Question:
How to Get a book recognized!!?
Angel Of Love
2010-08-29 13:11:38 UTC
My mom's a great writer and she has written a really great book called Running My Way Back Home but, for some reason through the years it hasn't been really recognized by lots of people like other books such as Twilight etc.Does anyone know a way how to get a book recognized or out there in the public. It breaks my heart to watch my mom give up after so long and with such great talent.
Eight answers:
Take My Dreams
2010-08-29 13:23:39 UTC
First off she should think of getting it published. Tell her not to go and Google for publishing companies. Usually, those are scams. They are self-publishers seeking for customers, charging them thousands of dollars to read your manuscript, edit and get it critiqued, too. Tell your mother to go on AAR, Association of Author Representatives. http://aaronline.org/find They list thousands of literary agents, to solicit your work to get it published to companies like HarperCollins and Scholastic, Inc. A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers. Your mother must write something called a query to them. A query letter is a formal letter sent to magazine editors, literary agents and sometimes publishing houses or companies. Writers write query letters to propose writing ideas. http://www.charlottedillon.com/query.html shows you good examples of query letters, and how to write one. Publishing is a long process. If your mother is anxious there are self-publishers like Lulu, Blurb and CreateSpace that charge no money at all, but it's rare you hear about successful books (like the Harry Potter Series and Twilight Saga) Before your mother does all that she should revise her book multiple times, get it critiqued by others, and write a pretty decent query letter, when she feels comfortable she can send it to the agents. Agents usually take weeks to months to reply to query letters, they usually get thousands of submissions and they have to review every single one deciding rejection (all famous authors I'm sure, have gotten an rejection letter once in their lives) or success in your literature. Agents should not cost money at all (When looking at agents, be sure they are authentic, and look at books they published in the past. Has your mother heard of them? Has she read them? Are these award-winning books on the bestseller list? Be curious and don't be afraid to ask questions.) All real, actual agents that don't charge are listed on AAR. When the book is published and begin to sell, they get 15% of your revenue. I would like to read your mother's book when it gets published (someday). Don't compare your mother's great talent with Twilight. I'm sure it'd be very successful. Everyone loves Twilight for all the wrong reasons (example: "I like Twilight because Edward is so hot!") Plus, like someone else has mentioned, it is very rare you can find something as such, that'll reach that high of a status. Just a few tips from what I know and recommend for you to do. I think your mother has her own part of being the author, doing some serious research. It took me a few years to find about all of this information (I know more, but I am just answering your question) from when I was 9 (at that age I fell in love with writing, and began doing plenty of research. I know for sure I want to be an author when I am older) to present day, at the age of 13, I self-published quite some books and I already experienced a rejection letter, though I am still working on my skills and a simple letter will not stop me, and I am in advanced writing classes and I also took the SATs and scored high so I go to a college in Maryland for camp in the summer.

(P.S. Is your mother...Marlene Mascoll? According to Amazon.com it says it was published by PublishAmerica. Been there done that. That is a scam. One of those self-publishers you find on Google, when the publisher gets all the money and the author hardly even gets an revenue. Tell your mother about all the advice these people were kindly enough to tell on this website. I'm sure she'll open her eyes, and take some time to do a bit more research. I found it on http://www.amazon.com/Running-My-Way-Back-Home/dp/1413761836/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283115306&sr=8-2
RedStar
2010-08-29 20:32:32 UTC
OK, I just looked it up on Amazon, and it lists the publisher as PublishAmerica.



PublishAmerica is a scam that essentially charges you to print a copy of your book. Look it up. It's basically a self-publishing company that pretends not to be. It's really well-known for conning people into thinking they've got a 'real' publishing deal when in actual fact, it's just a self-publishing company like all the other self-publishing companies out there. They're notorious.



Sorry, but self-published books can't be sold in real bookstores, aren't reviewed by newspapers/magazines and don't have any professional marketing push behind them. Your mother needs to chalk this one up to experience and get published by a real publisher - ie, she needs to write another book and then start querying agents and publishers. Real publishers. Not PublishAmerica or any other company like that.



Remember: if a publisher asks you to pay any money towards the cost of publishing your book, they are not a legitimate publishing company and any book (particularly fiction) published through them simply will not sell.



Will. Not. Sell.



And no amount of self-marketing is likely to make a difference.



Your mother needs to do some serious research and find out more about how the publishing business works. Then she'll know better for next time and discover that a traditionally published book is promoted and marketed by the publisher and costs you nothing.
2010-08-29 20:28:08 UTC
I'm an author and this is what my publisher told me to do-



- Set up author pages on sites such as-

Red Room

Good Reads

Coffee time romance

Manic readers

Gemstone Reviews

BookRix



- Set up a website / blog and post at least once a week



- Contact review sites and request a review (avoid the ones which charge, though)



Personally, I find the marketing side of things harder than writing the book but setting up author pages is easy and it gets the book and author details listed on readers sites.



Hope this helps
Catherine
2010-08-29 20:26:22 UTC
Don't pretend that it will ever get to the status of books like Twilight, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Books like that are EXTREMELY rare; never in a million years will it reach that level, no matter how well written.



I assume she has a literary agent or a publisher? Can't she ask them for advice?
2010-08-30 05:43:00 UTC
The Book Thief



The narrator of The Book Thief is many things -- sardonic, wry, darkly humorous, compassionate -- but not especially proud. As author Marcus Zusak channels him, Death who doesn't carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea -- is as afraid of humans as humans are of him.

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209/?tag=partptl-20

..................

I would like to say you can check out at ebay there are good books available.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574865779&toolid=10001&campid=5336440665&customid=partptl&mpre=http%3a%2f%2fshop.ebay.com%2fi.html%3f_nkw%3dThe%2bBook%2bThief%26_sacat%3d0%26_odkw%3dThe%2bBook%2bThief%26_osacat%3d0%26_trksid%3dp3286.c0.m270.l1313
Maddie S
2010-08-29 20:16:34 UTC
Tell you friends, have them read it and see what they think, do the same with your teachers. The teachers might be more likely to tell the other teachers about it and if your lucky word of mouth will help your mom. You might even be able to go to your local bookstore or library and see if they will do something to help.

Good luck to your mom and you, hope this helps

-Maddie
?
2010-08-29 20:25:03 UTC
You should tell a lot of people about it. Then they'll tell people about, then the next people will do that.



I hope it becomes known world-wide :)
2010-08-29 20:16:35 UTC
1st off u need to find a publisher then go from there


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