library.