Dear Dinobot 'New and Ready to Kill',

I know exactly how you feel. I am a young author myself, and my story can help you find out the new phase in the publishing world, and I started thinking as you did about the big publishing houses and I'll tell you some things you might need to think about after my story.

At the young age of 16 I thought it would be cool to sit down and write a book, so I did on my parent's old computer. The next year I began to draw the characters in this growing story. From one story came storylines for more books and the last thing I know it turns into a saga. At first I began writing for fun. Family members began sneaking peeks and thought I should get them published. I had no clue where to start. At 21 my mother began talking with a lady at our church, and the next thing I know I am on my way to a writer's conference. I was the youngest person there and when I began talking with instructors one on one, they were amazed at my ideas and what I was capable of at such a young age, and some of these people were published by Random House like 20 times. Excited, I go home and try to learn how to write all the crap publishing houses require and sent it off. They didn't give me the time of day, so I was disappointed, and I said screw this, I'm going to college next fall anyway, and I'd rather write my stories anyhow. This ended up being a blessing in disguise; read on.

After finishing college at age 27, someone mentioned to me about "self publishing". I had never heard of it before. So the next year I submit my materials to a self publishing company. My first choice was not too good but I found a better one (probably the best) the next year, so I pulled out my book and resubmitted it to them with my great cover and illustrations intact. I am beginning to make money, and I haven't got into the ebook bandwagon yet. This independent publisher has distribution options just like the big guys have without sacrificing any of your rights, and you can make 100% of the profit off of each sale and they also have ebook conversion services with 90-100% of the profits! Yeah, that's right, compare that to what Random House pays at 9-10% tops, and if you have an agent that take a percentage of that already puny royalty. Furthermore, you should know traditional publishers like Random House hardly even give new unknown authors the time of day, and their rosters are shrinking as we speak and they are shedding authors. If you are lucky enough to get on their roster, they will buy your rights for a contract term and take control of your book and you will have no say in what the final product was going to be like. Aside from that they will pay little or nothing for marketing, and the marketing of your book will fall on YOUR shoulders and you'll have to pay all or the remainder of your marketing costs; most people don't know this, and I was told this by another person. Either road you choose you have the same uphill battle. Keep in mind, if your book ends up being movie material, Random House will get a piece of that too, and if you are independent you get it all. I now almost despise traditional publishers and they would have to pay me at least half a million dollars to buy my rights and for me to leave my current publisher and give me a better royalty than a measly 10%, and the way they treat authors almost seems disgusting. They don't give you royal treatment and are not very courteous, and because we are young they think we have STUPID written across our foreheads (joke but maybe true). Just imagine for a moment if Stephen King made 100% of his royalties how much richer he would be!

With that said, here are your best options: get your book self published or publish it as an ebook. You'll have to invest money, but that's no different than college. You're probably screaming 'the cost!', but you'll pay the package fees and more from hiring a publicist for a traditional publisher, and more in royalties they take from you. If you self publish and choose a great one, you retain all of your rights, have control of the content of your book and its destiny. Make sure you get it professionally edited. You mentioned that your work was currently jumbled, good editors will help you with that, but that's money worth spent because if your book is not edited by a professional, you book will die and reviewers will rip it to shreds and no one will take you seriously. My publisher has good editors who care about the best interest of your work and give you constructive criticism. This holds true if you go to ebook only--editing is critical. The ebook route would be much cheaper and is the new craze and people are making money fast. If you want to do ebook only you can have it converted and distributed at Smashwords or Publish Green (www.publishgreen.com). If you want to check out my publisher it is called Mill City Press (www.millcitypress.net), and they'll help you do it all (traditional route, online retail, etc) for a fair price. You as the author are in charge of your decisions and destiny of your book. I also recommend reading The Fine Print of Self Publishing 4th Edition by Mark Levine. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc, in its physical form or as an ebook. I recommend this BEFORE you do anything; it would be the first step in the right direction because it is a good survival guide and tells you everything you need to know to get started. I just consulted with a twenty eight year old about publishing in this same way, and I was a twenty something who is now published. I am now 30 with 11 completed novels and 2 in progress and many more to come, and I know where to send them in due time, and when it takes off, I'll publish them like dominoes. I hope this helps you, and getting off to an early start is a good thing, I am living proof of it.
Best of luck!

Contact me at , i am a indie Author with over 53 books in print and e-book format.

Dear Dinobot,
I thought of a couple more points to share with you about self publishing or ebook publishing. You don't have to write for any magazines or stuff to get in the self publishing door, all that is unnecessary. That effort is not wasted and it'll look good on your resume when you talk to potential readers and reviewers and give you some credibility, but you don't have to continue doing it if you don't want to. Once you choose a publisher or ebook company they take your manuscript as is if you have it edited or not if you so choose to use their in house editors. Depending on how many rounds of editing you choose you book will become a product available to the public within 6-9 months. If you go the ebook route your book will be available 2-4 months. These guys also offer an expedited service for additional charge to cut that down to half the time or more. Like I said earlier ebook publishing is the fastest and cheapest method and you can publish anything, including your screenplays. After you get published then you can get to work promoting yourself as an author and your work and still work on your future books and screenplays. There are cheap and free methods to promote yourself on the internet and that's the best way to sell many copies, but it would be a good idea to physically do it as well. Book promotion becomes a full time job, but once it takes hold it'll pay off and you'll already be laying the groundwork. If I could be of any further help to you please email me at and put Dinobot in the subject line, and my name is Amanda. I also know Mark Levine personally (I recommended his book to you in the prior post), and I can help set you up with a phone conference with him. He has dedicated part of his career to helping authors make smart decisions, and I'm passing on what I learned to you. Don't forget that I was and still am under 35 and I am published.

I self published with Createspace was on Amazon within days. The only cost was for a proof copy to see the finished work before they published it. That's all there was to it. I didn't have to spend thousands of dollars to a Publisher like so many of them charge. Createspace is great! So is Lulu.com

yours truly Garry E. Lewis

Another tid bit of information you might like also, after self publishing my books on Createspace I was then able to upload my books on kindle for no charge and I priced my Kindle books at $2.99ea. I'll make 70% royalties which nets you a little over $2.00 per kindle sell. Createspace and Amazon make it painless and hardly no cost to you the Author. My Kindle Books were also listed on Amazon with 24hrs. No two or three month wait, My paperbacks were listed on Amazon within a week after uploading them. Hope this helps you.

I still don't know anyone who has bought a self-published book so I remain skeptical.

I would recommend you go ahead and try the traditional route of publishing. I don't think you will remain skeptical for long when you see how difficult it is to even have someone look at your book at a major publishing house.

I have bought dozens of self-pubished books -- in fact, the books I buy I don't care how they are published. I am the founder of the John 3:16 Marketing Network and we have had several of our authors to reach best-seller status on Amazon. I couldn't tell you how each of them published their book, but I can tell you none of them had major contracts.

All I can say is do lots of research before you give someone your hard-earned cash. There are what I call "roaches" out there preying on people that will promise you a lot--and rob you blind.

Someone mentioned Create Space up above and they are a reputable company. Haven't used them but know people who have. Hope this helps.

Okay, it's not brand new, but....

Just thought I'd pass along some thoughts...I think the options for writing communities aren't as vast and fruitful as I previously hypothesized when I first set out to experiment in them. In fact, there might be only 4 or 5 good sites worth publishing your work on. In all honesty, right? They also get blurred together, but I also noticed Harper Collins' InkPop.com is back online with a new look...if you didn't know, and it looks pretty cool.

I used to post work on their old site because I liked the fact that their editors actually want to publish the best work on the site--which is an amazing feature I think. Everyone talks about e-publishing and self-publishing but Inkpop also does that. Also like that the site feels like a real forum that listens to concerns. We all know what it's like to live in packed yet quiet forum when it seems like no one is listening...this is my recurrent reality at least.

Regardless, I'll be checking out the new site again soon after I finish a big project of mine. With that said, I'm willing to give InkPop another shot just for a change of scenery.

Might as well take a chance on finding a better space for better feedback. Heard of any other cool new writing sites? I want to know!

PS. Saw this really cool success story on e-publishing at NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/amanda-hocking-storyseller.ht...

Self publishing is being viewed now in a whole new way in this day and age. There are alot of great authors out there who have self published and are doing well. The key is to believe in yourself your work and stay with it. Get on as many online sights as possible, there are literally hundreds of them out there, most are free, no charge to the author. You can post your links to where they can click and be taken right to amazon or Barnes and Noble where the can purchase your books. I self published through Createspace, and Amazon Kindle, both are really great. And there is basically no charge to you the author unless you choose extended distribution and even that is very reasonable. I hope this helps someone out there. I've only had my books through Createspace and on Amazon since this past April and my books and Kindle's are starting to sale. No I won't be retiring to the Bahama's any time soon, but you will make some sales. Just stay with it, It just takes time and patience is the key. There is alot of stiff competition out there, but if you tag your books to draw in the correct audience you will make some sales. We're fighting a rough economy right now as well and there are a lot of people without jobs. Things will get better, just don't give up on your dream. Keep writing. And by all means post alot of blogs as these really get alot of attention online. And get your books on Kindle and Nookbooks as these ebooks are real popular at this time. Best wishes Fictional Author Garry E. Lewis

I notice everything on this website is a bit dated. I have requested to participate in the book review process, but I have not heard anything from anyone since, and thats been a couple of weeks. Even an email to the contact on the site has not gained an answer. Am I wasting my time here?
Peter

I know where you coming from, the same here, "Is anyone out there?"

Mossyhearth Magazine has just opened up for new submissions. If you're a writer who has multiple short stories in the horror, sci-fi, romance, or general fiction genre, please register to our site and read the guidelines for publication.

We pay on acceptance.

http://mossyhearth.com/

It looks like the site has been neglected but that does not mean it is not useful for the backlinks to your website. If any authors wish to contact me directly they can do through the email address on my contact page at
http://ampurlife.com
I write true travel adventures which are pacey. You can download half books from this site if you wish to see what I do
BUT
I would really like any fellow writers to simply go to my facebook page and click LIKE. It isn't so much to ask. Lets help promote each other in quick, easy and free ways.
Thanks - At least I was honest.
Stephen Richards
Author of
Tornado Spring
Wild Summer
Desert Winter
I am particularly interested in the true adventure genre

It looks like the site has been neglected but that does not mean it is not useful for the backlinks to your website. If any authors wish to contact me directly they can do through the email address on my contact page at
http://ampurlife.com
I write true travel adventures which are pacey. You can download half books from this site if you wish to see what I do
BUT
I would really like any fellow writers to simply go to my facebook page and click LIKE. It isn't so much to ask. Lets help promote each other in quick, easy and free ways.
Thanks - At least I was honest.
Stephen Richards
Author of
Tornado Spring
Wild Summer
Desert Winter
I am particularly interested in the true adventure genre

It looks like the site has been neglected but that does not mean it is not useful for the backlinks to your website. If any authors wish to contact me directly they can do through the email address on my contact page at
http://ampurlife.com
I write true travel adventures which are pacey. You can download half books from this site if you wish to see what I do
BUT
I would really like any fellow writers to simply go to my facebook page and click LIKE. It isn't so much to ask. Lets help promote each other in quick, easy and free ways.
Thanks - At least I was honest.
Stephen Richards
Author of
Tornado Spring
Wild Summer
Desert Winter
I am particularly interested in the true adventure genre