Virgin needs help!

[ImogenBlake]

Hi all,
I am a virgin author, writing my first full length erotic novel and thoroughly enjoying it (especially the research). I am also a virgin to sites like this, never used a forum before.
I would really appreciate any tips on the following topics:
1, Best way to use this site.
2, Best way to find and approach publishers.
3, Do you write the whole book then look for a publisher or submit the first 5 chapters and carry on writing.
I have currently written 6 (just over 23,000 words) out of a planned 20 chapters.
Does anyone know a tried an tested way to proceed?
I am looking for a virtual wing to be taken under.
Take care.

 

[oggbashan]

Hi all,
I am a virgin author, writing my first full length erotic novel and thoroughly enjoying it (especially the research). I am also a virgin to sites like this, never used a forum before.
I would really appreciate any tips on the following topics:
1, Best way to use this site.
2, Best way to find and approach publishers.
3, Do you write the whole book then look for a publisher or submit the first 5 chapters and carry on writing.
I have currently written 6 (just over 23,000 words) out of a planned 20 chapters.
Does anyone know a tried an tested way to proceed?
I am looking for a virtual wing to be taken under.
Take care.

That's a lot of questions and not all of them are relevant to the Authors' Hangout (AH).

1. Read the FAQs. Read the Sticky Threads - those always at the top of each forum - especially for the AH: the 'Welcome Authors Please Read' and the 'Library' Thread. Read some of the How-To 'stories' on Literotica. Some are great advice; some are stupid, but the whole collection can be a masterclass in writing for Literotica.

2, 3 and onwards. You might find the answers by following my advice in 1.

A virtual wing? Try the Editors Forum.

 

[ImogenBlake]

Oggbashan

Thank you for your reply, I have read a few of your entries as I have been trying to navigate my way around and even entered some text in the 200 words thread under writers challenges. This seems a great site I am glad I found it, and I found some quite scary advise about what not to do with publishers.
You seem to be around this site alot, I shall look out for you.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to the rooky!

 

[PennLady]

Hi all,
I am a virgin author, writing my first full length erotic novel and thoroughly enjoying it (especially the research). I am also a virgin to sites like this, never used a forum before.
I would really appreciate any tips on the following topics:
1, Best way to use this site.
2, Best way to find and approach publishers.
3, Do you write the whole book then look for a publisher or submit the first 5 chapters and carry on writing.
I have currently written 6 (just over 23,000 words) out of a planned 20 chapters.
Does anyone know a tried an tested way to proceed?
I am looking for a virtual wing to be taken under.
Take care.

Og's right, especially with point #1. There's a lot information in the FAQs, although some is outdated and perhaps unclear, but those are a good place to start. The stickies as well. But the best way to use the site is to write, post, and see what happens.

For question #2, that's a different thing. How you find and approach a publisher is not the same as how you'd use this site, and I wouldn't look for a publisher to just magically find you on this site (although, man, that'd be nice ).

Let me break up #3 into two answers. First, for a publisher, e- or print, you should definitely finish your whole story. Then edit the heck out of it. Then research publishers to find out what they take. One way would be to go to a place like AllRomanceEbooks(.com) and look at books similar to yours, see who published them, and then investigate those publishers. You don't want to send a straight romance, for example, to a publisher who specializes in gay male.

Second, for posting on Lit, this is a subject of debate. Many feel that writing a chapter and then posting and waiting for feedback before writing the next chapter is what keeps them going. The drawback is that it might take you longer between chapters, which could put off some readers. Others feel that as with a publisher, you should finish the entire story and post the chapters at whatever intervals (every other day, once a week, etc.).

Some, like me, split the difference a bit -- I'll write about half of the entire story, then start posting and hope that in the weeks that follow, I'll finish the story by the time the last of the first group of chapters is up. Sometimes that works, sometimes not.

Finally, I'd advise that whatever you do, please don't live and die by your ratings or your feedback. Compared to the views (which you'll see on your stats page after you post something), very few readers vote and even fewer leave comments. As I've said before, this is not peer review, so some feedback will be helpful, and some will not. But write what you want, as best you can, and readers will find you.

Good luck!

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hi all,
I am a virgin author, writing my first full length erotic novel and thoroughly enjoying it (especially the research). I am also a virgin to sites like this, never used a forum before.
I would really appreciate any tips on the following topics:
1, Best way to use this site.
2, Best way to find and approach publishers.
3, Do you write the whole book then look for a publisher or submit the first 5 chapters and carry on writing.
I have currently written 6 (just over 23,000 words) out of a planned 20 chapters.
Does anyone know a tried an tested way to proceed?
I am looking for a virtual wing to be taken under.
Take care.

Hi, Imogen, and welcome to Literotica and to the Authors' Hangout. The first thing to do is to post nude photos of yourself, front and rear views. The idea is to show a willingness to share.

You can ask for info on a wide variety of subjects here. If you are a beginning writer, thinking about publishing is extremely premature. It is a possibility for the future, but not yet.

 

[sr71plt]

3, Do you write the whole book then look for a publisher or submit the first 5 chapters and carry on writing.
I have currently written 6 (just over 23,000 words) out of a planned 20 chapters.

For fiction, you finish and polish the book before contacting publishers. And you submit to them what they specify in their submissions guidelines--which usually can be found on their Web sites.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Okay I'm going to say something I possibly shouldn't but hang it all something is making me right now...

I know that without any shadow of a doubt I would be the highest earning money writer here. Period. When it comes to being commercial and independently making money out of writing I would hazard myself against anyone anywhere anytime. That is, I do not work for a newspaper or television company or advertising company. But I am published and I have made money writing. My first book was published regionally only, as part of a deal with Australasian and American Filmco which was a division of United Artists at a time when I was employed as one (of several) proof readers of the script development for the movie Year of Living Dangerously. My book completely sold out and I made I think about $2,500. It never went to reprint, and no publisher picked it up in spite of the fact that it just flew off the shelves.

I am trained in a specific professional field - I won't say which - and on one occasion made over 4 million dollars personally for writing something to do with that field. I have made significant sums from time to time doing the same thing but no one actually recognizes that it is because I can write, rather than because of what the field itself offers as far as monetary opportunity goes. People think I am part of this field at a high level of expertise, whereas in fact, I am here (more or less ONLY) because of being able to write.

If I want to make money from writing, literally the very last thing I would ever do is go and see a publisher (and that is probably because of a prejudice learned from family near to but not actually in, that industry). If I want to make money from writing, I go straight to wherever there is a commercial need/demand for the written word - the higher up in the money world the better - Wall Street if you want. Madison Avenue. Advertising copy... New types of mortgages, even in the law where too many lawyers cut-and-paste contracts and legal opinions... You may not believe this, but good law is made by good writers rather than lawyers, who tend to talk and write rubbish if you let them (and they know it, secretly). Family court stuff, contracts - good writers do all the best work. But for actually getting paid I would head straight into the money, straight into banking.

I want to tell you something - qualifications amount to absolutely nothing! If you can write - I mean REALLY write - you will kick the brains in of people who have the top degrees from Harvard. Of course they resent it, but the market demand itself will always prefer the better writer and clearer thinker than the guy with a piece of paper and a mortar board hat. They hand out degrees these days like the rubbish they actually represent. But not everyone can write...

But if I want to write stuff ONLY I want to write and that entertains me... then I write it here and publish it here and people can read it for free.

There are certain things I could write for the mass reading market that could in theory be published but I seriously doubt that any publisher would be able to pay at the level that the commercial work I do is paid for.

And really, there's no point publishers getting all high and mighty about it - when was the last time you saw a Hollywood movie that you thought was really great... They don't pay for real writers any more and the result of that is obvious.

There is some stuff still done in the UK. My brother-in-law's brother wrote and produced Love Actually and he took, my god, thirty years to get that made!! He used to talk about the script he had when I was I think, twenty! If you've got that kind of patience, well...

But I don't.

By the way, I think the Blackbird pilot who also writes and posts here sounds like the real thing to me. So he's worth listening to, I think.