Hi.

I can hardly believe it myself, but I am writing a book. I was having a chat with a colleague one night last week, and I said that the main thing I was lacking was an original concept. Then, I feared that I would start writing like another author, rather than using a style of my own. I suppose that there is no shame in being compared to Stephen King, for example, any more than I would be ashamed of being compared to George Clooney in the looks department, but I digress.

The thing is, that I got my original idea. At least, I had an idea and I have developed it in a way that is different to any other story I have ever read. As for writing style, well it isn't elegant- it's a story, not a classic piece of English Literature, but it is good.

Who says it is good? My colleague for one. She read what by now must have been about the first quarter of the story and said "S**t" Yes, she actually said it "I've got to the end and I don't want to."

My dad has also been reading it as it has developed. He's not normally an emotional sort, and he said it is "Good", but when I actually saw him today, he said it is "Excellent" and he can't believe that it is me that has written it.

So, what do I do with it? When I first started, I envisaged a short story in something like a magazine. What ignorance. I next thought that it could be included in a book of short stories, but it is now over 25,000 words and as such is classed as a "novella" and therefore is worthy of publication on its own.

So, what next? Do any of you have any experience, or- if I should be so lucky- even work at a publishers?

I am guessing that the most important part is to safeguard my intellectual property. The second thing I could do with is an editor as you can probably tell from my posts, my content isn't bad, but my composition could be improved.

I have noticed a tremendous difference between authors, and therefore can't look at every book and copy the format accordingly. Stephen King doesn't seem to like colons, for example but Word would have me put dozens of them in every paragraph. Some authors don't seem to like commas and I find myself reading sentences several times before they make sense. Although I can do it myself, I wouldn't mind help so that a publisher will actually read it.

The third part is actually getting somewhere with it- getting it on the shelves and making some money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting to be the next JK Rowling, but if the story really is any good, then I must be able to make some money out of it.

Can anyone help? I'll mention you in my acceptance speech for whatever award I get.

Depending on how long the book ends up being you will possibly need to find an agent. I think that if you submit directly to a publisher (bypassing an agent) you're quite likely to just be added to a pile of unsolicited manuscripts and forgotten about. Some magazines and anthologies may welcome submissions for shorter stories. It may be worth buying or borrowing The Writers' And Artists' Yearbook 2010: Clicky. I used to look through this many years ago when looking for potential markets for my illustration work but it lists in great detail every UK and US publisher and the sort of material they are looking for. There are also articles on how to submit work, find an agent, etc. Most libraries should have a copy.

Have you read this? Clicky

It's very entertaining and tells you exactly how one of the world's best-selling authors got to where he is today.

Good luck!

Try www.lulu.com or www.blurb.com for self-publishing.

They both have loads of information on how to prepare the manuscript and artwork, and will help you organise selling right through to listing on Amazon.

I've used Lulu for a short-run print of a local history book, and Tim and Mr Miners have used Blurb for photographic books. Very good they were too.

Thanks, both.

An agent was a stage of the process that I had neither heard of or considered in this field. I had thought about which publisher might be interested, as it definitely won't be of interest to Mills and Boon.



Thanks for that. I had to laugh, though. You say "one of the world's best-selling authors" as though I might not have heard of him! I've got almost all of his books and IT is probably my all time favourite story.

I do wonder about what people get from courses, or books on writing. I have read, and re-read, hundreds of novels by many of the world's top writers, mainly in the field of action, thriller and horror writing. The one thing that they almost all good stories have in common is that you want to find out what happens next and- in a good way- you wonder throughout, where it is going to end up. I think that I've got that.

There is a theme running through it that I would admit becomes less interesting as you read on and I would say that if it popped up again, you'd probably think- "Oh FFS! Can we move on please." but I think that we have brought that to a close with a humorous encounter that acknowledges that the theme existed and kind of puts it to bed so that we can move on. As far as I am concerned, it works and I don't see that learning directly from someone else could teach me that.

Anyway, again- thanks both. Every little helps, because I'm in a completely new world here and if I don't get anything done with it, I will have wasted over a week of my life.

I'm intrigued, I want to read it.

I can offer no help with publishing, but I wish you success TK.

Regards

Spreadie

Ditto! Apart from a slightly dodgy ending IT is a superb novel though I found Pet Sematary to be the spookiest. Oh, and Dead Zone....one of the few Stephen King novels to be adapted into a decent film.

As for protecting copyright the cheapest and simplest is to post it to your self recorded delivery and not open when it is delivered.

As for getting it published get a literary agent first. In fact that is harder than getting a publisher. Much harder.

That was one thing that I had considered. It's been many years since I heard about that one, but I thought it would be just the right thing for this.



Thanks. I needed that. I am sitting here hoping that you mean that getting an agent is harder than getting a publisher in the same way that opening a can of processed meat is harder than opening a can of beer. I'm guessing that it's more like the difference between starting a nuclear fission and a nuclear fusion reaction.

Here's the deal.
Let us know where we can buy first editions, then when you're famous we can brag that we've got one.

I thought you were gunna say "then when you're famous we can flog em on ebay"

Very good. You could always buy two and then flog one on ebay.

I've got an LP by a group that my brother has worked with- Sons of Selina. He did session work with them and even played live (AFAIK) on Radio 1. He gave me the LP for my birthday and it's never been played.

Look them up and you'll see that my prospects for making a small fortune from selling it are thinner than than Posh Spice.