Getting Published

[Anonymous No.22445932]

Hi anons. I recently finished my first novel. It is a 67k long fragmentary horror novel.

I have received very encouraging feedback from the people I've had read some of it, and have now got it into my arrogant head to maybe try seeing if I can get it published. My aims in doing so are twofold:
1) Make a little bit of money on the side; and
2) Contribute something to the world of literature before it gets taken over by prompt-mongers and their pet AIs.

My question is thus as follows: do you guys have any tips regarding getting published as a first-time author?

Thanks for your time, and I will be happy to answer questions if you feel you need more information to provide helpful advice.

[Anonymous No.22446202]

Depends on your goals.

If, as you say, you want a little money on the side and to make a contribution, go the self-pub route. Look into Ingramspark or KDP. Spend a little money getting a decent cover, buy Atticus to get formatting, and pay an editor on Fiverr or something.

If you want to go the tradpub route, be prepared for a lot of rejection. But that's not even the worst of it. The worst is how glacially slow tradpub moves.

Agents will respond (if at all) within 90 days. Most don't respond, but some respond after 150 days for whatever reason. If you get a request for pages, they want another 6 months at least to read it.

If you manage to get an agent, they will take another year trying to get you to edit the work to be more marketable. After that, it's half a year of trying to sell it to publishers.

If a publisher buys it, they will do the cover, marketing, formatting, etc etc., which can take about a year or two.

After all of that, they still might not plan to release it anywhere from a year to 10 years, based on how they feel the market is doing.

So, if you want to beat AI, self-pub.

[Anonymous No.22446273]

>>22446202
Thank you anon, that was an exquisite answer!

May I ask, how does one accomplish marketing if one self-publishes? How does one prevent your book only being read by three people (two of whom only purchased it because they made a few mis-clicks while trying to buy the latest YA TikTok craze)?

[Anonymous No.22446302]

>>22446273
Well, there's the obvious: social media.

If you're like me, however, and don't have any social media (except LinkedIn for business connections), there's a few things you can do.

Get some ARC readers on places like BookSirens. It's very cheap, has decent range, and will give you some early reviews on places like Amazon and Goodreads. This is very important, as people will be more inclined to buy something if there's reviews.

Reach out to some Booktubers and offer them free copies + a small gift if they'll read and do a review for you. You can get their emails on the About page of their Youtube accounts. You'll get more responses from men, and especially those with only a thousand or so followers. But hey, that's a thousand viewers who can see your book.

There's also regular online advertising. If you get your cover made by companies like MiblArt, they'll throw in some web banners and such, so you can just buy Google or Facebook ads. Another thing you can do (if you have the money, because it's very pricey), is pay for a Kirkus Review. Not useful if you only use KDP, but Ingram sends out to bookstores and libraries, and those places look at Kirkus' newsletter. You could also win a few thousand from the Kirkus Prize if your book truly is great.

Finally, and this step only applies if you're going to have physical copies from Ingram (don't bother if physical copies are from Amazon), but boots on the ground. Go talk to owners of local bookstores. Most are friendly and willing to let you set up a book signing or read-a-chapter event. Go about your city and perhaps the surrounding towns/cities. Play up the "local author" angle and they'll probably put a few copies on their shelves.

[Anonymous No.22446325]

>>22446302
Thank you so much, anon! You certainly seem to know your stuff!

In light of your wonderful suggestions thus far, I proffer one last question: what would you recommend as the best way to get honest feedback on your work? I am in a bit of a pickle because I am a genteel fellow, and I can't show my novel to many people I know, because it would probably upset them (some of it is pretty gruesome by normie standards). What's more, I remain pretty unsure about the quality/originality of my work. Would you say 'BookSirens' is the best way to get honest, discriminating feedback in a timely manner?

Thanks for your time anon.

(P.S, that penguin image is a favourite of mine. On my PC, I have him saved as 'Ibn-al-Penguin').

[Anonymous No.22446352]

>>22446325
Hilarious. Ibn-al-Penguin, I'm going to remember that.

It sounds like you're quite early in your journey. What I recommend is that you find yourself some Beta Readers. A Beta Reader will look over early versions of the manuscript and read it for the story. They will focus on if the plot, characters, events, and all the other important aspects of the story make sense, are consistent, and most of all, interesting. They will not do a line edit, but will provide some inline comments about events in the book.

They will also provide their general thoughts and answer any questions you may have.

There are some free Beta Readers, or you can swap with other authors and do it for each other, but you can't be sure of their quality or honesty. Check Fiverr, there's tons of them there, and since you're paying them, they'll provide professional feedback and reports. I'm a bit worried to post it here, because 4chan is a horrible place, but Danny Raye does a good job. She's on Fiverr, and you won't find a more dedicated Beta Reader.

BookSirens is for when you have a finished, edited, formatted, ready to publish book. Mine is on there currently.

[Anonymous No.22446369]

>>22446273
>does one accomplish marketing if one self-publishes?
Do u want a book or a market? Dont confuse the two shithead

[Anonymous No.22446382]

>>22446369
Just had to come throw some negativity into a civil discussion, didn't you?

Philistine.

[Anonymous No.22446385]

>>22446302
>(don't bother if physical copies are from Amazon)
Is that because Amazon is the exclusive distributor? I know with my books I order author copies (from Amazon) and then take them on consignment to local bookshops. Inventory would be through me (with reorders from Amazon). I've only sold a few books, with a couple sales on Amazon (and the margins suck... but I like the visibility of having them available on the world's largest webstore).

[Anonymous No.22446388]

>>22446352
Thanks again anon, you've singlehandedly answered all my questions. I hope one day to meet you at a Writer's Festival. :)

[Anonymous No.22446393]

>>22446385
Ooh! What's your book?

[Anonymous No.22446406]

>>22446385
It's because small bookshops hate Amazon. That's really it. If you're self-published through Amazon, they will never stock you on anything other than on consignment. And while that's fine, it's not quite the same as having a store "actually" stock your novel.

[Anonymous No.22446424]

>>22446388
Go in peace, brøther.

[Anonymous No.22446456]

>>22446385
>>22446406
bookstores don't stock or sell self published books because they're in cahoots with the publishers.

You know how authors say "publishers never market my books"? Well they do. Publishers market books by getting them shelf space at Barns & Noble. So when Becky goes to get her Starbucks fix, what does she see on the tables? All the nepotistic shit published by Random House, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan, and NOT the self published stuff. Because the publishers don't make a penny off sales of self published novels. So they don't let the book stores sell them. Zero competition.

And when a book doesn't sell do you know what happens? Barns & Noble sends unsold copies back to the publisher. You can't do that with self published books. They're all print on demand. And amazon's return policy won't let you try to sell something for six months.

Book stores are giant marketing schemes, and if you self publish, you don't get to be in on the scheme. It's that simple.

[Anonymous No.22446462]

If you need a cheap editor, hit me up

https://www.fiverr.com/matthewg42

[Anonymous No.22446483]

>>22446456
Oh yes, big box retailers most likely won't. I'm talking about the indie bookstores rather than the chains. The places where the owner is the one behind the register and it's a small business in some trendy place surrounded by restaurants and coffee shops.

Don't have those where you're from?

[Anonymous No.22447095]

>>22446483
I've worked with an indie bookstore for about a decade so I know all about it. The reps that come from the big publishers have a curated print-out of mostly "woke" (hate to use that, but it's true - the rep will come in and talk about this new trendy lesbian romance for teens) and the rest of the new catalogue appears in digital format and the manager quickly skims it (occasionally having me look at certain genres to pick out anything I might want for the store). The self-published-consignment titles do sell well if there is enough local buzz / you know enough people that would want to support you. Generally outside a display in the store, that's the best advertising you'll get short of you doing all the legwork in newspapers/local print outs.

Amazon is a lot easier for reaching a larger amount of people/ease of convenience, but it doesn't stock your books anywhere physically. And the margins are shit. But then again, they might be better than most publishers. A bookstore is 60/40 mark-up (with the occasional 50/50, 45/55 for certain specials Penguin (etc.) will list). So If my book is $20, the publisher sells it to the store for $12 (and the store has 1 year to return it if it doesn't sell) and then you'd be lucky to get a dollar from each sale. In Amazon, it's similar although they deduct the cost of printing from your share, so you sell for $20, Amazon makes $8, and then you get $12 minus the $5-$7 to print it, so you get a bit better of a deal.

Unfortunately my books are graphic novels (comics hurr durr) and the cost of printing nets me about $3 a book if I'm lucky to sell one. That and I refuse to sell them at a price that's unreasonable. I'm an artist, but I'm not going to gut the poor soul that actually wants to read my work.

>>22446393
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0B559RKC8/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=bee75fd7-891d-464e-941f-222a19e2a561

[Anonymous No.22447150]

>>22447095
Good input, and thanks! I think that's my strategy - try to do events at local stores. That's, as you said, the best PR.

As for Amazon, I'm not suggesting you shouldn't use it. You can actually publish on both Ingram and KDP if you own the ISBN.

That way you can have a physical that independent bookstores are willing to carry, and a digital on Amazon for the Amazon sales. Ingram also provides physicals to Amazon, oddly enough. Seems like using both services is the way to go.

[Anonymous No.22447154]

>>22446202
very informative, I've saved all your posts for the future

[Anonymous No.22447221]

>>22447150
I've always been a fan of Ingram, although when I was at the bookstore, the price difference to order in an Ingram title for a customer was bonkers because for a lot of the titles the margins are tighter (like 5-10% especially for self-published works) so we'd have to jack up the price for the customer to meet the 60/40 margin. A book would come in with "$15.99" on the back and we'd cover it with our sticker because it was nowhere near that. Some books were like 80 bucks when on Amazon it would be 25. So be aware of that. Yes, the local shop can order it, but they would rarely keep it stocked on their shelves. That and lots of self-published are non returnable (AND Ingram has a return fee for books anyway - so the store will still lose 10% just to return the book). That was one wall we'd frequently run into.

[Anonymous No.22447577]

bump

[Anonymous No.22447583]

>>22446483
Yes, there's one in my city. Normies dont know about it.

[Anonymous No.22448801]

bwomp