how do you publish a book?

Question

How do you publish a book or get the attention of a publishing company?

Answer 1

Writer's Market 2007 or 2008. If you pick up that book (it's about $30) it will give you all the information you need about publishing. It's basically a writer's Bible.

To get a publishing company's attention - you write a query letter describing your book, your publishing credentials, and how your book will contribute to their company. WM will help you write it.

With that said - your book needs to be good and original. And your query letter needs to grab the publishers attention. Publisher's receive hundreds of those letters a day - chances are they read the first three sentences and/or briefly skim it to see if anything stands out. If nothing stands out in your letter - then their attention will not be captured. A query letter makes or breaks your career. But no worry, all great authors are rejected.

I wish you luck!

Answer 2

If you can get a regular publishing house to publish your book, that would be great. It's an expensive proposition, however, and they publish many books each year but turn down even many more.

There are now, however, ways to publish your book yourself with software and one-off printing and binding.

There are also "vanity publishers" which will publish your book but, rather than paying you, you pay them for the privilege and you can get a small number of copies to give to your friends.

Answer 3

You can self-publish through Amazon.com. To sell a book to a publishing company takes an agent.

Answer 4

be outgoing and maybe someone might notice u.u can start by publishing this book in your town by going to the mayor and talking to him about your book and once it's published someone might come to u and like your book,but when u talk to the mayor make sure it's in a big city like san jose so u will get more fame.

good luck with your book!

Answer 5

I wasn't going to take the time to respond because I am working and popping in from time to time, but DAMN girl - you have gotten so much incorrect information that you might as well be dealing with the Bush administration.

1) NEVER NEVER NEVER copyright your book. It is automatically your intellectual property and belongs to you the second you write it. The trick is to keep it off the internet and away from potential plagiarists. There is NOTHING agents and publishers hate more than previously copywrited material. It says "I don't trust you." Believe me - agents and publishers have absolutely zero interest in stealing your work. If you post it on the internet and say "How do you like it, you will get a ton of "wow that is so cool - when can I read it" remarks, but you also open yourself up to plagiarism. DON"T. And the so called Poor Man's Copyright isn't worth the 42 cent stamp it takes to do. I must say this 50 times a day. NO COPYRIGHT IS WORTH A LICK WITHOUT A BADASS LAWYER TO DEFEND IT. Unless you are willing to sit on the internet 24/7 searching for your story, you likely won't even know you were plagiarized. I didn't when it happened to me. Someone sent me a copy and said "Read this guy's story it is great! It wasn't that guy's story - it was mine." I lost it. I wasn't about to pay a lawyer 3-450 an hour to recover it for me. Kiss it good bye. When and if you sell the book, a standard author's contract has a clause for the publisher to obtain the copyright for you.

No you don't send your story in to publishers. It will end up in the slush room - and eventually fed to the paper shredder. And NEVER call a publisher. They will not speak to you on the phone. Never never.

Major publishers only deal with major agents. They do not accept unsolicited queries. They are discarded. So if your intention is to reach a top ten publisher, you DO need a major agent. You need to learn how to write 1) A query letter that captures the agent's imagination 2) A synopsis that tells your story in a mini version and 3) A book proposal - the most important document you will ever have to write. More important than your manuscript in many ways. There are books that teach you how.

Next, I fail to see how the mayor of your town can help you. That is hilarious. Go to him when you want a parking ticket fixed. He can't help you get published. You would be smarter to hire an editor and work with them rather than bothering the mayor.

Self publishers are the worst and lowest end of the publishing industry. Most are scams. They cost a fortune. The idea in publishing is to have money flow TO the author not AWAY FROM the author. With self publishing, all you do is pay for a box of books to sell to family and friends. Your books never make it onto the shelves in bookstores. If you are lucky enough to get an ISBN they can be sold online, but unless you spend significant money and time promoting it, how does anyone know you have a book for sale? I have heard stories of people refinancing their homes to promote and market their self published books who are about to find themselves living in cars. In the history of self publishing NINE books have made the best seller list. The average self publishing sale is about 100 copies or 2/3 of your friends and family.

If you seriously believe in your book and in yourself you owe it to yourself to spend at least twice the length of time trying to publish it traditionally as you did writing it.

Believe me you will get nobody's attention here. No publishers hang out here waiting to discover the next Dean Koontz. They get plenty of submissions every day. The fact is you have to learn to advocate for yourself. Yahoo Answers won't do it for you. Get yourself a copy of Writers Market 2008 and read it. Don't turn it into a big paperweight. While Nicholas Sparks isn't one of my favorite authors, he has kindly offered a free tutorial on his website to help new authors. Use it.

You should also visit my profile. I star all the Q and A regarding publishing and writing for the benefit of newcomers. Go through the questions and print some out. I have seen many very good answers here from many successful authors.

You have to learn the business. It doesn't happen overnight. Gone with the Wind was rejected 50 times. Stephen King got so annoyed with Carrie he threw it away and his wife rescued it from the trash. I believe James Patterson got something like 70 rejections. You have to learn to have a hide tougher than a herd of elephants and deal with rejection. You also have to learn that most people who respond to questions here don't know jack about the subject. They answer to sound cool and get 2 points. It is unfortunate because far too many people take these answers seriously. That is why we have a thumbs down button. I use it liberally.

Hope that helps.
----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 6

get an agent, call the co. saying u've got to read this great book, and send it in. viola.

Answer 7

Get it copyrighted first, or somebody else will, and get all the
credit, and the royalty's. <}:-})

Answer 8

u make it x rated

Answer 9

do it yourself via lulu.com