Grex Poetry Conference

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Grex Poetry Item 292: Getting published
Entered by jaklumen on Wed Jan 23 11:07:32 UTC 2002:

I know this would be a better topic for the writing cf, but I'm not 
100% sure how active it is.

I am moderately aware of how someone gets published, but is there a 
way to build from the ground up, i.e., for those of us who can't 
afford the how-to books right away, and then the agents and such?  I 
mean, there's got to be a way to gain a little bit of exposure, at 
least to raise a little money and build some work experience.

Julie and I have been working on the predrafts of a fantasy genre 
novel.  She is the primary author; I am just a consultant right now 
who chips in a lot of ideas.  As Camarilla members, we game (albeit 
loosely by e-mail connections) with the published author C.S. 
Friedman.  She started the in-character Ventrue House we participate 
in, and we're thinking about asking her to write a foreward if she is 
willing.  She writes sci-fi for the most part, but it's the one person 
in the industry we do know.

Julie has also participated in that poetry.com thing.  I don't know 
how valuable it is, but it's another start.

We also didn't follow through with the publication of *our* work we 
were thinking about.  I'm still interested..

Ideas?

Jonathan

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by brighn on Wed Jan 23 16:40:34 2002:

Fantasy is a difficult genre to break into, because there are a lot of writers
and not enough readers to support the glut. Unfortunately, there's no real
short cut, anyway. You could try vanity pressing, they're not that expensive
(at least, not in the Grand Scheme... XLibris will set you up with a
Print-on-Demand contract for less than $1000, and Barnes and Noble.com has
an arrangement with a similar vanity press. That means you need to move close
to a thousand copies to start making a profit, but that's better than other
deals). The weakness of vanity pressing for fiction is that it tends to be
trade PB, while most fantasy is in hardcover or paperback, so it stands out.

#2 of 6 by orinoco on Mon Feb 4 21:46:29 2002:

(Digression -- what _is_ the difference between "paperback" and "trade"?)

#3 of 6 by brighn on Tue Feb 5 20:40:05 2002:

In my usage, "paperback" refers to the smaller books, maybe 4x6 or so (that's
a guess, I don't have one handy), printed on low-grade pulp paper (slightly
better than newspaper). "Trade" refers to the softcover books that are the
same size (roughly) as hardcovers, with the high-quality 20# stock (comparable
to xerox paper). I think those are industry-standard usages, but if I'm wrong,
someone correct me. ;}
 
The standard cycles are hardcover first, then paperback; only available in
trade; only available in paperback. Most of the trades I've seen that are also
available in hardcover have been review copies (I wrote book reviews from the
Freep for a while) and QPBC editions.

#4 of 6 by morwen on Wed Feb 6 05:23:01 2002:

I don't really care about the money so much.  I just love to write and 
this world is the first time I have ever put my skills into action.  I 
don't know if what comes after will be worth anything.  right now 
though it's worth bubkis 'cause it is still in the works.  Who knows 
how long it will continue to be in the works?  It is my big project.  
Maybe I will even finish this one.

#5 of 6 by brighn on Wed Feb 6 15:18:05 2002:

Well, if you don't care about the money, vanity pressing may well be the way
to go. Minimal stress, besides the money issue.

#6 of 6 by morwen on Wed Feb 6 18:12:12 2002:

I might consider it.  The main thing, though, right now, is to get a 
book written and ready to publish.

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