Wrote A Book, Now What

[Sheal]

I just finished writing a novel (fictional horror type deal) with a co-author. I've only ever published short stories online and want to know what to do to publish in hard copy rather than online or what would be my options.

How do I get an agent, how do I get a publisher and what's next?

Anyone have any recommendations for a Canadian Publisher (open to American Pubs as well) that has good ratings or good ethics? I've been reading up and researching but it's so over whelming.

Anyone publish a fictional book? What did you do? Who did you use? How? (well I know how but any experiences welcome *lol*). How do you promo a book, network, ect... Anyone have comments on LuLu self publishing as well pretty please?

Other than a query letter what else do I have to do? We're in editing phase right now for grammar, spelling, ect. Doing both on screen and hand editing.

Thanks!

[midnightwriter]

Originally Posted by Sheal

I just finished writing a novel (fictional horror type deal) with a co-author. I've only ever published short stories online and want to know what to do to publish in hard copy rather than online or what would be my options.

How do I get an agent, how do I get a publisher and what's next?

Anyone have any recommendations for a Canadian Publisher (open to American Pubs as well) that has good ratings or good ethics? I've been reading up and researching but it's so over whelming.

Anyone publish a fictional book? What did you do? Who did you use? How? (well I know how but any experiences welcome *lol*). How do you promo a book, network, ect... Anyone have comments on LuLu self publishing as well pretty please?

Other than a query letter what else do I have to do? We're in editing phase right now for grammar, spelling, ect. Doing both on screen and hand editing.

Thanks!

First of all, Congratulations! I just finished a literary novel (writing, revising, putting it aside, revising again, and then proofreading as the final step), so I'm going through the same thing, more or less.

For agents, start looking at agentquery.com and querytracker.com. This is a list of Canadian agents. Here's another one. While in the US there are HUNDREDS, there's only a handfull in Canada.

There are several agent blogs, that are really good to read.

http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/ (she's discussing query letters right now)
http://www.misssnark.blogspot.com/ (not active anymore, to the sorrow of many , but an awesome resource still)

This is a great interview in P&W, with several young agents: http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and...iterary_agents It is long, but the whole thing is worth reading.

Workshop your query letter and workshop it again and again, until it is perfect. One can get a rejection within 60 seconds, literally. Most queries just aren't that good and don't stand out to the agents. Polish your first 50 pages extra carefully.

I know talking promo is sort of premature right now, but hey, one can dream. Trailers on youtube seem to be an effective way.

Well, what esle?

Don't rush! Don't rush! Don't rush! Explore agents first, before self-publishing. There are so many US agents! If you are serious about writing, self-publishing is a suicide, unless you have thousands of dollars to invest in your promotion and are certain to sell big numbers. Self publishing is not the foot in the door anymore.

PM me if you have any questions!

Ania

[midnightwriter]

Oh, one more thing. I heard good things about Lulu, and amazon has a POD program too, which I heard is good. But Publish America, they say, is a total rip-off.

And one more Write a synopis as well. There are "how to" sites. If an agent likes your query, they might want to see your partial and synopsis, and it is good to be prepared!

[Sheal]

Thank you!

We're also working on a 5 book vampire series but I'm polishing the "Fallen" novel while my buddy works on the first book of the series for our Immortal Chronicles.

I may just PM you to pick your brain some, if you don't mind. I knew about the query letters and have started one but I want it squeaky clean and looking nice before I start a query. I already have my synopsis, I am working on the editing of the book. Gonna polish the novel rock until it shines *lol*

I still can't believe we wrote a novel...lol - it feels surreal just to think about it. Now the fun begins. I'll check out the provided links and then get back to you with the a pm. Thanks again! Congrats back on your novel! Maybe we can trade novels and critic each other?

[midnightwriter]

Feel free to pm any time! :-)

[Aufilia]

Since you're writing vampires and horror, you might look up some of your local science fiction conventions. Vampires are a hot topic in urban fantasy right now, and most SF cons are equal parts SF and fantasy with a side dish of horror stuff. Cons can vary in focus but there are a bunch that are very book- and writer- oriented (as opposed to media-oriented or gaming-oriented). Those cons will put on panels about writing and publishing and other events for would-be writers. They might also have workshops where you can have your novel critiqued or parties where you can network.

WorldCon (the World SF convention) is in Montreal this year.

I would definitely ditto the suggestion to fore go self-publishing. The best way to market yourself is to get published by a real publisher, who can get your book put on the shelves of actual bookstores. That's still where people buy most of their books.

[flowers]

Mind if I tag along here.

I just came up with a fabulous idea for a young adult series. My idea is to do a basic synopsis, outline and than have a few sample chapters.

I have a specific publishing house in mind b/c of the genre. Can you just submit queries or do you definitely need an agent?

[midnightwriter]

Originally Posted by flowers

Mind if I tag along here.

I just came up with a fabulous idea for a young adult series. My idea is to do a basic synopsis, outline and than have a few sample chapters.

I have a specific publishing house in mind b/c of the genre. Can you just submit queries or do you definitely need an agent?

For fiction they would want the entire manuscript ready--neither an agent or a publisher would buy your novel on idea alone. You don't need to do the entire series, though. Only the first novel.

I love the idea stage! Have fun! Start writing! Thankfully YA can be pretty short, about 30K.

[Aufilia]

Originally Posted by flowers

Mind if I tag along here.

I just came up with a fabulous idea for a young adult series. My idea is to do a basic synopsis, outline and than have a few sample chapters.

I have a specific publishing house in mind b/c of the genre. Can you just submit queries or do you definitely need an agent?

Ditto what midnightwriter said: you need to write the entire first book first, before trying to find a publisher or agent.

You should read over the guidelines of the publishing house you have in mind. (Is there a reason you have just ONE publisher in mind? In some fields it's a good idea to have a target, in others, it's a bad idea to limit yourself that way.) Most publishers don't accept unagented manuscripts anymore in which case you really have to have an agent before a publisher will even look at a manuscript.