So, I Wrote a Book. Now What?

[troutman]

Writing Grants:

http://canadacouncil.ca/writing-and-...g/find-a-grant

http://publishers.ca/index.php/get-p...lishing-grants

http://www.thebpc.ca/the-resource-file/grants/

[Coach]

Would something like Kickstarter be useful? Just send different copies of the book for different sized donations? (basic bound, blank cover, custom cover, etcc..) Where would I go to get a really official copy printed (with a hard cover I designed or something?), even if it's just for myself?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Would something like Kickstarter be useful?

Steady Ian.

[Dion]

Congrats Matty on writing your first book.

[VladtheImpaler]

Amazon is a pretty nasty piece of work. You should really talk to the better half - she can probably point you in the right direction and save you a lot of fruitless thrashing about.

[Sr. Mints]

Many publishers have their own in-house editorial, but smaller firms can simply lack the resources.

The editorial process should go something like this:

Developmental editing, which focuses on narrative structure, voice and characterization, pacing, and how the whole story fits together. A diligent editor will spot weaknesses in these areas and recommend suggestions for improvement.

Then there's line editing, which as the name suggests, involves sifting through a manuscript line by line with the goal of improving clarity, tone, consistency, and style.

Later on, you'll want to move onto copyediting, which is the stage that concerns itself with the boring stuff: grammar, spelling, tense, punctuation, and, if applicable, fact-checking. You'd be amazed how words/grammar/structure/etc. get thrown about after a heavy rework. Body parts everywhere. And they can be hard to spot. For some reason many writers start here, which doesn't make much sense when you think about it.

Lastly (and frankly, you likely won't have to deal with much of this unless you self-publish . . . which I don't recommend, by the way), proofreading: this involves the checking of typeset pages against a copyedited manuscript to ensure all corrections have been properly implemented. A proofreader would also check design, formatting, folios, spacing, and breaks. This would be done in-house at most publishers. Probably by an intern.

Do yourself a favour and don't rely too heavily on friends and family, etc.. They can be great to bounce things off of, help with content and structure, and for light editing, but I recommend you find a professional to do the heavy lifting when you're ready.

PM me if you have any specific questions. I don't check CP much during the off season.

[octothorp]

First of all, congrats!

I don't have much familiarity with the sci-fi industry, but have you spent any time on Goodreads? The writer forums on there are extremely knowledgeable, and it's a great place to connect with people who have a good understanding of the industry, as well as others in a similar situation to you. If you haven't had any outside edits yet and aren't ready to spend money on an editor, the editor-exchanges on Goodreads can be useful.

Also, the title sounds harsh, but I highly recommend the book '78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published.' It's a really great look at what goes on inside the publishing world, and why so many books that are written never get any further.

Spend a lot of time researching publishers and their submission guidelines. Spend some time looking at what publishers are putting out, how many titles per year. Go to bookstores, and look and see what titles seem to be doing well. Pay attention to whether they accept unsolicited manuscripts, query letters, and such. Do they accept simultaneous submissions? What word-counts do they expect? Do they tend to publish series, and does your novel have series potential?
Most get absolutely inundated with scripts, and weeding out people who don't follow directions or don't seem to really know the process or don't seem to know the publisher is usually the first step. Sci-fi may be different, but in the Canadian Lit publishing industry, getting an agent is actually much harder than getting a publisher (there's 50 or so decent small presses, and maybe a quarter of that number of agents, many of whom don't consider unpublished authors). In the US Lit industry, it's the opposite, where an agent is absolutely expected, usually even with small presses. I suspect that sci-fi may be more like the US. Definitely research about whether it's worth it to actually get an agent. Do most other writers in your industry get agents before they get their first publishing contract?

I would also recommend trying to publish some short pieces in magazines, whether modified excerpts, or other pieces of work. Anything that bolsters your resume. This is particularly important if you decide you want to get an agent: an agent is essentially investing their time in you, so you need to convince them that this is something you're taking seriously, over the long term, and not simply a bucket-list project.

Kickstarter is tricky (as is self-publishing in general). It's really about how much excitement and interest you can generate prior to launching the campaign. Don't count kickstarter as part of your marketing plan: count on it as the way to actually make sales after you've put loads of work into the actual marketing. I wouldn't necessarily totally discount Kickstarter and self-publishing, but far, far more self-published projects fail than succeed. Getting a publisher is a lot of work. Self-publishing well is even more work, with worse odds of success.

Best of luck, and keep us posted!

[Coach]

I'd just like to bump this, firstly to thank all those who have commented and/or contacted me through PM. Much appreciate the help and insight.

I did however have another question to pose to the masses. What if I just wanted to get, say 25-50, books printed with a cover etc.., basically something that looks pretty much like a novel, just to give/sell at cost, to some friends/family that want a copy? Is something like that possible, or would it be pretty expensive to just get that many copies made? Can that just be done at a "printing house" or are there only pretty specific shops that would do something like that?

[Table 5]

Yes, there are plenty of online services like that where you can print short-run books. Such as http://www.blurb.ca/

[psyang]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Yes, there are plenty of online services like that where you can print short-run books. Such as http://www.blurb.ca/

Was just going to post the same link. I helped my dad publish his memoirs through blurb.ca. It was mostly a painless process - you download their software, and import your text or Word doc into it. It has most of the normal text editing features (fonts, justification, etc). You can also import pictures. You then design the front/back cover and spine. The software was a bit quirky, but gave you enough control to do what was needed.

We did a bit of shopping, and the rates at blurb were by far the best, with no minimum - I think it ended up being around $5/book (standard paperback, glossy cover), with discounts if you published in quantity.

The no-minimum is great, as we printed a copy just for a "in-your-hands" proof reading, which was extremely useful. It's hard to tell if the font size or margins are properly proportioned until you see it in print. We also found a bug in their software that caused certain characters in certain fonts to not show up. They fixed the bug, refunded the cost of the book, then gave us a promo code to print something like 25 books at 50% off. Great customer service. All in all, a pleasant experience.

[peter12]

Buy a corduroy jacket and start introducing yourself as a polymath.

[FanIn80]

When I looked into this years ago, I was told one of this first things I should do is send a printed and sealed copy of it to myself, using a service that timestamps everything, and then put it away somewhere in case you need to prove authorship at some point in the future.

I have no clue if this is still true or not, but it always seemed like sound advice.

[Iceman90]

Have you looked into Amazon's self publishing tools?

• Kindle Direct
• CreateSpace
• Other tools

[T@T]

I called a former employee who is about to get published from these guys.

http://www.signature-editions.com/index.php/submissions

Reading the site shows they only accept Canadian citizens and only publish 8-10 a year. I have no idea if that's normal.

Norm said how it works is they have up to 10 people read your work and grade it, the top few percent get published and they even edit it for free.

Wouldn't hurt to send them a copy.