Need some advice for writing my novel (1 Viewer)

[MC Gas Money]

I acquired an small acer laptop that my BIL is going tp fix for me so can start writing.

If I put it up online as some sort of serial/blog how do I protect my intellectual property?

Is putting it online a good way to get exppsure and possibly get it in to print if it becomes popular or get a book deal to write the following volumes?

Should I just finish the entire manuscript and pay someone to proofread/edit it to submit to publishers?

Im completely clueless about this process but I think I have a fantastic idea.

Im being serious so please dont just turn this in to a thread putting down my ability. I know how to write, I got A's in english my entire life. I dont write like I do on a message board.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[trogg78]

 

[StrikeS2k]

I thought you already wrote your novel. Isn't it called Mr. Ishoda's bookstore or something like that?

 

[MC Gas Money]

I thought you already wrote your novel. Isn't it called Mr. Ishoda's bookstore or something like that?

No its a sci-fi called "The Surface"

This is serious man. Im ready to start work on this.

 

[eoMMan]

Great thread.

I have a similar question relating to my rap demo tape. If I get a radio station to play it on air, how do I protect myself and keep it (lyrics and beats) from being stolen?

 

[timschochet]

When I wrote a novel I emailed it to myself. Then I printed it out and mailed it to myself.

It was all a waste of time of course. My novel wasn't nearly good enough to be published. And if it had been good enough, my chances of it ever being published were about 1 in ten million. Of course I could always self publish, but who the heck would read it?

I had fun writing the novel, so it was worth it. My advice to you is to stop worrying about all this stuff. No matter how good your novel is, chances are nothing will ever happen with it. If you enjoy doing it, then do it. That will likely be your only reward. For me it was enough.

 

[fred_1_15301]

And if it had been good enough, my chances of it ever being published were about 1 in ten million.

Did you just pull this number out of a hat?

 

[gianmarco]

It was all a waste of time of course. My novel wasn't nearly good short enough to be published.

FYP.

 

[MC Gas Money]

When I wrote a novel I emailed it to myself. Then I printed it out and mailed it to myself.

It was all a waste of time of course. My novel wasn't nearly good enough to be published. And if it had been good enough, my chances of it ever being published were about 1 in ten million. Of course I could always self publish, but who the heck would read it?

I had fun writing the novel, so it was worth it. My advice to you is to stop worrying about all this stuff. No matter how good your novel is, chances are nothing will ever happen with it. If you enjoy doing it, then do it. That will likely be your only reward. For me it was enough.

Im intending this to get published somehow and get people reading it. Everyone ive given a synopsis to loved the idea and its very original. Is emailing it to yourself enough to copyright it?

 

[timschochet]

And if it had been good enough, my chances of it ever being published were about 1 in ten million.

Did you just pull this number out of a hat?

No. I was told that by a literary agent. After I finished the novel, I sent the first 3 chapters to several hundred agents via agent query.com. All through email so it didn't cost me anything. A few asked to see the whole thing, which got me excited at the time. One of them, who happened to be Pat Conroy's agent, actually read it and emailed me that she loved the concept but that I should rewrite it as a young adult novel. I tried to do this and I didn't hear from her for several months. Finally she emailed me that my narrative skills needed improvement, and while she still loved my concept, the market for novels by unknown writers was tougher than it had ever been- even for great ones, 1 in ten million was what she wrote.

 

[tom22406]

Just make sure to put Dong in the title and it should be a hit

 

[timschochet]

When I wrote a novel I emailed it to myself. Then I printed it out and mailed it to myself.

It was all a waste of time of course. My novel wasn't nearly good enough to be published. And if it had been good enough, my chances of it ever being published were about 1 in ten million. Of course I could always self publish, but who the heck would read it?

I had fun writing the novel, so it was worth it. My advice to you is to stop worrying about all this stuff. No matter how good your novel is, chances are nothing will ever happen with it. If you enjoy doing it, then do it. That will likely be your only reward. For me it was enough.

Im intending this to get published somehow and get people reading it. Everyone ive given a synopsis to loved the idea and its very original. Is emailing it to yourself enough to copyright it?

youre not listening. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Try to enjoy the writing and don't worry about your idea being stolen.

 

[MC Gas Money]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

 

[MC Gas Money]

Tim it does matter. I just want to know how to protect myself, especially if I post it online or even on these boards tobguage interest

 

[Sarnoff]

When I wrote a novel I emailed it to myself. Then I printed it out and mailed it to myself.

This does not count as copyright protection.

 

[timschochet]

OK. Knock yourself out, then.

 

[Mario Kart]

There are some great applications to assist you. I'm on a Mac but through the app store there is an app called "Scrivener" that I use. Not sure if there is a Windows one but it does what I need it to do. You can export in Word or Pages or PDF so you can always have a hard copy that way. Can't go wrong with Scrivener.

 

[apalmer]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Jamny can you help?

 

[MC Gas Money]

There are some great applications to assist you. I'm on a Mac but through the app store there is an app called "Scrivener" that I use. Not sure if there is a Windows one but it does what I need it to do. You can export in Word or Pages or PDF so you can always have a hard copy that way. Can't go wrong with Scrivener.

I was just going to write in word, save on a thumbdrive and print it out. What does scrivener offer that I cant do that way?

 

[sports_fan]

Put it on amazon and ask your mom to buy a copy

 

[Mario Kart]

There are some great applications to assist you. I'm on a Mac but through the app store there is an app called "Scrivener" that I use. Not sure if there is a Windows one but it does what I need it to do. You can export in Word or Pages or PDF so you can always have a hard copy that way. Can't go wrong with Scrivener.

I was just going to write in word, save on a thumbdrive and print it out. What does scrivener offer that I cant do that way?

Organization is key. Map out what the story is about. Imagine a couple characters, what they do, who they are, stuff like that. Instead of having many Word documents, Scrivener or something like it, will keep it all in one file for you. Map out your ideas a bit.

 

[MC Gas Money]

There are some great applications to assist you. I'm on a Mac but through the app store there is an app called "Scrivener" that I use. Not sure if there is a Windows one but it does what I need it to do. You can export in Word or Pages or PDF so you can always have a hard copy that way. Can't go wrong with Scrivener.

I was just going to write in word, save on a thumbdrive and print it out. What does scrivener offer that I cant do that way?

Organization is key. Map out what the story is about. Imagine a couple characters, what they do, who they are, stuff like that. Instead of having many Word documents, Scrivener or something like it, will keep it all in one file for you. Map out your ideas a bit.

Ive already done that which is why I want to start writing it now. I was planning to have one file for it that I will back up on a thumb drive and print.

Im still confused about what this scrivener is supposed to do

 

[Thorn]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

Jamny can you help?

there is just no piece of advice this guy will take

 

[shadyridr]

PM shuke. He should have all the info you need

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

Jamny can you help?

there is just no piece of advice this guy will take

well, in fairness the last time he PM'd someone on here it seemed to blow up

 

[Peyton Marino]

my advice would be to watch the californication episode where becca tells hank she wants to be a writer and then report back.

 

[Freelove]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

 

[MC Gas Money]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

Jamny can you help?

there is just no piece of advice this guy will take

well, in fairness the last time he PM'd someone on here it seemed to blow up

Yeah im not sending out random PMs right now. I dont want to get reported for spamming

 

[MC Gas Money]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

 

[Freelove]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

 

[Freelove]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

Go to kboards.com. Not only will you find a promotion section, but you'll find a million threads about where else is good.

I wouldn't spam here.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

Go to kboards.com. Not only will you find a promotion section, but you'll find a million threads about where else is good.I wouldn't spam here.

Im not going yo spam but I will let FBG know that one of us wrotr a book and they can dl it free.

Its a sci fi so ill look for boards that cater to things of that nature

 

[fred_1_15301]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

Go to kboards.com. Not only will you find a promotion section, but you'll find a million threads about where else is good.I wouldn't spam here.

Im not going yo spam but I will let FBG know that one of us wrotr a book and they can dl it free.Its a sci fi so ill look for boards that cater to things of that nature

I wouldn't mind a read

 

[MC Gas Money]

The story is a planned series so im hoping the first volume will pick up somr interest and maybe I can get a deal to write the others.

 

[Freelove]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

Go to kboards.com. Not only will you find a promotion section, but you'll find a million threads about where else is good.I wouldn't spam here.

Im not going yo spam but I will let FBG know that one of us wrotr a book and they can dl it free.

Its a sci fi so ill look for boards that cater to things of that nature

Seems reasonable. GL.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Sign up for KDP on amazon. (ETA: it's free.) As soon as you upload it, you're about as copyright protected as any NYT bestselling author, and people can start buying it if they actually want to. Nobody wants to steal your book anyway.

You want exposure, make it eligible for Kindle select and make it available free for a few days every few months. Just hit forums and promote the hell out of it before the promotion hits each time.

This sounds great thank you

Hit APPROPRIATE forums and promote the hell out of it, I mean. There are plenty of them that encourage that sort of thing. Once you get ten or twenty good reviews and a little profit trickling in, buy an ad with one or two of the bigtime Kindle promotion newsletters. They're not super expensive, and have a pretty proven track record of returning 10x's to 100x's profits during the duration of the promo. The "downside" of course being that you've got to have the ambition to have written a book in the first place, and have to meet some sort of minimum standard for number of reviews at a certain level of stars. So it's not exactly "easy money" in that sense. But it ain't hard. Get friends and family to review the thing for you and you're probably halfway there.

Besides FBG what forums should I hit?

Go to kboards.com. Not only will you find a promotion section, but you'll find a million threads about where else is good.I wouldn't spam here.

Im not going yo spam but I will let FBG know that one of us wrotr a book and they can dl it free.Its a sci fi so ill look for boards that cater to things of that nature

Seems reasonable. GL.

Thanks. This was tremendously helpful

 

[TLEF316]

In. This might get good

 

[Freelove]

The story is a planned series so im hoping the first volume will pick up somr interest and maybe I can get a deal to write the others.

Not going to happen. But that doesn't mean you can't turn a sweet profit on it if you're motivated and have a good promotional plan.

Check out, e.g., the "Yesterday's Gone" series on Amazon. Just one of dozens all pretty much identical to it, but theirs is pretty polished in terms of the marketing. They do about a chapter at a time, make each one a cliffhanger, charge .99c a pop, then sell bundled "Episodes 1-5" type deals for I think 2.99.

 

[MC Gas Money]

The story is a planned series so im hoping the first volume will pick up somr interest and maybe I can get a deal to write the others.

Not going to happen. But that doesn't mean you can't turn a sweet profit on it if you're motivated and have a good promotional plan.

Check out, e.g., the "Yesterday's Gone" series on Amazon. Just one of dozens all pretty much identical to it, but theirs is pretty polished in terms of the marketing. They do about a chapter at a time, make each one a cliffhanger, charge .99c a pop, then sell bundled "Episodes 1-5" type deals for I think 2.99.

Would that be the best model to make money?

How do they promote?

Is regular publishing just going the way of the dodo and better to just e-publish now?

 

[Freelove]

I suppose check out Hugh Howey or Anthony Ryan's stuff on Kindle if you want to see the standard that you'll need to have a chance of getting "signed to a deal" in the SF/F realm.

Lots of self publishers these days are turning down those kinds of deals anyway, though. If you're moving books as a self-publisher, there's not much reason to sign up for a deal to give away a huge chunk of your profits in perpetuity. Probably the safest way to get long-term, sustainable recognition, still, but if you're motivated enough as a SP, that can be overcome. I guess the other nice thing is the idea of a nice, juicy cash advance. But you're not getting that till you prove profitability on your own anyway.

There's a reason traditional publishing is dying a painful death.

It's almost two o'clock here, and I'm not at happy hour yet, so I've got to run. Cheers.

 

[MC Gas Money]

I suppose check out Hugh Howey or Anthony Ryan's stuff on Kindle if you want to see the standard that you'll need to have a chance of getting "signed to a deal" in the SF/F realm.

Lots of self publishers these days are turning down those kinds of deals anyway, though. If you're moving books as a self-publisher, there's not much reason to sign up for a deal to give away a huge chunk of your profits in perpetuity.

There's a reason traditional publishing is dying a painful death.

I assumed it was worth it for the promotion backing.

This amazon serial publishing looks good as its less of a time constraint and well suited to my story which has a lot of tense cliffhanger moments

 

[Freelove]

I suppose check out Hugh Howey or Anthony Ryan's stuff on Kindle if you want to see the standard that you'll need to have a chance of getting "signed to a deal" in the SF/F realm.

Lots of self publishers these days are turning down those kinds of deals anyway, though. If you're moving books as a self-publisher, there's not much reason to sign up for a deal to give away a huge chunk of your profits in perpetuity.

There's a reason traditional publishing is dying a painful death.

I assumed it was worth it for the promotion backing.

This amazon serial publishing looks good as its less of a time constraint and well suited to my story which has a lot of tense cliffhanger moments

Last thought before commencing with the libation.

Ignore their "official" serial publishing for now. Last I heard, still lots of kinks, and they hold you to strange standards. You can do an "unofficial" serial through traditional KDP (like the one I mentioned above), and just be sure to let people know that it's a serial by being very clear both on the cover and in the description.

 

[johnnycakes]

Bad news, MC... looks like both Footballguys and Footballguys.com have been trademarked.

ETA: link below is broken. Oh well, win some; lose some.

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4802%3A517mzn.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=Footballguys&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA2%24ALL&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query

 

[MC Gas Money]

I suppose check out Hugh Howey or Anthony Ryan's stuff on Kindle if you want to see the standard that you'll need to have a chance of getting "signed to a deal" in the SF/F realm.

Lots of self publishers these days are turning down those kinds of deals anyway, though. If you're moving books as a self-publisher, there's not much reason to sign up for a deal to give away a huge chunk of your profits in perpetuity.

There's a reason traditional publishing is dying a painful death.

I assumed it was worth it for the promotion backing.This amazon serial publishing looks good as its less of a time constraint and well suited to my story which has a lot of tense cliffhanger moments

Last thought before commencing with the libation.Ignore their "official" serial publishing for now. Last I heard, still lots of kinks, and they hold you to strange standards. You can do an "unofficial" serial through traditional KDP (like the one I mentioned above), and just be sure to let people know that it's a serial by being very clear both on the cover and in the description.

What is KDP?

 

[The Gator]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

Jamny can you help?

there is just no piece of advice this guy will take

 

[Freelove]

I suppose check out Hugh Howey or Anthony Ryan's stuff on Kindle if you want to see the standard that you'll need to have a chance of getting "signed to a deal" in the SF/F realm.

Lots of self publishers these days are turning down those kinds of deals anyway, though. If you're moving books as a self-publisher, there's not much reason to sign up for a deal to give away a huge chunk of your profits in perpetuity.

There's a reason traditional publishing is dying a painful death.

I assumed it was worth it for the promotion backing.This amazon serial publishing looks good as its less of a time constraint and well suited to my story which has a lot of tense cliffhanger moments

Last thought before commencing with the libation.Ignore their "official" serial publishing for now. Last I heard, still lots of kinks, and they hold you to strange standards. You can do an "unofficial" serial through traditional KDP (like the one I mentioned above), and just be sure to let people know that it's a serial by being very clear both on the cover and in the description.

What is KDP?

Happily, I'm now at my local happy hour, so I'm not the least bit frustrated you didn't type those three letters into Google. Which, if you had, would have given you as the top result a link to "Kindle Direct Publishing," along with step by step instructions on how to start.

 

[Eminence]

Call me crazy but you should probably write it first...

 

[Tom Servo]

What about E-publishing? Cant you put it up and people can buy the dl for a few bucks and maybe it gets good word of mouth and a publisher takes interest?

PM Jamny. He epublished his father's books.

Jamny can you help?

there is just no piece of advice this guy will take

Someone should advise him to breathe.