A Question regarding Publication

[Countess]

I enjoy the art of writing so much, but totally despise the business aspect of it, so I need some babysitting when it comes to publication.

I have The Writer's Handbook, which is The Bible of publication, but what I am wondering is if one publisher is to be preferred over another. Are all publishers created equal or is one more prestigous than another?

Also, supposing I get published, how do I get my work into bookstores, etc? Where does that marketing come from?

ANy and all help is greatly appreciated.

Countess

[PeterL]

I have The Writer's Handbook, which is The Bible of publication, but what I am wondering is if one publisher is to be preferred over another. Are all publishers created equal or is one more prestigous than another?


Some publishers are regarded as more prestigous than others. Some publishers concentrate on a single type of fiction.



Also, supposing I get published, how do I get my work into bookstores, etc? Where does that marketing come from?


The publisher does some marketting but not much is most cases. Publishers will send copies to many places looking for reviews, and they will have their salespeople try to push the book at shows, etc.

I would assume that you have a finished novel that you want to get published. The process for that is to send the manuscript to a literary agent who will try to get a publisher to publish it, if it is worthwhile. Agents also are aware of the needs and requirements of publisher, so they won't send a romance to a publisher who handles only science fiction. There is a searchable database of agents at http://www.aar-online.org/mc/page.do

[RobinHood3000]

Sounds good to me, though I'm fairly inexperienced in the business end of writing. Okay, WHOLLY inexperienced, but if you go to www.writersdigest.org, I believe they have Question and Answer archives that might help you.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

The recommended practice is to send an extract of the book (5,000 words max) along with a synopsis of the full book (1,000 words max) to a literary agent and let them hawk it around the publishing houses for you. Sending an unsolicited manuscript to a publisher will 999 times out of 999.0001 times result in it being binned without the package even being opened!

Getting an agent to read a full manuscript is almost as hard - hence the synopsis / extract approach.

And be prepared for a lot of rejections.

And if you think I'm exagerrating, this advice was given by J K Rowling - herself rejected many times before finding an agent (let alone a publisher).

Better strap in for a long ride...