Hi. This is me promoting my book. It's called, Shadows and Pain, and is for sale at lulu.com

http://stores.lulu.com/mindsight

It's a fairly short book of dark poetry, and is in paperback, hardcover and ePub. There's also a short story I wrote on the page that you can download for free, but people so far have seemed to shy away from that one, probably because it's about such a cheery subject as a nuclear holocaust.

I'll post some of my poetry here if anybody's interested.

Link doesn't work. And that's interesting. How'd you get a book of poetry published?

Lulu is self-publishing.

Hmmm.... I tried the link and it worked for me..???? I don't know why it didn't work for you. Maybe it's a temporary glitch and it will work later? And Wintermoth is right. Lulu is a self-publishing place. It's cool though! There aren't any upfront costs, so even if you don't have a bunch of money, you can still publish a book. But you have to market it yourself, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Still....

And, not to sound like an ad, but you can publish other stuff, too like CD's and calanders. You can even make stuff you never intend to sell.

I was asking around a forum (elsewhere) and someone told me to check them out as well as iUniverse, but iUniverse had upfront costs, so Lulu won

Just wondering, but did you attempt to go through a professional editor and then publisher first?

No, not really. I was looking at some literary agents on the web, but never talked to one and I did some reading. I think when I was told about Lulu in that forum, that I was asking if anyone knew of a literary agent that they knew wasn't shifty (because I read about how some are). I can't remember if I asked if anyone knew any good publishers.

I hang around with some published authors (for real, not vanity publishing). Its very hard to get an agent, less so a deal, and making a living off it is an unrealistic goal for most. Depressing, but the truth.
The best thing is to polish your craft. Most "first" books are actually the tenth or so, it takes about that (one million words) to develop your own style and the ability to plot a cogent arc for your story. Its lonely slog and no writing school or course will help anything but your ego.

Ditto to all of that. I live with a published author, and he actually does all right at making a living at it. Although a lot of his income these days comes in the form of royalty checks. It definitely pays if an author can sell a series to an editor. Also, television tie-ins are profitable.

-- Nephele

And that makes me sad as I've written a few full length romance novels. I'll never get them published. Sigh.

I think the message here Midi is to keep doing it, if you have the passion and love for your work. Expecting instant success and bags of money is unrealistic.

I just finished my third full novel in November as part of NaNoWriMo, and my English teacher asked to read it. She handed it back to me, telling me to read it to the class. Apparently, she had allowed half of the English department to read it, and she's helping me find a professional editor to help me with it before looking for a publisher. It's exciting and bewildering, so I wanted to hear about your experience.

Does anyone have any advice on going through the process? I know it's supposed to be difficult, especially when most people roll their eyes when they see a 16 year old wrote a novel. Still, I'm pretty determined with this, and I know I can make it work.

Who said I did?! Look, I'm sorry if I'm flying off the handle a little here, but seriously, all I did was tell you guys that I published a book (you know, so someone would buy it) and I answered somebody's question about some background details. I never even hinted at thinking I expected "instant success and bags of money". I am simply doing some self-promotion (In the "Promotion" forum). That is all.

-- Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:44 pm --




Well, I don't know this particular route, but there are things on the web you can find. Describing (and/or warning) about literary agents and publishing houses and stuff. Good-luck on everything, though! And ignore the people who like to throw a great big blanket of doom on other people dreams, goals and desires. They're wrong and they probably create more broken dreams than they help people to "be realistic", "not get disappointed", or whatever other reason they lend to their "helpfulness"/negativity. Probably best to just stick around the people who are positive and encouraging. And it looks like you've got that plus helpful!

Mid-night, I think LS's message was a positive one -- not a negative one in the least. I didn't get the impression that he was implying that you (or anyone else here) might have unrealistic expectations.

Wishing you (and all aspiring writers) the personal satisfaction that comes from the creative process. If fame and financial success follow as a result, then even better. But cheers to you, regardless, for doing the thing you love to do.

-- Nephele

I have the attitude that if you want something enough, it'll happen for you. I'm pretty sure I have that, as well as the support needed to deal with possible rejection from publishers.

As far as agents go, I found a page listing agents who are definitely or have a possibility of being a scam.

The links for the sites are here if anyone else who is interested in this route to getting published:
http://pred-ed.com/pubwarn.htm
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/

I actually kept asking around in my school while my teacher was absent and found out that several other educators are published. I think after my holiday, I'll have to find them and ask them about how things go along. I'm just worried really about how much creative direction they allow the author when it comes to dust jackets, promotion, etc.

Do you find it easy to promote yourself through self publication?

Thanks Nephele for clarifying that, I'm not having a go at anybody. Sounds like a sound plan Hyde. The publishing world is a snakepit and a good agent is golden. Marketing (I'm sorry to say) is often the key to success and promotional slots, floor space at shops, posters etc. pull in the punters. On-line publishing is easier but the marketing is still required in the real world as well (posters, cards etc.). Push, push, push to get noticed. The archives of this blog are a source of fun and quite revealing: http://misssnark.blogspot.com/, especially http://misssnark.blogspot.com/search/label/No%20no%20no (Beware: Full bore snarkage)