I just got done writing a book, and of course I want to publish it. What do I need to do to get it published, and how would I send it in to a publisher. I am young and have no experience in this so please help.

If it's a novel you need to find an agent; most pubishers won't look at you if you don't have someone representing you. Once you find an agent it will be sent to editing, then they will try and sell it to a publisher. Once a publisher buys it, it will be subjected to more editing, lots of rewrites (probably), and finally move to publication.

If, by chance it's a collection of short stories or poetry, you can send it to literary magazines and such to get portions of the work published. If you can find a magazine that does it, you can try and sell your work directly to them to publish your full novel in pieces, but since you are a new writer, don't get your hopes up.

Of course, if you have the money you can publish it yourself and market it to bookstores on your own. I'd call that "Plan B"! :)

Excellent answer above! The question I have is, how would you find an agent?

As just a further note, you might want to click on the following search. I don't know what the best ones are for publishing, but it might be worth your while to at least take a look at the possibilities.

Do a Google search for "literary agent" and you'll get a bunch of hits. There are also books at the library or your local bookstore that will list publishers and more info you need. There's one specific book that's good to use for magazines and such, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is called. Golly, THAT was helpful! :)

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Originally Posted by jillianleab

If it's a novel you need to find an agent; most pubishers won't look at you if you don't have someone representing you. Once you find an agent it will be sent to editing, then they will try and sell it to a publisher. Once a publisher buys it, it will be subjected to more editing, lots of rewrites (probably), and finally move to publication.

If, by chance it's a collection of short stories or poetry, you can send it to literary magazines and such to get portions of the work published. If you can find a magazine that does it, you can try and sell your work directly to them to publish your full novel in pieces, but since you are a new writer, don't get your hopes up.

Of course, if you have the money you can publish it yourself and market it to bookstores on your own. I'd call that "Plan B"!

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Thanks a lot, very helpful!

And then... there's LULU.com

If your book is good enough and publishable, you don't need a literary agent. The book will sell itself.

A literary agent will take a manuscript that has potential and suggest to you what editing, proofreading, and changes/deletions/additions need to be done to hopefully catch the eye of a publisher.

In either case, you must compose a letter telling of your credentials and clips and include a summary of your book plus perhaps the first few chapters. Your local public library has books on how to do this the best way. Ask a reference librarian for help, if necessary.

Wrong. The big publishing houses will not accept a manuscript unless it comes from an agent. PERIOD.

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Originally Posted by magprob

Wrong. The big publishing houses will not accept a manuscript unless it comes from an agent. PERIOD.

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While this is true, they are not the only possibility. There are small publishers looking for the next Harry Potter for example.

The question of what type of book was never answered. Many How To publishers do solicit work from new authors.

magprob, I said NOTHING about big publishing houses. Please read Scott's response.

You need to copyright the book to protect your interest, and make a copy of it and mail it to yourself. By doing this you have a date stamp of when it was copy right protected, once you receive the mailed copy back do not open it , filed it away in a safe place.

From whatiscopyright.org --

Copyright protection begins when any of the above described work [literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form] is actually created and fixed in a tangible form.

For example, my brother is a musician and he lives in the United States. When he writes new lyrics, he prints them out on paper, signs his name at the bottom with the Copyright © symbol to show that he is the author, places it in an envelope and mails it to himself without opening it. His copyright begins at the moment he puts his idea in a tangible form by printing the lyrics out on paper. He creates proof when he mails it to himself - the postmark establishes the date of creation. He then registers his copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office which is a requirement in order to sue for monetary damages should a violation of his copyright arise. However, if somebody copies and redistributes his lyrics without permission before his copyright is registered, he still has the right to assert a copyright claim as the true author.

The above applies to digital art and graphics. Open a gif, jpg or png file that you created and look at the properties. It states the date that you saved it to your hard drive as the date of creation. To further provide proof, save everything to a floppy disk and mail it to yourself via certified mail. Keep the envelope sealed, wrap it in protective plastic and put it in a safe place.

Somebody once asked if it was "illegal" to place the copyright © symbol next to your name if you have not registered your copyright. Unless you are not the true author of the work, it is not illegal to place the copyright © symbol next to your name - it is your right to do so.

The proper way to place a copyright notice is as follows: Copyright © (first date of creation) (name of owner). Like this: Copyright © 2007 John Smith.

I'm sorry, I thought you want to be a "sucsessful writer".

"Successful writers" can make good money by selling their mss. To small presses. I've done that and will continue to do so.

For a small press or an e-press, the editors will be more willing to take unagented material. For the larger, more traditional publishers, literary agents serve as the gate-keepers. They screen the manuscripts and only send those ready to published on to the editors. And the agents know which manuscripts are the best fit for the specific editors.

Now, the next step is to make sure the manuscript is about as perfect as it can be. Have you had at least two outside people read your manuscript-- for enjoyability, for continuity, for line-editing, etc.

When it is the best it can be, if you want to try for an agent, start sending out query letters to those agents you have identified from Writer's Marketplace or from articles in Writers Digest or other writers magazines. Caveat-- check the web site called "Preditors and Editors" to make sure the agent you are interested in doesn't have any black marks.

If you prefer a more non-traditional approach, then try the smaller presses and e-publishers.

And if you want even more untraditionalism, check out Lulu.com and BookSurge.com. For either of those, you can go from manuscript to published book in about 8 weeks, as opposed to 18 months for traditional press.

LULU or Booksurge? Better have a lot of cash to promote your book or it will just disappear.

All the above are great responses. My nephew has written 3 fantasy books, he learned the hard way that you do need a good agent. The key word here is "good" agent. Everyone has said that he has real talent (not an expert-but his books are very good to me) but nothing happened. Every time he would call or visit his agent he was told that there was no interest. He finally changed agents and got one of his books published with the new agent. Ask a lot of questions of the agent; who have they gotten published, have they had success with new authors, etc.
-Stringer

My sister, also a young writer, has been working to get an agent and get her novels published, and although I don't know the whole process, I can tell you it's not as simple as most of these people are making it sound. My advice on getting a book published: know what you're doing before you start sending off emails.
I know that you have, on a basic level, two options: find an agent or find a smaller, independent book publisher. (to get to the big ones you're going to need to have an agent.) and before you try either of those, do your research. There books that list all of the agents and publishers, tell you what they're looking for and how they want it sent to them. You're going to need them.
Here, talk to some people who know. Absolute Write Water Cooler - Powered by vBulletin

I really can't believe this site. This is great. Every time I have a question I would like to ask I see it. I am new at this and I admire all answers given. Thanks. And best luck with your book.