‘I really want to get my book published, but I don’t know if I can afford it. Can you please help me?’

I get several emails like this a week and I have to say, I’m always a little surprised that so many people seem to think that an author has to pay to get published. Mind you, with the amount of press vanity publishing has been getting of late, it’s not really surprising so many writers are confused. And while I’m no expert on the ways of publishing, I did get there eventually. Here’s my ‘three important things’ everyone should know about the business.

Fact One–if there’s one rule every fiction author should know its this–money flows TO the author, not away from them!

If you pay for someone to edit, publish and distribute your book, then it’s vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is NOT mainstream publishing. And no matter what flowery promises and distorted facts the various vanity press sites might feed you, there is one indisputable truth–vanity publishing is expensive. It won’t get your book on the shelf in bookstores and it won’t make you money. It’ll make the vanity publisher money, but 99.5% of the time, the author is left out of pocket.

Publishers–the ones behind all the books currently populating the bookstore shelves–will never ask authors for money. They pay authors for the print rights (just what money and what range of print rights depends on whether you have an agent and just how good they are at haggling). They don’t charge for editing, they don’t charge for covers, they don’t charge for printing, and they don’t charge for distribution. And you will get you books in the stores, and you will get publisher-paid publicity (how much does depend on where you sit status wise–newbie authors get a lot less publicity money thrown their way than more popular authors)

So if you want to see your book on the shelf in bookstores, then there’s only one way to do it–and that’s the old fashioned way. Write the best damn book you can, then start sending it out to agents and editors (agents are usually the best bet, as they can get you in front of more editors).

Fact two–your baby WILL get rejected. Not once, not twice, but many, many times. I had ten years worth of rejections. And yeah, there were many times I thought I was never going to get anywhere, that my writing sucked (and lets be honest here, some of my early novels did suck. Seriously so), that no one would ever want to read my stories let alone publish them. But I wanted to see my book on that shelf and I refused to give up. And that’s the key. You need to be tough to survive in the publishing business, and you need to keep going no matter what, because the rejections don’t stop when you get published.

Fact three–Publishers want authors who can write more than one book. They want authors who can produce one book right after another, and at least two books a year. When it comes to genre fiction its all about name recognition, and that means getting your name out there, in front of the reader, constantly. Which means every author needs to learn how to finish a book, how to edit it, and then how to move on. Write another book while the first one is doing the rounds of agents or editors, and then write another one after that. Don’t keep rewriting the same old prose. Learn when to leave a book alone and move on, because that’s precisely what you’ll have to do when you’re published.

So how do you go about finding an agent? There’s plenty of websites out there with useful information. Publishers Marketplace and Predators and Editors are two sites I recommend, but there’s plenty of other ways. Most agents these days have websites and all of them list submission guidelines and what they’re currently looking for. Another good way is to read the acknowledgements in books–most authors will thank their agents, so check out who your favorite author thanks then go hunting for their website. Some publishers do still take unagented submissions, but again, you need to check out their websites for guidelines. And don’t forget author sites–Holly Lisle has some great resources on her website, and many other authors have links for writers as well (me included.)

Oh, and there is a fourth fact–enjoy what you write, because once you’re published, you’re probably going to be writing in that genre and style for quite a while. 

Related posts:

1. What to do with it.
2. Stepping Onto the Query-Go-Round, Part 2
3. It is my turn already?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 5:27 am and is filed under Keri Arthur. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.