The Dark Side of Publishing


When I started through this publishing journey, I thought it would be pretty easy
When I started through this publishing journey, I thought it would be pretty easy. I mean, I'd already worked really hard writing that story, right?
Wrong.
I'd like to add that I'm no expert, in fact, I'm just a beginner. I'm learning as I go and sometimes I screw up more than anything, but in the hopes that you might find it helpful, here it goes.
There are a few ways to get published. Traditional, self-publishing or indie-publishing (there might be even more now, but those three are the basic ones).
If you want to go through the traditional publishing process...good luck!
And I don't mean it as a joke, you'll need loads of patience and hard work, but if you get there, you'll be in writer's heaven
And I don't mean it as a joke, you'll need loads of patience and hard work, but if you get there, you'll be in writer's heaven.
The first thing you need to do is polish your story like there's no tomorrow. While you're at it, try to write a few lines from each chapter on a side-document. This will help you write that dreaded summary for your query. Then, you'll need to tackle that summary to get it ready for your query.
Most important publishers don't accept submissions from writers, they only read them from agents. So, I'd suggest you try to find an agent first. This website www.agentquery.com, might come in handy while you try to find a few agent names that might be into the genre you wrote. You'll need to see what they ask for since some ask for the first ten pages, others for the first three chapters, and so on.
The basic query has a hook-up line from your story as an introduction (think #PitMad entry tweet, something along those lines), then a short paragraph about your story and a small biography. Here's the link for an example: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/query-letter
If you got your query ready, I'd advise you to send it to several agents at once (do personalize each e-mail!). You might get a lot of rejections, but keep on going, you might find someone out there who will find your story interesting.
The self-publishing journey might seem daunting, but a lot of self-published writers are doing great! Plus, all they earn is for them! Granted, getting your book out there might be expensive at first and it will involve a lot of hard-work marketing, but I'd like to think that this is the most rewarding experience of them all!
You'll need a professional editor, a cover designer (be careful to hire someone professional and check the photo's copyright and such) and a formatter, at least. I'm saying the basics, since I haven't self-published, so you might want to look for more information about it. Elicia Hyder's website is quite useful, http://www.howtopublishfiction.com/ (she's a best-selling author and her books are amazeballs!).
Now, Indie-publishing is a combination of traditional and self-publishing. What it means, it's that you have to query your story to a small press that will ask you to promote yourself. Usually, the royalties are higher, but it also involves a lot of work. The publisher is in charge of editing, formatting and such, but pretty much the marketing is on your own. They do promote your book (of course) but the more YOU promote, the more sales you'll get.
This is publishing in a rough draft. Marketing is quite different and a head-spinning process. I'm still learning it!
Hopefully, this will help new authors to know that writing a book is the first part, but getting published is not as easy as you might think
Hopefully, this will help new authors to know that writing a book is the first part, but getting published is not as easy as you might think. However, there's nothing like holding your book in your hands! It's the best feeling in the whole wide world.
Best of luck!
Best of luck!

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