I am a published author, and I don't think you should self-publish with-out a bit of proper direction. AMA

What was the other self-publisher AMA guy not mentioning/over-exaggerating?

A lot. It's why I started this ama.

Most of her advice is really wrong.

Example: it costs a few pennies to self publish properly (not just sticking it up in Create Space). I have spent $500 on editing $1000 on cover art(for three books which is a steal, really) not to mention other fees for layout printing, ISBN and just time in general.

Yes you can go on create space and publish a book on 30 seconds. But think of it like this. Just because you can drive a car doesn't mean you should take your little Toyota and race against indy cars and actually expect to win.

I don't think that the fellow writing the children's books was expecting to win the race. He stated in a number of different answers that he was actually sitting $3k out of pocket. It seemed to me like he was explaining that if you had a dream to publish a book that people could actually buy then you can and the cost is less than you may expect.

Is this not the case? Should I stay away from the free publishing option for a silly kids book that I'm not really trying to make big bucks with?

Vanity publishing is nothing new. Before Amazon, before the internet, there has been an industry catering to those who want to be published, with a lot of sleazy operators. Example: You pay all sorts of fees and then the actual publishing costs for a certain number of books that will supposedly sit in a warehouse, waiting for you, the writer, to sell them. If they don't sell within a certain amount of time, they get pulped. Certain clever vanity publishers realized they could make additional profits if they never actually printed the books and then, after an interval, report them as being pulped.

The self publishing business of today is much improved over this state, but it doesn't guarantee you'll recoup your costs.

So Vanity publishing and Self-publishing are two different things.

Vanity publishing you pay money for someone else to publish you. They are still out there and exist in two forms.

Form #1 You pay someone to publish your novel. Give them $100? $200? $1000? to make copies of your book. They don't offer much, if any, editing services and they basically just print what you handed them. They own your novel and they own the copyright on it as well.

Form #2 (Becoming very popular in the ebook circuit at the moment) Is that you sub your book to a publishing company and then they own your book/short story. To change however they like, then you get "Free copies" to make up for it. A really good case of how this happens (and how authors react) is from this blog post here: http://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/when-publishing-goes-wrong-starring-undead-press/ .

Self-publishing can be vanity publishing in a way. Write a book and want it published, just throw it up on Amazon and boom you're a published author. Doesn't mean you're going to sell books, or that it's any good but there you go.

It is also a way to buck the system and sell good books that sell really well. I hate the book, but 50 Shades of Grey was a self-published novel. She did a lot of work (and had a lot of luck) to make the books sellable.

Here is a great article I recently found about the real costs of self-publishing: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/the-real-costs-of-self-publishing-book#

Yes! Exactly!stealing this article!

Close your parentheses and it's without, not with-out. Your $500 editor must really be earning her money.

She is.... I am horrible at spelling and grammar. She edits everything I do. It's. $500 for just one project she makes a lot more than that trust me.

[deleted]

She is a one man show. Gilly's red pen. Charges $1.50/page to new clients.

[deleted]

She edits anything. I'll link you to get Facebook page when I get off my phone. :-D

I just browsed your Facebook page. For an "author" you appear to be only semi-literate.

I will only answer this response with I have an editor. I am horrible with spelling and grammar. Please see Edit #2 for an explanation.

Hi, thanks for the time. I'm a lifelong writer that's just getting serious about being more prolific and making this into a career. I know this sounds vague, but how should I approach things in general? Should I submit my short stories hoping to get them published and then shop novels to any interested agents/publishers? Or do I go straight ahead with shopping the novels through traditional means? I'm considering self publishing all through digital media as well. Thanks, any guidance is appreciated.

How to publish a novel the traditional way:

Step 1: Write your novel/Short Story

Step 2: Edit

Step 3: Put it away for 2 weeks

Step 4: Edit

Step 5: Edit again

Step 6: Put it away again (for longer this time)

Step 7: Edit

Step 8: Give it to someone else to Edit

Step 9: Edit again

Step 10: Repeat steps 2 through 9.

Once you've polished, primed and changed everything about your story you're ready to sub. If you want to go the tradition route you have two options

1: Agent

2:Small press

For option #1

You find agents out there that represent you work. There are 100's (google is your friend). Make sure they are open to submissions. Look at their rate of sales, look at their client lists and start submitted. Follow their criteria to a tee. Expect to be rejected and be rejected a LOT. Always be nice and polite, agents know each other and they talk to each other.

For #2

Same process pick you small press(I will take a moment to pimp one of my publishers http://www.decadentpublishing.com/), make sure they are open to submissions, make sure they publish your book (Why are you submitting a children's novel to someone who only publishes erotic novels??) follow their submission guidelines to a tee. If they tell you to run around three times and do the chicken dance THEN YOU RUN AROUND THREE TIMES AND DO THE CHICKEN DANCE. And then wait and expect to be rejected.

LISTEN TO THE REJECTIONS

Then go back and do Step 2 through 9 AGAIN. They talk about how JK Rowling was rejected how many times? What they don't talk about is how she edited and changed (and with a stunning bit of luck!) got published.

I can't tell you what is right. You have to decide what you want to do but take your story, what ever your story is, edit the crap out of it, and then decide where it belongs.

Edit to clarify: This is a basic guide. I work with a lot of newbie writers and they all make the same mistake (Heck I made that mistake). Writing "the end" and then hitting send to agents/publishers/or to even self publish is the #1 way to get rejected. Editing is important, changing is important. Some people can do it in 3 edits and a re-write. Others need 6 edits, a re-write and a crit group to get it done. The only message that I want to project is that you have to "kill the baby" because your manuscript is not perfect, it's far from it.

I disagree with a lot of what is being said here. I am also a published writer and, with all due respect, I would like to provide a different perspective.

I'd like to start by saying something that I think Angela forgot to mention. Just because something works for one writer/person, doesn't mean it's going to work for another writer/person. I say this because I disagree with this ten-step program, while other writers might love it, and others might disagree with it even more than I do. More than anything: when it comes to writing advice that is given with the intent to blanket over all other advice is dangerous. Look for guidelines and suggestions; there are very few strict rules.

The ten steps above state that you should edit your story at least six times, and that you'll probably repeat that process for another six. If you need to edit your novel twelve times then you are probably doing something drastically wrong. If your first draft is comprised of scattered notes on where scenes are going to fit in, and then your second draft is written out as fast as possible with no regard for mistakes ("just get it on the page!" type writing), then editing six times is something that has to happen.

If you are a diligent planner, however, then it's okay to edit fewer times. If you are writing commercially, with the intent to make money and tell a good story but not interested in the more artistic side of writing, then it's okay to edit fewer times. If you write your first draft slowly, and constantly read back every few thousand words before you begin writing again, then it's okay to edit fewer times.

I also feel that the ten-steps does not put enough emphasis on someone else reading your work. This is vital. This might be one of the strict rules of writing. When you read back your own work, even after letting it sit in a drawer for a month, you'll still remember a lot of it and intuitively know what you were trying to say in each scene. You might not notice what's difficult to understand, or what's confusing, or where you had too many words in a sentence. You know what you were trying to say already, so you will likely see that. Someone else will see through all of that.

The final time you edit should also be down out loud. Personally, I'm fortunate enough that my wife is also a writer so we can help each other. We read each other's work out loud to check for any final mistakes: missing words, missing/extra commas, the wrong word being used (peek/peak). Reading your novel out loud will also let you know when a sentence has gone on too long, or when something is really confusing. At the very least, you should speak all of the lines of dialogue in your story to make sure it sounds natural enough that someone would actually say it.

You find agents out there that represent you work. There are 100's (google is your friend). Make sure they are open to submissions.

Links that I've used recently:

http://aaronline.org/ http://www.agentquery.com/ http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

You may want to google for more.

Now, contacting an agent and writing a query letter is its own beast completely separate from writing your novel. This part sucks. There's no way around it. It really, really, REALLY sucks. This, in my humble opinion, is the most soul-draining, life-crushing, shitty part of being a writer. It doesn't suck because of all of the rejections--they help though, more on that below--but because of the sheer amount of work that has to go into this.

For a start, here's an article on how to write a good query letter:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/08/how-to-write-query-letter.html

Bransford blog is a good resource for other information too, although the articles are a few years old at this point.

Here's why finding an agent is one of the most tedious things you will ever do:

Agents have their contact details listed on websites such as those I linked above. Those contact details have their own websites listed, so that you can verify the information. Now, seeing as agents are really busy people and get sent thousands of queries a year, they don't always keep this information updated. So be prepared to find conflicting information between AgentQuery and the agency's website. Do they accept fantasy? Only urban fantasy? While AgentQuery says they accept all genre fiction, but the agency's website says they don't take any. There's also a different email address listed on both. Which one do I send it to? This person has spelled their last name differently in two different places!

Maybe some exaggeration there on the last point. You will also find: links to websites that don't exist, websites that have been under construction for since 2001, a rabbit hole of contact details that ends with the person not even being an agent anymore, email addresses that don't exist, email addresses that bounce back with a failed-to-receive error, highly sought after agents that have hotmail email addresses, agents that state any attachment will be seen as a virus and will be deleted, agents that state any pasted text in the email should be placed in attachment or otherwise deleted, agents that state they want the first three chapters and a synopsis but don't clarify whether they want an attachment or not, agents that only want pdfs, agents that only want word docs. This list goes on and on.

Add to that:

1) You should also take the time to find some way to personalize the email to show the agent you at least visited their website. You also need to spend a while on said website making sure they represent your genre and that they didn't recently publish a book that's exactly like yours.

2) You need to edit your query letter just as much as your novel, because the SLIGHTEST mistake will cause most agents to discard your email. It will show you can't even proofread a few hundred words in an email, so how is your novel going to be any better? Again, you should read this out loud.

3) Triple check the email address and names are correct. Triple check you attached the right files or you pasted the correct amount at the end of the email.

And after doing all this hundreds of times for each agent:

1) 10% of the emails you just wrote, that you just meticulously edited, personalized, triple-checked, and investigated websites to make sure they were accurate, will bounce back with a failed email address and will be dead-ends.

2) 20% won't answer at all.

3) 60% will reject you with a form letter. "The publishing industry is highly subjective, so do not feel that your work is the reason we are rejecting you. Finding an agent means finding someone that is the right match for your book." Also, most of these will be addressed DEAR AUTHOR--and I mean literally the word "AUTHOR" at the top of the email, after you spent so much time personalizing the email and getting their name right.

4) 5% will be rejections that have some sort of feedback. I have never received constructive feedback from these rejections. It has always been either passive-aggressive links to the agent's blog where they shit over self-published work and say they were never consider something that has been self-published, or a downright surreal comment like "we do not publish anything written in the first-person". Thanks for putting that on your website so I could find that out!

5) The final 5% will be requests for more materials. You will provide said materials and then not hear from them for months. These are the replies that will make you happy you put so much time into your queries, but they will also be a source of frustration because the publishing industry moves very slowly.

So, again, try to take advice like:

LISTEN TO THE REJECTIONS

with a grain of salt. Do not go back an edit your novel after being rejected unless they are giving specific reasons for rejecting you. Many agents won't even read the sample chapters you give them. If you're feeling lucky, email them back and ask for some constructive criticism--only one agent that has rejected me has ever obliged this request, and I have sent out hundreds of these things--and then consider what they've said.

First off. Thank you for the well thought out response. I agree with what you are saying. I've never gone the agent route so your experience is very different from mine.

I should clarify (I will add an edit on the comment) that this is a basic guide. I work with a lot of newbie writers and a common mistake (Heck even I did it) is to write "the end" and then hit send to agents/publishers/or to even self publish. Editing is important, changing is important. Some people can do it in 3 edits and a re-write. Others need 6 edits, a re-write and a crit group to get it done. The only message that I want to project is that you have to "kill the baby" because your manuscript is not perfect, it's far from it.

Also when you receive personal rejections you should follow the advice of the publisher/editor/agent.

The Hemingway Variation includes:

Step 0: Drink heavily

ha! I'm a member of the local Hemingway club. We go out and get drunk and write. It's for sure step 0 on those nights :)!

Do i need to copy-write or protect a book before sending to publishers?

No, but it depends on the laws of your country. (Books only, screenplays are their own can of worms)

The USA recommends only copyrighting your works before publication if you're afraid someone is going to steal your idea.

Check out http://www.copyright.gov/ for more info.

If you copyright before publication, you will have to do an update afterwards since I guarantee your book will change and it will change a lot

Also a cheap and dirty way of assuring your copyright is to put it in an envelope seal it and send it back to yourself via registered mail.

EDIT: May not work in all countries see my comments below. I live in Canada it's legal way of establishing precedence here.

mailing yourself the work has been debunked

Depends on where you live. It's valid for the Canada and Britain, not for the US. See my other comment.

How does one actually go about getting a manuscript into the hands of publishers? It appears to me that most publishers don't accept manuscripts; they require an agent to submit it through the 'usual channels'. How does one normally get in touch with an agent?

So this was actually answered really well by another author (I haven't done the agent route yet. I'm assuming I will get there eventually but not ready yet) here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1f784i/i_am_a_published_author_and_i_dont_think_you/ca7ndiv .

Basically if you want to go big 6, you need an agent. Small press accept direct from the author, and are great when you are just trying to learn the biz.

Also on a rare occasion the big-name pubs open up to general submissions. It's VERY rare but does happen and I know 3 or 4 authors who have gone big 6 this way.

Is it difficult for a minor (under 18) to publish a book?

Yes and no. If you want to publish erotica. Then no one will touch you with a 10 foot pole. If you want to publish stuff aimed towards young adults then you have a decent chance. Just keep writing :)!

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Staff writer in Atlanta here. I just interviewed a gay male porn star who's left the industry and is pursuing erotica. Here's what he had to say:

Why should people read porn instead of watching it?

The images you create in your head are very specific to yourself. You may watch a porn and think the actors are "kinda hot" but when you read erotica, you create the exact image in your brain that turns you on, from the physical traits of the characters to the settings and surroundings. That makes it even hotter.

This exactly :)!

Hey! You looked my book! #awesome. I wasn't expecting that :). I'm doing this ama for Info not to sell books.

The appeal is that people want to get swept up, turned on and enjoy reading. They sell very well and the popularity (thanks to the horrid 50 shades books) are growing.

I have earned a lot. Pulling in a rent payment or so every 3 months :)! I won't say exact numbers. It takes a little while to get earning a decent amount if you're publishing traditionally.

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So promote your self. Do blog tours, vlog, get local media attention. Promotion is all about "look at me, look at me". Go to conferences that specialize in your type of book. Make friends with authors who will promote you. There is tons you can do. Just having a book sit on amazon isn't going to sell copies (Unless you're in a top 10 position).

After being published the traditional route, what made you decide to self-publish? What are the pros and cons in your experience?

Thanks so much for the AMA!

So this is a great question.

The very short answer is I screwed up.

I wrote the first book of this series directly after finishing my First book "Sometimes It's Fate" so way back in 2009. I immediately subbed it off and got rejected. From everyone. Literally every publisher that does F/M/M kicked it out the door. Not because it's not a good novel, but because I had a controversial topic (that I have since edited out) and it needed a metric-shit-ton of editing.

Once something is rejected you can't go back and say "Hey! I changed it, look at me, look at me! Read it again" So after a lot of thought I decided to do a rapid publish of all three books the series at once. Which means self-publishing.

Pros for traditional: You get to learn the game and get help doing so. Cons: It's not on your schedule.

Pros for self-pub: You can publish what you want. When you want, no matter what you want. Cons: Huge stigma (that is changing!) against self published works.

Here's a dumb question form a complete n00b who has misunderstood the concept since birth:

What the hell is "publishing"? What is it about "publishing" something that magics a book into existence?

What if I have a completed story, all edited, perfected, bound together, and I even got my awesome artist friend to make the best cover art ever. My book is by all accounts, "done"; but then the first thing people are going to ask is: "oh... well, did you get it published?"

What does this do for an author and the book?

Furthermore, why is it a big deal when someone decides to self-publish?

(not trying to be ignorant here, I've just never been explained that step of the process)

I'm not the OP, but I think I can answer your question and provide some inside into the point of contention between traditional and self-publishing.

Getting a book published is about moving your raw idea (in the form of a first draft) through a series of gates so it can become a finished book. Each of these gates (submitting manuscript, working with editor, working with publisher, etc) is a form of quality control. To be fair, quality control is a debatable point. Some industry veterans might describe it as purely a profit game. I don't care to comment.

The point is, when you're published, the literary community says, "Oh, this book is good." because all along the way, people who read your manuscript and worked with you saw value in it. Getting published is a sort of validation that you can hang.

Therein lies the crux of the fight between the industry and the self-publishers. Any jerkwad can self-publish; doesn't mean it's a good read.

... These are not my opinions, just perceptions. I am not a published author.

Basically this yes :)!

How much do you make on average, yearly/monthly from this profession? Do you need to supplement your income with other jobs, at least when you were first starting out? How hard was it to achieve the success you have now?

So writing is a subjective business.

I'm pulling in a rent payment every few months, so I work as an RN to supplement my income. I have a few friends that are making 30-45k a year at it (they are often writing full time), I have a select few that make 60k a year.

Right now working as an RN makes me 65+k a year. With writing only make a fraction of that. I don't have as much time to write so I don't make as much. It's a bit of a circle. One day I would like to quit and just write, but I have the problem of really loving my nursing job, as much as I love writing. So I don't want to quit!

Is creating your own cover art a good idea or a bad idea? I really want to self publish my series this summer and I'm a talented artist, but I don't know if having my own cover would help or hurt my chances I becoming successful

It depends. If you're a good artist then go for it. If you can get the right picture for your concert then that's what matters. I can't draw or design worth a hill of beans. If you can all the power to you!

What are the best tips you can give me regarding self-publishing? Any specific dos/donts?

How to Self publish a novel:

Step 1: Write your novel/Short Story

Step 2: Edit

Step 3: Put it away for 2 weeks

Step 4: Edit

Step 5: Edit again

Step 6: Put it away again (for longer this time)

Step 7: Edit

Step 8: Give it to someone else to Edit

Step 9: Edit again

Step 10: Repeat steps 2 through 9.

Once you've polished, primed and changed everything about your story you're ready to hire an editor. Some people get away with using crit groups for editing. Most do not. If you have bad editing (I was the victim of bad editing for my first traditionally published novel) then people will NOT but your book after reading the first chapter "preview" on amazon.

1. Hire an editor
2. Find a cover artist
3. Choose where you want to self publish, look at printing options offered by Amazon and smashwords (most serious self-publishing authors use smashwords). Follow their processes as best you can.
4. Typeset and make sure that everything is perfect before you hit "Send"
5. Expect to make mistakes your first time out.

If I have an awesome idea for a book/screenplay, but not the discipline to write it. Are there authors willing to take it on?

The answer is No. Most authors (any authors) have a million and one ideas for books/screenplays/short stories.

Unless you're ghost writing a memoir or something of the like NO ONE writes anyone else's ideas!

Go ahead and write it on your own :)!

Funny this AMA popped up, I'm doing a fun little experiment where I'm writing a book by publishing a chapter every week and putting it up online for free. I thought it would be a good way to keep me motivated, and hey there's a small chance someone important might see it, right?

What do you think of my strategy? The issue, of course, is that I can't really go back and edit until it's done. But I figure at the end of this I'll at least have a first draft.

Did you know that Oliver Twist was released in a similar manner?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#Publications

I think it's a great way to gain interest from people out there! Waiting for the next week. Just remember since it's available for free expecting to charge for publications later is a bit of a no-no in the publishing world.

Good luck :)!

What was your first book about?

I will only do one self-promo thread and I guess this one is it :)!

I have two full length novels published at the moment. They are part of an on-going series arc that will be 5 books (I think?).

Sometimes It's Fate (Canada's Finest Series. Book 1.) http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B005IQDRZQ

Sometimes It's Fate Is about finding meaning in insurmountable loss. (M/M romance FYI). I wrote it after the boys in red accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_in_Red_accident

I lost someone I considered family that day and Sometimes It's Fate is how I dealt with the loss.

It's my first book, I made A lot of mistakes. It's not perfect but it's mine and I love Jason and David.

Boots on the Ground (Canada's Fines Series, Book 2) http://www.amazon.com/Boots-On-The-Ground-ebook/dp/B00AAODH6K

(M/M romance, with a hint of M/F)Jason goes to Afghanistan. It's about military families surviving the loss of a love one, about holding on when all hope is lost, and realizing that we are all human. I break Jason in this novel. One terrible sentence at a time. I kinda hate myself for it. I promise he will get put back together, eventually.

This is my BEST novel to date. I recommend reading this one above all of the others.

Positive Attraction (Canada's Finest series, Book 2.5) Releasing this fall from Phaze Books

Craig's story. About finding someone who loves you, even for your flaws and your terrible mistakes.

Special Investigations(Canada's Finest Series, Book 3) Releasing from Phaze books in the fall of 2013 Jason has to come to terms with that happened to him in Afghanistan and go on with life, or choose to end it.

From my "Hat Trick series" (Short stories about Hockey)

Goalie Interference (Hat Trick series book 1) http://www.amazon.com/Goalie-Interference-Night-Series-ebook/dp/B007UK9DWO

(M/F sexy times)

Hockey goalie Tarah 'TJ' Elliot is too busy stopping pucks to go looking for love. When her friend Natalie sets her up through Madame Eve's 1 Night Stand service, she grudgingly agrees to go. Her ultimate fantasy comes true when Scott Alarid, one of the top scorers in the league, shows up at her hotel room. Hockey player TJ can't possibly spend a night with him, but Tarah certainly can.

Scott's tired of dealing with women who only like him for his all-star status. After his teammates arrange a date for him using the 1NS website, he's delighted to find a woman who doesn't know a thing about the sport. But, will the truth force them to put their relationship on ice?

Power Play written by Emily Cale (Hat Trick Series book 2) http://www.amazon.com/Power-Night-Stand-Series-ebook/dp/B0093TFS5Q (M/F/M Sexy times!)

Natalie Fritz didn't need a night of sexual adventure as payment for setting her friend up, but she wouldn't turn it down either. Determined to make sure she gets exactly what she wants, she contacts Madame Eve and requests not one, but two dates for the evening. What she doesn't expect is for those men to be players on her friend's hockey team.

Ian and Todd find that sharing women provides all parties with more pleasure. Finding someone who buys into their theory is a little harder. So they turn to Madame Eve's 1 Night Stand service to locate a partner. When they meet Natalie, they discover a gorgeous woman who turns them on physically and intellectually.

Most relationships are meant to be between two people, but what happens when it takes three to make the night worthwhile? Can they take a leap of faith or will their time be limited to one night?

Unsportsmanlike Conduct (Hat trick Series, Book 3) Releasing from Decadent Publishing in summer 2013

M/M Closeted hockey player meets cop. Sexy times ensure :)!

I have multiple other novels that are in the works. An author's work is never done.

What is the best way to get a book noticed/published; Showing it to a publisher when it's halfway, after it's done, or when it is almost finished but just needs some polishing? I'm asking this because I'm currently writing a fantasy novel, inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire. Thanks in advance!

So the general rule of thumb is that you ONLY submit when book is polished, primped and ready to go.

If you submit a query and then it gets accepted then you need to have your manuscript ready to send ASAP. Agents or publishers won't wait 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years for a book you're "going" to finish. They will move onto the next person with-out blinking an eye.

So after Copyrighting my short story/novel, is there something else I need to do before submitting it to Amazon to be kindle-published?

Hire and editor and EDIT it. Then edit it again and again. Hire a cover artist (or do it yourself?). Make sure you get type-set for printing. Looking into your printing options (if you want to go that route). If you do not live in the USA make sure you get an ITIN #.