SpiralTruth

I figure the process of getting published might be an interesting thing to track, so here we go with the first of many posts about it. I’m starting with one approximately 82K word manuscript that has been steadily written and revised in my spare time over the last few years. I like to have many projects on the go, and in addition to my day job, I’m also a musician who’s put out a couple of albums worth of material with my band as well as a number of solo recordings in the same time period. Plus this blog. Plus whatever else I think up. So, that’s why it’s taken a few years and why the project of getting the final draft published will probably take longer than it normally does. Where to start? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself over and over for the last few days. To add to an already daunting task, there’s the current recession, thanks in no small part to Mr. Bush and the Wall Street gang who figure reality does not have to factor into economics. And the book industry is not immune, as this article suggests. The one thing I’ll note is that, for all the talk of pre-recession excess, the article does not mention that any of the major book publishers are looking for a bailout, so I’d say they’re handling it better than some (cough, cough) out there. I’ve toyed with the idea of self publishing and self promotion. This is the route I ended up taking as an indie musician out of necessity. I realized, though, that in this case, my desire to self publish was more to avoid the hassle of looking for a publisher, to avoid the downer of rejection letters, and in general, to avoid… I might still go this route, as I believe it is the future for all artists. But to be honest, I think my novel could benefit a lot from an experienced editor. And if I am lucky enough to find a publisher with great promotional experience, this will help too. My promotional skillz leave a bit to be desired. I like to create more than I like to market. I’ll attempt to get a Creative Commons license agreement that allows for free electronic copies, which I also believe to be part of the future of book publishing. The reality is that a brand new author may not be able to command this sort of thing, and it might have to wait for a second novel. If I end up self publishing, there’s no question that I will go this route. Look no further than Cory Doctorow’s “Content”, and you’ll become a believer too. So, now that we’ve established that I’m going to try the traditional route first, where to start? Again, I have no clue. Because I have no clue but believe in small steps, I’m attacking this from (currently) three fronts. Front one: attempting to learn from those who have gone before me. If I can find someone who’s published to give me a few pointers of where to go and what to look for, this will be monumentally helpful. Even if he would answer an email, I doubt the Stephen Kings of the world would remember much about how they got the first one out. Plus that would be long enough ago to potentially make any advice irrelevant. So one of my first steps is to ask an old English teacher who just published a book if he could give me any advice. We’ll see if that goes anywhere. It’s a different arena (an academic book), and I also haven’t really talked to him since I was in high school, so who knows if he’ll be willing to take the time out, given that my question is coming out of the blue after zero communication. Oh the magic of Facebook! That said, I’m a big believer in sharing your expertise, especially in areas that you love, and I do that myself any chance I get. So I figure my chance of a response is not exactly zero, and it would give me a little more of a clue as to the process of publishing. Front two: exploring new technology. I’ve been trying to build more of a network with Twitter (david_scott if you want to add me!). It’s gone a lot faster over the last couple of days as I discovered a few tools that would allow me to add a bunch of random people that share similar interests. I also just sent out a tweet with a link to a preview of my novel and a request for any publishing tips from anyone who might know. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Again, I love answering questions myself when someone asks about something I know a lot about, even if they’re a complete stranger. So I figure my karma is in good shape for this. I’m also very open and humble about knowing nothing about the publishing process. Anyone browsing this page or my preview or my Twitter stream will know this immediately. And, as they may guess, they’ll get some free cross promotion because I’ll write about the advice they give me (including proper attribution and links to them, of course) in subsequent publishing odyssey posts. There are also services now, like Creative Byline that promise to bring Web 2.0 to the process of searching for a publisher. I want to try some other avenues and do a little more research before trying this, as it looks almost too easy (and also does not have a huge list of publishers looking for my type of fiction), but it is certainly an option. Front three: Research, research, research! My google-fu is strong, and I’ll let you know what I come up with as I find the information. Firstly, it looks like what I want to find first is an agent. Of course, it’s a chicken and egg sort of deal. The easiest way to get an agent is to already have a publisher interested in you. However, most publishers do not accept unsolicited works, so the only way to get to them is through an agent. That’s it for this post. Obviously very small first steps here. Stay tuned for more soon!