“Exactly What Does It Take to Get a Book Published?”
By DianeMy name is Katherine. I am 17 years old and attend high school in Ferndale, Washington. One of the requirements for me to be able to graduate is complete a senior culminating project, and I chose to write a book. One of my learning goals includes finding out exactly what it takes to get a book published. I was wondering if you could help me to get the answers I am looking for.
Boy, you asked a big question! Just about everything I’ve written on my blog and various websites are geared toward answering your question. Many of my teleseminars also talk about what it takes to get published, especially the one I did with Terry Whalin at www.askaboutpublishing.com.
So I suggest you poke around my sites, especially this blog. Also, get the Author Success Plan. That 5-part minicourse is packed with insider’s tips on publishing and being a successful author gleaned from my 30+ years in publishing. It answers your question and shows you where to start: With the A-B-C’s of becoming a successful author.
Basically, it boils down to: Having a great idea, and building a following of people who like you and your idea. If you have enough of a following, a traditional publisher will take the risk of publishing you. Or, you need to publish it yourself, and glean a following through marketing.
Publishing has been undergoing a massive sea change, especially in the past 3 years. These days it’s very difficult to take the traditional publishing path, in which you get a publisher to take on all the costs of publishing and pay you a royalty (percentage of sales–usually 7.5% of what they get after they give the bookstores their 55% discount). Publishers just don’t want to take the financial risk of publishing an author unless the author can practically guarantee they can sell a lot of books, because the author already has a large following (called an author “platform”).
But while that old way of publishing is crumbling, a lot of alternative ways of getting published are springing up. More publishers are offering “publishing services” in a sort of partnership model of publishing whereby publisher and author share the costs. That’s one of the things Terry and I talked about in the interview I mentioned, which you can listen to after signing up at www.askaboutpublishing.com. (I send you to the Ask page to sign up just so you’ll see how a cool way to market books works. It’s call the Virtual Book Tour, and I do these for publishers and authors.)
So I suggest you do a little more research on my sites, and if you still have questions, ask! I have a form on this blog (upper right corner) where you can ask questions any time. I periodically hold FAQ teleseminar to answer questions; asking a question on the form assures you’ll be notified.
2 Comments
July 17th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
That “massive sea change” you mention in the publishing business is even more massive than I had realized. I recently read an article in “The Economist” that quoted a survey by Publisher’s Weekly. According to the survey, somewhere around 73% of all the books published (I assume in the US — it wasn’t specified) in 2009 were “self-published,” and only the remaining 27% were produced by traditional publishers! I was astonished by that statistic.
The term “self-publishing” in the article was used to include many, if not all, of the “alternative ways of getting published” that you mention, Diane. The Internet has made it possible for people who have dreamed of publishing a book to do so, even without that all-important “author platform” of followers. A first-time author can get assistance in editing, formatting, designing, and everything else that goes into publishing a book from professionals — like you — by looking around the Internet.
Unfortunately, that 73% of books published in non-traditional ways is not completely made up of high-quality works that would be of interest to a traditional publisher, or that would be likely to attract a “platform.” Writers who choose this route don’t have the automatic benefit of a staff editor or designer to help improve their books. Articles like those you offer go a long way toward educating the aspiring author in what’s necessary for a book to be a good one. Thanks for your help!
July 17th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Thanks so much for adding a lot to the discussion, Betsey.
You’re a great example of the kinds of comments one should make on blogs–relevant, intelligent, and worth reading. Really appreciate you!
Hope all your publishing dreams come true.