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Authors: What Helped in Your Quest to Get Published?
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Mine was done almost solely on my own. My wife helped tremendously with her editing and suggestions, and I called upon a very good friend with professional editing experience to do a final review. Beyond that, I started the process and finished the process without help or support.Now that I have reached my goal, I will utilize newly discovered resources for my next endeavor.
Thanks Doug and good luck on your next project!
Most of the time I do everything myself, but I have a couple of people I can rely on for help when I need them.A freelance artist friend, who does several of my book covers.
Another friend, who does most of the other book covers, helps with editing when I need it, and has recently started helping me with creating the cover files to make my books available in paperback.
My Dad, who sorts out my website for me, and has also done a couple of covers.
And last - but certainly not least - my hubby. Who lets me bounce ideas off him, tells me if things in my stories don't make sense, puts up with me yelling at him when my characters refuse to do what they're told, and acts as my eyes for things that need sight (like approving book covers).
It took me 14 months to produce a polished manuscript and 2 additional months working with and learning from those assigned to assist in converting the manuscript into a commercially viable book.The process resulted in the original manuscript being reduced from 126,000 words to 111,000 in the paperback and e-book formats and 85,000 words in the abridged audio book format.
Having a good friend I'd correspond with by email and who'd critique my work was a great help. But my efforts to find a publisher or agent weren't successful – in the end it was being recommended by someone in the publishing field who knew me from a writing group which made the difference. Editing wasn't too much of a problem, as I'm a freelance editor but, even so, it's hard to pick up errors in your own work, so that extra pair of eyes is vital.
I was fortunate to have someone make an introduction to the acquisitions editor for my eventual UK publisher, which in turn led to a US contract.My UK publisher retired, and I recently took rights back from my US publisher. For a lot of reasons, I am just as satisfied to be going it on my own at this juncture. I learned a great deal out of being traditionally published, to be sure, but I really do prefer to have more control at the end of the day.
I always wrote stories and got serious in 2002. I found out about self publishing after some research and fueled by my desire to see my stuff in print, crapped out a really crappy book in 2005. Despite my going to school and learning all I can (and over 600+ rejections), publishing was something I was utterly clueless about. After my cousin pointed and laughed at me at my best efforts and got a thoughtful rejection from Penguin, I wanted to be a pro and researched harder to get the stuff looking legit and at least *right*. tried again in 2009 and with some moderate success here i am. ^_^
I finally accepted ebooks and notice they tend to sell more than paperbacks. so off i go hammering out ebooks...
For me it was persistence. I decided not to self-publish, as I figured the story would have wide appeal if I could get the writing right. It took me more than 20 years, with a new improved draft every three or four years, until I found a publisher willing to financially back the project. It was a long time (though I did a lot of other stuff in between), but very satisfying.
I just wrote a story and sent it to a top flight literary magazine. They rejected it, so I sent it to a slightly more modest literary magazine. They rejected it too...Eventually I caught a break and had my story published in the final issue of a PDF e-zine which I suspect had fewer than 20 subscribers. They paid me £10, which I spent on the Team America: World Police DVD.
It still counts.
Then I repeated the process, and each time a slightly more impressive publication took the story... until I took a lengthy break from writing short stories in 2008.
K.P. wrote: "got a thoughtful rejection from Penguin"This is an important point that I glossed over in my initial post to this thread. The first publisher to whom I sent my full MS (they liked the first three chapters and wanted the whole thing) sent me a very detailed rejection letter. I had to simmer down for a while, of course ... but then I decided to take the advice in that letter with which I agreed, ignore the advice with which I didn't agree ... and start trying again. I truly believe that this is part of what led to that UK contract (along with the introduction by another author from that imprint, which basically served to move my MS to the top of the slush pile).
A detailed, thoughtful rejection letter is a gift.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and I hope your insights will help others in their quest to get published. Good luck on your current or upcoming projects!
I found it helpful to plug into local writer's groups. Most communities have them. Never know when someone will offer a gem of insight at meetings & events.
Kim wrote: "I found it helpful to plug into local writer's groups. Most communities have them. Never know when someone will offer a gem of insight at meetings & events."I joined an Internet group devoted to "hard" science fiction, "Science Fiction Novelists" http://www.sfnovelist.com/index.htm It was the wisest move I ever made. The group was in its infancy when I joined up, but a good portion of them are now published authors. I learned a LOT from the other writers in the group (and conversely). Everyone brings something to the table.
We still get new writers regularly. But we're all a big "online" (dysfunctional) family of humans and aliens.
Fascinating! How large is your group and how do you handle meetings/sessions? The writing group I belong to has 8 members and we meet once a month.
Did you get the part about an "Internet group"? We do things a bit differently, but have members all over the world. I don't know how many members we have now, you'd have to ask the boss (Victory).Most of what you want to know is on the landing page of the link I gave you. There's even a free membership period (and even the dues are fairly small -- just enough to pay the website host).
Did you get the part about an "Internet group"? We do things a bit differently, but have members all over the world. I don't know how many members we have now, you'd have to ask the boss (Victory).Most of what you want to know is on the landing page of the link I gave you. There's even a free membership period (and even the dues are fairly small -- just enough to pay the website host).
Enjoy. I've got another member reviewing my current book to help me get out of a dead zone (my muse ran up against a wall and he volunteered to help -- bless him).
I would love to find out what support groups or writing techniques you used to help you become a published author. Thanks for sharing, and I would imagine that there are some interesting stories out there.