How do you get a book published?

Question

I am writing a book in the genre of "Horror" I was wondering how do I get it published and how much will it cost? And how much money do you make from it? What are the chances of getting it published?

Answer 1

First of all, it you publish traditionally, there are costs involved, but not nearly like self publishing. And the rewards are much greater.

Expect to pay between 3 and 5 dollars per page based on 250 words per page for an editor. This is not a place to skimp. Your editor can take a decent book and turn it into a great book. They know what publishers are looking for - they have done it before. Find a good editor you can trust and put yourself in their hands when you are finished writing.

Other expenses are just mailing and eventually a full copy of your manuscript along with a book proposal if and when a publisher or agent shows interest and asks for one.

You should know that the major publishers in America will not "talk" to you or even accept an unsolicited query from you. A list publishers only deal with A list agents.

As for the money you will make. There is a simple formula. A publisher lists your book for 6 times the cost to print it. Generally in a hardcover that comes out to about 25.00. At 10%, your royalty is $2.50 per book - less agent fees if you have one.

Generally, a first print run for a novice author with a major publisher (if you are that lucky) is about 15,000 books. So if you sold all 15,000 books, you would make $37,500 dollars less agent fees. If you have a good agent, they can negotiate you an advance of half of the royalties - $18,750. When and if your book sells 7,501 copies, you start making royalties on the second half of the print run. If it doesn't sell, you will have to return some of the advance. And if your book ends up in the bargain bins - you make a big fat ZERO on sales.

So most first time authors have to invest their advances in a marketing consultant to help them promote and sell the book. If you don't - the competition will pass you by and you will be sending money back to your publisher. There are 150,000 books published every year. So you see what you are up against getting sold.

As for your chances of selling ... Figure for every one of those 150,000 books published each year, there are probably ten or twenty that are rejected. Maybe more. The odds are long.

One way you can improve your odds just a bit is writing short stories and selling them to magazines or anthologies. You will make practically nothing - generally $5.00 to $25.00 plus a few copies of the book or magazine, but it builds up credentials.

Hope that helps. Pax - C

PS - If you go to my profile you will find I star great Q and A on writing and publishing. Skim through them and print some out you think will help you. There are many great answers here.

Answer 2

I heard something like only 1 in 2000 books end up getting published and it doesn’t stop there. When a book does get published less than 2000 copies are sold on average because very little marketing if any is done on the book.

To perhaps increase your chances of getting your book published and gaining exposure for it internationally, there is a free website for authors called www.worthyofpublishing.com, which looks very promising. It allows Authors to upload a blurb about their book and enough chapters to grab the website viewer’s interest, who in turn can rate your work. If your work receives high ratings this could attract the interest of publishers through some of their unique relationships. At the same time I guess you are also creating a potential customer base for your book internationally.

There are many different ways an Author can earn royalties, which is based on your contract, however just to keep it simple an Author may typically earn around 10% of the wholesale price of their book, which is on average 40 -50% of the retail price. So an example might be $20 retail price x 45% w/sale price = $9 to the publisher and the authors royalty would be 10%, which is 90c per book. So if 2000 copies of your book sold & you made 90c per copy, thats $1800.

I hope this helps :-)

Answer 3

Agents won't contact some thing that's already Published (if it is a legit corporation) niether will they submit matters which have been placed at the Internet. Synopsis's is fine however if you happen to add chapters then no. Also with self-publishing you've doomed your self. Your publication is not getting anyplace so that you write whatever else and method an Agent. They desire to understand whether or not you've any matrerial Published, then they desire to understand whether or not it bought. Yours has no longer, they surprise why and wont be given your paintings. You must ask why your paintings hasn't bought. Self-Publishing could make or holiday you and really most of the time it breaks you, now you can battle to submit some thing together with your History. I are not able to urge persons adequate to assess each and every angel of Publishing and in my sincere opinion keep away from Self-publishing. Sorry to provide you simplest dangerous information, however it is not your publication that wont be accredited however you as good. I are not able to even inform you what to do and you can no longer get out of it I'm afraid. I'm no longer an Author myself I paintings for the 'Dark Side', persons should not be so scared of Agents we do not chunk that difficult.

Answer 4

1) It doesn't cost anything to get it published traditionally.

2) There's no way to know how much you'll make from your first book. But if I were you, I would keep your day job.

Most first-time authors don't make a whole lot from their books these days.

3) The chances of you getting published by a reputable NY publisher is on the same level as winning the lottery on a $1 ticket.

The odds aren't great for first-time writers these days.

Answer 5

If you are publishing genre fiction find publishers that publish that type of writing, but remember that market is dominated by Stephen King and Dean Koontz so it is difficult to make a name in it. If you are serious about writing take a course in fiction writing it will expose you to other writers. Find online groups with fans of the genre. Try some samples on them and see how they react. My advice-be original. If you just copy another writer you will not succeed.

Answer 6

You start by querying literary agents. This is done with a one page letter describing yourself and your book. Sometimes the agent will request you include the first few pages or chapters, but that is an individual preference.

There are several websites out there that will help you find an agent, my favorite is QueryTracker.net at http://www.querytracker.net/ . It is free and has a list of literary agents and also tools to help you keep track of who you already queried and who you haven't, plus more.

They do a good job of keeping the crooks off their lists, but it is still a good idea to double check at http://www.sfwa.org/beware/twentyworst.html.

There are a lot of crooks out there. Never pay anyone to read or publish your book. A real agent will never ask for money except as a percentage of your royalties.

Keep in mind that finding an agent and getting published is not an easy process. Some people have to query hundreds of agents before they find one who will accept them (sadly, some never get accepted), but be persistent and keep trying.

You should also visit http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums one of the largest forums for writers. They can be very helpful.

Good luck.

Answer 7

You have to contact a book agency/company that can talk to you about getting your book published. This can mean research on the best book company you can get your book published on.