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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Sun May 2 22:16:00 2010 No.622819 [Reply] [Original]

I am currently in the process of writing a science fiction book. What are the odds of it ever being published?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:17:00 2010 No.622821 0

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:18:00 2010 No.622828 File: 3 KB, 184x172, que.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>622821

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:20:00 2010 No.622832 File: 24 KB, 300x208, david_caruso_sunglasses.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>622828

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:22:00 2010 No.622834

Sally reads tons of books in her free time. She's been writing since she was eight, and writing is the most important thing to her. There's a chance she might get published some day.

Susan doesn't read very often, spends most of her time playing vidya games and watching movies instead. She has a great idea for a book, but doesn't practice like Sally does. She has zero chance of getting published, unless she uses a vanity press like Lulu, which isn't really being published.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:24:00 2010 No.622842 The odds are 0 until it's finished. And then the odds are still 0 until you start shopping around for an agent. And then the odds depend on the quality of your manuscript and the luck of the market.

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:24:00 2010 No.622844
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>>622832

>>622834
Cool, then I'm more like Sally. I have been writing since I was 10 but I never had the time to actually sit down and do it seriously until about a couple years ago. I have been developing my story for that long.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:27:00 2010 No.622859 Just write it and publish a copy for yourself at lulu.com. Read it, edit it, read it again, then publish it again but this time with an ISBN number.

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:28:00 2010 No.622863
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To be published somebody must be interested in you and think you can sell. Why would he think you can sell if you come out of nowhere? Writers who are published are writers who are active, with groups and magazines and connections. Publishers are too busy looking after these people than hoping that Joe Nobody is a writing genius. If you were to sent your book to a publisher, he'd probably put it in the recycle bin with an half-glance to the title. And if you were in his place, you would do that to your own book.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:28:00 2010 No.622867 File: 131 KB, 500x281, tumblr_kzpzbjvyy31qzhu0do1_500.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>622844

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:29:00 2010 No.622871

/lit/ homework help and publishing help are cancer

Steps to getting published:
1) Finish Manuscript
2) Shop Agents
3) Write another Manuscript while first book is going through Agents
4) If you get agent first book, great. If no agent, then look at rejection letters -- send second book to those who use your name or give you personal rejection.
5) Repeat steps 1-4 till you are published

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:31:00 2010 No.622882 >>622863 >Why would he think you can sell if you come out of nowhere? Yeah, why do independent publishers even bother mentioning that they accept unsolicited manuscripts and look for up and coming writers?

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:40:00 2010 No.622917

>>622882
Because you can't say "we ignore authors who aren't famous". Bad for business. People will logically give a vague promise no matter what. I am not saying it's impossible that somebody looks at your manuscript. However, can we agree that it's very unlikely? I though it was a well-accepted fact that it is unlikely to be given the chance to be published when you have nothing to your name.

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:43:00 2010 No.622929

>Why would he think you can sell if you come out of nowhere?

>Yeah, why do independent publishers even bother mentioning that they accept unsolicited manuscripts and look for up and coming writers?

Yeah, why would they want to keep paying massive royalties to "known" writers when they can find new talent who will write for next to nothing?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:44:00 2010 No.622938 File: 37 KB, 271x306, monocle.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>622867

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:46:00 2010 No.622945 >>622917 >>622929 ITT: lrn2sarcasm

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:47:00 2010 No.622946
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>My face when people think that publishers only accept people with connections.
The mass market doesn't give two shits who the writer is, usually, because they pick a goddamn book off the shelf and think "Oh, this'll be nifty." A LOT less people look at the actual author before choosing a book.

Anonymous Sun May 2 22:49:00 2010 No.622956

>>622917
>Because you can't say "we ignore authors who aren't famous". Bad for business.

It depends on what kind of publisher you're talking about. I think you're talking about the big five publishers, the ones who own Stephen King, James Patterson, and books written by famous people like Pamela Anderson and Sarah Palin. If you're talking about them, then yeah, you're right. But there are plenty of publishers who mention specifically in their mission statement that they will publish anyone just as long as their manuscript is engaging. Where do you think new writers come from, anyway?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:50:00 2010 No.622966 >>622956 Fucking miracles.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:51:00 2010 No.622968 >>622966 How do they work?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:52:00 2010 No.622973 >>622968 Fucking publishers. How do they work?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:56:00 2010 No.622983 Oh I didn't know about lulu.com

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 22:59:00 2010 No.622995 >>622983 They're a glorified Kinko's, not a publisher. Keep that in mind.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:02:00 2010 No.623004 >>622995 OP Here. I don't want to sound like an asshole but honestly, I have read like 30 science fiction and a few fantasy books and still get the feeling my idea has not been used, one of the reasons I stay motivated to write it.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:03:00 2010 No.623014 >Dude in our school gets his fantasy book published. >Becomes a local celebrity. >He used Lulu or Amazon to publish his book Ahahahafaggot.jpg

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:04:00 2010 No.623015 >>623004 of all the reasons there are to write and publish a story, that's not a very good one.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:04:00 2010 No.623017 >>623004 30 =/= all of science fiction and fantasy.

Anonymous Sun May 2 23:04:00 2010 No.623018
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>>623004
Oh fuck. You could be that one guy in the world that is writing the same book as me. Tell me, is it about the return of mankind, a blown up world, and hell raining from the sky?

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:11:00 2010 No.623047 >>623018 it fucking better not be, because that would make three of us!

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:23:00 2010 No.623080 File: 37 KB, 526x473, Raperodent.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>623047 Four.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:24:00 2010 No.623084 >>622983 >>622995 I like Lulu, stay away from Tate Publishing, a bunch of fucking crooks.,\

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:26:00 2010 No.623088 98% of /lit/ doesn't know shit about getting a novel published. They got their short story published in an internet literary journal and think they're the shit.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:29:00 2010 No.623099 File: 22 KB, 400x400, realtroll.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>623080 five

Anonymous Sun May 2 23:30:00 2010 No.623101

>>623084
Lulu is shit. Any vanity publisher that uses lightning source press is shit. They will publish ANYONE. The author's in middle school, their story is heavily derivative, riddled with plot holes and spelling errors? Publish 'em anyway! Quality doesn't matter, just so long as that author gives the publisher money.

>>	Anonymous Sun May 2 23:30:00 2010 No.623102 File: 13 KB, 275x236, oreilly_u_mad1243621879.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>623088 U Mad?

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 00:06:00 2010 No.623202 Nearly none, if I read it I could be sure of the noneness, but without knowing its crap first hand, still likely none.

Anonymous Mon May 3 00:14:00 2010 No.623229
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FUCK EVERYTHING

frank herbert didnt get Dune published by anyone.

untill it did get published.

the moral of the story is never give up ever

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 00:59:00 2010 No.623351 >>623229 Didn't only happen to Frank Herbert!

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 17:30:00 2010 No.625522 >>623101 Lulu is self-publishing. They have no content editors that look over your shit. That's the whole point. They are providing a service, not employment. I THIN U DON NO WUT THAT MEANS

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 17:33:00 2010 No.625537 Go to a big bookstore. They will have a few books about publishing fiction. Read one, it will help immensely.

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 17:34:00 2010 No.625542 Stephanie Meyer and her ilk have ruined the publishing industry, now that every tween with a Macbook thinks he or she can churn out a best-seller.

>>	Anonymous Mon May 3 17:38:00 2010 No.625558 >>625542 This has been the case for a while.

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