And the writing continues...

[texace]

Well, my writing continues. Except now I've got the backing of the entire high school. I can't remember how it happened, as I had only ever printed off the rough copies of the chapters I'd wiritten. I had shown the current works to my English teacher (only on chapter 13 of God knows how many) and she was very very impressed. What I'm going to do is go back through all the chapters and revise them and get them ready to send off to a publisher.

Now here's where my problem lies. Though I've got my school and teachers (hell even the superintendant) behind me, I'm still worried about sending this to the publishers. The only reason is the subject matter and my age. I'm not sure if what the publisher reads will be taken seriously. I mean, I enjoy what I am writing, but I'm still not sure if anyone other than myself would enjoy reading this. I'm almost sure that it won't be turned into a REAL book, but it'd be nice to at least get some credit for something like this. My principle's excited, but only because I'd be the first student at our high school to actually ACCOMPLISH something.

So, can anyone here give me some tips on what to do? I want to get my writings published, but I'm afraid that what I submit will be dismissed. Especially the way I'm writing this mini-novel so to speak. It's sort of like a cartoon or an anime running in my head and I translate that onto the paper. It's like an action fiction type of thing. Still, I don't know how to go about this while not getting a letter back with simply "Hahahahahahahahah!!!!" written on it. If anyone here would like to see what I have, let me know, and I'll post or e-mail you a chapter or a snippit of it.

Thanks!

[CavemanJ]

"The only thing to fear is fear itself."

"Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation causes your worst fears to come true."

Send it dude.  Worst that can happen is you'll get a letter back telling you that they aren't interested.  Or they might refer you to another publishing house if your writing is outside thier usual genre.

Of course, it's possible that they just might send you a check and say "Where's the rest of it?"    I say go for it, specially if you've got that many people excited about it.

[Voss]

I can't help you there. A novel? Fiction? Hmm...

The only publisher I know of does computer books and such; Mitchell Waite of the Waite Group Press (Sam's Publishing being the parent group).

I could ask him what he suggests, if you like. The process we've always followed in the past with a new subject matter is to send the first chapter and allow time for consideration. The main consideration is audience, of course. If the subject matter will appeal to a large enough audience then a publisher will be interested. They want to sell at least 20,000 copies. Anything less then that and they might as well publish coasters.

Don't be too critical on your effort, though. There's money to be made out there.

[Nash]

Depending on the publisher, you're gonna want to think about getting an agent. Bigger definitely yes, smaller maybe not. They don't cost anything (they get paid only if you do), but most publishers will only look at something if it's submitted by an agent. The reasoning sorta goes that if you can't win an agent over, then it's not worth their time... A sort of screening process. A benefit of that, for you, is getting much feedback on your book before it's submitted. Depending on how many agents you submit this to, you may get a lot of direction. Or none.... But if you get an agent on board, the editing process usually starts around that time and makes things much less painful when the publisher gets into the editing game. (Nevermind sentence structure, try "Your book has 300 pages and that aint in the production budget that we're lookin' at for your book. Chop it to 200. And we don't like the fact that Claudia dies in the 10th chapter. We like her. Don't kill her off." <--- from a friend who eventually had this book published by Knopf)

[funkedup]

principAl

superintendEnt

snippEt

Get a good editor!



(Seriously, best of luck to you.)

[Elfenwolf]

Texace may I take a look?

[Gunthr]

Texace, edit your work as good as you can get it and then send it to a dozen publishers. It is unlikely that your first attempt would be published. You already know that. But you might be able to get some valuable feedback from one of the publishers about what you can do to make your work appealing to the masses.

Don't forget the magazines, either. To sit down and write a "book" for your first foray into writing is pretty ambitious, maybe too ambitious. If you can take your idea and make a shorter piece out of it, you may have a better chance to sell it to a magazine of the same genre. Just make sure you use an economy of words.

While you are doing that, you can fire off some stuff to Reader's Digest, even if its just anecdotes or jokes. Its a numbers game. Sooner or later you are bound to get lucky if you can write.

Take a creative writing class if you can.

Write what you know about.


PS: Your age is not relevant. Your life experience is. Subject matter is not relevant unless your area of interest is so narrow that few people will spend their time reading about it.

G'luck

[texace]

Actually, this is not my first attempt at doing something like this. I've been writing odd things since I was old enough to do so. Just last year I finished my short story on WWII aviation, 7 chapters, all fiction.

I understand about teh editing and spelling, thank you. I'm calling around to people I know, and asking them. I was just planing on sending it first to a publisher that does student poetry and small writings to see if they could recommend me to anyone. I'm checking around...maybe people are interested.

Elf, sure dude...once I get the first chapter revised and edited, as I'm going to do for all my chapters, I'll send it to you, as well as anyone else that wants to. Also, if you want to see my WWII stories that I wrote, I'll see if I acn find the ol copies on a disk somewhere...

Thanks again...working on this...:)

[-sudz-]

Here are some things I picked up from reading a book on writing by Orson Scott Card:

1)  Just send in the first chapter to the publisher and let him know how much you've got so far.  They should be able to judge the work's worth without you sending, or them having to deal with, a huge block of paper.  They will contact you if they need further chapters to make up their mind.

2) Send your submission to one publisher at a time - if they refuse it you can send it to the next, but if 2 publishers say they're interested at the same time you just put everyone in an awkward position. (I know this will take ALOT more time, but you're establishing a reputation as a writer - don't blow it the first time out).

3) If you get an acceptance offer from the publisher then it's time to get an agent.  An agent will be easier to sign on once they know you've got a winner (and hense, their fee).  Agents don't typically put out much effort for a new, unproven writer.

4) Getting a publisher to read your work is probably the hardest part.  Here's some tips to help in that regard:

   a)  Join a creative writing club or take a class - this will get you
        started on networking in the industry.  Not only can
        published writer's use their influence with a publisher, but
        publishers themselves look in these institutions for raw
        talent.  You'll also have a pool of other aspiring writers to help
        critique and help with any awkward places in your work.
   b)  Get an established writer in your genre to read your book
        before the publisher.  Some writers will be helpful, others
        may even charge you.  But a recommendation from an
        established talent will get your foot in the door.

5)  Lastly, check out a book on publishing in your genre.  The
     list of publishers changes constantly and, to a lesser extent,
     their criteria for acceptance.  There's some book out there
     called "Writer's Almanac" (or something) that's published
     every year with all sorts of helpful hints.

Good luck, dude.  Don't worry about still being in high school, just
don't tell anyone till it's time to sign the contract and your parents
have to cosign.

- sudz

[texace]

Wow, thanks sudz...I'll look into that...

Elf, I'm getting the first chapter revised, and it'll be on the way...you have and e-mail address and Word?

[Animal]

advice: write for youself. if others enjoy it, cool.

[Wlfgng]

I heard through the grapevine that there's a very inexpensive way to publish on the Internet.

Might wanna' look into that.

I hear it's a great way for 'fledgling' writers to start.