Writing a book......
 

Ive been seriously thinking lately about trying to get one of my stories looked at by a publisher... I havent finished it yet but my lappy is full of 1/2 written and completed short stories, I would love to focus on one, make it my best and submit it to somone.

My partner is a editor and proofreader, so he could fix my hasty spelling and punctuation.

Have any of the cellarites ever been published? or tried to be? or are any of you publishers that could give me any advice as to how i should go about this?

RICH2472 was published, i think. but he was such a dick.

don;t send them your best. send them your 2nd best one.

Why would you sed them your 2nd best one?

Do you save the best till your a highly acclaimed author and blow them away!?!?

so does anyone know the process? do you just look up a publisher online and email them something? or do you have to call and make an appointment and send them a hard copy?

I had something published, just the once, and it wasn't really a story, but an account of a friend's attempt to complete the Paris-Dakar rally with two other friends in a used Range Rover which they adapted at their own expense. I was lucky enough to have loads of photos to support the words as well. It was a unique story and matched the magazine launched especially for the 4x4 market.

I don't think it would have stood much of a chance if it hadn't been that the magazine was new, and the editor was keen to gather a wide range of material. My article went out in Issue #1. It was a true one-off and I wasn't trying for any repeat business, so it only stands on its own in terms of what it may be worth as helpful advice.

Maybe there's some sort of logical approach to be followed here. And this is: try magazines and especially any new ones. Beyond that rather limited advice/suggestion, I'm afraid I haven't much to offer apart from wishing you the very best of good fortune and that you should persist and persist and persist irrespective of the number of times rejection hits you fair and square between the eyes.

One thing I can tell you (although not from experience) is to not give up when doors are closed. I have heard over and over that some writers have had to go to over 30 publishers before someone agreed to publish their work. And these were works that went on to become widely acclaimed.

A publisher has many reasons for saying "no" but only one of them has to do with the quality of your work. The decision not to publish, way more often than not has little to do with the quality of your work. Fall out of love with what you have written and treat getting it published as the job that it is and if you believe in yourself and in your work, someone will publish it.

Ref my last above - also would say that it will be worthwhile resarching which publication sources are going to have most interest in the type material you are writing. For example if you are writing about Australian country/farm life then look to magazines that concentrate on agriculture.

At the end of the day, the better you target your approaches to reach those who have the most likelihood of taking an interest in your subject matter, the better chance you will have that they will first look at your work and secondly will want to take matters further.

Better still if you are abe to write on a subject where you know there is a demand. In this case you look first for publishers that want material on a particular theme or topic and then write and deliver the material they want to hear about.

i have thought about getting a book publised myself. i mean get it editedand proof read, get like maybe 100 copies done.. and see how it goes(approaching booksellers independently)

Have heard of other people doing that, and I think some have been successful - but not sure how many.

Also, unless times and technolgy have changed things, the most expensive part of a printing process is/used to be preparation and set up. Once you've paid that end of it the actual printing side is comparatively very cheap. Might be worth checking how much extra over 100 copies, say, 200, 500 or even 1,000 would cost - might open up a few more marketing avenues than the one you are contemplating if you have enough stock to feed other methods

At the end of the day devise yourself a battle plan, don't rely too heavily on any one method, but be sure you exploit thoroughly each method you do choose to use. The short story (even serial) approach is a good one to take to a magazine, and ten serial episodes could represent a book - think that was Dickens pathway to fame.

Keep trying whatever!

This sounds pretentious but I started writing a novel tonight. I don't know what spurred me...

Anyway, SSz, if you want minimal leg work I'd suggest that you start a website or blog devoted to your stories. That way it might get noticed by people like Magazine Man. He's found people through their blogs that he ended up contracting to write articles.

Polish up your stories and send them to publishers the worst they can do is say they don't want it.

Here is a list of some publishers, what they're looking for an links to their submission guidelines.

Thanks grant that is a great link! cheers!

You can also look for a small independent press in your region. Or maybe a press linked with an area university. Check out what they've been publishing and if it jibes with your work, or where you'd like to go, see if you can schedule an informational interview with a book editor. Ask lots of questions and get some useful advice. Share your work, if its ready, and if they are ameniable. Join a writing workshop and meet some people. Find some critical friends who will allow you to safely bounce off ideas.

Sun Sparkz - check out http://www.iuniverse.com/ a friend of ours published a book through them. They are what is considered a "vanity" press.

My husband has published three textbooks through Elsevier Science, and that's a whole different ballgame. You have to get approval before you even start writing the book, and once they have signed on you are contractually bound to get it done in the way you proposed. He just finished his fourth one, and has a fifth in the works.
It's a lot of work, but it's worth it!