How do I go about getting a book published?
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I have written a book and I would like to at least try and see if anyone is willing to publish it. I have searched the internet but can’t really find many publishers. Does anyone have a website that might be able to help or first hand experience of a good publisher or agent?
Thanks.
I’ll give 10 points to the best answer and a signed first edition to them too if it ever gets published! 
The Writer’s Handbook is a great idea. It’s available in most libraries and lists all the agents in the country you are in, according to genre.
The best way to get an agent is persistence. Begin by spending a bit of time writing a concise cover letter introducing yourself. Write a one or two page synopsis of your book too. This is a bit like a plot outline that doesn’t give the ending away. It should tell the reader enough to make them really want to read your book. It shows a little detail about the main characters and sets the scene.
Then use the Writer’s Handbook to create a list of likely publishers and agents.
Once you have the list, start by putting together a ‘pack’ that you intend to send off. You should send them off in batches of ten at a time. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I’m afraid there is no other way! Start with agents, as they are more likely to reply than publishers, who may have a big ‘slush pile’ to wade through of other people’s work.
In your pack you should include:
1) Your cover letter
2) The synopsis
3) A cover sheet with your name, the proposed title of the book and your contact name, address, phone number and email address.
4) The first thirty pages or so of your book. It should be typed in a serif font (Times New Roman is best) as they are easier to read. Double space the type so the agent can make notes) and use about an ’11′ for the font size. Head all your chapters as follows:
CHAPTER: TITLE
E.g. If the chapter was called ‘Johnny Meets His Maker’ it would look like this:
CHAPTER: JOHNNY MEETS HIS MAKER
Start a new page every time you start a chapter. Indent your paragraphs a little (again it makes it easier to read). Only print on one side of the paper. Use white A4 paper only. Don’t bind it together with staples. Simply put the pages in a light cardboard folder, loose, but in order. Make sure you number ALL the pages.
Then send off your first ten and keep your fingers crossed. Wait about 4 weeks, send off another 10. Keep going…
If you follow the above submissions advice, agents will always reply (in the end) although it may take them a while.
I am not published yet but do have an agent now, and things are a LOT easier with one. Basically you could say that once you’ve got an agent you are half-way to getting published!
Whatever happens, keep trying and don’t give up hope just because you get a few rejections. Listen to the advice you get from any agents who reply. They normally (but not always) know what they are talking about. Either way, keep sending the packs out, and if your book is good you will get a deal in the end.
Best wishes and best of luck with your project.
Mike Gwyther
There is a book called the writers handbook it is published every year and has contacts fro all publishers (books and magazines) your local library will have a copy, or you can get it off amazon, it really is very usefull.
References :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1405041544/qid=1147877480/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-0538229-8428601
I published a book of poetry at http://www.AuthorHouse.com, total cost to me $450.00, sold many copies via their website, also you can invest additional funds in order to advertize your book, of which may lead to a "Best Seller" via several large news paper outlets, such as the NY Times. Good Luck!
References :
http://www.AuthorHouse.com
get ur favourite book, look on the first few pages and find the info about the publishers, it will have their address. send you story 2 them bi post and voila!!! u will have ur wonderful book published!!!
References :
If you want to be published, I recommend that you first try mail your work [you do not even mention whether it is fiction, or non- !] to the Feature Editors of some suitable magazines.
…Before mailing, take good care to ensure that your work, or novel, is suitable to that magazine’s style, standards and attitudes.
For example, you will get nowhere by mailing a work of detective fiction to a teenage romance mag ! Or by presenting a philosophic treatise to a humour magazine.
…Surprisingly, most ‘big’ mags are known to give ‘big breaks’ even to raw newcomers – if they find some ‘spark’ or ‘novelty’ in their output. And once you get published [or serialised] in a magazine’s pages, you would have proved your mettle and get labelled as ‘saleable’ !
…Only then, some firm of Book Publishers might decide it worthwhile to bring your creation out as a book. This will involve no expenses on your part – and would bring-in a decent royalty as well.
…But, if you just want to get your work printed at your own expense, contact any local firm of job-printers, and submit a copy of your entire manuscript – to ask for their quotation !
You will find that, compared with the price of a commercially mass-produced volume, the price per copy of your personal publication will be at least 10-15 times more ! And, except for your friends and relations, buyers will be very hard to find. [Not worth the trouble, or expense, really !]
And if you want just 5-10 copies, for gifting, then type the entire text out yourself using some Desk Top Publishing (DTP) software, get the required number of printouts, and have them bound into ‘volumes’ !
Best of Luck, friend : You’ll sure need lots of it.
References :
Personal experiences in professional Publishing
bro,go to a publisher,tell him u want to get a book published.they will tell what they take or they may suggest this,they will publish,sell and pay you depending on the sales made.are u ok?
References :
my brain(chidosky)
It may be different in the UK, but I keep seeing Writer’s Market (which is what most people will refer you to for researching publishers) called a billion different things here.
What most people mean (in the US) is The Writer’s Market (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582972710/104-6288696-6517534?v=glance&n=283155), which for years has been the reference bible of would-be authors. It’s updated annually, and those of us who are old and jaded and snarky have begun to suspect strongly that at $30 a shot paperback it’s something of a racket since most of that information’s available other places (most notably the internet) for free, with a little legwork.
If you’re having difficulties searching, are you targeting your genre? There are a hundred websites or more with information on agents. Are you calling them the right thing? Search for "literary agents." Look:
http://www.writers.net/agents.html
http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm
http://www.booktalk.com/agents1.asp
See what agents are representing and who they’re representing (most of the agents you’ll find on those lists have websites that include that information).
I did a search for "publishers index" and came up with all these, first try:
http://www.bookwire.com/index/publishers.html
http://www.writerswrite.com/books/bookpubs/
And my all time favorite general resource for publishers and the market:
http://www.ralan.com
So the information’s definitely there, and without $30 out of pocket.
It is extremely difficult for an unpublished writer to get a book sold unagented. For a start, many publishers simply don’t take unsolicited (unagented) manuscripts, and there are a lot, and I mean a *lot* of manuscripts out there. Some of them are decent ones, and even most of those won’t see the light of day.
If you think you’ve got something good (and your best gauge of that is to run your MS (that’s manuscript: if you’re gonna be a writer learn the lingo) by some other writers or your friends and then *listen* to their comments), then your best bet is to work on finding yourself an agent.
I answered that question (at length, as usual) here:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AmMpmFzyVh0V1wyS7EoPsKrsy6IX?qid=1006051513629
Beware of scams, and if you decide to go the self-publishing route (which I don’t recommend but people do), use a reputable POD (print on demand) publisher. There’s an excellent overview of POD here: http://www.sfwa.org/beware/printondemand.html
Best of luck to you.
References :
personal experience, published author
If you truly want to be published, it can be quite difficult. Generally, I would recommend building a reputation a little before submitting a full book. Most publishers only produce a set number of books a year and are reluctant to risk one of those spots on an utterly unknown writer. There are literary journals/magazines that specialize in unknown writers, submit a few stories to them. After you get some experience with short stories and can prove that people like your work, book publishers will be a bit more friendly.
You can also try obtaining an agent, though for your first book I would suggest getting a publisher interested before actually getting an agent. You can get a better deal all round that way (the agent/agency doesn’t see you as a risk then either).
References :
The Writer’s Handbook is a great idea. It’s available in most libraries and lists all the agents in the country you are in, according to genre.
The best way to get an agent is persistence. Begin by spending a bit of time writing a concise cover letter introducing yourself. Write a one or two page synopsis of your book too. This is a bit like a plot outline that doesn’t give the ending away. It should tell the reader enough to make them really want to read your book. It shows a little detail about the main characters and sets the scene.
Then use the Writer’s Handbook to create a list of likely publishers and agents.
Once you have the list, start by putting together a ‘pack’ that you intend to send off. You should send them off in batches of ten at a time. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I’m afraid there is no other way! Start with agents, as they are more likely to reply than publishers, who may have a big ‘slush pile’ to wade through of other people’s work.
In your pack you should include:
1) Your cover letter
2) The synopsis
3) A cover sheet with your name, the proposed title of the book and your contact name, address, phone number and email address.
4) The first thirty pages or so of your book. It should be typed in a serif font (Times New Roman is best) as they are easier to read. Double space the type so the agent can make notes) and use about an ’11′ for the font size. Head all your chapters as follows:
CHAPTER: TITLE
E.g. If the chapter was called ‘Johnny Meets His Maker’ it would look like this:
CHAPTER: JOHNNY MEETS HIS MAKER
Start a new page every time you start a chapter. Indent your paragraphs a little (again it makes it easier to read). Only print on one side of the paper. Use white A4 paper only. Don’t bind it together with staples. Simply put the pages in a light cardboard folder, loose, but in order. Make sure you number ALL the pages.
Then send off your first ten and keep your fingers crossed. Wait about 4 weeks, send off another 10. Keep going…
If you follow the above submissions advice, agents will always reply (in the end) although it may take them a while.
I am not published yet but do have an agent now, and things are a LOT easier with one. Basically you could say that once you’ve got an agent you are half-way to getting published!
Whatever happens, keep trying and don’t give up hope just because you get a few rejections. Listen to the advice you get from any agents who reply. They normally (but not always) know what they are talking about. Either way, keep sending the packs out, and if your book is good you will get a deal in the end.
Best wishes and best of luck with your project.
Mike Gwyther
References :