So You Want To Write & Publish A Book, Huh?

Well here you are staring at a blank screen incrementally being overtaken by small black characters representing thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. You’re sitting there writing something, which you think, has merit or meaning that others may be interested in. Then suddenly as swiftly as a character’s motivation can inspire or expire, you think to yourself, I could be a writer.

Yeah, you begin to brainstorm. Wouldn’t it be great write books and have people adore me for my work? What joy it would be to sit behind a table and have lines and lines of people bombard some otherwise empty bookstore just to get my autograph. Wouldn’t that be the life?

First thing’s first. My number one recommendation for people that want to be career book writers is to find the biggest bookstore they can. When you find that bookstore, walk inside and go directly to the middle of the establishment. Take an all encompassing 360 degree look at all of the books. Ask yourself, "How in the world am I going to make my book stand out amongst all of these works of literature?" Then ask yourself, "What makes my romance or relationship based book any different from the 1000 or more romance-relationship books that are already on the shelf?" Your next question is "Why would people want to read my life story, when I’m just a nobody that thought the world wanted to hear my voice?" Now move on to questions like, "But Lee Iaccoca didn’t even write his own book, so why do I have to slave over a keyboard for nothing?"

After you’ve answered those questions and many just like it, kick those negative demons aside and go back to the drawing board...I mean the keyboard. Write, write and keep writing. Unfortunately, unlike the days of Shakespeare, Richard Wright, and Mark Twain, there’s a writer on ever street corner now, and everyone has an idea to share. This makes the task at hand(getting published) all the more difficult. Remember this statistic:

Only 2% of all writers are full-time bookwriters, the others have full time jobs and not by choice.

First let’s look at your options in terms of the types of publishing:

Self Publishing
Vanity Publishing
Publishing Houses

Self-Publishing involves you the writer paying for everything. Printing, marketing, distribution, promoting, accounting, cover art, editing, and praying. This can be a costly endeavor but also a very rewarding one.
There are some very good books written about being self-published. In particular the book by Dan Poynter and a new one by Mack Smith. Visit your local bookstore for a choice in selection. This is very risky but also very rewarding. Dan Poynter has been able to make a fortune self-publishing his own books. Check these websites for self publishing:

www.morrisonpublishing.com
www.xlibris.com
www.urgems.com

Vanity Publishing involves you the writer paying for someone to publish your book. Sounds crazy huh? This is not a recommended way of being published. I should know because I made the gargantuan mistake of using a vanity publisher for my first book. Most vanity publishers will state that if your book is selected we’ll offer you a contract. Most of them will take anybody that has the cash. In most cases, vanity publishing is more expensive than self-publishing.

Publishing Houses   is where the "big dogs" run, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, E. Lynn Harris, Terry McMIllan, Rick Miller, Evelyn Jones. Ever heard of the last two? No, because the little dogs run here as well. Now this may be... no this IS the most difficult way to get published unless you’re famous, know someone, or are sent from God.

Here’s the process. Most publishers will not even look at your book if you mail it to them. Some will send a letter saying we don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts (This means no agent representation). Some publishers will throw them away or place them in slush piles.

Definition- Slush Pile: An abominable abyss of manuscripts piled as high as the ceiling in publishing houses. The pipe dreams are left there until clearing day comes. Clearing day constitutes the editors taking the manuscripts and browsing through manuscripts that might make good books. By the way, slush night occurs maybe four times per year. Have a nice life!!

Now, in order for a publisher to look at your book, most of them will only deal with agents. Therefore, you may consider acquiring an agent. This is where it gets tricky.

You must send a query letter to these people called literary agents. Typically, a query letter is a one-page letter about your entire book! If the agent likes your query letter, they will ask for the first three chapters. If they like the first three chapters they may ask to see the entire manuscript. If they like your manuscript, They’ll represent you!!! Yippee, the agent shops your book around to publishing houses and you could have a book deal in three days to three years.

Here’s the down side: There are more writers than agents, so when an agency has it maximum capacity they will not take on any new clients. It’s a matter of good material and great timing. I’m convinced that there are several Pulitzer Prize winners sitting on the bottom of manuscript piles all over the world.

Here’s the downside of that downside. Agents get a minimum of 50 query letters per week. So, some get tossed, some get read, some get delayed. The key to acquiring an agent-keep sending queries. So far I’ve received over 20 rejections from agents! Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times Best Seller tells the story of receiving over 300 rejections from agents.

There are ways around agents. Self publish your own book and sell thousands of copies until it gets the attention of the big dogs.

Poetry- Poetry, unfortunately, is often more difficult to publish than novels or non-fiction. Most publishers will not look at collections of poems unless the collection is of 100 or more. However, in metropolitan areas there are numerous wonderful poetry venues at which you can recite your poetry. After you establish a name for yourself at those poetry readings, you become very marketable and you can easily self-publish and sell your own poetry

Now, with that in mind, the first thing you should do is ...KEEP WRITING. Write the story and don’t worry so much about the business of writing because after you’ve proofed and reproofed, your manuscript becomes- a business proposition.

That is until it gets in the hand of someone, who then puts it in their head, and then puts it in their heart. Then your story becomes an accomplishment.