Becoming a writer / getting something published

[shockie]

hey kids, i was wondering if there are any "real" writers out here on namepros. what sort of baby steps should be taken if you want to write something (fiction or non-fiction) and to get it "published?"

:talk:

 

[KingDon]

It took me a year to finish my book. The story wrote itself pretty quickly, but the editing took forever, and that is the part of the process that kills most dreams of finishing their book.

Don't worry about getting it published, first get the manuscript written. PM me your e-mail and I'll send you to a downloadable PDF of my book.

Good luck with this, many start, and few finish.

 

[shockie]

well congrats on finishing yourself. a year doesn't sound like that much time, and i'll probably take much longer if i decide to write something.

pm sent!

 

[Phoebe_]

I could easily connect series of ideas,stories and scenes in my mind, but for some unexplainable reason when I try to write them down, they all seem to vanish. Guess my hand's lazy! ok back to topic.. In order to start, you should have the idea of what is to write, do some research,ask people, then right them all down, just don't get your hands lazy, err like me.

 

[Keral_Patel]

Well I started using PC as I was a writer.

Didn't had money to go for subsidy publishing so started earning from my PC and now I am not willing to leave this business :D

 

[Domainace]

With over 4,400 posts, you've already written a couple books right here on NP. I've got the bug, and when I hot 1000 posts, I though, "Damn, if I put that little bit of effort every day into a novel, it would be written by now."

The editing should be easy, as that's my bread and butter anyway.

Then, there's this guy and his wonderful podcasts:
Stormwolf.com » Blog Archive » The Secrets Podcasts

He breaks down, step-by-step, how he develops characters and plot. If you're having trouble getting started, this will get you going. He's a successful science fiction writer, but his advice is priceless.

 

[shockie]

great, i'll have to look into these podcasts. i feel like i'll probably have ups and downs with the writing, and i'm hoping that the editing won't be too brutal either. i usually correct things as i go / do it right the first time, but it would be nice to have some sort of editor program that can handle novels.

rep+ for the link. :blink:

 

[sirengirl]

I'm a songwriter and I've had some articles published in music trade publications, eventually, I hope to publish a book or two. I went back to school @ UCLA (English Degree) fortunately I can take short story, poetry, playwriting and screen writing classes, so I'm exploring. There are so many steps in the process. First, I would recommend taking a couple of workshops, depending on your area of focus (fiction...) and get some feedback. The publishing industry is suffering at the moment, but you may also consider self publishing down the line.

NOTE: Self publishing options through: Amazon, Scribd.com, and Lulu.com

Good luck!

 

[Ross]

Pretty easy getting the book published. You can get it done yourself for cheap and then go around asking local booksellers to carry your book. The hard part is obviously writing a good book and editing it.

 

[Domainace]

At the same podcast link I gave above, he goes into the future of writing. In short, traditional publishing is dead - long live the author.
The middleman will be removed, and that means an author needs fewer devoted readers to make a living.

Similar to music. Imagine you have 7,000 readers willing to spend $1 per month on your writing. That's $94,000 per year, paid as fast as you can write. Compare that to the massive numbers traditional publishers require, the long lead time between writing and getting paid (if you get paid at all), and the small percentage of each sale that the publishers give an author. Seems to me that writing is becoming more attractive with dinosaurs out of the way.

 

[shockie]

thanks, guys. it looks like getting this done is slightly easier thanks to all the technology out there.