It is interesting. But if you are refering to the 2nd review of my book, that is the kind of opposition I expect. I highly doubt that guy actually read my book (unless he happens to be one of the few people my brother got a copy to). One think I do know about Christianity: if you aren't offending someone, you aren't being a Christian. (Fencerology summary of how Jesus said he came not to bring peace but a sword). But yes, people will be offended by my work because I put the Gospel message without any watering of it down or disguising it. It's tricky to do that without being 'preachy' and some will consider it that. I personally don't really care if some do or some don't. I wrote this book to give a very different view on Christianity (through the topic of spiritual warfare) and to point people back to God. And already, several have so I've already done my job. Any more is bonus.

But speaking of bonus, my book will likely have a new means of getting out pretty soon. I mentioned in the Christianity thread that my Intervarsity group at UTEP just hosted a Creation Science Speaker and Apologetic, Dr. Charles Jackson. Though we met for a brief moment when he was here four years ago (when I found out about him) he and I connected fast in his two day stay. He just finished reading my book a few days ago and is astonished. And he wants to endorse it to his 5,000 plus followers. The only thing is that we've discovered that Lighthouse really didn't do much final editing as we hoped and there are quite a few grammatical and spelling issues that never got caught. So he is about to go through my last draft and be an editor for me. That way when I get ready to go a publisher (hopefully a larger one than Lighthouse) for my sequel, I can get a new edition of my first released with those errors fixed. Dr. Jackson even said he would write an endorsement letter for me when I get ready to do that. This could be big. All I know is God is doing something huge with my book and I am enjoying every step of the way.

Oh, I really hope that you get to a bigger publisher than Lighthouse, Fencer. I think that your work would really flourish somewhere that they paid lots of attention to it and focused on marketing. Good luck!

I've always wondered how people get their books into big publishing houses like HarperCollins. Does anyone know?

Someone said that you have to get an agent... But where do you find one of those?

Also, has anyone here ever taken a college writing course? If so, I have some questions I'd like to ask about that...

~Riella

That's fantastic news, Fencer! God willing, you'll be able to get your book to a bigger publisher and impact more people! That's exciting.

I've always wondered how people get their books into big publishing houses like HarperCollins. Does anyone know?

Someone said that you have to get an agent... But where do you find one of those?

I've done quite a bit of reading on that particular subject. Yes, for the larger publishing houses, agents are really the only way to go. Otherwise, the houses would be receiving thousand and thousands of manuscripts - most of which nowhere near being reading for publishing. That's what agents are for - they act as a sort of filter for manuscripts, and once they find ones they like, they work with the author to fix it up and find an editor who'll take it on.

You can get an agent one of two ways.

The first way is the most common - by writing a query letter. First, you look up agents online, or in a publishing book, and find out if they represent your genre. Then you write something called a query letter, which gives a basic outline of your book's plot, the name, and the word count. Usually, the agent will want you to attach the first couple of pages as a sample. Then you send it off, either by email or snail mail. Agents get tons of these letters, though, so it really needs to be special in order to stand out. Sometimes, it'll take letters to dozens of agents before you get a bite. If they like it, they'll request more pages to read. If they keep liking it, they'll ask for the whole book. And if they read it all and like it, they'll take you on as a client.

The other way to get an agent is to go to a writer's conference. These conferences have editors and agents that you can schedule time to meet with, where you'll have the opportunity to pitch to them your book orally. It works somewhat like method one in that if they like your pitch, they'll request pages. The advantage is you get to meet with them personally and let them see who you really are, which could easily distinguish you from the queries piling up in their inbox.

Anyway, I hope that helps! If you want me to go more in detail, let me know.

^^ Sure, I'd love to hear all the details!

What if your "book" is actually a book series? It makes it a bit different when it comes to outlining, etc.

And how do you know the agent is real or good? I'm sure there are a lot of fakers out there.

~Riella

What Silver said about agents is true. However what is said about publishers is also said about agents. They get hundreds and thousands of proposals all the time. So while many large publishers don't like to work with people unless they have a reputable agents, a lot of reputable agents don't like to work with people who are not already established. So it is very tricky for a new author to get into the big industry. But it's not impossible. The first thing you have to do is do homework.

Research the publishers and agents. Do they take unsolicited manuscripts? If you are not an established author, an agent, someone the publisher highly respects, you have an unsolicited manuscript. It's not that the publisher is not interested in you. It's they have so many other proposals you end up becoming 'one in the stack'. If the publisher or agent does not take unsolicited manuscripts, skip them and move on. The only way you will get through is through someone 'in the know'.

What genres do they prefer? Some only want poetry. Others only want non-fiction. If a publisher does not list your genre, they are not interested in you. If they do, then pursue. Also pay attention to audience and book length. Some publishers like to target a specific audience range (like kids, teaching/education, non-fiction Christian adults, etc) and others won't publish if a book is too large or too small. Every publisher will have a list of guidelines for what they want. Other publishers like Lighthouse will do very little if any editing so they want it as close to perfection as you can get it. If they say light editing, that really translates to spell/grammar check, which any study of English (in this case) will tell you it only catches about 50% of the errors.

So let's assume you did your homework and found a publisher or agent that will suite what you have to offer. The proposal is the biggest step for an author to take from a manuscript to getting published. The proposal is almost exactly like an interview for a job. When applying for a job, you want your resume to stand out above all others. You want to be put in the stack of highly considered candidates and not in the stack of all the others. Your proposal to a publisher or agent is your resume.

Just like a real resume, your proposal needs to identify who you are, why you want to be published, what you have to offer the company (publisher or agent) and sample work. Most proposal templates have a 1-2 page summary of who you are, what your manuscript is about, what you plan to do to sell copies, what contacts you have to get it out, and such. This is the most important part. The publisher or agent will look at this 1-2 pages first and acquire that renown 'first-impression'. That is so important to getting published. The proposal also will include chapter summaries and sample chapters (usually the 1st 3 chapters). If you do not get that 'first-impression' in your favor, your proposal goes into the stack to be dealt with later. If the scanner likes what he/she sees, then they'll go into the chapter descriptions, and if they like that, they'll look at your first three chapters. The first three chapters will tell them enough about your writing style to determine if they want you or not.

Now, if you get this far, something else you need to realize: it takes time to sort through all the proposals. There are thousands of others just like you, with the same dreams and ambitions. And they are doing to the same thing you are doing. And this is just getting to your proposal to see if they will do what I described above. It takes time so grant the publisher or agent patience to do thier job and get to your proposal.

Now one thing that many people get is rejection letter. Many publishers don't say why unless they state in their service that they do. Rejection doesn't mean your work is not good. That might truly be the case, but many times it's because the publisher is not the right fit for your work. Perhaps they just released a work very similar to yours. Maybe they have too many manuscripts to sort through and have to reject everyone until their load lessens. Or maybe you caught the screener on a bad day. There are lots of reasons for rejection and many of those are not due to you.

As for series, propose it as such. Tell them you are planning a series. If they are interested in the first, knowing that more will be coming may be a make or break decision. In the outlines going into details about the first, but also indicate where it will go in the latter books.

So I hope that helps. It's good advice for me as well as I will be soon going through the process. I don't know how much having gone through Lighthouse will help me and I don't know if Dr. Charles Jackson is well-known enough to that world (he uses small publishers himself for his stuff with Creation Truth Ministries) for an endorsement letter to help. But I will begin my real research this summer so when my sequel is ready to propose, I will have my list of candidates ready as well. Then all I can do is leave it up to the Lord.

Do they take unsolicited manuscripts? If you are not an established author, an agent, someone the publisher highly respects, you have an unsolicited manuscript.

What do you have to do to be a "established author"? Does self-publishing do that, or do you have to do something else?

~Riella

One think I do know about Christianity: if you aren't offending someone, you aren't being a Christian. (Fencerology summary of how Jesus said he came not to bring peace but a sword). But yes, people will be offended by my work because I put the Gospel message without any watering of it down or disguising it. It's tricky to do that without being 'preachy' and some will consider it that. I personally don't really care if some do or some don't.

^ A truer word has never been said. You have me interested now. I haven't yet bothered to read all 44 of the Writer's World pages (though some day I'm planning to sit down and have a marathon of reading so I can get caught up), so now you have me curious. What is this book about? Is it fiction or non-fiction? Is there anywhere where I can read it, or a blurb of it? Congratulations on that feat, by the way. It's not easy to be published, so seeing this makes me very happy for you.

As for me, I've only suceeded in getting a few poems and a novel exerpt publshed in a local literary magazine and my online school anthology, but hey, we have to start somewhere!

^^ you can buy it by clicking the link in his signature. You can also read a part of it there too, without buying.

~Riella

What I mean by established author is, does the publiser know who you are? If not, you are not established in thier eyes. I could consider myself established with Lighthouse, but not with anyone else at this point. You almost would need to become a household name like CS Lewis, JK Rowling, Christopher Paloni, Stephanie Meyes, Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker, etc to be considered established. And I highly doubt anyone on this forum at this point would qualify for that.

And yes, Ozymandias, check my siggy link. It will take you to the Amazon page where you can find out very quickly about my book as well as get a sampling of the first chapter. A sequel is in the works.

I've actually been getting more writing done lately. My goal is to finish the second draft by August. Right now I have just begun Part Two. There will be five parts, though some will be shorter than others. I've also just decided that a very long scene detailing the main character's sister's wedding could be cut out, since it doesn't really impact the rest of the story. I'm currently about to start an account of the main character's visit to the city, Minar, that played such a large role in the last book. I'm looking forward to writing about it when there's more than two people in it!

Ooh, I'm liking what you have there so far, FencerforJesus! Out of curiosity, what age range have you geared this particlar book towards?

I'm targeting teens to adultIs. There is some material that would be considered unsuitable for younger kids. Not bad stuff, but as it deals with spiritual warfare and the battle against demons, it gets really intense at times. I wrote it to open up eyes to the spiritual side of things around us and to draw people closer to God. So far, that goal has been quite successful.

Now I'm writing a prequel and questioning whether a character who died in the first book should have died or not.

I was wondering, what do you do when you have two novels that you really really want to write but you just can't choose which one to write down first?