Advice on starting out?

[ewomack]

Hello,

So after some one writes a few stories they typically want to see if anyone will take the bait and print their brain droppings. For newbies is the best route still buying Writer's Market and sending out manuscript after manuscript? Has anyone else used a different route? What are the best online resources for critique, publishing, etc.? A google search didn't give me obvious results.

Thank you!

 

[WriterJohnB]

I tend to go to http://www.ralan.com to find outlets from my work. They list mags from the top echelon down to the "for-the-love-of-it" outlets. They also list anthologies looking for submissions. Submit to a few of the paying markets and see what happens.

As far as magazines go, most are genre oriented, so if you don't write SF, fantasy, horror, or mystery, your markets are limited.

Ralan (Conley) also has a lot of good information for writers.

JohnB

 

[The waveguide]

I am not experienced in it at all, but I read how Paolini made his way to the market:

In 2002, Eragon was published by Paolini International LLC, Paolini's parents' company. To promote the book, Paolini toured over 135 schools and libraries, discussing reading and writing, all the while dressed in "a medieval costume of red shirt, billowy black pants, lace-up boots, and a jaunty black cap." Paolini's sister Angela created the cover art for the first edition of Eragon, which featured Saphira's eye. She also drew the maps on the inside covers of his books.

During one of his promotional tours, Paolini gave a speech at the school of Carl Hiaasen's stepson. After the boy shared the book with his stepfather, Hiaasen brought it to the attention of his publisher, Alfred Knopf. Knopf subsequently made an offer to publish Eragon and the rest of the Inheritance cycle. The second edition of Eragon was published by Knopf in August 2003. At the age of nineteen, Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author. Eragon has since been adapted into a film of the same name.

And Terry Pratchet:

About 1968, working as a journalist, Pratchett interviewed Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe, which was also the name of the publishing house, published the book with illustrations from Pratchett in 1971. The book received a few but praising reviews. The book was followed by sci-fi novels The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata, published in 1976 and 1981, respectively.

It seems that you need to have good connections to the publisher (to get published at all!!!). The next thing is the Public Relations (see Paolini, above - he did a LOT of the work with the PR!). The PR will work provided that you are GOOD (or at least that people like you). Boring, ill-written stories will not probably work (Although I really can not understand it how did the stories by Virginia Wolf got so much fame. I find it amazingly mediocre.)

Hard work this publishing is, indeed! Seems to have no shortcuts!

 

[Yame]

And Terry Pratchet:



It seems that you need to have good connections to the publisher (to get published at all!!!). The next thing is the Public Relations (see Paolini, above - he did a LOT of the work with the PR!). The PR will work provided that you are GOOD (or at least that people like you). Boring, ill-written stories will not probably work (Although I really can not understand it how did the stories by Virginia Wolf got so much fame. I find it amazingly mediocre.)

Hard work this publishing is, indeed! Seems to have no shortcuts![/QUOTE]


Indeed, it has got harder. There used to be still, until about 2000, maverick editors sitting in the offices of larhe publishers who were determined to leave their mark by unearthing a hit author. These days the conglomeration of publishing into behemoths like Viacom has led to a true bean-counter approach where the only one with any chance is the 'sure shot' hence the validity of the Christopher Paolini story above.

 

[ewomack]

Well, yes, it definitely helps if your parents own a publishing company. That's a nice in. Wow, I knew nothing about that. I've heard mixed reviews of the Eragon series, but it's not something I'm planning on reading anyway.

So how does one get contacts with big publishers? Through an agent seems the only viable way for an unknown. The question then becomes: how does one get contacts with big agents? We all have to start somewhere, and more people than publisher's kids end up in print, so there has to be some hope.

 

[The waveguide]

Well, yes, it definitely helps if your parents own a publishing company. That's a nice in. Wow, I knew nothing about that. I've heard mixed reviews of the Eragon series, but it's not something I'm planning on reading anyway.

Well, the first book by Paolini was not bad at all. He did a lot of work with writing, let give him this credit. His books read very smoothly.

And having parents in publishing was not enough - you see that he had to travel a lot to advertise. Only then he found a"big" publisher and became famous.

So how does one get contacts with big publishers? Through an agent seems the only viable way for an unknown. The question then becomes: how does one get contacts with big agents? We all have to start somewhere, and more people than publisher's kids end up in print, so there has to be some hope.

To get in contact with publishers, you could first become a journalist like Terry Pratchet and look for meeting them
Otherwise, there are frequent contents at BBC on short-story writing and there are, I am sure, other contests in writing. Winning one (prestigious) content would be helpful

I also heard that there is such thing as "independent" publishing and "self-publishing".
So this way you can get published for sure, with it's drawbacks, however (see the link above).

And of cause you can always publish your stories on internet. If they are really good - some publisher will finally approach you. But again, PR would be important to make actually people get interested to read your stories at the net at all.

I advice also to read on Wikipedia about the lives of other famous authors (Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and of cause more current and successful ones. You could get more ideas by learning their biography of how they made it to the publisher. Does not seem trivial at all. And many started from journalism.)

Good luck!