Publishing is the act of printing and distributing writing in physical or electronic form. It may refer to the commercial publishing industry, small press, self-publishing and on-demand publishing. This tag should be used for any questions regarding the publishing process in any of these forms.

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481 views

Can a literary agent be hired?

I've sent my manuscript to tens of literary agents. Strangely enough, I received no positive response. My question: Can I hire a literary agent? If yes, how much it costs? Are there other ways ...
0
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1answer
186 views

How difficult is it to get published? - The Objective Version [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Does anyone know the average number of times a new author has to submit before acceptance? I've been looking through this site to understand the difficulty in getting ...
3
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1answer
125 views

Should I use different pen names for different audiences (non-fiction)?

I am working on three separate works for three different audiences. All are non-fiction. One is for children ages eight to twelve, another is for teens ages fourteen to twenty, and the third is for ...
2
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2answers
114 views

What are “industry leading royalties”?

In the breakdown description I received from a publisher, they mention that they also pay industry leading royalties of ##%. What does that mean?
0
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1answer
103 views

website to publish article on high-performance cluster computing?

I am writing a tutorial-type article on high-performance cluster computing. It is aimed at researchers and grad students who want to use clusters to answer scientific questions, especially in the life ...
8
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2answers
210 views

In writing a cover letter accompanying a submission to a literary journal, is listing publications in less well-regarded journals detrimental?

Mostly, I've heard that having previous publication credits to your name is beneficial, but I wonder if listing many publications in journals that aren't particularly well-known or impressive might ...
15
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3answers
368 views

Are agents too busy for new clients? What should I do next?

Most publishers insist that first-time writers approach via a literary agent. However, all the literary agents I have contacted claim to be too busy to take on new clients, as they receive hundreds or ...
1
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1answer
144 views

How do you get into screenwriting?

If you want to publish short fiction, you send it out to magazines. If you want to publish a novel, you send it to literary agencies. But what if you want to sell a screenplay? Who do you talk to?
5
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1answer
172 views

What printing methods and quality can I expect of POD companies?

Due to the growing popularity of POD, many small companies are coming to the market, and makes this business very competitive. However, I hardly see comments on the quality of printing (paper, ...
4
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5answers
547 views

How can I make a collection of essays / arguments more attractive to publishers?

I've written several essays and am still working on some that I would like to eventually get published. The issues I cover are on a wide range of topics ranging from Scientology to Piracy to ...
4
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1answer
974 views

How would I find a publisher who is accepting unsolicited manuscripts from authors?

This question on finding an agent has an answer linking to this post which really tears into literary agents. I'm not sure if it is justified or not, but it got me thinking about a the alternate ...
10
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3answers
4k views

How to handle taxes for a self-published book

I'm thinking of publishing a book on kindle, but I don't currently have a business set up. Do you need a business to publish a book? I'm curious as to how to handle US taxes for the royalties. I ...
3
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2answers
691 views

How can I put something in book format without “publishing” it?

I have a friend who has written a series of great nursery rhymes. I would like to put these rhymes into a book as a gift for my friend, but I don't want to give up my friend's first publication ...
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6answers
720 views

Will blogging my fiction limit its ability to be traditionally published later?

Somewhere, don't ask me where, I picked up the idea that publishers don't like works that the public has already been able to access. When a family member suggested I post short pieces of fiction to a ...
9
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3answers
180 views

What do publishers do for me?

I'm writing a book, and it's my first one. It seems to me that the following things need to happen to publish my book: Finish the book Design cover (a friend is helping) Edit manuscript (help of ...
8
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2answers
992 views

Kindle self-publishing, automatically update

I have a couple of small ebooks available on Amazon via Kindle direct publishing - I've just found a mistake in one of them so I fixed it and have reuploaded the file. I'm assuming that everyone who ...
2
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6answers
209 views

Where to publish poems

I'm looking for a site where I can publish my poems. I'm not keen on rewards; I just need a place to publish it. I've found poetry.com that seems to be what I'm looking for but they require a ...
5
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3answers
244 views

How to summarize prolonged plot

I'm trying to write a summary of my book's plot for a query letter to literary agents, but my plot is extremely hard to summarize. The reason is that the plot is fast-paced, erratic, and constantly ...
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1answer
142 views

What is the business model for Creative Commons books?

I notice that a lot of computer and programming books are now licensed under various permutations of the creative commons license. Half of the books published by No Starch Press and Apress (at least ...
6
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3answers
4k views

Can a book be published by more than one publisher?

1) Some books are published by more than one publisher. For example, if you go to Amazon or Flipkart and search for 'The Interpretation of Dreams' by Sigmund Freud, you will see many of them from ...
2
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1answer
172 views

How much should I reveal about my book idea to a publishing house representative?

I am a faculty member at a small liberal arts college and a colleague and I are working on a textbook that is still basically in outline stage. The idea is not completely novel but there are not a ...
7
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3answers
373 views

What rights are OK to give up for publishing?

I'm thinking of submitting a short story to a small (and probably not well-known) serial anthology publication. For an author who's never been published in any way, shape, or form, should I be wary ...
7
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3answers
132 views

What are the challenges of converting blog content to a publishable work?

I have been actively participating in the "blogging world" and have developed a substantial portfolio of 25-75 word "rants" on a variety of topics related to my specialty. I would like to know how ...
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5answers
451 views

I have compiled a poetry book with poems of 4chan users. It has a lot of vulgarisms, is it possible to publish something like that?

It has around 200 poems, a lot of vulgarisms, and many of them seem senseless.
5
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1answer
42 views

How do limited edition book pre-orders work?

Publishers occasionally publish a special limited edition. How do they ensure that the number of pre-orders do not exceed the quantity that will be limited? It seems a nightmare logistically, as ...
3
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3answers
717 views

Cheap ways a young person can get paper books printed/bound from their manuscript? (Please incl sample costs)

Some budding authors (school aged young people) want to see their creative works in print, as books. I'm prepared to do some of the pubisher's tasks (eg, get some ISBN's for each book, if required; ...
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3answers
618 views

Is being paid by the word/page making American books longer?

I buy quite a lot of literature, mostly of academic nature. One thing I have noticed is that books by American authors always tend to be more explicit and contain more examples, regarding whatever ...
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2answers
4k views

What is the recomended word-count for a fantasy-fiction book?

By recommended I mean what is the standard for it to be not too long and not too short. I know I should write until I am finished but I want to take practicality into account as well. Mainly when the ...
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4answers
282 views

Which traditional presses publish poetry?

I would like to publish a poetry folio through my university press. My ex-poetry professor at my alma mater says that is possible, but the university will only publish me if I already have a book ...
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5answers
365 views

Write multiple trilogies or make a saga?

So I am currently writing a fantasy story that tends to be long. This question is related to the following question: related The main difference resides in that it is certain that the story will be ...
12
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2answers
98 views

Notes Placement

Why is it standard for a book's notes to be placed at the very end of the book—book endnotes—while only a small minority of books place each chapter's notes at the end of each respective ...
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2answers
54 views

What are the potential platforms for floating chapters of a business book?

I am in the process of working with a client on the development of a business book to support the development of a consulting business. The book will be comprised of multiple sections -- each which ...
7
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4answers
718 views

Should I care if my short story has the same title as someone else's book?

It appears to be a pretty obscure book. It's on Amazon, but there are no descriptions or reviews. From the cover, I'd say it was a kids book, which would put it in a different market. Let's assume ...
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2answers
135 views

Has anyone tried “pair writing” before and been published?

Most of the time when two people write a book, one person is doing the majority of the writing and the other is critiquing or helping with the plot or providing technical information that the real ...
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1answer
138 views

What is the new Google Author markup?

What is the new Google Author markup, and how can I use it to build up a reputation as an online writer? How could it possibly work? Using self-declared information has been tried before and of ...
3
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1answer
3k views

What counts as a word when dealing with a word limit?

I am trying to determine if it will be feasible to revise a manuscript for a journal that has a 6500 word limit. Currently, the manuscript is between 7500 and 8000 words long, depending on how I count ...
2
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2answers
103 views

Do traditional publishers ever make use of “print on demand” (POD)?

Do traditional publishers always use offset printing for the books they publish, or do they sometimes use POD to make books available? If they do use POD, is it primarily for older titles?
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3answers
751 views

Why do authors usually put a reference section at the end of a book when they are not referenced throughout the entire book?

In the references list (usually at the end of a book), I've noticed that authors like to include references to other materials. However these materials are not so-called "referenced" or "linked" at ...
9
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3answers
253 views

What to include in agreement with a Ghost Writer. . .

I am exploring engaging a Ghost writer to partner with me on the development of a non-fiction (well, mostly) business book. What are the critical elements of the agreement that need to be included? ...
2
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2answers
322 views

How could my friend publish his Steve Jobs biography?

A friend of mine (no, really!) is well on his way of writing a unofficial/unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs. In my opinion it is a fantastic read and he did a lot of research and has a long list of ...
4
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2answers
114 views

The best publishing platform for a business “vanity” book?

I have a client who has written a (well done) synopsis of his core business proposition that reads like a great little book, but is only 15,000 words. Is this a good candidate for Amazon's Singles? ...
2
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0answers
139 views

How much of my (first) novel should be completed before trying to find a publisher? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Can I shop an unfinished novel? I assumed this question had already been answered but I found nothing regarding it. I've heard that before publishing your first novel, ...
7
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1answer
694 views

Is it plausible to get a contract with an US/UK publisher as a foreigner?

Looking for some insight in the publishing industry. Is it even remotely plausible to get published in with an English-language publishing house (UK/US), when you're not a national nor a resident of ...
7
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3answers
372 views

Pros and Cons of different styles of publishing

I was reading on the meta site that someone thinks we're hostile to self-publishing, and I read over some old questions looking for evidence. I didn't really find signs of hostility, but I certainly ...
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6answers
2k views

Why do hardcover books retail for more than three times the cost of softcover books?

One thing I've noticed while browsing bookstores is that hardcover books tend to cost more than softcover ones. Oftentimes a hardcover book that's five times the price of a paperback doesn't have ...
2
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4answers
904 views

Software recommendations for magazine layout?

I use Word now but I would like to find a better software for laying out a magazine. In this magazine, I would like to create columns (2 or 3 depending on the page), insert image on 1, 2 or 3 columns ...
3
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3answers
150 views

First publication rights still available on this?

I created a book and used a commercial digital printing house to print and bind some copies, which I gave away as gifts. The book says in it "Copyright 2010, Richard Clunan. Published by Wordfruit." ...
2
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3answers
2k views

Sending a children's book manuscript to an agent or publisher with illustrations

I've written a children's story and had it illustrated. It's a picture book. I've heard that publishers prefer to receive manuscript only -- not illustrated, unless the author is the illustrator. I ...
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2answers
193 views

Publishing a Children's Picture book — Question about an App and a Printed version

I've written and had illustrated a children's picture book. I'm thinking of making this into an App for download from the Apple Apps store. I'm also considering looking for a publisher to publish a ...
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6answers
2k views

What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital rights management for self-published authors?

DRM (digital rights management) is being used in just about every electronic format, including files used in electronic readers. My question is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for writers, ...
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