It took me over two fucking years, but my first novel is done and now fully revised!
I plan to drink this weekend to the point of amnesia and waking up in another country, but after that; I'm gonna need to get this sucker published. I have absolutely no idea which approach is the best. Do I contact an editor first, agent, or just send it to publishing houses?
Also, are any of those service programs that shop your book around for you worth it?
why don't you release it here faggot?
>b-but I want to make money out of it
You should have planned this before writing in the first place, contacted a publisher waay before and directed yourself only to sell more shit
thanks for the help
If it is not about Dragons or Dildos no one will ever want to read it.
your welcome, now upload that shit
Agent first, always do this if you intend to be taken seriously.
Why?
-They'll help you edit it more to make it appealing to publishers
-They have contacts in publishing houses so you don't have to go through the slush pile. I've spoken with a pretty well known executive editor in one of the big 5, and she said in her 15 years in the business she has never seen any of the houses she worked for publish something from the slush pile, it all came from agents. Plus, she has worked for three of the big five, so it isn't just the one publisher she works for.
-Most publishers will never look at your manuscript again after turning you down the first time. No second chances with that novel, even if heavily edited. Might as well make the one chance be the absolute best.
-Do you have experience writing pitches to publishers? No, you don't. Let a pro pitch for you.
-Also having an agent will open up opportunities in the journals. The Paris Review and other bigs mags rarely publish from slush either, they typically take submissions solicited by agents. The New Yorker hasn't published something from the slush pile in something like 15 years, and there are others that are about the same.
Also, whatever service where they'll shop your book around sounds like a load of shit. If they have the connections and the skills to successfully shop a book around, they would be an agent because that pays better.
Damn, this is actually helpful thank you. Is AgentQuery any good? I saw a few things about it
are you a non white woman? and or a homosexual/ethnic male? if not no one cares right now tbqh.
I personally don't have an agent because I haven't finished a book, so I'm mostly going off of what my friends have told me from their experiences. (One has a book out with Simon & Schuster, another with ecco, and a few friends with different small press releases)
All but one had the advantage of meeting their future agents at conferences, and the other one learned about somebody who would like his work by word of mouth. It seems like a good starting point, but maybe not a be all end all type deal.
Well i'll definitely look into it then, anything that betters my chances
That is a very difficult way to get published and widely read. There is no easy way, but some ways are particularly difficult.
My recommendation would be to build a ladder. It's much easier to get a good short story published in a C-level journal.
Once you've done that, you can continue to hone your craft and get published in better journals. You can also enter contests if you have the cash (I'm agnostic on this one).
When you have been published in about ten journals, including a few B-list journal and, if you're lucky enough (I'm convinced it's luck) an A-list journal, you will find getting an agent and publisher relatively much easier (though still difficult).
And you may find you're first book is already done - a collection of your published works.
Along the way, you ought to have collected a few good editors and a few good readers. This is fairly important.
Alternatively, you may be a bad writer. If you post the first few paragraphs here, we will probably be able to tell instantly and advise you as such.
post a epub please
Have any journals in mind?
How do I even go about getting a novel published if I never went to school for English or Literature?
I personally wouldn't even try going to paper publishers first. I'm going to publish online, hopefully gather some attention, then if it works, maybe set up a Patreon or something.
you suck dick dickhead
Post it faggot
OP give me some advice on writing. Not referring to style or anything just what you personally did to overcome your laziness.
Try your university
A newspaper
After a minute, go for a local stories thing, look at your library
The big leap is getting into the New Yorker or The Atlantic. If you can get into one, try for the other.
After that, you should be able to get into the Paris Review.
If you've been in the NYorker, The Atlantic, and the Paris Review, there isn't a publisher that wouldn't look at a full length work.
What genre or type of novel is it?
Who would it be targeted at?
How long is it?