(If you missed Part 1 - Click here)
A guide to publish, self publish or just what to do next.
PART 2
Your book's content will now be read by hundreds of people. They will only be looking at the first three chapters, and in some
cases, the first five pages. These pages MUST be "killer." They need to really entice the reader to go further. You may have a
"Harry Potter" after chapter 4, but if chapters 1-3 are boring drivel, you have just dramatically recuced your chances of ever
being read.
There are several paths you can take here and it all depends on your personal preference and perseverance.
If you are one (like me) that desperately wants to see their book in a "brick and mortar" book store, then you will need to take
the more conservative, conventional path of finding a writing agent and then a conventional publisher. If you are impatient and
NEED to see your book in people's hands now, there is a no-cost/low-cost self publishing path you can follow.
Path 1:
In order to get your book in front of most large publishers, you really NEED and agent to represent you. Even then, that is still
a challenge. Some publishers will look a submission without an agent, but not many. They depend upon recognized agents to act as
filters for them. These people are mostly interns, working for the agents and making almost no money.
I got myself a copy of the guide to literary agents and also used this great web site:
http://www.1000literaryagents.com/literary-agents.php and began making alist of agents to submit to.
Work on your Query letter which may determine if anyone even looks at page 1.
Get your spelling and grammar up to scratch. Even if you've got the next Stephen King Novel (Stephen King was an English
teacher), these readers at agents and publishers consider it insulting if you haven't even got your book "mechanically" correct.
Use your list to keep track of your submissions. I used a spreadsheet.
If an agent or publisher demands money from you to start, run the other way. A reputable agent or publisher will work on a
percentage.
Don't be discouraged with rejections (or no contact at all) especially for fiction.
THIS IS LIKE WINNING THE LOTTERY.
The odds are not in your favor no matter how great your story is.
This is why many authors choose path 2.
Path 2:
Some may choose this path out of an impatient need to get their book out. Some choose it becuase they don't want to share their
profits with an agent as well as a publisher. Either way it's understandable, if your book does well in the self-publish world,
it may attract a larger scale publisher or agent.
Most of the work for self publishing will require you to reformat your book into
To start, I recommend going with the worlds largest book seller, Amazon. You can submit your book for Kindle here:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin/ref=az_mm_kdp
Amazon also has a printed book self publishing house called, Createspace.
https://www.createspace.com/Login.do?redirectURL=pub%2Fmember.dashboard.do
With the ebooks becoming the most popular, you'll also want to submit to Nook here:
https://www.nookpress.com/
Look for Part 3 coming soon, including navigating Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and Promoting once you've self-Published.
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