Publishing a book

[Carrion_Humanoid]

If I wanted to publish/copyright a book, how would I get it done? I am currently writing one as we speak, and I am pretty far in it.

I just need to know how to do so, any help will be appreciated.

[Amotis]

You must buy this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writers-Handbook-Handbooks-MacMillan/dp/1405049375/sr=1-2/qid=1172123095/ref=sr_1_2/202-9114550-5614215?ie=UTF8&s=books).

Else you will spend endless amounts of time looking for a publisher that might not publish you.

[adanedhel9]

I won't touch the publishing part, but do I know a little bit about copyright:

You don't have to do anything to gain copyright on your own material. There's two levels of copyright, and just by creating something you automatically gain the lower level. Technically, you don't even have to publish something to gain copyright, though you'd likely have a hard time defending the copyright if you don't (publishing in this sense doesn't have to mean printing your book for sale, either; you could publish your book on a personal website for all to see).

The higher level requires government recognition, which probably requires a little paperwork and sending a copy of your book to your copyright office. In the U.S., the higher levels of copyright let you sue someone for misusing your material, whereas the lower levels just let you stop someone from misusing your material.

[Haruki-kun]

You have to send it to an editor. Actually, to several editors, like 10 or more, rejection by several is for sure. (Even Harry Potter go rejected, the poor fools......)

Someone's gotta publish it for you, because if you publish on your own you will have no advertisement and no help. But I suggest you actually talk to someone directly and ask questions about it. Someone who knows what he's talking about.

Good luck, fellow writer!

[Carrion_Humanoid]

Thank you all for your advice. . . But i need like, one more.

How do you set the price?

[Telonius]

Thank you all for your advice. . . But i need like, one more.

How do you set the price?

Unless you're self-publishing, you don't; the publishing company does. If you mean, how much does the publishing company pay you: you and/or your agent negotiate it (or not, depending on the publisher).

I'll be in the same boat as you are in about a year. I'm about 36,000 words into a fantasy novel at the moment. I'm waiting until I'm nearly done before I start looking for agents and publishers.

[Haruki-kun]

If the book is longer, it requires more paper, therefore it is moore expensive but if it's too short, your break even point is higher.

but that's economics, you don't care about that. The Publising company does.

Rmember the saying: Writing is an art and a craft, but publishing remains a business.

[ZombieRockStar]

If you're serious, there are a number of decent books on the subject for the amateur writer wishing to become an author. You can probably find some in your local Chapters or whatever.

For a beginning writer, I seriously would consider finding an agent. Buy the Writer's Market Guide, find a few agents who might then sell your book to a publisher, then send out your manuscript or a query, depending on what they ask for. The agent is much more likely to sell the book than just blindly mailing the MS out and will handle most of the negotiations with the publisher.

The price of your manuscript varies a great deal on what kind of book it is. A lot of genre fiction is published by the hundreds and doesn't pay much. But then, literary fiction doesn't earn as much. Non-fiction is what earns most of the money. Anyway, for a first book, we're talking anywhere from as low as $3000 to as high as $30,000, depending. This is why you should get an agent.

As I said, many many books on the subject.

Good luck.

[Alarra]

Agents are very useful. It's unlikely that you'll be able to get a book accepted by any 'decent' publisher, without self publishing, without an agent, unless your work absolutely blows them away. Have other people edit your manuscript ahead of time. Try not to send it in unsolicited. Yeah, manuscripts do sometimes get pulled from the slush pile and published, but it's rare, very rare. They're usually not even looked at.

That being said...I'm always willing to help out a fellow forumer. Let me read it when you're done, if I think it's really good, maybe I can get you in touch with one of the agents I know.

Another good thing to do is look at books that are similar to yours or just that you like. Read the acknowledgments. These will usually list their agent and editor....Send queries to these people, and make sure you mention that you noticed the represented, or edited [insert book title here]. It makes them feel like you've done your homework and aren't just sending out queries blindly.

Any other specific questions, I can try to help you with. I went to grad school in publishing, and worked for a publishing company for a while.

[Toastkart]

One thing you can do to quickly copyright your work is to burn it onto a cd, package it, and mail it to yourself through your local post office. Then keep it in a safety deposit box or safe or something like that. This will put an official government date/stamp on your work identifying it as yours as of that date. I periodically do this with my work.

Having attempted to get my book published and having failed, I've decided to wait until I have the second one, and maybe even the third one finished before I try again. If you write in a series and they like one book more than the others they may buy them all simply because it wouldn't make sense to publish just one without context.

[Tormsskull]

If you want info on POD technology (print on demand) I suggest you check out lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com)

That's the site I set one of my authors up with and will probably use myself if/when I finish any of the variety of my books.

[Telonius]

One thing you can do to quickly copyright your work is to burn it onto a cd, package it, and mail it to yourself through your local post office. Then keep it in a safety deposit box or safe or something like that. This will put an official government date/stamp on your work identifying it as yours as of that date. I periodically do this with my work.

From what I've been able to tell, that (unfortunately) doesn't work in the US. Resources here (http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html), here (http://www.copyrightauthority.com/poor-mans-copyright/), and here (http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp) for why.

[aanimo]

If you want info on POD technology (print on demand) I suggest you check out lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com)

That's the site I set one of my authors up with and will probably use myself if/when I finish any of the variety of my books.

Though, if you plan on making money off your books, POD takes a lot more work on your part than if you get a publisher (of course, the work to get a publisher could offset that, just thought I'd mention it). However, if, like me, you just write as a hobby and want a published copy, 'tis a good way.

[Obsidian Blade]

I also have a question about publishing a book. If you are under 18, will it be harder? People take adults much more seriously. Would they try to rip an underage person off? The only author I know who has had great success while being underage is Christopher Paolini, and his parents were the ones who published it at first.

[ZombieRockStar]

I also have a question about publishing a book. If you are under 18, will it be harder? People take adults much more seriously. Would they try to rip an underage person off? The only author I know who has had great success while being underage is Christopher Paolini, and his parents were the ones who published it at first.

Two-part answer:

If you're not at the age of majority, your legal guardians still have a say in your financial affairs, so negotiating a deal will be slightly more complicated.

Secondly, no matter how good you are, your writing is not going to be as good as it will be in five years. You're at the age when you should really be focusing mainly on developing your writing, not thinking about publishing. So I really would say you're better off waiting, for the most part.

Now, if you have a truly amazing novel, then by all means go for it. It's possible, of course. For the most part, books do get judged on how well they're written, not who writes them. Just have someone guide you through the process.

[Amotis]

There are also city wide compilations of teen writings sometimes publishers do. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but it gets your name out, even if it's a name among many,

[ZombieRockStar]

Yeah. Writing short stories and poems for compilations is a great thing for young writers to do.

[Obsidian Blade]

Thanks. I've actually got a few compilations of short stories and poems that I'm looking for somewhere to get my name out there for when I do write a book. I guess magazines are a good place to start, but seriously, who actually reads the contributions from young people?

[Amotis]

Beggars First time publishers/young writers can't be choosers.

[Obsidian Blade]

That's true enough. Even if we don't like it :(

[Dragonrider]

Harry Potter was rejected by about 40 publishers before it was picked up. An alternate to a publishing house is to send it to an agent, since you're more likely to get a hearing that way. My mom is trying to get published right now (fantasy/sci-fi), and I'm here to tell you, it's not easy.

[Obsidian Blade]

^ I think the big problem with trying to get fantasy and sci-fi published is that there's not much of a market for it. I live in NZ, where the only place I could possibly get a Drizzt Do'Urden book (just an example), would be off Amazon. I mean, it's great for the authors that make it (especially in fantasy, like Terry Pratchett and R.A. Salvatore), but for everyone else, it's a pain in the butt to get anyone to read it. My dad's tried to publish a book before, but the people returned it saying, "We don't think enough people would be interested in this sort of genre".
Well, I wish your mom good luck.