Is anyone in the community presently working in, or know anyone that works in, the publishing industry?

SGT Joseph Gunderson — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 11:29:08 -0400

I am just about to finish a work of fiction that I have been working on for a little while and I was wondering if anyone would happen to have connections with a publishing agent or a publisher that may be interested in a crime fiction?

Response by LTC Matthew Robinson made Jun 20 at 2017 12:01 PM

LTC Matthew Robinson — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 12:01:37 -0400

Good luck. I find the publishing world a rather well defended fighting position. You might explore the various electronic literary journals or magazines. They seem to be fairly open regarding submission. I've submitted a variety of pieces, poetry and fiction, with no success to date. I'm still putting rounds down-range though.

Response by SSG Pete Fleming made Jun 20 at 2017 12:58 PM

SSG Pete Fleming — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 12:58:59 -0400

First off, congrats on writing!!!!! Now comes the hard part...

A couple things to consider. How do you wish to publish? Are you going to self-publish or use a traditional publishing house? What is you goal and intent? To reach a select group or mass circulation? Have you picked your target audience? Your Genre? Fiction or Non-Fiction? If you are using images do you have legal permission to use them? Editing/proofreading? Did you either copyright or otherwise protect your manuscript?

Ok, now after you go through those then it comes back to picking how it will be published... If you go for self-publishing you are the publisher using the services of publishing house. You retain full rights to you project. If you go traditional, as an unknown writer, the publishing house will maintain final creative control over your manuscript, you will get a royalty.

Either way you get a royalty, but the size of which and the amount of control is different...

Regardless never pay for publishing. You can pay for editing, cover design, marketing, but never pay to have it published. The legitimate publishers make their money from the sales of your book, not from the author (otherwise what incentive is there to try and sell it?) There are numerous ways to submit your work.

If you self-publish, you do most of it online through an automated system. Usually there is not a screening process. If you go traditional you usually will need a literary agent, or other representative to try submit your work. Most traditional publishers don't take 'walk-ins'. Or if they do they have set requirements that must be followed to the letter. Typically they only want a few pages and a synopsis.

There are tons and tons of good publishers, both traditional and non-traditional.

Stay away from places like Authorhouse, Trafford, Lulu, as they charge to publish (and are a huge rip-off).

Createspace, Smashwords are free self-publishers. There are other ones as well. Warriors Publishing is a Veteran owned publisher (strict submission guidelines).

I could go into more, But this should be enough to get you going...

Response by SSgt Gary Andrews made Jun 20 at 2017 4:00 PM

SSgt Gary Andrews — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 16:00:34 -0400

I have published 6 books through Amazon (createspace for paperbacks, and KDP for electronic versions). I bought a book that gives you pointers for self publishing, like how to format your manuscript, and it helped me through the process. I found it to be easier than I expected. As an unknown author, I'm not getting rich by self publishing.....but I am selling some books. Seeing your work in print is really a thrill.....whether you sell a lot of them or not. There is no cost up front doing this....the publisher and printer get their money as a book sells.....it's not printed until it's ordered and paid for. Then they take their share, and send you your share. They provide you with reporting and tracking tools so you can see how you are doing at any point in time. This was much easier than trying to get a publishing house to take you on as a new author.

Response by LT John Chang made Jun 21 at 2017 1:51 PM

LT John Chang — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 13:51:29 -0400

Check out Joanna Penn's podcast - probably the next best thing to having connections!