The problems that I have seen is that publishers just get so many book ideas to review. They can't print all the manuscripts they get. So, they look for things that are interesting and fresh.

I think that AHBWOSG got published for a couple reasons which are that they had Might Magazine so had quite a few die hard fans already and it was a pretty clever idea. It was sort of a fictional/non-fictional memoir.

It seems nearly impossible to get published anymore unless you also have a book agent helping you out.

As with music its pure luck. For every Tom Clancy type that gets lucky there are a thousand writers who are more talented and can't get anyone to notice them. You defintely have to have an agent backing you, because just sending in a manuscript is a shot in the dark. I guess that means you will need some money behind you before you even start. I would guess most manuscripts that are sent to publishers are not even read by anyone. I think one of the big problems is the reading habits of Americans. They buy books by name recognition without any regard for content. If a writer can somehow break through with one good book he can write crap for the rest of his life and it will sell. Most people I know tell me they are buying the new Clancy, King, Grisham, etc. I ask them what the book is about and they have no idea. They just figure it will be good, because its from a writer they know. Its tough to get anyone I know to try someone new.

There are also some publishers that will publish your book provided you pay them to. One you have a completed book published through them, try and sell them through your local bookstores. If you can get them to support you, you may get good sales. If you can show you have good sales on your book, you may have an easier time getting an agent and getting to a larger publisher.

Of course, you could also end up with no sales and a couple thousand dollars in debt!!

Right -- vanity presses. They're not really publishers, and although they'll say nice things about how you'll be able to sell your books at local bookstores, etc, practically speaking that's not going to happen. Bookstores have practically no incentive to waste valuable shelf space on a vanity-published book, because vanity presses have no, zip, zero quality control -- they'll print anything by anybody with enough money in the bank -- so the bookstore doesn't have any assurance that it's a book of publishable quality. The exception to that would be things that are of self-evidently very small audiences, like a history of your hometown, or a collection of local recipies, or something like that. Then you might have a chance, but otherwise... big waste o' money.

Also, real publishers aren't going to look at your book any more favorably if you've vanity-printed it. For one thing, you'll almost certainly have used up the first rights by getting it printed and distributed, and the first rights are what publishers make the most money off of.

I read the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.composition regularly, where a lot of published science fiction and fantasy authors contribute to the discussion of writing and publishing. From what I've seen these published authors say again and again -- there may be some luck involved, but most of it is writing a good book and being persistent about submitting it to publishers. And knowing the right *way* to submit it, which means doing your homework about the process, whether they want a query first, or a sample chapter, or whatever, and making sure it's in the right format, etc. It's like trying to get hired for a job. Publishers aren't a conspiracy trying to keep out new writers... but what they *are* is inundated by absolute garbage, day in and day out, as well as lots of stuff that's not bad, but not great either. So the best way to get published is to stand out in the crowd by writing a really good book!

One reason why a book agent is needed is that s/he spends time schmoozing with other book editors and publishers. Depending on the agent's hit-to-miss ratio, the publishing agent decides to read the book, assign an editor to polish the book to the publishing house's standards, etc. Sometimes, getting an agent is not all that much better.

From what I've read from some authors' emailing lists, there are some useful or cognizant tips worth repeating:

• If you really are good enough to be published, you won't use a vanity press. A vanity press doesn't do any more to expose you to significant sales. A vanity press makes that published work not "virgin" since it no longer can be considered "first published" by any other company; virginal works are worth more in the book realm.
  
• If you think your work is good enough for a vanity press, then why the heck isn't it good enough to be genuinely published? After all, you are publishing what you think is your best work to date, right?
  
• An agent might be able to introduce your work to some of the anthology collection editors. They don't pay much but get you exposure.
  
• Some promising authors gain experience and knowledge at various writer's workshops. They vary quite a bit from year to year, depending on the author(s) leading the workshops. If your work is well-regarded, you might be able to re-introduce yourself to the author who led that workshop later on if that author edits an anthology. This happened on one email list I was on (it's nice to have a non-politically-correct email list where REAL opinions are voiced). Some budding authors find out at this time whether they really want to go on or not.
  
• Incoming manuscripts end up on what is called a "slush pile". As time permits, editors review manuscripts. First impressions count (clean type, no typos, grammar errors, missselpellings, etc). If it passes that cursory check where a bunch of pages are flipped through without really reading, then the editor will read a few pages to decide upon rejecting it or not. <-- note my mixed verb case in this paragraph; don't do it in your manuscript.
  
• There really aren't many authors that can make a living exclusively as an author. It doesn't pay enough for those on the midlist and lower. If you have to ask what a midlist is, then you need to research the field more.
  
• Authors can make more money from selling "rights" or "options" for their books to movie studios or movie script agents. Typically, these can generate revenue for you annually as they are renewed. This is most likely if you have a fairly unique work that would look good if made into a movie. Who knows, maybe some scifi authors with this in mind first and for dead tree book readers like us second.

As Ordway said earlier, avoid vanity presses if you're going to be an author. The only times they have validity is when Ordway explained or in the case of a special collection or graduate thesis. Your library may request that you compile some information into a published book (which they make at their expense) for inclusion into their collection. Or your graduate thesis may require publishing, but you didn't have it submitted to a trade journal or other publication in time. Ha, ha, don't ask me how I have experience with these two reasons. Oh well, at least one of my publications is on deposit at the Library of Congress.<small>

It's hard. I've had 2 books published. It seems like there are battles all along: get an agent, get a publisher, get it into stores, do publicity. And I certainly haven't made big money from the books, even though they've sold reasonably well. The 1st book (from a small publisher) is selling better than the 2nd (from a major publisher), because the smaller place keeps it in print and keeps pushing it. Publicity and keeping it in print long enough to let it catch on are VERY IMPORTANT. There are 50,000 English language books published every year (and nearly a million written); most of them just get lost.

I've heard the odds for a 1st time author are around 100 to 1 (remember that a lot of those 50,000 are written by experienced authors), but they're around 3 to 1 for a previously published author. Few in publishing want to waste their time with a rookie (it's hard work sifting through mostly crap), but once you're published you're in "the club" and suddenly people take you seriously.

r.e. Vanity presses,

I used to manage a bookstore (part of a chain) and we were often asked by authors to carry some vanity press books. Most we declined, but some that actually were rather good we picked up and pushed. Lots of customers liked the idea of supporting local authors. Two of the authors we carried were able to use the sales of the book to get an agent, and then sold the rights to their next book to major publishers. True, they might have gotten in anyway, but the fact that they has existing sales to their name did help the process.

Of course, as I said before, there were many authors whose books we didn't pick up, or whose books we picked up and never sold. For them the vanity press was a money losing situation.

it can be easy - several publishing companies have found me to edit textbooks, or my latest project, write 6 chapters of a textbook. I think it's probably easiest to publish something if you're an expert in your field, because things tend to find you rather than having to prove your worth to someone.

Is it as hard as people say to get your stuff published by a company. Does anyone know anything about Publish America? One of the girls that works with up at the L.A. Opera said its hard...is it really that hard?

if you want the publishing company to pay, yes.

if you are willing to pay, almost anyone will publish for you.

Yup, it's as hard as they say alright.

But like Seeker said, if you're willing to pay, then it's very easy to get published. But if you want to get paid, it will take lots, and lots, and lots of work and research.

You'll need to set up a daily writing routine immediately. Set a goal, either a set number of words, or pages per day. And you'll have to read a lot from good authors, so you know what saleable writing is. And of course you have to have good grammar, because without it, you'll never get published.

It's a lot of work, but anyone that has a strong enough desire can do it. You just have to work at it.

If you want to be published by a "real" publisher, you're going to need an agent. They will rarely look at any manuscript that doesn't come through an agent.

And avoid subsidy (meaning YOU pay THEM to "publish" you) publishers like the plague. They're rip-offs. In the long run, you'd be better off self-publishing your book by just finding a printer and paying them to print up your book.

The girl who got her stuff published, is straight out of college, and she got the compnay to pay as well. Not one dime is or will come out of her pocket. the contract she told me is something to the affect of8% for the first 10,000 copies and 10% therafter. I know for a fact that she didn't have an agent when she submitted her children's book and still doesn't. Sounds like she really, "made it" as they say doesn't it.

Agents aren’t an absolute necessity, but your chances greatly increase if you have one. Some publishers won’t even look at un-agented manuscripts. So you’ll just have to do your research to find out which one will accept them.

Sound like your friend did very well. Did she tell you what her advance was?

She really made it, all right, except they probably won't print, much less sell, 10,000 copies of a no-name children's book. Did she get an advance?

While the publishing industry's contracts aren't as stupid as the recording industry (where the artist has to pay back for studio time and marketing expenses), she'll probably not make enough from this book to bear mention.

Unless, of course, it becomes a giant hit. Did she write a juvenile fiction (a la harry potter) or an actual children's book?

Please don't bash the book. I have read it and it is flat out awesome. She deserves it, she really worked hard to get where she is today. Saying that she won't make a dime of this book is pure utter nonsense. The book is well developed funny, in fact, PBS is already looking in to getting the rights for a childrens' show(this book won't even come out for another year). She got a "Symbolic Advance", but lots of companies do that. She originiated the story in High school, and then perfected it when getting her BFA in Animation/Illustration.

No, it's not hard to get published, at least not by those guys--it appears they publish just about anything. Interesting site. I don't quite get it, but some of their testimonials (from people whose books they've published) are very poorly written. It appears they take on a whole bunch of authors, hoping that one or two of them will actually succeed.

Here's the website, btw: http://www.publishamerica.com/

Here's a discussion with fans and bashers of Publish America: http://pub43.ezboard.com/fabsolutewr...opicID=3.topic

Well her book will be popular. I'm sorry, but it's a great way to start when your only 22. She's alreay done the following

1) Won the Carl's Jr. Award when she was 9 years old for designing the happy meal box cover. She also got a 3,000 college scholarship/

2) Graduated valevictorian of her class

3) Graduated 3rd in her class in college

4) Produced a college chilkdren's cartoon

5) Wrote/Illustrated a wonderful children's novel.


I'm sure she's accomplished more than most people will in their whole life. Wait til the book comes out. It will not have a "Harry Potter" effect, but I honeslty see another Mercer Mayer in the hunt.

Not a great way to start. If it's really successful, she gets paid basically nothing, and they own the book for seven years (including half of any movie rights, etc.)

Some people are happy with them though, don't get me wrong; but they are basically a vanity press (except that they count on selling some books to your family and friends, instead of making you pay up front). Still, if it's the only way you can get your book published (it's very difficult going through normal channels, getting an agent, etc.), it might be worth doing.

Publish America.....while it isn't Scholastic, is still a good company. It's going to be a Huge hit for her. Just watch. She's a very driven person. She'll succeed

Sure it is. They are just sneaky about it (read the thread above to see more). I hope she does succeed, don't get me wrong, but (unless she already did) she should've tried to get a real publisher.