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[yorkielover88]

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?

[Pengi]

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.

[julilly]

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.

[mare]

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.

[jasminium_ailey]

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! 

And Mare I totally bought your book too! SO AMAZING!

[mare]

aww thanks Jasmine lol

[Pengi]

Mare, what's your book called?

[mare]

Mare, what's your book called?

Mel's Tree

[Carter-Orange]

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. 

[mare]

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

[yorkielover88]

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.

[mare]

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.

[jasminium_ailey]

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!

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!!

[jasminium_ailey]

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.

[mare]

^ great minds think alike lol