Stranger Danger!

[Rivyenphx]

I am writing this with sincerity; not a tongue-in-cheek critique or a blazing judgment on the world today. I am writing this as I am really disheartened by what I have encountered so far in my first odyssey into writing and publishing a novel.

It has taken two years, but I have completed my first novel, my baby. But... being this is my first one (hopefully, not the last) I didn't really know the next step. I am beyond the definition of newbie! So of course I turned to the internet for some ideas and I stumbled across a publisher called Page Publishing. Of course, after they promise me the world and get my hopes really high, I found more information on them. From the forums here and a few other sources, it appears that they are just a vanity press and truly just out to make money off me rather than work to get my work actually published. Then I research and find a whole load of fake or vanity publishers listed on Preditors & Editors.

So... I am now, of course, really leery about submitting and trusting any publisher. I know I am probably jumping the gun and I need some editing and proofreading done, but if you cannot even trust a publishing company to have your best interests, how can you trust anyone reading your work has your best interests? I want to post here and ask for a "editing buddy" and I know that there's 99% chance that I will find a great partner, but how can I take a chance? This is my first work and maybe I am being extremely paranoid now due to this rough start. I just wonder how people keep the faith?

What has been your experiences with the publishing market? How did you accomplished and published authors get your start? I don't want to start yet with self-publishing (I am not ruling it out, but I would rather give it a shot first at traditional publishing). Also, I have heard there are cheap ways to make sure you aren't plagiarized, but I am not really sure how to do that.

I guess in honesty, this is just a plea from a very new writer for someone to just point me in a better direction and lead me through this damn minefield! Anything you can advise and/or offer will be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Philip Overby]

We have many different kinds of people on the forum with many different kinds of opinions. So take what I'm going to tell you as that, only my opinion. This is coming from my own experience and the experiences I've seen others go through.

First, I'd highly suggest finding a critique partner if you haven't already found one. We have some people in our Writing Groups section who have been looking for partners, so you might want to check there.

Second, we have lots of writers here with experiences in self-publishing. I haven't done so myself, but they can probably enlighten you better as to their successes with that choice.

Next, I'd suggest if you're looking for a trust-worthy publisher, Preditors and Editors is a good place to start. There are a lot of crooks trying to take advantage of hopeful authors, so I'd always recommend asking around before you submit anything anywhere.

It also depends on what route you want to go with traditional publishing. Are you more interested in small presses or are you going for the big ones? Some big ones of the top of my head are Tor, Del Rey, and Bantam Spectra, but there are SF/F imprints as well you can check out. Small ones may be a bit harder to find, but search around enough and you'll hit something. I recommend getting active on Twitter as a lot of publishers have Twitter accounts. You can find links to their websites, see what kind of authors they're publishing, etc.

Another easy way is just look at the publishers of the books that you like.

You keep the faith by learning from mistakes (and other people's mistakes) and soldiering on. I read a blog post by Kameron Hurley recently that said the best quality to have as a writer is persistence. Without that, you'll burn out from all the various pitfalls of the industry. It's not an easy industry to get into, so be aware that writing your book may have been the easy part.

If you truly don't trust publishers, I'd recommend looking more into self-publishing. There's a wealth of information out there and as I said before, we have several self-published authors on the forum that may chime in and give you their thoughts.

Hope some or any of this helps.

 

[Penpilot]

Hey, keep your head up. You were smart enough not to be sucked in. That's a good step. A bit scary? Yes. But you used your brain and that's key. A simple rule of thumb for dealing with agents and publishing companies is money always flows toward the author. The author should never be required to put up any money up front. I believe an agent may charge cost for office supplies, but that gets taken out of any advance.

With that said, maybe try looking for an agent, and have them deal with stuff. I'm in the process of sending out queries to agents, and I've used these three sites to research them: AgentQuery.com. Querytracker.com and PublishersMarketPlace.com

When I find potential candidates, I follow all the links and do a google search. Those sites will list the agent's clients too, so you can do research on them also. If I were you, I'd compile a list of agents, rank them, and then send out your manuscripts to your top choices. Make sure to follow each agent's guidelines and definitely make sure you know if they take simultaneous submissions or not. Work your way down the list and keep going. If the list runs out, make a bigger list.

As for worrying about someone stealing your work, I wouldn't worry too much. The cheapest person an agent or publisher can hire to write the story is you. But as always, use some common sense.

Personally, I try to protect myself in two ways. First, I'm a revision freak. I keep all the different versions of my story as I develop it. This can be anywhere from three or four drafts to over a dozen, so if someone stole a story, they'd only get a later version. If I had to go to court I could show the evolution of the story step by step from idea to final product.

Second, I store my back-ups on google drive. They get time-stamped on a system that I have no control over, so I can prove date of inception.

Honestly, no reputable agent or publisher is going to steal your story. Why risk their business and reputation on an unknown's story. It's much easier to just buy the manuscript. If they really think the story is that good, why toss you aside when they can milk more good stories from you and make even more money.

Think about it, if the publishing company/agent stole the first Harry Potter book, sure they would have gotten the money from the first book but would have lost out on the potential profits from the next six. In addition, they would have bought themselves a headache of a lawsuit.

But as with anything in life there are always risks. Eating out at a restaurant you could get food poisoning, but you still do it because if you use common sense, the risk will be small. And if you have questions or doubts there are plenty of resources on the internet where you can garner opinions. A lot of times a simple google search will reveal plenty.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I haven't read all the replies so forgive me if this has been mentioned already...

Look at Writer Beware. It's a service of SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America). They have a running list of good & bad literary agents with descriptions of experiences writers have had working with them.

If you want to do traditional, an agent will help. There are many ways to research agents with social media. When you learn about agents who you think would represent your work well, check them out on Writer Beware and make sure they are reputable and garner results for their clients.

 

[Rivyenphx]

I wanted to send you guys a huge thank you for your honest and great advice. I feel that this has given me a renewed sense of purpose in my pursuit for publishing. Thank you for the great sites which I bookmarked already.

I have looked up other forums and have found other comments from you guys that also gave great tips and more advice -- Please keep up the good work as it means a lot to new writers like me! I look forward from seeing other articles and other forums from you.