I need help on how to publish a book.?

Question

I have been writing all my life. It's one of those things where I can write what I really feel, without having to worry about the studders. I've kept a diary since 3rd grade (I get criticized for it because I'm a guy, I got used to it through the years.) And I wrote an entire book (248 pages), a continuation on a story called "The Small Assassin". Which I got really positive feedback on, but never considered to try and publish the book, since I am assuming I can get sued for continuing a story by another author. And I really have a lot of respect for Ray Bradbury, and I wouldn't want to get heat and hate from his fans that love his stories. And I wouldn't want to destroy an awesome story that he started.

So I still have the book (it was written in a book, not typed or saved on a any computer) but like I said, I don't think on trying to publish it or anything.

But I want help to publish a different book. People say I communicate better through writing than in words. And I have a story that I completed, that I believes starts something original. I really hate writing a lot, since I feel its a distraction to the reader, and the reader may feel its a "filller" to make the book more expensive. But I feel its all necessary to make the story enjoyable, and understandable.

I admit Stephenie Meyer did get her story of vampires and werewolves up and running very well. I personally didn't read it because I feel vampires and werewolves have their origin, their own story. And to change it into something else. Which in my case was the whole shining thing the vampires did, it didn't work out for me.

I dont plan to change any origins of anything. I will be telling a new story, based on research I have done over the years (5 years) received from actual people. Here is a short summary:

"After the events of Adam and Eve, God saw that evil was a power that he had no control over. He could not get rid of it, and no matter what God did, it could not be stopped. In order to make sure that evil would not prevail over good, God orders angels to watch over the humans. Some angels object to the idea of watching over flawed creatures. Soon after speaking against their fathers will, they are banished from heaven and forced to join forces with the first Archangel who rebelled first. Lucifer.

After they agree to Lucifer's terms (to see God and all his holy subjects as enemies), their halos disappear, their beautiful white wings turn into bat-like wings, and they have horns sprout from their heads. A new race is formed, and are known as demons.

Once God found out about the new race of evil, God organized a group of special angels called The Grigory, to watch over the humans (in some religions they are known as The Watchers). The demons toyed with the Grigory, and soon they rebelled too. They took human womens, and mated with them. Creating a new race, creatures known as Nephilim.

The Nephilim were more powerful than regular angels and humans, and caused chaos in the world. The Grigory were banished from heaven, but never converted to Demons, and their remains are unknown. God had no choice but to get rid of all evil, and sacrificing some good souls along the way. He send a great flood to the earth. And all was restored.

In the present time, a angel gets tempted to mate with a human women, and once again a Nephilim is bought back to earth. The holy host has no idea of the re-creation of the Nephilim, and don't see the growth of what humans will see as the "Antichrist". And with Lucifer himself taking in this Neplilim as his god son, he is granted all sorts of powers, and becomes immune to what the holy order can throw at him."

The story is 979 pages long, and I am planning it to be a 9 book series, but I want to start off the new series with an original start. I am already writing the second book and plan to introduce the growth of a demon, who see's the errors of her ways and escapes hell to kill the Antichrist in the name of the lord.

All I need help in, is that I want to know what kind of publishing company would be interested in this? How can I be sure I wont get robbed of my work, and would I need a lawyer or something along those lines when i go meet with the important people? If I do get a company to publish my book, along the beginning would I get provided with someone to edit, and correct some things. Or would I need to have that done before I hand out my story? And would I have to copyright my work before handing it to them to publish? And how would I get paid, I heard some u don't get anything till ur book makes at least $50,000 in sales. Is this true? Well any reviews on the book, and answers to the questions are really appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Answer 1

And I thought I took a long time in coming to the point... I don't know if that figure of 979 pages is in your wordprocessor, or your estimate of its length when it's printed as a book, but either way, that is one seriously overlong manuscript you have there. I'd be astonished if you find a publisher for it when it's that size. You either need to cut it to about half that length, or split it into two books (and make sure the first book can stand on its own - like the first Star Wars movie or the first Harry Potter book).



S.K. has already given you some good answers to your other questions. Before you think about being published, you'll probably need to get an agent, as the major publishers no longer consider manuscripts that aren't represented by one.



Before you think about getting an agent, your manuscript needs to be as good as you can make it. Agents receive about a hundred manuscripts for every one they decide to represent, so if yours isn't one of the very best, they'll reject it. You can hire a freelance editor to help you improve the manuscript, but they can be expensive, and they can't guarantee success. I'd recommend joining a critique group first. They can find most or all of the mistakes an editor would find, and teach you why those things are mistakes, so you can avoid making them in future. Best of all, critique groups are usually free - you pay for their services in kind.



Publishers don't steal manuscripts. You occasionally hear of authors complaining that somebody did that - or more usually, that somebody stole the idea, which is not illegal. I've never heard of a case that was proven in court, though. Every once in a while, authors get caught lifting a paragraph here and there, but that's not the same thing.



How you get paid is that the publisher typically gives you some money upfront. This is known as an advance against royalties, or just an advance. For argument's sake, let's say this is $10,000.



Then they specify how much they'll pay you for each copy sold - this amount is known as a royalty. It might be stated as a percentage of the cover price, or a fixed amount per copy. Let's say it's $2.



When the book goes on sale, you don't get any money in royalties until the book has "earned out" its advance. The publisher paid you the royalties on 5,000 copies before those copies had been sold ($10,000 / $2), so once the 5,001st copy is sold, you start earning royalties. The publisher typically pays these to you twice a year.



If the book sells fewer than 5,000 copies, you don't have to pay back the advance.

Answer 2

By the time you have finished the first book and rewritten it, edited it, revised it, sent it to beta readers who know what they're talking about, and done one last revision, what's marketable will have changed. Maybe your series concept will be hot, maybe stone cold. All you can do is write what you'd like to read and hope for the best.



Each book in a series must stand alone. Complete only the first book, and do no more than write a detailed synopsis of the others. If the first one doesn't sell, there's no point in writing the others. If you're now writing the second book, stop. Your energies would be better invested in improving the first.



To keep yourself from getting robbed, research any publisher or agent before you send them a query about your book. Legitimate agents and publishers make way more money the regular way that they would stealing the book of an unpublished writer. You want to submit queries only to agents or publishers who check out. Your research should include Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write, AgentQuery, Writer Beware, and every other website which talks agents and publishers.



Your work must be polished and error-free before you submit. If you do not have the skills to make it so, pay an editor. (And educate yourself.) Expect this to cost hundreds if not thousands, depending on how bad the manuscript is and how quickly the editor works. The days of an editor at the publisher correcting mistakes are gone.



You don't copyright work before submitting. It's copyrighted from the moment you save it to a fixed medium, like paper or your hard drive. Your publisher may want revisions, and only the final version's copyright needs to be registered at the Library of Congress, which issues copyrights.



Some publishers pay advances against royalties, and some pay straight royalties. An advance is a literal pre-payment of royalties they expect you to earn based on probable sales. Few first-time authors are offered an advance.



Your contract with your publisher would specify when you receive royalties. If you received a $50,000 advance (in your dreams!), then you would not receive royalties until your royalties would be past the $50,000 mark.

Answer 3

It depends on if the book is overtly Christian or not. If it is, then you're looking for publishers of Christian fiction. If it's more "fantasy" than "Christian," then you should look for an agent who represents fantasies.



Your work is copyrighted the moment it leaves your keyboard. A writer can go his entire life without meeting his agent or publisher face-to-face. Your book should be as perfect as you can make it BEFORE you start submitting it.



But I'm going to tell you right now, 979 pages sounds really, really LONG. For a first-time writer, you are going to have a VERY difficult time selling something that length (unless your formatting is wonky and you're only getting a hundred words a page). The length you're shooting for is somewhere in the 120,000-word range (page count is largely irrelevant because of the aforementioned formatting issues) at the very upper end. And from the wordiness of this question, I can see that you have a hard time just cutting to the chase, which may be a weakness in your novel.



Most large, reputable publishers pay an advance against royalties. If they pay only royalties, those start accruing with your first sale and are paid out (usually) either quarterly or twice a year.

Answer 4

Agents will not touch anything that is already Published (if it's a reputable company) niether will they publish things that have been put on the Internet. Synopsis's is okay but if you upload chapters then no. Also with self-publishing you have doomed yourself. Your book isn't getting anywhere so you write something else and approach an Agent. They want to know whether you have any matrerial Published, then they want to know whether it sold. Yours has not, they wonder why and wont accept your work. You need to ask why your work hasn't sold. Self-Publishing can make or break you and very often it breaks you, now you'll struggle to publish anything with your History. I can't urge people enough to check every angel of Publishing and in my honest opinion steer clear of Self-publishing. Sorry to give you only bad news, but it's not your book that wont be accepted but you as well. I can't even tell you what to do and you'll not get out of it I'm afraid. I'm not an Author myself I work for the 'Dark Side', people shouldn't be so afraid of Agents we don't bite that hard.

Answer 5

Get Writers Market from the library and read the chapters on how to submit a manuscript. It answers most of your questions right there.