For about seven years my wife and I were stuck in a situation that prevented us from doing anything meaningful. I don't want to go into too much but will share that it was a family member that, in effect, held us hostage by means of manipulation and forced us to work toward her own ends. Nothing illegal, just a terrible person and a narcissist with a mixture of psychotic and sociopathic traits.
We've been free from it for about a year now but are still trying to get our lives sorted out to provide for ourselves with a seven year gap in meaningful job experience.
I have a part time job but I feel that God is strongly calling me to write, so I've been pounding away at finishing a fantasy novel as fast as I can so I can send it to a publisher that I have a working relationship with. It is a quality one that has a wide distribution network that also handle marketing while leaving me with all of the rights and a good share of the sales profit. Only, they charge for the first print run which would be another matter due to novels costing $20K to get started.
My wife felt led to seek employment to take some financial burden off of me and allow me to focus more on writing, but she was just informed that she didn't get what she applied for due to others having more experience.
It's been a rough eight years and I could really use some prayers from my fellow anons as we continue to try to sort things out. Encouragement and helpful advice would also be nice.
I am a published writer. DO NOT pay money for a publisher to print your book...unless you are going the self-publishing route! Vanity publishers will blow all sorts of smoke up your backside telling you how much they will promote your book, get you on bookshelves, how good it is, blah, blah, blah. Don't fall for it.
I have been out of the business for quite some time, so it has likely changed somewhat. If your book is good enough to stand on its own merit, start shopping it with agents. FYI: unless you know someone, this is a slow slog. Very few writers find a willing agent quickly -- it's a who-knows-who business. There are guides full of addresses and contact info, and how to present your work.
I am fortunate that my wife is a qualified editor. Do not skip this step. Find someone you respect to help you with this end. Not many writers can self-edit effectively. Yes, sometimes her edits caused some arguments, but you need this feedback. A vanity publisher will tell you it will "edit," but only check for spelling and grammar.
Fantasy is a tough niche, but depending upon your angle, could have a good following. If you aim for a younger audience (i.e., 12-24), you increase your chances. There has been an explosion of these titles following HP, which has paved the way a bit.
Best wishes!
The power of .win. Nice going @befromfl. We take care of our own. This advice should save OP a ton of headache.
You rock.
I second the editing suggestion. You need an outsider who can look for plot holes and tell you when things don't make sense. Also one who can make sentences more concise by chopping out superfluous words.
I would suggest going the "book on demand route." You don't pay anything up front, and the books are individually printed at the time that the book is ordered rather than printing thousands of copies at one. Focus your time and energy on marketing the book rather than focusing on finding a publisher who may or may not bother to market it for you and who may or may not be able to get it on store shelves.
*edited to clarify what "book on demand" means
I plan on having some friends read through real quick before I submit it. Beyond that, I'm a careful writer and have internalized a lot of the corrections done on my past work so, even in the first draft I'm careful about correct punctuation, avoiding repeating words, and such.
Yes , what you wrote was good advice . This is done everyday without paying a publisher thousands of dollars .
The book I'm writing is a fiction book aimed somewhat at the juvenile fiction market while still having things that are deep enough to where older audiences would enjoy it.
As you're a published author, would you mind my messaging you directly to get some additional input on the potential publisher and such? I actually know the president of the publisher personally and would share their name on the forum, but I don't want word to get around or to publicly share info that may make it easy to figure out my identity.
I don't know how to do it, but there is an IM feature on this message board. You may message me, although, I've been out of the business so long I'm not sure I can comment on current publishers.
If you know the president personally, that's an additional dynamic that perhaps changes things a bit. Although, you having to front $20k should be out of the question. If a publisher truly likes a title, they will advance royalties to the author as an incentive...not ask the author for money. At the very least, the risk is on the publisher, not the author.
Don't share anything publicly on the forum...that could come back to haunt you. Your own identity being disclosed is one matter, but your friend may not like how his business is being portrayed.