Getting Published

testing_times

Good afternoon,
just wondering if anybody in here knew the process involved in getting a book published.
I am no author myself but I have what I think is a good idea for a book and was wondering what the next step would be?
Is is possible to simply sell an idea or work with somebody in order to try and get it on the shelves?

Cheers

EamonnKeane

You won't get a ghostwriter until you're very famous. And where's the fun? Try and do 4-5 pages a day and your first draft'll be done in a few months. There are lots of websites advising on common errors, editing techniques, etc., then send it to agents and publishers and hope.

testing_times

Thanks for that.
Well to be honest I could probably write the book myself, it's not a novel or anything like that more of a comical guide \ a walk through guide.
what I was wondering is is there a system in place where I would outline teh bones of the book, what I would like the content to be and the areas I think it should cover, then hand it over to an interested publishing company to actually package and publish the book?

Totally new to this but think the book could be a seller as it would be a unique book rather then a gribbing story.
It would be bought for its functionality rather then well written verses.

silvine

http://www.writerscentre.ie/centre/resources/articles/getpub.htm

http://www.writerscentre.ie/centre/events/intoprint/index.htm

cmcsoft

I've kinda been down this route before. Basically you will need to write it yourself, there is lots of help out there online.

The you need to find yourself an agent. This may take time, so submit to lots of agents, there's plenty out there.

Publishers don't usually take unsolicited manuscripts in my experience but you can try if you wish, you might be lucky.

Just a few things on agents, shop around, have a look at the writers guide (there is probably a 2008 edition but I'm not sure). Some agents charge ridiculous commissions so keep an eye out for that. Also some charge a reading fee, avoid those. Genuie agents will not charge you a reader's fee

testing_times

Thanks guys, all the feed back is appreciated.
I think I will draw up a type of 'Business Plan' for the book rather than concentrate on the content. I would like to provide and over-view of what I see the book becoming and then get feed back from agents\ publishers etc.
Think it would be easier to do that rather then concentrate on the actual book as its the 'Ideal' that I am trying to sell first.

uvdforever

check out a place called authorhouse.co.uk
they send you out an info pack thets easy to understand and theyll give you a callback fairly quickly to ask you about what you want.

TheBeefChief

testing_times wrote: »

Thanks guys, all the feed back is appreciated.
I think I will draw up a type of 'Business Plan' for the book rather than concentrate on the content. I would like to provide and over-view of what I see the book becoming and then get feed back from agents\ publishers etc.
Think it would be easier to do that rather then concentrate on the actual book as its the 'Ideal' that I am trying to sell first.

Noooooo!

Publishers don't want to see your sales figure guesstimates, what you envision the internal layout being, or any of that. They have specialists to do all that for them.

For a non-fiction, a publisher wants a short breakdown of the concept, then a more detailed outline of what will be in each chapter/section. They'll also want to see some writing samples to show you can string sentences together, plus ideally some evidence that you know what you're talking about with regards the field you're writing about.

Taking what you say in your post and applying it to the movie industry might be the best analogy. It'd be like approaching a movie producer and saying "I have a vague idea for a film, and here's who I want to have in it". All they care about is your story. The rest is up to them. Same goes with publishing. All they care about is the content of your book, not whatever bigger picture you may have in your head.