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The Fearless "How to Get Published" Guide

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Rachel Dearth
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« on: August 25, 2009, 11:11:11 pm »

ALTHOUGH most people still think of “getting published” as a process of finding an agent and landing an advance from a major New York house, the conventional route is increasingly difficult to navigate — and the contemporary publishing scene offers many alternatives.

This page offers a basic summary of the routes to book publication available today (check back for frequent updates and improvements). Topics include:

Agency Representation  •  The Independent Press

    Co-op Publishing  •  Electronic Publishing  •  Self-Publishing 

    A Special Note to Poets  •   Screenwriting

    General Reference Sites  •  Writer’s Bookshelf
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2009, 11:12:37 pm »

Agency Representation
You can submit your work to agents in the hope of finding representation to major publishers. A good directory of literary agents is online at LitMatch, or you can search the database of the Association of Authors' Representatives.You can also check the current edition of Writer’s Market, available in most bookstores and libraries (www.writersmarket.com). The “bible” of directories, usually available in public libraries, is Literary Marketplace (www.literarymarketplace.com), a comprehensive listing of book publishers, agents, and other resources in the field. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents (The Writer Books) gives some specific information on selected agents and their subject preferences.

Try to choose agents whose field of expertise and/or interests match your work. After you’ve chosen ten or fifteen possibilities, prepare an e-mail query that includes a pitch for your novel or nonfiction proposal, a brief paragraph about yourself, and no more than a FEW pages of sample writing included in the body of the e-mail. DO NOT send attached files until an agent has asked you for more material. In every case, it is best to know as much as you can about a particular agent before sending a query, and follow that agent’s preferences.If you submit your material to more than one agent at once, your e-mail should note that your project is on “simultaneous submission.”

Do not try to flatter or cajole agents, and resist the temptation either to praise or denigrate your own work. A clear, well-written statement of what you have to offer, and why you think it deserves publication, is enough. Finally, don’t phone agents to find out their decision; a follow-up e-mail after three or four weeks is sufficient. Agents can take weeks or months to reply, or they may never reply. Don’t waste your energy worrying about those who don’t respond. If you don’t get a ny positive responses from your first round of cover letters, do a second round and so on.
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2009, 11:13:32 pm »

If you are writing fiction, agents who are interested in your work will request either a sample with a synopsis of the full work, or the complete manuscript. Nonfiction authors will be expected to submit a proposal. Two guides to proposal writing are pictured here: Michael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal (Writer’s Digest Books) and Moira Allen’s Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals (Allworth Press). Literary agent Ted Weinstein offers a free 90-minute “Proposal Boot Camp" seminar online. Other good references include Write the Perfect Book Proposal by Jeff Herman and Deborah Adams (John Wiley & Sons), Susan Page’s The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book (Broadway Books), and the YouCanWrite website. See the Amazon-linked books below for more resources.
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2009, 11:14:31 pm »



Your submission has a much greater chance of being accepted for representation if it has been professionally assessed and revised. See Fearless Literary for information about manuscript and proposal critiques, editing, and publishing consultations. We help clients polish their projects and connect them with appropriate literary agents whenever possible. For more inside information on approaching literary agents, see the Fearless e-book CHOOSE YOUR PUBLISHING OPTION.
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2009, 11:16:26 pm »

The Independent Press
Or you can research the rapidly growing field of the independent press, and find a publisher yourself who might not give you money up front but who is more likely to be loyal to your work over the long term. Agents generally don’t work with the smaller publishers because their advances are small or nonexistent, and agents live on their commissions.

The leading association of independent publishers in the US is the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) at 627 Aviation Way, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, phone (310) 372-2732 (www.ibpa-online.org). Another national group is the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), P.O. Box 1306, Buena Vista, CO 81211, phone (719) 395-4790 (www.spannet.org). See the work of independent publishers in the Fearless Reviews.

 
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2009, 11:17:10 pm »

Co-op or “POD” Publishing
A recent development in alternative publishing is the rise of co-op publishers, who charge authors fees for the production and publication of their works. This method is a step above traditional “vanity publishing,” in which authors bear the full cost of publication for a very small number of conventionally printed books.

Some co-op firms let you retain your own rights as the publisher, others do not. Most of them arrange for the printing of books via print-on-demand (POD) technology, meaning that books are produced only in the quantities ordered, eliminating the need to maintain inventory. If you plan to produce a single title that is likely to sell in low quantities (less than 1000 copies) POD production may be the most sensible route. Some authors now produce POD versions of their own books in order to promote them to conventional publishers.

Co-op publishers vary in the amount and quality of production and publicity services they provide, so it is important to check out their offers and contracts carefully. Keep in mind that you will do the lion’s share of publicity work for your book (although that’s often true even if you have a mainstream publisher!). If you are willing to invest in your work but don’t want to get involved in all the technical aspects of publishing yourself, working with a co-op firm may be the right way for you. For a recent reference work in the field, see John Harnish’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About POD Publishing (Infinity Publishing).

Survey and compare the following co-op publishers to get a feel for this new approach:

    *
      Writers Collective
    *
      AuthorHouse
    *
      Booksurge / CreateSpace (Amazon subsidiaries)
    *
      IndyPublish.com
    *
      Infinity Publishing
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2009, 11:17:51 pm »

Here are two websites comparing the costs and benefits of various POD publishers:

    Problems & Benefits of POD  •  PublishOnDemand.net

    Or see The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies—Analyzed, Ranked & Exposed (click on Amazon box, right)

     

Electronic Publishing
Paper-free publishing is a rapidly evolving realm that does not yet have wide public acceptance, but may well be the wave of the future. If you need ink, paper, and binding for your work in order to feel like a real author, then this option is not for you — but there have been some notable commercial successes in this field. Some e-publishers also produce POD books, and some do not; some may be here today but gone tomorrow. Thus, make sure you have a thorough and up-to-date self-education in the field before committing your work to any particular firm.

Some online references about e-publishing include:

    * EPIC: Electronically Published Internet Connection
    * ePublishing Overview at Writers Write

Visit the following electronic publishers to get an education in this field:

    * Booklocker
    * New Concepts Publishing
    * Hard Shell Word Factory

Fearless Books uses SMASHWORDS for our e-book production and distribution. See our e-books and connect to SMASHWORDS here.

 
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2009, 11:18:22 pm »

Self-Publishing
If you have the determination and a little money to invest, you can become your own publisher. There are two leading reference works in this field: Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross (founders of SPAN). Online, a good place to start studying this field is Dan Poynter’s “ParaPublishing“ site at www.parapublishing.com. You have to be willing to become a businessperson and self-promoter as well as a writer, and to handle or hire out such necessary tasks as book design and production, accounting, warehousing and inventory management, publicity, advertising, and more.
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Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2009, 11:18:51 pm »

A Special Note to Poets
Poetry is a very demanding realm of literature in which you should generally not expect commercial reward or compensation for your work. Few poets have literary agents because there is not enough money in the field except at the very top for agents to receive a significant commission. To have a volume of poetry published by a major house, you must generally have a long track record of being published in literary magazines. There are countless thousands of unpaid poets, however, who write for their own satisfaction, share their work in small groups, and publish small editions and chapbooks on their own.

The most comprehensive guide to poetry markets is Poets Market, published by Writer’s Digest Books. Two of the leading “establishment” sites for poets online include the Academy of American Poets at www.poets.org and Poets & Writers magazine at www.pw.org. The print version of P&W is also available at many newsstands. The Poetry Society of America is at www.poetrysociety.org. One of the most venerable and well-funded poetry publications is Poetry Magazine at http://www.poetrymagazine.org/.

Click here for information on the Fearless Poetry Series.

Additional resources: About.com’s Poetry Pages  •  The Poetry Resource Page
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« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2009, 11:19:23 pm »

Screenwriting
Here are several reliable online resources for screenwriters. For expert critiques and consultations, click on the banner for Fearless Literary Associate Alexandra Leh, below.

    * Break into Screenwriting (Lenore Wright)
    * Creative Screenwriting Magazine
    * Movie Bytes (screenwriting contests and markets)

   

 

General Reference Sites
The following sites offer good general information for writers:

Mystery Writers of America
www.mysterywriters.org/
Romance Writers of America
http://www.rwanational.org
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
http://www.sfwa.org/
Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
www.scbwi.org
Resources for Writers (Midwest Book Review)
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Writers Digest
www.writersdigest.com
Writers Net
www.writers.net
WritersWrite
www.writerswrite.com
Writing World
www.writing-world.com

http://www.fearlessbooks.com/PublishingGuide.html
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« Reply #10 on: August 25, 2009, 11:20:08 pm »


Welcome, Authors and Independent Publishers!
Self-Publish and Sell Your Books On-Demand

CreateSpace, a member of the Amazon group of companies, provides one of the easiest and most economical ways to self-publish and distribute your book on Amazon.com and other channels. In fact, using CreateSpace, you could have your book available for sale on-demand in as little as a week!
Why CreateSpace?

benefit 6    
No membership or book setup fees with the Standard Program
benefit 5    
No print minimums
benefit 4    
A non-exclusive agreement keeps your distribution options open
benefit 4    
Easy, online book setup, with free tools to assist with content preparation
benefit 3    
Competitive royalties and low pricing on author book orders
benefit 2    
CreateSpace ISBN provided at no charge
benefit 1    
On-demand distribution, ensuring your book is always "in stock" and available to order - no inventory necessary!


Get Started
Why Sign Up Now?

CreateSpace Community
Connect, collaborate and network with other authors online.
Cover Creator
Build your book cover online using professional templates and customizable themes.
Preview
Collect feedback on your work from friends, family and our Community.

 
https://www.createspace.com/pub/l/books_value_selfpublish.do?rewrite=true&ref=256590&utm_id=20
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« Reply #11 on: August 25, 2009, 11:56:07 pm »

Hi Rachel

Good info, thanks...
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"There exists an agent, which is natural and divine, material and spiritual, a universal plastic mediator, a common receptical of the fluid vibrations of motion and the images of forms, a fluid, and a force, which can be called the Imagination of Nature..."
Elphias Levi
Rachel Dearth
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« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2009, 01:16:37 am »

Hi Unknown,

Thanks!  I am looking for ways for us to get published and both be rich and famous, selling our works! How have you been?
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« Reply #13 on: September 01, 2009, 10:10:54 pm »

Hi Rachel

I'm doin' alright, I haven't been doing much writing though. How are you? It would be nice to earn some extra money from writing.
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"There exists an agent, which is natural and divine, material and spiritual, a universal plastic mediator, a common receptical of the fluid vibrations of motion and the images of forms, a fluid, and a force, which can be called the Imagination of Nature..."
Elphias Levi
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