If you have suggestions, corrections, or updates, or if you find broken links, please e-mail MeredithSueWillis@gmail.com
Contents:
Agents
Articles of interest to writers
Bibliography
Book Doctors & Private Editors
Book Publishers (Nonfiction and Self-Help)
Characteristics list
Contests to watch out for
Copyright
Dialog tags
Flashback sample
Free Advice!
Free exercises
How Long Is a Novel?
Literary Agents
Names for characters
Notes on omniscience
Online magazines
Point of View
Printers: Recommended book producers (not publishers)
Proof Reader's Marks
Pros and Cons of Present Tense
Self-publishing
and Print-on-Demand
Small Presses
Some Tricks of the Narrative Trade
Types of Discourse
Types of publishers
Writers on writing
Writing Romance
Home
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Some basic information about agents can be found on the Poets & Writers website at literary agents. A big commercial publication about literary agents is Writers Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents by Jeff Herman. Prima Publishing P.O. Box 1260BK Rocklin, CA 95677 (916) 632-4400.
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Literary Agents of North America is the most comprehensive alphabetical listing of over 800 U.S. and Canadian literary agencies. It can be found in most libraries, or from: Author Aid/ Research Associates International 340 E. 52nd Street New York, NY 10022
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Reputable agents often join the Association of Authors' Representatives (see their website ) Here's another site with AAR agents listed: http://www.publication.com/aylad/aaragent4.htm (This group was formed in 1991 through the merger of the Society of Authors' Representatives, founded in 1928, and the Independent Literary Agents Association, founded in 1977.
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To get up-to-date free information about which agents are selling what, go to Publishers Lunch Free newsletter on publishing deals, and the Publishers Weekly "Hot deals."
Meredith Sue Willis
Author and Teacher
Biography Blog Books for Readers Contact Home Kids MSW Info MSW's Books Online Classes
Order Books MSW Online Resources for Writers Teens Workshops Writing Exercises
Resources for Writers from Meredith Sue Willis
For information about my online writing classes, go to mswclasses
SPECIAL PRICES ON FEATURED BOOKS
Dear Writer,
This page has various pieces of information and links to other sites that I hope will be helpful. If you come to this as a complete amateur-- and remember, amateur means you do it for the love of the thing-- I'll try to give you some basic ideas about getting published and the book business. For others, there are lots of odds and ends that you can find by scanning the topics in the column at the left.
The ideal publishing situation, harder and harder to obtain, is to get a literary agent to represent your book. The agent sells the finished book manuscript to a commercial publisher, and the editor at the publishing house works with you to perfect the book-- and you the writer get paid. Usually, you get 10-15% of the cover price of each book that sells, and your agent gets 10% of everything you make on the book. It becomes, however, harder and harder to have this scenario work. A writer whose first novel doesn't become a best seller often has trouble selling a second novel.
More and more people have begun to pay for their own editing and even publishing their own work-- often before it's fully ready. Before going to a book doctor or private editor, and certainly before self-publishing, I'd strongly suggesting taking a class or joining a writing group for mutual critique, or just getting friends to read your manuscript for reactions and suggestions. I've belonged to a group of writers for about 25 years who get together every two weeks to critique one another's work. But non-writers can give excellent suggestions, especially about what seems to be missing or if there are things that don't make sense.
There is a lot of good material on the web and also lots of good books about writing. Explore, have fun, and good luck--
-- MSW
The back pages of these two publications have information about contests, literary magazines, and many other matters of interest to writers:
Poets & Writers Magazine
Poets & Writers
72 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
http://www.pw.org/
Writers Chronicle
Associated Writing Programs
Tallwood House Mail Stop IE3
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
http://www.awpwriter.org/
For more commercially oriented information, try:
The Writer Magazine
http://www.writermag.com/wrt/
And
Writers Digest
1507 Dana Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45207
http://www.writersdigest.com/
Also useful is Writers Digest's yearly publication Writer's Market.
Copyright information:
Copyright
Free advice for writers:
(By the way, I don't necessarily agree with all this advice, but it's fun to read!)
Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing
Here's a free article from Book Doctor Carol Gaskin called "The Top Five Errors of New Writers." Click here for article.
Sol Stein (editor, novelist, teacher, developer of how-to-write software) shares advice he gave famous writers.
Vonda McIntyre the science fiction writer has some wonderful, funny pitfalls of novel writing at http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda/Pitfalls.htp
Improving your style
The Fog Index-- check how clear your writing is!
Places to Study Writing
There are many, many places to study writing both in person and online. Check your local area for adult school classes. The places I know best are in the New York-New Jersey area, but there are also a lot of possibilities online, including my occasional online classes. I will only list places here that I know at least a little about, or have heard something about from people I know. Mention here, however, does not constitute a recommendation by MSW. Please send your recommendion to Meredith Sue Willis for inclusion here.
The Writers Studio has been around for twenty years and has in-person classes in New York and San Francisco plus online classes. Some people swear by it, but others say that the exercises, which are good, take all your writing time. Certainly worth looking into.
I teach at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies Center for Writing and Speech and it has a full range of courses that range from basic creative writing to advanced poetry, nonfiction and fiction. Very complete and solid. The New School (also in New York City) offers a similar panoply of classes, as do Columbia University and other universities and colleges.
Gotham Writers' Workshop offers both online writing classes and in person classes. They run a tremendous number of sections, and, like the Writers Studio, some people swear by them and others find the classes unmemorable. This probably has to do with which teacher you get. They have several levels for most classes and pretty strict rules about how their classes are run, including what they call "The Booth," which is a technique that requires the writer to listen and not defend his or her writing. I do the same thing in my classes, only I call it listening to what people have to say.
Another New York City area place to study writing is the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop in Brooklyn. The instructors all have MFAs, and the website says that "classes are held in instructors’ brownstone apartments in Carroll Gardens."
A new online place for writing classes is WriteFine.
My online courses, usually short, and always scheduled at my own whim. That is to say, once I set up a class, I stick to my schedule, but I run them irregularly.
Sources of Literature Online
These are generally classics that are out of copyright, but at this point you can find almost anything in that category on the web. Shop around, as some are more readable than others.
Read Print New and very readable, a couple of Google ads at the top of the page.
Bartleby One of the first of these online libraries
Writers write about writing:
“The two most engaging powers of an author are, to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.”
-- attributed to Samuel Johnson, in reference to Pope’s
Rape of the Lock
"I don’t know if Native Son is a good book or a bad book. And I don’t know if the book I’m working on now will be a good book or a bad book. And I really don’t care. The mere writing of it will be more fun and a deeper satisfaction than any praise or blame from anybody."
-- Richard Wright
"Taking a book off the brain...is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel--you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety--&even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble."
-- Herman Melville
A story is...."a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. 'The king died, and then the queen died,' is a story. 'The king died, and then the queen died of grief,' is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. Or again: 'The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.' This is a plot with a mystery in it, a form capable of high development. It suspends the time-sequence, it moves as far away from the story as its limitations will allow. Consider the death of the queen. If it is in a story, we say, 'and then?' If it is in a plot we ask, 'why?'"
-- E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel
People don't turn themselves over to writers as full-blown literary characters– generally they give you very little to go on and, after the impact of the initial impression, are barely any help at all. Most people (beginning with the novelist– himself, his family, just about everyone he knows) are absolutely unoriginal, and his job is to make them appear otherwise. It's not easy. If Henry was ever going to turn out to be interesting, I was going to have to do it.
– Phillip Roth (as Zuckerman) Counterlife
...Coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two.
— Frank Herbert, author of Dune
Online articles of interest to writers:
A book review about a book about the state of publishing: "The Business of Books, by André Schiffrinby Meredith Sue Willis.
On politics and poetry in fiction writing by Walter Mosley
Cantara Christopher's article on a possible future of publishing:
The New Publishing Paradigm
Article about digital versus conventional publishing.
Resurgence of interest in readings and lectures? See article
Free writing exercises! Need a jump start? Try one of Meredith Sue Willis's ideas for writing.
Vonda McIntyre the science fiction writer has some wonderful, funny pitfalls of novel writing at http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda/Pitfalls.htp .
Need names?
20,000 names at http://20000-names.com/
Random name generator at : http://www.kleimo.com/random/name
Proofreader's marks are at Proofing.
Special for Women
Check out the International Women's Writing Guild
A Selection of Small Presses:
Academy Chicago http://www.academychicago.com/
Black Heron http://blackheron.mav.net/
Brighid's Fire Books specializes in first fiction.
Carolina Wren Press http://www.carolinawrenpress.org/index.html Andrea Selch, president, carolinawrenpress@earthlinknet
Chronicle Books http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/
Coffee House Press http://www.coffeehousepress.org/
Four Walls http://www.fourwallseightwindows.com/
Ghost Road Press http://www.ghostroadpress.com
Grey Wolf http://www.graywolfpress.org/
Iris Publishing Group (Iris Press and Tellico Books) has been run by Robert Cumming for more than ten years and publishes writers like Ron Rash,Cathy Smith Bowers, and Jon Manchip White. They plan 10 books for 2007. Lately they have done more literary fiction and at least one work of nonfiction.
Leapfrog http://www.leapfrogpress.com/
Marsh Hawk Press is committed especially to publishing poetry that has an affinity to the visual arts. The artistic advisory board includes Toi Derricotte, Marilyn Hacker, Allan Kornblum, Alicia Ostriker, David Shapiro, John Yau, and Anne Waldman.
Midlist http://www.midlist.org/
MotesBooks is a new educational and literary press. The publisher is Kate Larken.
Press 53 http://www.press53.com/ Small literary press, some emphasis on North Carolina and Appalachian writers, but much broader. Reprinting novels by John Ehle.
Pudding House http://www.puddinghouse.com/
Red Hen http://www.redhen.org/
Sarabande http://www.sarabandebooks.org/
Shoemaker & Hoard has a wonderful list that includes Wendell Berry and Donald Barthelme, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anne Lamott, and Romulus Linney among many others. Publisher Jack Shoemaker was the cofounder, editor, and publisher of North Point Press and Counterpoint Press. See the webpage at http://www.shoemakerhoard.com/about.html
Toby Press http://www.tobypress.com/
Wind Press at http://windpub.com publishes poetry of the Appalachian region.
Word Press publishes poetry.
Publishers Specializing in Nonfiction and Self-Help
Morgan James Publishing is a new model publisher that works cooperatively with authors of nonfiction and self-help only. So don't take them your literary work, but do check them out if you have a high concept idea for a book on how to do something.
Literary Agents
Online resources for writers and small presses. Most of these have links to other resources as well:
Best All Around Resource:
New Pages
More (bold face for my favorites):
Aeonix.com Good site with lots of links for small presses.
Authorlink.com
Booksinprint.com
Bookwire.com
DUSTBOOKS is one of the oldest (1964) and best sources of books on publishing. I have used their directories of small presses and little magazines for years.
For Writers.com
How to Do Things Articles on all kinds of subjects--not only writing, but the writing articles include items like "How to Write Flash Fiction" and "How to Choose a Workshop." Worth looking at.
Literary Marketplace.com
New Pages Excellent site with all kinds of magazines to submit etc.
Poets & Writers.org
The Practicing Writer "Supporting the craft and business of excellent writing"
Publishers Weekly.com
Sensible Solutions.com
Short short novels: Here's something interesting: a site for writing novels in 25 words or less: http://espressostories.com/
Winning Writers.com A site about poetry contests.
The Writer
Writers Digest
Writers.net
Contests to beware of:
These sites have massive mailing campaigns and try to part aspiring writers from their money: poetry.com (also uses names Watermark Press, International Library of Poetry, and International Society of Poets); Circle of Poets, League of American Poets, FamousPoets.com, and Noble House Publishers (not to be confused with the American LIterary Press's Noble House in Baltimore.)
Sites for genre writers:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Romance Writers of America
Harlequin also has a nice site with information about how to write romance novels. More Harlequin hints here.
How long should a novel be?
Publishers of novels generally like manuscripts of at least 80,000 words and no more than 120,000. This is clearly a rule meant to be broken. Since a double spaced manuscript page runs 250 to 300 words, this means a manuscript of 250 to 350 pages. This turns into considerably less as a printed book– maybe 200 to 300 book pages.
A short story is 2000 to 7000 words (less than 10,000 words), and a short short is 1000 to 1500 words. A novella is 15,000 to 40,000 words (in science fiction, for certain awards, between 17,500 and 40,000). There is also in science fiction a form called novelette that runs 7500 to 15,000 words. In literary fiction, people would probably call something of that length a long story.
Generally, a memoir, personal narrative, or collection of linked short stories is treated like fiction for length.
Showing and Telling
Anyone who has every taken a writing class has probably heard about Show and Tell. Often, we're told it's better to "show" ("His smile was brilliant and toothy, and his laugh was deep and welcoming") than to "tell" ("He was nice.") This is true part of the time but not always. I don't want a writer to show me every action a character takes upon rising in the morning (brand of tooth paste, how she turns the door knob...) unless there's a reason. Sometimes a summary is better. I like to think in terms of learning when to tell or summarize, and when to show or dramatize in a scene. Both things are part of writing narrative, and knowing when to use which is one of the most important things to learn. Here are some examples of successful scene and summary at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/materials.html#scenesummary .
Process and Product
A review in 2-27-08 New York Times Book Review of an unfinished novel by Richard Wright makes the point that (a) this should never have been published because (b) it is a very rough draft, and while drafts are an essential part of the process of writing, they are not finished products. Wright is, of course, one of our really fine American writers-- if you haven't read Black Boy and Native Son, I recommend them highly.
Notes on How to Revise a ManuscriptAfter you've drafted your prose narrative manuscript (story, memoir, novel), or at least drafted a substantial portion of it, try some of these steps for revision:
• Add material to enrich– and to learn more. This should be done early and often
• Ask yourself if you’ve put in all the things that a reader needs. What is missing will depend on each writer’s strength, weaknesses, and methods of drafting, but might include anything from feelings (do the characters show how they are reacting to events?) to essential background facts (will your readers born in 1980 have heard of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade?).
• Go through your manuscript to see if the essential conflicts have been dramatized. This is an especially good technique for improving flat or boring dialogue, to add drama.
• Cut your material so that only the best parts (adjectives, images, lines of dialogue) stand out.
• Cut even more out of respect for the reader’s time.
• Make changes to fit your audience. This can be permanent (if I decide to make my story for young adults, I may have to get rid of explicit sex) or temporary (I decide to make a short version for a reading when I only have 15 minutes).
• Revise action scenes and other narrative sections for logistics. Is it easy to visualize the physical movement of the men having the fist fight? Is the city street where the fight takes place described in a way that makes it easy to picture? Are the parts of the fight described in the best order?
• Revise for continuity or consistency. Did the character change eye color between page 10 and page 210? Indeed, did the character’s motivation change in a way not consistent with the events in the story?
• Revise for style: are your verbs active? Do they carry more weight than your adjectives?
• Polish (correct grammar, typos, and format) to get the most respectful response from readers – especially potential agents, editors, and contest judges. If you can’t spell, you may need to ask your aunt-the-retired school teacher to go over it. There are also editors for hire who will do this work.
• Read through the entire manuscript in order, as a reader would. Read fairly rapidly for style, shape, and rhythm.
• Put it away and come back later. There is nothing like time passing for getting perspective on your manuscript. Write something else, too, a story, an article. Anything to get some distance on your novel.
Thanks to many people for contributions to this list, including: June Adler, Chuck Arguello, John Birch, Nicole Dweck, Richard Errington, Kyle Frisina, Yorker Kageyama, Mark Podolsky, Olugbenga Opesanwo, and Andrew Silver.
Web sites of some book doctors, writing consultants, editors, and coaches:
(Listing here does not constitute a recommendation by Meredith Sue Willis. In some cases, however, there is a personal recommendation from students I know. The fees for these editors and coaches vary considerably, but an hourly rate of $60 to $75 or $.009 a word is not atypical. Prices for a 400 page manuscript, for example, hover around $1400, more or less depending on various factors, including the fame of the editor.)
Paulette Alden: "Critiques short stories, novels and memoirs" – http://www.paulettealden.com
Betty Snyder Bedell: "I specialize in work by women" – http://bedell.bizland.com
Bluestocking Ink: "Specializing in African-American fiction, poetry, and essays....Editing, proofreading, plot and character development." http://www.bluestockingink.net
Carolyn Bly, Private Writing Consulting, is the author of several books of fiction as well as Beyond the Writers' Workshop and Against Workshopping Manuscripts. See her website.
Barrie Jean Borich: "Craft focused private instruction" – http://www.barriejeanborich.net
Susan Borkin: "Coach approach" – http://www.susanborkin.com
The Editorial Department at http://www.editorialdepartment.com/ claims to be the oldest independent editorial firm in existence. They were founded by Renni Browne, co-editor of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
Carol Gaskin, Editorial Alchemy. "Professional editor, literary midwife, award-winning author...offers extensive critiques, tutorials, revisions, support." http://www.editorialalchemy.com . Phone 941-377-7640; email: cgaskineditor@comcast. This book doctor comes highly recommended by students from my novel writing classes at NYU and others. One student says, she is "worth every penny," and another says "Carol Gaskin was a marvelous choice and I think she really helped me make it shine. "
Hollywood Writers Studio: Adapt novels and stories into screenplays" – http://www.HollywoodWritersStudio.com
Dave King, coauthor of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, does private editing. His web page is http://www.davekingedits.com/ .
Scribendi: "Editors available 24/7" http://www.scribendi.com/
Words into Print calls itself "an alliance of independent book editors and consultants offering a wide variety of services to writers....Each editor has approximately twenty years experience with leading New York trade book publishers or in the television and film industries....Our aim is to provide whatver help or advice writers may seek in their efforts to have material successfully published." See their website at http://www.wordsintoprint.org/ I don't know these folks' work, but I met two of them at the AWP Conference in New York in 2008, and they seemed highly professional and eager to answer questions.
Writers Consultant: "Teacher of widely-published, award-winning authors" – http://www.writersconsultant.com
Publicizing Your Book
There are many ways, such as:
Cakes!
( Learn more about Frances Madeson's comic novel
Cooperative Village here")
Hooks and more:
http://www.publishingbasics.com/2008/04/17/publicize-your-novel-2/
Bibliography of Books about Writing
Comments in quotations by various colleagues and students. If there are no quotation marks or other indication, the comments are by MSW.
Beginnings, Middles, and Ends. Writer's Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH.
Bernays and Painter. What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, ;Harper Perennial, New York, 1990.
Bickham, Jack M., Scene and Structure. 1993.
Booth, Wayne C., The Rhetoric of Fiction, Second Edition, University ;of Chicago, 1983.
Bradbury, Ray, Zen in the Art of Writing, Bantam, NY 1990.
Buchman and Groves, The Writer's Digest Guide to Manuscript ;Formats. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH.
Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. Many ;editions, HarperCollins.
Chatman, Seymour, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in ;Fiction and Film. Cornell, Ithaca 1978.
Dillard, Annie, The Writing Life.
Edelstein, Scott, Manuscript Submission. Writer's Digest Books, ;Cincinnati, OH, 1989.|
Elbow, Peter. Writing With Power, Oxford, New York, 1981.
Fugard, Athol, Tsotsi.
Gardner, John, The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. ;Vintage, 1991.
Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Shambala, Boston 1986. Also her Wild Mind.
Kundera, Milan, The Art of the Novel, HarperCollins, 1986.
The Literary Press and Magazine Directory 2006/2007: The Only Directory for the Serious Writer of Fiction and Poetry, Soft Skull Press, 2006. ISBN: 1933368160
Meredith, Robert, From Basic Idea to Finished Manuscript, Harper and Row, 1972.
Novel & Short Story Writer's Market 2007, 26th edition, by Lauren Mosko (Editor), Michael Schweer (Editor), Writers Digest Books, 2006. ISBN: 1582974306
Rockwell, F.A., How to Write Plots That Sell
Rodale, J.I. , The Synonym Finder , Warner Books, 1978. Recommended by a veteran journalist and writer of thrillers.
Sexton, Adam, Master Class in Fiction Writing: Lessons from ; Austen, Hemingway, and Others, McGraw-Hill, 2005. Excellent book on learning the tricks of the fiction writing trade by reading the masters from a well-known writer and teacher of writing.
Shertzer, Margaret, The Elements of Grammar, Collier Books. Recommended by a veteran journalist and writer of thrillers.
Stein, Sol, How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes ;Writers Make and How to Overcome Them.
Sol Stein, Stein on Writing . "Author of nine novels, publisher, teacher and editor (he’s edited the work of James Baldwin, Jack Higgins, Lionel Trilling, W.H.Auden and Dylan Tomas), knows more than a thing or two about writing fiction. His 320-page book STEIN ON WRITING (ISBN 0312136080) has invaluable advice on every aspect of writing a novel."
Strunk, William and White, E.B., The Elements of Style, Macmillan, ;Many editions.
Willis, Meredith Sue. Blazing Pencils: A Guide to Writing Fiction & Essays, Teachers & Writers, New York, 1991; Deep Revision: A Guide for Teachers, Writers, and Other ;;Students, Teachers & Writers, New York, 1993; and Personal Fiction Writing, Teachers & Writers, New York, 2001.
Ueland, Brenda, If You Want to Write
Types of Publishing; Pros and Cons of Self Publishing
Types of Publisher (A Publishing Continuum): Commercial; University presses/ larger small presses; Small Presses; Micro-mini presses; Co-operative Presses; Self-publishing; POD companies; Vanity Presses
Commercial Press: Gives you: advances! Puts you on T.V.! Author tour-- but-- sometimes no commitment at all. They often demand you do your own publicity, and they will drop you fast if your book does not sell a lot of copies very rapidly.
University press and large "small" press: Vary considerably: may make a real commitment, or not. Usually pay low advances or even none, but do pay royalties. They often give little publicity, but are in many ways the mainstay of literature at the present time.
Small press: No cost to you, usually, but little profit either. They will expect in-kind support (set up your own readings, send out your own publicity). A good resource for more information for small presses is http://www.aeonix.com
Micro-mini press: No advance, possibly some shared costs with the writer. Like others, this type of press expects the author to do publicity and share the work.
Co-operative publishing: Shared costs and labor by a group-- often author owned, run, and managed (Otherwise, like micro-minis and small pressess).
Self-publishing: Join the likes of Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, and Anaïs Nin. You have to do everything, and might use a conventional printing press or print-on-demand technology. Note: Important distinction a technology called "print-on-demand," used by great conglomerates like Random house as well as tiny micro-mini presses, and POD companies. For more on this topic, see below.
POD companies like Xlibris, Iuniverse, 1stbook, and others will, for a reasonable cost, print anyone's book. They have lots of packages with rapidly escalating prices for fancy covers etc. Reviewers and bookstores tend to be suspicious of these companies, which make their profits by accommodating authors more than by selling books.
Vanity Presses: Expensive and very low prestige. In most cases, avoid them. (Dorrance, Vantage).
Self-Publishing and Print-on-Demand
Self-publishing has always been a respectable option for writers who can't find a satisfactory commercial publisher. In self-publishing, the author does all the work, from having a cover made to finding a printer. Vanity publishing (sometimes called subsidy publishing), on the other hand, has a somewhat unsavory reputation. A Vanity Publisher does all the work for an author in exchange for a hefty fee.
The ideal is a commercial publisher who will pay the author for her or his work, giving royalties or other compensation. Such a publisher expects to make some profit on the sale of the author's books, and is thus willing to pay for review copies, advertising, attractive covers, etc. Now, however, well into the twenty-first century, getting a commercial book publisher can be extremely difficult – even for books that would have been considered commercial twenty-five years ago. For a quick outline of why, read André Schiffrin's book The Business of Books, or, for a précis of his argument, see my review of it at http://www.ethicalreview.org/articles/bookbusiness.html .
Falling between self-publishing and vanity publishing is an option called POD for "print-on-demand," which is actually the name of the technology it uses. The print-on-demand technology is a means of digitalizing books and printing one book at a time or many books at a time. The technology creates trade paperbacks that are indistinguishable from those printed by conventional offset presses. These books can be prepared to print for less than $100. Many commercial and small publishers use this technology to keep books in print that sell in small numbers or to bring into print books with niche markets. Without knowing it, you may have ordered a book from a large or small press that was printed by the print-on-demand technology. Large commercial presses and small presses with very selective standards are openly and unapologetically using this technology as a way around the enormous costs of warehousing large print runs of their books.
The POD companies, however, are large profit-making businesses who use the POD technology and work in much the same way as vanity publishers, but at less cost. Like vanity publishers, the POD companies generally work with amateur authors. There are exceptions: the Author's Guild, for example, a professional authors' organization, uses IUniverse to bring members' out-of-print books back into print.
The POD companies take care of all the details for the author and offer many different packages and services. Like the vanity publishers, they don't do much publicity, but they do list your book on their web site and often link it to Amazon.com and other outlets. They have attractive web sites and enticing packages, some priced very reasonably, as well as lots of fancy ways of separating the author from more money.
There is another problem: setting up your book is reasonably priced, but but if your intention is to sell copies yourself at readings or other events, it costs a LOT to buy copies of your own book from the POD companies. The standard author discount from a commercial or noncommercial publisher is 40%-- so I just bought copies of my book ORADELL AT SEA which sells for $15 retail at $9 each-- I'll sell them at readings etc. maybe even at a discount, and still make a little. The POD companies will charge you much more, so buying copies becomes an issue.
Some of the best known POD companies like http://www.iuniverse.com and http://www.authorhouse.com/are now part of AuthorSolutions.com . They also have a Do-it-yourself subsidiary called Wordclay , apparently designed to compete with Ron Pramshufer’s Self-Publishing.com and Lulu.com. For a blog on the experience of publishing with Lulu go to http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-aug21-06.html#hundred . Finally, here's an online version of an article (and review) from The American Book Review by Rochelle Ratner and one from PC M agazine at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1045933,00.asp.
In sum, the POD producers are not a scam: they do what they promise, but read the fine print. Generally, even if you find ways to sell the books published with these companies, you still have to pay rather a lot to buy books to resell. Read also the following online article from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. about possible dangers of using the POD publishers: http://www.sfwa.org/beware/printondemand.html.
Another article with a personal experience (and a blurb for Self-Publishing.com) is Jeannette Stricklen's piece “Writers—Beware of Subsidy Publishers, Vanity Publishers, and Poetry Websites ."
One-Book-at-a-Time Printers
If you decide against the POD companies, but want to try self-publishing, there are other companies that use the POD technology without the fancy packages. These POD companies act simply as printer, and may require you to prove that you are a press, not an individual. Lightning Source, Inc., for example, welcomes small presses and is helpful as long as the small press acts reasonably professional.
Conventional Printers
.
Finally, if you want to print your own book the old fashioned way, a good company that prints hard copies of books at a reasonable price is Morris Publishing. Note that an excellent price using conventional publishing means buying 500 or 1000 books at $1.50 to $4.00 each, so this is a fairly large investment that you then have to store as well as distribute.
Another full service printer with a long history and a reputation for being helpful to everyone is Edwards Brothers . Edwards also does Print-on-Demand ultra-short-run printing.
Two more conventional printers are McNaughton &Gunn, Inc. and Whitehall Printing Company,
If You Don't Have A Web Page Yet, You Should...
If you don't have a web presence yet, you really ought to. To get your feet wet, you might try one of the free (meaning with ads) webpages at places like Geocities Yahoo. Click here to see one that I set up in about 5 minutes. I don't especially like it-- especially not the ads-- but it is REALLY quick and REALLY easy to do. If you can fill in info to buy stuff on the web, you can do this. Also consider buying the domain name with your name--thus, I own meredithsuewillis.com. You can get these at several places, including www.domainbank.com .
Another web host that has been recommended to me makes things easy and cheap for you: Homestead.com. Some people use the free Blog spaces as their presence on the web (one that a lot of people use is Blogger), too. But one way or another, the Web is rapidly becoming an important place for writers to get a pieds-à-terre, or is it a
pied-à-cyberspace?
Online and hard copy publications that publish fiction:
Avery http://www.averyanthology.org/
Big City Lit http://www.nycBigCityLit.com
Black Bird www.blackbird.vcu.edu publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama as well as multi-modal works exploring the electronci possibilities as well as the traditions of the best in print journals.
Blue Moon http://www.thebluemoon.com
Collected Stories http://www.collectedstories.com
Contrary Magazine http://www.contrarymagazine.com/Contrary/Autumn-2007.html
Doubletake http://www.doubletakecommunity.org/
Ep;phany http://www.epiphanyzine.com
The Hamilton Stone Review http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr.html
The King's English This magazine wants long fiction and novellas!
Land Grant Colleges Review http://www.land-grantcollegereview.com/submissions/index.php
Mary Mary
Mountain Echoes http://www.mountainechoes.com
Mystic Review http://acarts.org/mystic
The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/
Passager at www.passagerpress.com has as its mission to publish writing that brings to light the collective imagination of those who are over 50.
The Pedestal Magazine http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com
Pif Magazine www.Pifmagazine.com;
Prick of the Spindle http://www.prickofthespindle.com
R.KV.R.Y. http://www.ninetymeetingsinninetydays.com/ Poetry and Fiction, theme of "recovery" in its broadest sense.
The Rose & Thorn Literary E-zine http://www.theroseandthornezine.com/
rumble (publishes micro-fiction)
Salt River Review http://www.poetsersv.org/
Storyglossia http://www.storyglossia.com/front.html
Story South You need a Southern Connection.
Tin House http://www.tinhouse.com/
Vestal Review Flash fiction only.
Women Writers http://www.womenwriters.net/index.html
Markets for Writers of Literary Short Fiction
Shelley Ettinger sent information from the Poets & Writers' Speakeasy discussion board where some writers listed fiction markets by degree of impossibility of getting published in them. She points out that it is not comprehensive (and recommends the fuller list at http://www.newpages.com) but says she likes the way this one breaks it down.
Shelley also recommends Duotrope.com/ , an often-updated service listing markets by category.
I. Too competitive for words:
Atlantic Monthly ( Michael Curtis, fic. ed.) www.theatlantic.com
Harper's (Ben Metcalf, literary ed.) www.harpers.org
Esquire (Adrienne Miller, literary ed.) http://www.esquire.com/about
GQ http://us.gq.com
Ms. www.msmagazine.com
The New Yorker (Deborah Treisman, fic. ed.) www.newyorker.com
Playboy (Christopher Napolitano) http://www.playboy.com/...tion-guidelines.html
II. Ultra Competitive:
DoubleTake www.doubletakemagazine.org/
Granta (Ian Jack, ed., London) www.granta.com/about/contacts
Glimmer Train, www.glimmertrain.com
McSweeny's www.mcsweeneys.net/
The Oxford American (Southern writers/themes) www.oxfordamericanmag.com/
Paris Review (Brigid Hughes) http://parisreview.com/
Ploughshares (guest editors) www.pshares.org/index.cfm
The Sun (Sy Safransky, ed. www.thesunmagazine.org
The Threepenny Review (Wendy Lesser, ed) www.threepennyreview.com/
Tin House (Rob Spillman, ed.) http://tinhouse.com
Zoetrope www.all-story.com
III. Very very competitive:
Agni www.bu.edu/agni/
Antioch Review
www.antioch.edu/review/
Boulevard www.richardburgin.com/boulevard.htm
Conjunctions www.conjunctions.com
Epoch www.arts.cornell.edu/english/epoch.html
Georgia Review www.uga.edu/garev/
Gettysburg Review www.gettysburg.edu/academics/gettysburg_review
Iowa Review www.uiowa.edu/%7Eiareview/mainpages/tirweb.html
Kenyon Review (Nancy Zafris, fic. ed.) www.kenyonreview.org
Michigan Quarterly Review www.umich.edu/~mqr/index.html
Missouri Review (Speer Morgan, ed.) www.missourireview.org/
New England Review http://cat.middlebury.edu/~nereview
North American Review www.webdelsol.com/NorthAmReview/NAR
Ontario Review
www.ontarioreviewpress.com/review/home/hm_index.html
Prairie Schooner www.unl.edu/schooner/psmain.htm
Southern Review http://appl003.lsu.edu/...hernreview.nsf/index
Tri-Quarterly (Northwestern U) www.triquarterly.org/
Virginia Quarterly Review (Ted Genoways) www.virginia.edu/vqr/
Zyzzyva (West Coast writers; Howard Junker, ed.) www.zyzzyva.org/
IV. Darn Competitive:
Alaska Quarterly Review http://aqr.uaa.alaska.edu/
Another Chicago Magazine www.anotherchicagomag.com/
Bellingham Review www.ac.wwu.edu/~bhreview/
Beloit Fiction Journal www.beloit.edu/~english/bfjournal.htm
Bellevue Literary Review www.blreview.org/
Black Warrior Review
http://webdelsol.com/bwr/
Blue Mesa Review http://www.unm.edu/~bluemesa/
Chicago Review http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/review/
Boston Review www.bostonreview.net/aboutBR.html
Carolina Quarterly www.unc.edu/depts/cqonline/
Cimarron Review http://cimarronreview.okstate.edu/
Colorado Review www.coloradoreview.com/
Conjunctions www.conjunctions.com/njhome.htm
Cutbank www.umt.edu/cutbank/
Denver Quarterly www.denverquarterly.com/
Fiction (Mark Mirsky, ed) www.fictioninc.com/
Fiction International http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/press/fi/
Fiddlehead
www.fiddlehead.ca/
Five Points (Ga. SU) www.webdelsol.com/Five_Points/
Greensboro Review www.uncg.edu/eng/mfa/review/review.htm Gulf Coast www.gulfcoastmag.org/index.html Harvard Rev http://hcl.harvard.edu/...tments/harvardreview
Hayden's Ferry www.asu.edu/clas/pipercwcenter/publications/haydensferryreview
Indiana Review http://www.indiana.edu/~inreview/ir.html
The Journal www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/english/journals/the_journal/
Land Grant College Review www.land-grantcollegereview.com/index.php
Literal Latte www.literal-latte.com/
The Literary Review www.theliteraryreview.org/
Malahat Review
http://web.uvic.ca/malahat/
Manoa www.hawaii.edu/mjournal/
The Massachusetts Review www.massreview.org/
Meridian www.engl.virginia.edu/meridian/
Mid-American Review www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/midamericanreview
New Orleans Review http://www.loyno.edu/~noreview/
Nimrod www.utulsa.edu/nimrod/
Open City www.opencity.org/main.html
Phoebe www.gmu.edu/pubs/phoebe/main.html
Puerto del Sol www.nmsu.edu/%7Epuerto/welcome.html
Quarterly West www.webdelsol.com/Quarterly_West Seattle Review http://depts.washington.edu/engl/seaview1.html
Sewanee Review
www.sewanee.edu/sreview/home.html
Shenandoah http://shenandoah.wlu.edu/
Stand Magazine www.people.vcu.edu/~dlatane/stand.html
Swink (new, Leelila Strogov, ed.) www.swinkmag.com
Western Humanities Review www.hum.utah.edu/whr/
Witness www.occ.cc.mi.us/witness/ Yale Review www.yale.edu/yalereview/
V. Still plenty competitive:
American Literary Review www.engl.unt.edu/alr/index.html
Ascent www.cord.edu/dept/english/ascent/
Crab Orchard Review www.siu.edu/~crborchd/
Crab Tree Review www.crabcreekreview.org/
Cream City Review www.uwm.edu/Dept/English/ccr/index2.html
Crescent Review
www.crescentreview.org/
Florida Review www.flreview.com/
Global City Review http://webdelsol.com/globalcityreview/
Nebraska Review www.unomaha.edu/~fineart/wworkshop/submits.htm
New Letters www.newletters.org/
New Delta Review http://english.lsu.edu/journals/ndr
Ninth Letter www.ninthletter.com
North Dakota Quarterly www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndq/
Notre Dame Review www.nd.edu/~ndr/review.htm
Other Voices www.uic.edu/depts/engl/othervoices/index.html
Painted Bride Quarterly http://webdelsol.com/pbq/
Potomac Review www.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacreview/index.html
Small Spiral Notebook
www.smallspiralnotebook.com/
South Carolina Review www.clemson.edu/caah/cedp/scrintro.htm
South Dakota Review www.usd.edu/sdreview/
Spinning Jenny www.blackdresspress.com/
Southeast Review www.english.fsu.edu/southeastreview/default.htm
Southwest Review www.southwestreview.org/
Sycamore Review www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/sycamore/
Tampa Review http://tampareview.utampa.edu/
Third Coast www.wmich.edu/thirdcoast/
West Branch www.bucknell.edu/About_Bucknell/Publications/West_Branch/
VI. Web magazines (many paper mags also publish larger web versions.):
www.blackbird.vcu.edu;
www.collectedstories.com ;
www.Pifmagazine.com;
www.vestalreview.net;
www.vorticalmag.com
A Selection of Small Presses:
Academy Chicago http://www.academychicago.com/
Black Heron http://blackheron.mav.net/
Brighid's Fire Books specializes in first fiction.
Bright Hill Press http://www.brighthillpress.org/
Chronicle Books http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/
Coffee House Press http://www.coffeehousepress.org/
Four Walls http://www.fourwallseightwindows.com/
Grey Wolf http://www.graywolfpress.org/
Kore Press http://www.korepress.org/
Open submissions with fee in January only-- mostly poetry, short fiction, memoir.
Leapfrog http://www.leapfrogpress.com/
Midlist http://www.midlist.org/
Press 53 http://www.press53.com/ Small literary press, some emphasis on North Carolina and Appalachian writers, but much broader. Reprinting novels by John Ehle.
Pudding House http://www.puddinghouse.com/
Red Hen http://www.redhen.org/
Sarabande http://www.sarabandebooks.org/
Toby Press http://www.tobypress.com/
A Selection of Prose Narrative Books recommended by my friends and students as exemplary and worthy of enjoyment and even study:
What I Loved Siri Hustredt "Innovative Book of Ideas"
The Time Traveller's Wife Audrey Nuffeneger "Brilliant handling of flash forward and flash back and point of view"
The Glass Castle
The Case of the Dog in the Night "Excellent consistent voice"
Vernon God Little
The World According to Garp "John Irving"
King Kong on East 4th Street "Social Study Lower East Side in 80's"
100 Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Black Swan Green David Mitchell
Three Junes Julia Glass
The Secret History Donna Tratt
Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood
Possession A.s. Byatt
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle Murakai "Freedom to be imaginative"
Nine Stories J.D. Salinger "Simplicity in setting up complex characters"
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte "Just Perfect"
THe Eyre Affair Jasper Fford "This is jsut for fun i fyou love Jane Eure"
Thank you for Smoking Christopher Buckley
Special Topics in Calamity Physics Marisha Pessl "Clever literary murder mystery"
The Alchemist Paulo Cochlo
Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston
Featured Book
If you order this month's featured book by direct mail, you may take 10% off your total order, excluding shipping & handling and tax. Order from the Order-by-Mail page.
Trespassers
A novel set during the student strikes and
sit-ins at Columbia University in 1968..."With the same attention to detail she brought to her character's small town childhood, Willis brings the people, ambiance and events of the urban experience out of the past and into a fresh light 30 years later. The silky locution that springs from the Appalachian heritage of storytelling is fully empowered here. Critics agree: Others have written of the same era, but few write as well."
-- Claudia Ebeling in Bucknell World
Trespassers, the final volume in Meredith Sue Willis's luminous Blair Morgan trilogy, brings its West Virginia-born heroine to the brink of adulthood and to the epicenter of her generations' rage. it is 1967, and 20-something Blair is off to New York City to begin life on her own....The novel is different in tone than the earlier books of the trilogy, in which it was possible to detect the cadence of West Virginia (right down to Blair being called Blair Ellen by those who knew her then). This book is blunter, with more dialogue. There's no mistaking New York.
-- Carol Herman in The Washington Times
Willis demolishes dreaded Appalachian female stereotypes....Blair Ellen is a particular girl, to be sure, from a particular region of the country, which itself represents the reforming spirit of the turbulent ‛60's, but her aspirations and experiences in social action speak to a collective, inclusive identity which makes her a representative of her generation, not her region.
— Gina Herring, Appalachian Journal, Volume 25, Number 4, Summer 1998.
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