Questions about publishing a book

Time by time, i wonder how to do that as well. Nice question.

Writing and editing a good book is insanely hard on its own. Publishing and distributing at separate businesses and highly competitive. Most retailers want to work with as few suppliers and distributors as possible. Getting your book onto the store shelves of a major chain is almost impossible if you don't have a major publisher backing you - and in that case, they do it for you, because it's their job.

It is possible to start a successful new press, but you need significant financial backing. Consider Angry Robot Books, which has decent distribution in the UK, but that's only because they have a lot of financial support from their bosses.

There are numerous publishers who claim they have nation-wide distribution, but whose books you can't find anywhere. That's because it's possible to order a book if you go up to the clerk and ask them to look it up. But that's a tier of publisher you never want to bother with.

Unless you have already made some sort of name for yourself, expect to self-publish in small numbers. Without some sort of name recognition or connections within the industry most publishers won't risk their money on you.

I would recommend finding a source like a weekly e-magazine that publishes short works and write a few shorter, less involved pieces to make a bit of a name for yourself. Example, Daily Science Fiction, though obviously you would want something that publishes the genre you write. Romance novels make bank and are fairly easy to publish, because people eat them up, unfortunately. If you don't want to drag yourself through the smut, keep trying. Get an editor. Editors will make your work look pretty. It doesn't have to be a pro, just someone who you can trust not to run off with your work and publish it themselves (keep the first draft as a copy, so that if there's a dispute, you can prove that it was your work) and who will give you honest feedback.

If you want to write a longer work, things get tricky. There are always places for longer works similar to the type I mentioned above, but they tend to pay next to nothing. If you want to get your name out there, you'll probably have to suck it up and settle for a bit. However, be sure to review the contracts. I am no experts on contracts for writers, but you'll want to keep all rights outside of print publication rights and preferably have a non-exclusive deal; look for a deal that might involve the publisher having exclusive rights for a while, but returning them to you later.

If you don't want to suffer through the grind, and you think you have what it takes to get published, there are two routes. One is just sending the draft off to as many related publishing houses as you can, and hoping that you get, if not an acceptance, at least some helpful rejection letters. Expect a lot of boilerplate letters. Publishers screen out a lot of chaff, and unfortunately your work might end up as part of it. Be cautious about submitting to multiple places at once; some places have policies that won't accept your work if you have applied elsewhere (sometimes until you get a rejection, but occasionally more stringent or laxer rules apply), and most places do not want works that have already been published by another source, except anthologies and the like. You can, if you got a good contract, self publish the work once the exclusivity period runs out, or look for another imprint.

The other route is self publishing from the get go. It's hard work, especially if you try to do it without any help from anyone else. A good graphic designer can hook you up with a good cover; try finding out if any of the works similar to yours have good cover art and try to find the designer. It may not be cheap, or it could be much cheaper than you expect. Anyone who works for commission is a good bet, feel free to ask for a quote and see if they can fit in your budget. If you have design skills, you can try yourself, but as with a written work, get a second (and third, if not more) opinion before publishing, since if you print the book with one cover and then hate it, you're stuck with it. Digital self publishing can save you massive headaches with printing logistics and startup costs. Amazon actually has some pretty solid self publishing policies, and let you decide how exactly you want to publish. They have both a more stringent contract and basically a "I own this work and want to sell it on Amazon, I know what I'm doing and don't want you to tell me what to do" mode, but they don't help you much with artwork and marketing. They also have a physical print label, called CreateSpace, but again, marketing and stuff is on you. The nice thing about these options are that they're non-exclusive, and you have some degree of control over them. In addition, digital involves no initial print run, so unless you commission some art or hire an editor (I'll volunteer for shorter works, just let me know why you're contacting me, and remember that I am not a professional editor), you're set. Some other smaller places don't actually publish your work per say, but they review it and slap some art on and send it out to places perhaps. I haven't tried these, and I don't have one to recommend.

It's a daunting task. Remember to start with baby steps. Asimov didn't start out with the Foundations trilogy, or Asimov's Guide to the Bible; he started with "Cosmic Corkscrew", a work which he, prolific though he was, never actually managed to publish, both through rejection and a gradual lack of interest. He ended up publishing over 500 books on almost every subject (Like I said, he wrote a Biblical commentary and he was an ethnic Jewish atheist. He wrote on everything.). Start small, keep working, and someday you could see your name on some bookshelves, perhaps the front shelf of every bookstore, assuming brick-and-mortar bookstores don't die out.

How to get your book published

I am actually a published writer in Hong Kong. But I don't write fiction, only reference books for public exams.

Getting your books published is much more difficult than winning COD Ghost at Steamgifts if you are not famous. You need to be very lucky and, of course, have the ability in order to get into this field.

My suggestion:

Publish the first 20% of your book, preferably fiction in the case, on the Internet free of charge. If your work has the potential to be the next Harry Potter, people will talk about it and demand you to write the next chapter. I have not done this before, frankly speaking. But some Chinese writers use this method to get famous and finally have their works published by AAA publishers. One has even become the best-selling writer in Taiwan. Some Japanese writers also become successful by writing mobile phone novels. Believe me, if your books have a market, your readers want to have them published more than you do. In fact, some parents do contact my publisher, asking when my next book will be available.

Self publication in the form of ebooks via popular services is popular those days and there is a ( very ) few success stories.

Good luck for your publication, i am writing some books myself but i am not at the publication stage yet ( both academic and personal stuff ).

Once published perhaps let us know so that i can buy your book :-)

Thanks for your response guys. I'll read your posts later cause right now I'm extra tired lol.