How To Get Published

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I read a biography of Jack London yesterday.

He said two things about writing that I believe are true: Every generation has its own style and taste, and if you want to publish you must satisfy the reader's appetite. And, second, the trick to getting published is to be published and popular with readers.

London cited himself as his example. Before he published CALL OF THE WILD he wrote 88 stories that were rejected. After CALL OF THE WILD became a best-seller he sold all of the rejected stories.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

I read a biography of Jack London yesterday.

He said two things about writing that I believe are true: Every generation has its own style and taste, and if you want to publish you must satisfy the reader's appetite. And, second, the trick to getting published is to be published and popular with readers.

London cited himself as his example. Before he published CALL OF THE WILD he wrote 88 stories that were rejected. After CALL OF THE WILD became a best-seller he sold all of the rejected stories.

Thank you for this. I always enjoy these little snippets of how best selling writers were rejected like the rest of us. Stephen King had a similar story with his first book Carrie and no one wanted to publish J. K. Rawling. They thought she was a nut, just as they thought Stephen King was strange.

Hmm, if all you need to get published is to be a nut and/or strange, then I should have been published long before now. Yeah, I did forget that I need talent. Oh, well, back to writing my crappy stories.

"Oprah! Where are you? I'm over here! Can you see me now?"

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

BFW

Jack London had the same problem. He started writing during the Mauve Age when readers favored genteel authors like Henry James. London's wild adventures scared publishers.

London didnt necessarily have the adventures he wrote of, but he did travel to the places he wrote about and collected stories from the people with the real experiences. London denied he was a liar, but confirmed that he did improve the truth when he wrote.

Creative people are strange because creativity requires a receptive audition of all experience. Writing is not accounting or pharmacy or gem cutting.

 

[R. Richard]

Yes, there is a secret to getting published. As a gesture of good will during this holiday season, I'll share the secret with all of you here at Literotica.

Find someone who wants to buy and then sell your work.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RICHARD

The amazing part of it is most agents, editors, and publishers are clueless when it comes to recognizing good writing.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

Yes, there is a secret to getting published. As a gesture of good will during this holiday season, I'll share the secret with all of you here at Literotica.

Find someone who wants to buy and then sell your work.

So that's it? That's your secret?

Let me get this straight and make sure that I understand your gesture of good will during this holiday season.

"Find someone who wants to buy and then sell your work."

Well, thank you. Your generousity is much appreciated. I feel like I'm well on the road to being published already.

"Where the Hell am I supposed to find someone who wants to buy what I write? Gees, at least, he could have told me that."

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

RICHARD

The amazing part of it is most agents, editors, and publishers are clueless when it comes to recognizing good writing.

It's all subjective and it's all arbitrary.

Everyone tells you to keep trying and continue to submit because there are continual changes within the publishing houses. What may sell today wouldn't sell yesterday or tomorrow.

Sometimes it's just being at the right place at the right time. Then, sometimes, it's who you know. Other tiimes, it's like Joe the Plumber. Now, here's a guy who could sell a book about his life, even though he's never written a word.

 

[sr71plt]

Stephen King had a similar story with his first book Carrie and no one wanted to publish

Is King himself perpetuating this urban myth? He started writing Carrie in 1971 but stopped and threw the pages away. His wife, who not incidentally for him, worked in publishing, retrieved the pages, encouraged him to finish the work, got it shipped to Doubleday, which accepted it in 1973 (less than two years after he started writing), and sold the publishing rights to it to the American Library for $400,000, which had it in print in 1974 (less than three years after King had thrown just a few pages of a draft away). It's true, though, that then King pulled some other unfinished work out and had no trouble selling it too.

 

[gauchecritic]

I think this:

His wife, who not incidentally for him, worked in publishing,

is probably a hell of a lot quicker (and also why most unpublished authors find the going difficult) than this:

Find someone who wants to buy and then sell your work.

 

[slyc_willie]

Is King himself perpetuating this urban myth? He started writing Carrie in 1971 but stopped and threw the pages away. His wife, who not incidentally for him, worked in publishing, retrieved the pages, encouraged him to finish the work, got it shipped to Doubleday, which accepted it in 1973 (less than two years after he started writing), and sold the publishing rights to it to the American Library for $400,000, which had it in print in 1974 (less than three years after King had thrown just a few pages of a draft away). It's true, though, that then King pulled some other unfinished work out and had no trouble selling it too.

I had always been under the impression that Rage was King's first work, and that publishers were wary about accepting it because of the subject matter.

 

[sr71plt]

I had always been under the impression that Rage was King's first work, and that publishers were wary about accepting it because of the subject matter.

Rage was one of the works King wrote (in the mid 1960s) before he wrote Carrie--and I haven't heard that he tried to sell Rage at all then (but maybe he did). When he did publish Rage (in the mid 1970s--at the same time The Shining was published), he published it under his Bachman pseudonym--so it's quite possible that there was publisher reluctance to link it with his "taking off" King franchise.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yeah, and then there's Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote his first novel, Everything IIlluminated, in 3 week, having taken one creative writing class in his life, and had the novel become a best seller and be made into a major motion picture and still doesn't see what all the ruckus is about.

I hear Sarah Palin's getting $7,000,000 for her book...

Let's look on the bright side, for ever one author who makes it, there are about a million who don't.

 

[sr71plt]

I hear Sarah Palin's getting $7,000,000 for her book...

Well, we can hope this will silence Boxlicker on one point--who got puffed up at how rich Biden and Obama (both of whose [limited] wealth is base on earlier book contracts) were in conjunction with poor little Sarah (who just didn't have her book contract yet--but who was already on a par in wealth with Biden and Obama when Boxlicker made this assertion).

 

[ellynei]

The low chance of getting a good story published, makes me feel like an even bigger asshole for keeping the rest of my bookseries offline for reasons of wanting to go for it

Makes me feel stupid on top of the previous feeling of being cruel, for letting readers down

Now, after being done with the first restructure of book one. I can't sleep. No one has as yet read the new version, no one has as yet seen the added chapters.

Write eighty stories, before getting one published, to then publish all?

Geeze.

I don't think I have the patience required for this profession!

I am not all that clever

Eighty stories?

I'll have to up my pace... After one year I'm not done with the first long story...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ELLYNEI

Rod Serling said that good writing always gets published, sooner or later.

 

[ellynei]

ELLYNEI

Rod Serling said that good writing always gets published, sooner or later.

And, what if the writing is bad but the story is good?

(Even the person who is most enthusiastic about the bookseries in question, has said, "I never said you were a good writer. I'm just saying it's an amazing story.")

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ELLYNEI

Maxwell Perkins said that an editor can always make a good story better, but you cant do much without a story.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

No one mentioned blowing publishers as a strategy to getting published.

Anyone try it besides me and Truman Capote?

 

[ellynei]

ELLYNEI

Maxwell Perkins said that an editor can always make a good story better, but you cant do much without a story.

Ah, a piece of hope for the hopeless

Thanks

 

[ellynei]

No one mentioned blowing publishers as a strategy to getting published.

Anyone try it besides me and Truman Capote?

I doubt I could perform as well as a pro in that regard too. And publishing a book... well how many callgirls could a publisher hire for that expense?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I doubt I could perform as well as a pro in that regard too. And publishing a book... well how many callgirls could a publisher hire for that expense?

Yes, but a call girl doesn't have as much practice being on her knees as a writer does.

 

[ellynei]

Yes, but a call girl doesn't have as much practice being on her knees as a writer does.

Ah!

note to self: remember to buy knee-pads before seeking out publishers.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ELLYNEI

Dont get your hopes too high. The woman who wrote BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN sez 20-something airheads do 100% of the book screening for major publishers and they wanna see evidence that your book is gonna appeal to all the important minorities, that is...every villain and half wit must be a WASP male, like in the Superman movies.

 

[R. Richard]

So that's it? That's your secret?

Let me get this straight and make sure that I understand your gesture of good will during this holiday season.

"Find someone who wants to buy and then sell your work."

Well, thank you. Your generousity is much appreciated. I feel like I'm well on the road to being published already.

"Where the Hell am I supposed to find someone who wants to buy what I write? Gees, at least, he could have told me that."

As far as finding someone who wants to buy what you write, you will just have to do what I did. You submit your writing to NUMEROUS publishers. You get turned down by NUMEROUS publishers. Finally, you find a publisher who's willing to take a chance. If the readers then want to buy what you write, you're on your way. Else, well don't give up the day job until you are very well established.

 

[R. Richard]

And, what if the writing is bad but the story is good?

(Even the person who is most enthusiastic about the bookseries in question, has said, "I never said you were a good writer. I'm just saying it's an amazing story.")

There are editors here in Literotica who can review your stories and at least give you hints. IMHO, a good story is essential as the base for a published work. However, a good story can be obscured by bad writing. If you need to improve your writing, there are three steps you need to take, work, work work.