Absolute Chaos Discussion Boards
Fic Talk => General Discussion => Topic started by: yorkielover88 on September 05, 2010, 11:51:44 AM
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I know some of you on here have published books. I'm just wondering where dose one begin? All the feedback on my fan fiction has inspired me to start writing regular; bsb free; fiction. I've let a few people see what I have written so far and they keep saying I should try to publish it when I'm finished but I don't even know where to start! Any help; tips; hints or advice?
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This is a good topic. I'd actually be interested in some more experienced feedback on this also. The only knowledge I have about publishing came from reading The Writer's Market books, which release a new version each year. They list publishers looking for work and guidelines for submissions. They're great books.
I've never published, though, so I have no experience.
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For the most part, self publishing is the way to go. It avoids costly and lengthy book proposals, and there's less risk of your ideas being stolen by publishing companies while you're sending manuscripts around.
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I'm not a fan of self publishing, but if you have the money and means to do it, it is a way to guarantee you'll get your story published.
The problem is that almost all places you would submit to will not take unsolicited material, which means they won't even look at your manuscript unless it is presented to them by a literary agent.
There are markets out there for all types of stories but things like mainstream fiction are almost impossible to get an 'in' unless you have an agent these days.
Smaller publishing houses are the way to go. Independent places looking to expand their own businesses by accepting unsolicted material. I am in the process of trying to get my second novel published and i'm pretty sure i'll have to try to get an agent to do it since it's a young adult novel.
I can tell you no matter what you do it's a very very long and hard process. I know after I was published I didn't want to look at my book or think of writing anything for a very long time because it becomes all consuming. The amount of editing you have to do over and over again is crazy and that's even before your editor recommends changes. I was lucky and that didn't really happen to me that much. Still you spend hours and hours reading and rereading your stuff to the point where you start to second guess yourself and hate your own story! lol
I would recommend starting small first and trying to submit a short story somewhere to be published. I had a short story published in a teacher's anthology gift type book. It gives you a small idea of what it would be like on a grander scale. Plus it's money lol and we all need money.
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I know some of you on here have published books. I'm just wondering where dose one begin? All the feedback on my fan fiction has inspired me to start writing regular; bsb free; fiction. I've let a few people see what I have written so far and they keep saying I should try to publish it when I'm finished but I don't even know where to start! Any help; tips; hints or advice?
You should totally do it! I think even if you turned Far From Normal into original fic it would do really well. Look at how popular that transgendered woman got when she had a baby. People loved the whole 'guy having a baby' story! :cheshire:
And Mare I totally bought your book too! SO AMAZING!
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aww thanks Jasmine lol
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Mare, what's your book called?
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Mare, what's your book called?
Mel's Tree
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I looked for your book a little while ago but couldn't find it, unless I wanted to pay about £30 on Amazon!
Good idea for a topic of discussion though, it's interesting to know how you'd go about it.
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Yeah, don't do that lol it's not worth the money.
I wish I had done more research when I got published initially but I was kind of like the boys when they got signed. I was so happy to be published that I just signed my contract without really looking at it too much. Long story short, my book because it was unsolicited was put into a POD category which means print on demand. Not very many bookstores will put your books on the shelves when they are POD because they can lose money so big ones like Barnes and Noble and Walden etc... stay away from them. Sometimes they'll include them on their online store. When it first came out Mel's was on Barnes and Noble's site. I know some stores in Canada carried it on their actual bookshelves but yeah, basiclly they only print it when it's ordered by people.
Smaller places and privtae bookstores will carry POD books because they don't usually buy mass quantities of things.
Ah well, it was a learning process for me and now I have a better idea of what to do then I did the first go round lol
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OK so do people really even turn fan fictions into regular stories? also, where does one even start looking for publishers and how do you know the difference? I mean.... just treat me like a dumb blond. How would one self publish. I mean who does that kinda stuff? Gosh I'm glad some of you guys have done this before.
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Mel's Tree was a fanfic.
You just have to research. Google publishers and take it from there. There's really no easy way to do it. Only you know what you are looking for.
Same for self publishing, look it up. I know nothing about how that works except that it does end up costing you a lot of money. I guess the only tip I can offer is that you shouldn't have to pay for anything so if you find some place that offers to publish you for 'x' amount of dollars, then they aren't the real deal.
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You'd probably be surprised how many books that are out there that were fanfics before! haha
Mare's book was a fanfic, Kelly's book was a fanfic and Twilight might as well be a fanfic! :P
There are MANY options for self publishing but Mare is right, you do need to have cash to do it. Cafe Press does self publishing as well as LuLu... but really, if you want to know the process the best thing to do is just plug "self publishing" into Google! Using Google really is incredibly valuable!!
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Mel's Tree was a fanfic.
You just have to research. Google publishers and take it from there. There's really no easy way to do it. Only you know what you are looking for.
Same for self publishing, look it up. I know nothing about how that works except that it does end up costing you a lot of money. I guess the only tip I can offer is that you shouldn't have to pay for anything so if you find some place that offers to publish you for 'x' amount of dollars, then they aren't the real deal.
Haha we seem to think alike, Mare! Though I don't know about all places that offer to publish you for money being a scam because some places are charging you just to print and bind your book, not necessarily distribute it.
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^ great minds think alike lol
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Haha we seem to think alike, Mare! Though I don't know about all places that offer to publish you for money being a scam because some places are charging you just to print and bind your book, not necessarily distribute it.
LOL and I just said that too, the think alike part. No, that's not necessarily a scam but what I mean is you shouldn't really have to pay for any part of the publishing process. So if you find a place that will charge you to print and bind, you are beingscammed in a way. That's just what I was told by an Ex Random House editor I met.
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OK so do people really even turn fan fictions into regular stories? also, where does one even start looking for publishers and how do you know the difference? I mean.... just treat me like a dumb blond. How would one self publish. I mean who does that kinda stuff? Gosh I'm glad some of you guys have done this before.
Ok - so I totally have to ask!! Which story of yours do you think you'll publish??? ;D
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Aww I would've liked to have read your book Mare, shame it was print on demand. If I ever see it somewhere for a sensible amount of money, then I'll buy it :)
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I'd be so embaresed to publish my slash stuff even though I'm told its really good. I've given thought to the "peices of my heart" series and the story DO I HAVE TO CRY FOR YOU. I'm just a little scared of how much re-writing I would have to do to help it not look like a bsb fan fiction. Cause if its too much the same then its not really all your right?
I guess I'm just not sure of the best place to start. I mean what if I'm not good enough to be published? Aren't their rules and regulations and stuff for publishing.
Would it be best to just start by plugging into google: how to get published? I mean I totally don't wanna be scammed!
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I'd do as Mare and Jasmine suggested and google it, it doesn't cost anything to research :)
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So self publishing you pay for everything but you also get to keep everything you make from the book selling? That's what im finding on google. Is this right?
What is it called if you go through something like.... one site mentioned something called lulu? Also is it copyrighted to you or them? Do you get any money from doing it this way? can you not sell it on your own?
What would I type in to google to find out more info on publishing through something like whatever lulu is?
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I don't know that there is a whole lot more that we know here than you do. I cant speak for everyone else but all I would really be able to go is read off of Google. Apart from Mare none of us really have experienced it. :(
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oh and talk to me about this "smaller publishing houses is the way to go" thing. Do you just send your book into one of these places and if they like it they'll publish it? i mean it cant be that simple can it? there has to be more? is it copy righted to you? do you make any money? there is soooo much info on google and I'm having trouble understanding it all.
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You might want to worry about writing your manuscript first and researching your publishing options once you have a first draft of that done. Even if you're thinking of trying to convert a fanfic into an original novel, it's going to take a lot of rewriting, revising, and editing before it's ready to send anywhere.
You should at least know what kind of a story you're writing before checking out different publishing companies, because they tend to specialize in publishing different types of books. Are you wanting to write an adult novel, a young adult novel, or a children's book? Do you know what genre you want to write in? What size novel are you anticipating writing?
You really need to focus on the story itself first, and that means focusing on your writing craft as well. You need to produce a quality, well-written manuscript before you have any hope of getting it published.
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I just guess I dont want to waste my time writing a real book if publishing is not a possibility.
Also does anyone on here happen to know anything about this lulu thing?
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The only people who know for sure that what they write is going to be published is people who already have book deals. First time writers will never know if someone is going to decide to publish it because it could be years of shopping the book around before someone finally says yes.
And LuLu is basically a printing press, they will print and bind the book for you or do an eBook and you can either order however many copies you want, or have it publish on demand.
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oh and talk to me about this "smaller publishing houses is the way to go" thing. Do you just send your book into one of these places and if they like it they'll publish it? i mean it cant be that simple can it? there has to be more? is it copy righted to you? do you make any money? there is soooo much info on google and I'm having trouble understanding it all.
I was going to say something along the lines of what Julie just said. First you need to make the decision to go ahead and write your story and make it publish worthy. Sending out the manuscript comes much later. First step is to take the time to make sure you have something of good quality that people will want to read and as you go along, you'll be able to figure out the direction you want to go in.
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I just guess I dont want to waste my time writing a real book if publishing is not a possibility.
Also does anyone on here happen to know anything about this lulu thing?
If you don't want to waste your time writing it, that probably means it's not meant to be. If you really want to do it, you'll do it. You will never know if it is going to get published or not. It's just a desire you need to have.
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I just guess I dont want to waste my time writing a real book if publishing is not a possibility.
Also does anyone on here happen to know anything about this lulu thing?
If writing is something you are serious about, then go for it.
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I guess you guys are right. I just didn't know if publishing was something you have to have tons of money to do. Cause if that was the case there was no way I could afford it. But yeah, I guess I'll just start with a writing a story and go from there. My mom is really into book and really smart so maybe she can help me with any questions I have on formatting and grammar. I know she would help proof read it.
As for the story and turning a fan fic into one and the comment on doing that to far from normal. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would be to turn it into a real story that people could read and not know it was first about bsb!
Random thought too... I wonder if all this info applies to doing a book of lots of poetry. I have a lot of poems and would love to cop right and publish them.
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If you have a manuscript good enough to be accepted by a real publishing company, you won't need any money. That's why you should focus on writing a great, correctly-formatted manuscript first.
With the turning a fanfic into an original novel thing, unless you wrote the fanfic as a total AU to begin with, it's probably going to require rewriting. That's what I've found with my stuff, at least. But that's not a bad thing; rewriting gives you a chance to improve the story. It's just time-consuming and usually not as inspiring as writing the story the first time around.
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^ that is very true. It's actually not a fun process at all but it does give you the chance to change things from the original. I changed a lot of stuff for this second one to the point that the fanfic and the new version are pretty different. Not to say that if you read the fanfic, you wouldn't recognize it, but I was able to add on new characters and elements. That part of it is fun, but not the plugging in new names etc... lol
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^ that is very true. It's actually not a fun process at all but it does give you the chance to change things from the original. I changed a lot of stuff for this second one to the point that the fanfic and the new version are pretty different. Not to say that if you read the fanfic, you wouldn't recognize it, but I was able to add on new characters and elements. That part of it is fun, but not the plugging in new names etc... lol
OMG the plugging in new names is a pain in the ass lol. Cause you rewrite it still picturing BSB since that's who you had in mind for it...
I was de-fanficing a story I did. I quit cause personally I feel I'm at a place where I can produce something better if I want to get published. But it's not an easy thing to do.
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Ditto. I thought I was gonna spend this summer rewriting Broken an original novel. I've started it twice, but for as inspired as I was the whole time I was writing the fanfic originally, I just couldn't sustain that same level of inspiration for the novel version. I'm taking it as a sign that it's not meant to be, at least not now. Instead, I started two very fanfic-y fanfics and had a blast writing those all summer LOL.
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LOL it was quite the fun writing summer! Although I did spend all summer defanficing <-- love that word Shadow Woods. I am glad i'm all done but not really. Now comes the fun stupid part of reformatting it, numbering pages, places Shadow Woods in the corner of every page.
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LOL it was quite the fun writing summer! Although I did spend all summer defanficing <-- love that word Shadow Woods. I am glad i'm all done but not really. Now comes the fun stupid part of reformatting it, numbering pages, places Shadow Woods in the corner of every page.
It was a fun fanfic summer :)
It's weird, as a fanfic writer, I do a lot of AUs, and suddenly my brain is coming up with all these very fanficy ideas LOL. So go figure lmao.
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I do have another suggestion to those of you interested in getting honest opinions of your work besides from this fanfic community.
Fiction press is a great site to post your original fics. They are really honest and give great feedback and opinions. I tend to post there when I write OF and they have really helped me with some things. Don't say it's a fanifc because it will be ignored. Just rewrite a few chapters and post it and see what happens.
http://www.fictionpress.com/
That's another way to gauge how someone other than people who read your fanfics, would think of your stuff.
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LOL it was quite the fun writing summer! Although I did spend all summer defanficing <-- love that word Shadow Woods. I am glad i'm all done but not really. Now comes the fun stupid part of reformatting it, numbering pages, places Shadow Woods in the corner of every page.
The last couple things you can just do with headers and footers on Word, right?
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It was a fun fanfic summer :)
It's weird, as a fanfic writer, I do a lot of AUs, and suddenly my brain is coming up with all these very fanficy ideas LOL. So go figure lmao.
LOL I know, right? Same here. I guess it's just a phase thing... you run out of fanfic ideas so you go to AU for awhile, but then the fanficy ideas come back.
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The last couple things you can just do with headers and footers on Word, right?
Maybe if I knew how? lol the page numbers yes. Not sure about the name of story thing. I was looking for an easy way to do that.
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Maybe if I knew how? lol the page numbers yes. Not sure about the name of story thing. I was looking for an easy way to do that.
Yep! If you have Word 2003 or earlier, go to View -> Headers and Footers. You can just type the title and set which side of the page you want it on, and there's a feature for page numbers too.
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AHH thanks! I knew about the page numbers but not the headers! Woot! lol
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dose that website have copy right protection mare? I had a problem with a poem being stolen so now I am afraid of something else being stolen!
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I'm not sure about that. I just think whenever you deal with posting online there's a chance something could be stolen. It's happened right on AC more than once. It might say in the rules on the site.
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I'm not sure about that. I just think whenever you deal with posting online there's a chance something could be stolen. It's happened right on AC more than once. It might say in the rules on the site.
Yep, stolen word for word, or in other cases, total rip offs of other people's ideas. (Inspiration is one thing, but there is a difference between that and totally stealing someone else's idea). That's the risk that comes with posting on the internet.
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Technically there's no such thing as copyright without a lawyer filling out paperwork to that effect. But there is always intellectual property laws protecting the things that you write. It's a little more challenging to fight, but they have them in N. America and Europe.
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Julie, you should carry on with Broken as a novel because it's a great story.
I think Song For The Undead would do well as original fiction too, because it's AU all it would take is a few name changes. Have you guys ever thought of going down that road with it?
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Julie, you should carry on with Broken as a novel because it's a great story.
I think Song For The Undead would do well as original fiction too, because it's AU all it would take is a few name changes. Have you guys ever thought of going down that road with it?
Thank you! That's such a huge compliment so...thank you! lol. We've had a couple people tell us that before. And yes, we're actually thinking about going for it once we finish it. :) As of right now, we're only about halfway through writing it lol. So it'll be awhile before we attempt it. :)
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Well, I hope you do get it published one day :)
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Julie, you should carry on with Broken as a novel because it's a great story.
I think Song For The Undead would do well as original fiction too, because it's AU all it would take is a few name changes. Have you guys ever thought of going down that road with it?
Thank you! I do think Broken would make a good young adult novel; I've started it twice with Nick as a high school basketball star. I grew up reading Lurlene McDaniel's books, which are all about teenagers facing life-threatening illnesses or the death of a loved one or something tragic like that, and I LOVED those books, and they've had a huge impact on my writing, so I definitely think there is an audience for that kind of book. I just haven't gotten very far on it yet, so it's on the backburner for now, until my inspiration is right.
And as for Undead, yeah, Rose and I have been talking about it, because someone else suggested it and it would be fairly easy to de-Backstreet-ify it, since, like you said, it's very AU. It would need some definite revising, of course, but not full-on rewriting. Zombies are so in right now, it might actually work! LOL Thanks for thinking we could!
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LOL it was quite the fun writing summer! Although I did spend all summer defanficing <-- love that word Shadow Woods. I am glad i'm all done but not really. Now comes the fun stupid part of reformatting it, numbering pages, places Shadow Woods in the corner of every page.
Late to the party. lol.OOooohhh! Is that the one you're working on publishing? I love that story :) And you know I love Mel's Tree! I ended up ordering my copy from Amazon.
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aww yes. I am going to be mailing it out sometime this month. Can't wait for my first slew of rejection letters lol
Thanks for buying mels :)
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OP:
little something for those researching getting published in print:
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ (http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/)
http://www.accrispin.blogspot.com/ (http://www.accrispin.blogspot.com/)
There are a lot of scams and some truly despicable people lurking around the fringes of the publishing industry, who will try to take you for a ride if you don't do your homework.
For the most part, self publishing is the way to go. It avoids costly and lengthy book proposals, and there's less risk of your ideas being stolen by publishing companies while you're sending manuscripts around.
Same for self publishing, look it up. I know nothing about how that works except that it does end up costing you a lot of money. I guess the only tip I can offer is that you shouldn't have to pay for anything so if you find some place that offers to publish you for 'x' amount of dollars, then they aren't the real deal.
This site also contains a list of signs to beware of for scam publishers:
http://pred-ed.com/pubwarn.htm (http://pred-ed.com/pubwarn.htm)
The lower links, especially, have some real horror stories from writers who've been ripped off by shady publishers and other con artists.
And while we're on the subject, allow me to share a more personal tale of exploitation:
Earlier this month, I attempted to join a writing site called Writer's Network, and learned an unpleasant lesson about deception and cheap scams. Writer's Network lies in their FAQ, claiming, and I quote, "No Catch!" to its "Free" membership, and then spring the catch on you AFTER you've created an account.
What they DO NOT explain to you anywhere in their promotion is that it costs 5 "points" to post something. And how do you get points? There are only 2 ways: BUY them (yes, you read that right, you have to PAY for a "FREE" membership), or else you have to write 300 word book reports on other people's work to earn them. 100 words = 1 point, but you can't go over 300 for one piece, so you have to write 500 WORDS like homework, just to post ONE PIECE of your own. They give you 20 points (translation 4 POSTS) as a "starter" and that's how far "free" goes there.
Now, I have no beef with writing reviews, but twisting people's arms into it, even if they have nothing in particular to say, other than maybe "Good story" is just a recipe for fluff. And then presuming to slap a word count onto it, as if volume = substance, is just going way too far.
Read for yourself, and see if they mention anything about having to "buy" any "credits" to post your work anywhere in their FAQ:
http://www.writers-network.com/support.html#FAQ (http://www.writers-network.com/support.html#FAQ)
http://www.writers-network.com/memberships.html (http://www.writers-network.com/memberships.html)
If they had been honest about this up-front in their FAQ, I never would have bothered to register, but they apparently assume that once you're emotionally invested in posting your work, it will pry open you wallet or pressure you to spend more time writing about other people's work than working on your own. And since Writer's Network lies to you every step of the way, I wasted an entire night of my life setting up an account, which was what really set me off.
I'm not getting any younger, and you don't have to lie to make friends. Writer's Network is a Grade A scam, and I just wanted to give my fellow writers a heads-up on them, so they y'all don't end up wasting your time like I did.
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That is lame! I hate sites that scam you like that. Join FictionPress if you're not already a member there; it works just like AC for original fiction, so it's totally free.
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That is lame! I hate sites that scam you like that. Join FictionPress if you're not already a member there; it works just like AC for original fiction, so it's totally free.
No worries, FictionPress was the first writing site I joined, with Ficwad as a close second, and earlier this year, Fan Nation.
Which is built on the same E-fiction script as this site, which makes adding chapters here as easy as copy/pasting out of my "edit" menu there, unlike when I originally transcribed it from my message board postings of my stories, which I had to manually edit from BB code to html. ??? (Would have been equally inconvenient to transcribe from Ficwad, since they've got their own native text formatting codes, which means that all my releases have to be formatted 3 different ways, but I guess that's the price of proliferation. Oh well, at least FP still lets you upload Word .doc files.