writing a book

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wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 12 7:26 pm Post subject: writing a book

Are any DSers thinking about writing a book? working on a book? have found a publisher for their book?
I'm interested in any level commitment about a chunky writing project, fiction or otherwise (40,000 to 100,000 words chunky)
From
- I'd love to but don't know where to start, to
- I've got lots of pages written but need to get it all into some kind of order, to
- I'm on the final draft, to
-I'm on the road to getting it published

I'm asking cos I've reached that stage in my life where I think I'm just going to write a book because it's been on my things to do before I die for too long and I've had several of those synchronous encounters and events just recently which have pulled it off the back burner of my consciousness... no pressure no expectations of fame and fortune just the satisfaction of doing it...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46169
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 12 7:35 pm Post subject:
the folk i know who do just do it and then chuck it then do it etc til they have a good un

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 12 7:40 pm Post subject:
yeah that's what I was thinking... just do it...

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 12 7:46 pm Post subject:

Just do it, get the writing done first and worry about how to get it published when you are about 2/3 the way through. I self published my first handful of booklets and it was only when I reached about 70,000 words on the next one and still had loads of notes to deal with that I realised I needed external help and went and got an agent then. I have several more books (non fiction so multi tasking works ok on these) on the back boiler now and will do exactly the same, once they are almost there I'll assess then whether to give my agent a call and see if she's still talking to me, or whether to self publish.

tim_and_nicky

Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 261
Location: Beautiful Galicia, NW Spain

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 12:06 pm Post subject:
What Sally said. I started (and even finished) several before I had anything worth showing to anyone else. Like most things, you get better with practice. You can self-publish free via Amazon Kindle if you want to test the water. I've got a couple on there and am currently looking for an agent to handle another one. Best of luck with it.

troyannick

Joined: 24 Dec 2011
Posts: 605

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 5:16 pm Post subject:
Ive been writing notes on Bulgaria to hopefully one day collate a book, guess just keep writing then present it to a publisher or someone who can collate all the info into book format, if its interesting I guess people will want to read it. I saw lots of young people reading books on the various planes and trains back here so books are alive and well.Go For It

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 5:24 pm Post subject:

troyannick wrote:

Ive been writing notes on Bulgaria to hopefully one day collate a book, guess just keep writing then present it to a publisher or someone who can collate all the info into book format, if its interesting I guess people will want to read it. I saw lots of young people reading books on the various planes and trains back here so books are alive and well.Go For It

From my own experience, these days publishers want as finished a product as possible, unless you are writing on something very topical and cash generating (thinking some of these awful celebrity kiss and tell efforts) then they will be very unlikley to take unfinished notes, they will do the final layout, but as for collating, you will be expected to do everything including generating your own index pages. You will also be expected to demonstrate to them who the audience is and how many potential buyers there are and where your book overlaps or improves on what is already on the market. It was quite a learning curve and I initially wasnt prepared for just how much work the publishers want the author to do beyond the actual book writing itself. Just something to bear in mind as a lot of this you can pre-empt as you go along if you know its expected!

wishus

Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 5:48 pm Post subject:

I am an editor - mostly freelance copy-editing and proofreading, but I do some small press commissioning/substantive editing too...

So, I've seen a lot of new books!

My advice would be forget the market, forget trends, forget your favourite writers.

Work on finding your voice and the story you want to tell. Even non-fiction will have a narrative thread of sorts that pulls the whole thing together. You'll know it when you spot it.

Write your dream book. Take your time on it, get it right.

Do not show draft versions to the people who are closest to you. This can cause rows.

Select trustworthy beta readers if you will... but 'that's nice', and 'I enjoyed it', won't help to get it published.

Always rewrite.

Get a nice clean ms together that's relatively free of grammar errors, typos, spelling errors etc before you let any professional people see it.

You may want to pay someone to read/proofread it before it goes to a publisher/agent.

troyannick

Joined: 24 Dec 2011
Posts: 605

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 7:55 pm Post subject:
Interesting and good advice, its obviously like everything in life not that easy, but a great ambition.To most people even having an article published in a mag somewhere would be a great acheivement, I would love to do that.

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 12 8:02 pm Post subject:

wishus wrote:

That is good advice, thank you.

At the risk of sounding daft, how many words are in a book? I mean if I have a 150,000 wordcount in MS word, is that a slim thing? How many words are there in a 2" thick Robert Ludlum for example.

Thanks

tim_and_nicky

Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 261
Location: Beautiful Galicia, NW Spain

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 12 11:32 am Post subject:

Duckhead wrote:

At the risk of sounding daft, how many words are in a book? I mean if I have a 150,000 wordcount in MS word, is that a slim thing?

"Full length" would normally be 60,000 words plus, so 150,000 words is plenty.

Duckhead wrote:

How many words are there in a 2" thick Robert Ludlum for example.

Probably too many.

wishus

Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 12 5:26 pm Post subject:

tim_and_nicky wrote:

Duckhead wrote:

At the risk of sounding daft, how many words are in a book? I mean if I have a 150,000 wordcount in MS word, is that a slim thing?

"Full length" would normally be 60,000 words plus, so 150,000 words is plenty.

Duckhead wrote:

How many words are there in a 2" thick Robert Ludlum for example.

Probably too many.

Actually 40,000 is just a novella, so 60,000 is still quite tiny. A few years ago, 80,000 would have been just the right size, but this is considered a 'slim' book now. 120,000 is a good size. Your 150,000 may grow or shrink....

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 12 5:57 pm Post subject:
An excellent piece of software which can help with layout and organsiation is Scrivener - it's designed for the task.

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 12 7:02 pm Post subject:
I've just found and been playing with Yarny and joined nanowrimo - the forum bit of the site is a bit unwieldy size wise, but you could practically SMELL the writing enthusiasm and creativity on the discussion boards. But I'm a total group experience person - find I work so much better when I don't feel alone.... nanowrimo probably not for everyone, tho there are an awful lot of members...

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 12 1:05 pm Post subject:
Get yourself a copy of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook - Amazon link. A.

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