How do you get a book published?

Question

I'm writing a book but I have now idea what steps I need to take in order to have it published.

Answer 1

Easy to use links that will help with all your research needs, try typing a keyword or two into the search engine and see what happens.

http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp

http://www.aresearchguide.com/

http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/886...

http://www.studentresearcher.com/search/...

http://www.chacha.com/

Answer 2

We'd need much more information to answer this question? Like what are you writing about?

My advice would be, don't worry about looking for a publisher until you've finished the book.

Why? Because when you write "The End", you're not finished. That's only your first draft. You will need to go back over it and check all your grammar, spelling, sentence structure etc - and when you do that, you'll find things about your first few chapters that you don't like, because you'll be a much better writer at the end of the book than you were at the beginning. So you'll find yourself wanting to rewrite and improve sections.

Also, at this point you don't even know if your book will be long enough. The smallest fiction paperback book is about 75,000 words long. Many writers think they're writing a book, but once the story's finished, they find they're far short of book length. If your story is only, say, 20,000 to 40,000 words long then there's no point in looking for a book publisher, because it's a novella, not a novel.

Finally, you have no idea how long it's going to take you to write your book. With my first novel, I wrote 30,000 words in 3 weeks and started thinking about publishing - only to find that it took me almost a year to write the other 50,000 words!

So be patient, finish the story, then polish, polish, polish till it shines. THEN you can look for a publisher. For more information, check out my blog below - the earlier posts are all about publishing.

Answer 3

After you write your novel you have to edit your novel. Once you have edited it for content, then once again for spelling and grammar then you have to decide if you want to self-publish or you want to try for one of the major publishing houses in NYC. If you want to go for NYC you need an agent. Check out this website for members of the agent association: www.aar-online.org/index.html (good agents to do require $$ up front, they take a percentage of your $$ after you get a contract much like a lawyer.
The publishing process is a lot of hard work and takes time. Be prepared to make changes in your novel and don't expect to sell it with the first submission. I have had friends submit and edit their novels many times before getting a publishing deal. It normally takes about 2 years to see your book in print from the point of a signed contract to the finished product especially if you are new to publishing. Good luck!!

Answer 4

1. Get the current Writer's Market book--either in your library or bookstore.

2. Search the endless lists of literary agents that might best accept your genre.

3. Submit your manuscript, the first three chapters, or your query letter according to the agent's submission guidelines. Be exact in what they require. Otherwise, they trash the manuscript and send only to you a "no thanks."

4. Finding representation for an unpublished author is next to impossible. Build up your credentials by submitting good articles to magazines. Here again, you must go by their submission guidelines.

5. Hone the craft of writing. Make certain your manuscript is free of misspellings, inappropriate use of punctuation, switching of tenses, and fancy fonts.

6. Get a copy of "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and Williams. Read it, highlight important instruction, and keep it near your keyboard.

Answer 5

finish it

edit it yourself

get a good editor to edit it

Research your potential market (read writers marketplace etc)

Write a 1-2 page query and send it, along with 1-2 chapters of your book to a literary agent in the format they ask for.

Brace yourself for rejection

Rewrite the query and edit chapters again and repeat two above.

If you have an excellent story it may be bought.

If not, it will join the tens of thousands of others doing the rounds of agents and publishers.