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So you’ve been up at all hours of the night putting your heart and soul into the masterpiece you are in the process of finally completing. A sigh of joy comes when you write, “The End” of your book. “So what’s next you’re thinking?” Well, you want the world to be able to read your book.  You’re one of many first time authors with a first book completed.  So you immediately try to contact all the major publishing companies to let them know you have the next Bestseller and they need to publish your book!

Then around 3 months later after not even getting a callback, you start to think “Hmm…the publishing companies must not be getting my book, right?” Wrong. Large book publishing companies get bombarded everyday by new authors and not to mention all the “experienced authors” as well trying to get their foot in the door. A lot of times these publishing companies don’t even take a look at your masterpiece…unless it has been presented through a book agent or you’re already known publicly. It’s tough for an agent to convince major publishers to even take a look at your book.

“Ahhh yes! That’s it. I’ll just hire a book agent and it should be smooth sailing. They have the connections and knowledge about how this whole book thing works. Yup, that’s the answer, right?” Wrong. Well…kind of.

Here’s the thing. A good agent will help you put together a proposal targeted to editors that deal with your genre of work. The brutal truth is that as a first time author, even if you find a great agent, and that agent is successful in getting your work in front of a major publisher, the chance of it getting any attention is still pretty slim. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is some sunshine out there.

“Ahh yes…Self-publishing, right?” Wrong again. I have yet to meet a self-published author who was anything but drained. They were very grateful for the experience – even when that experience was less than what they expected. But it is hard, hard work. The reality for most people is that self-publishing won’t even get your book into bookstores. Companies that provide self-publishing services often proclaim that their books are “available” to Borders, Barnes & Noble, other chains, and wholesalers. However, that doesn’t mean that their books will be on the shelves in bookstores.

So lets get to the good news. There are many small publishing companies that accept materials without the assistance of a book agent. In fact, they even pay attention to unsolicited manuscripts. What’s even better news is that many of the small, independent and medium sized publishers are among the best in the business.

I know of a great company that provides marketing, publishing, production and distribution services for  first time authors.  They gave me my first shot and it’s working out great.  Visit www.mountainvalleypress.com.

Most people think writing a novel is just writing. I have lost count of the number of people who say I want to write a novel and think that they will just sit down, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and the whole issue will just unfold before them. Ive read a few novels, they think, why cant I write one?

If only it were that easy!

The process of writing any story is exactly that, a process. And whether you are tackling a novel, a short story, an essay or a non-fiction book, you need to begin by planning your story.

This is the most ignored point in the writing process, and yet it is by far the most important. JK Rowling spent five years planning the Harry Potter novels. And that for certain paid off, didnt it?

The key to writing any story well, is to find the story that only you can write. This story carries your own emotional truth, and as you progress through the story writing process, your character will take you on the journeying of emotional growth just as they will your readers once its published.

The Deeper Character Journey

The deeper character journey is the most important expression of any story. It is what your readers will remember and it is what makes the process of writing a story so worthwhile for the writer. Every time you take your character on a journey, you go on that journey yourself.

So how do we find that deeper character journey? Where do we begin?

We begin with this simple exercise:

Without thinking too much to the highest degree it, finish this sentence:

I am interested in writing a story where the main character discovers the importance of

Write for 5 minutes, preferably in long hand, allowing whatever comes up to just flow onto the page.

When you have finished you will find that you have written a lot of different values into your answer. Values are universal qualities of human experience, either positive or negative. Take a few moments to divide these values into their positive and negative groups. Youll find that a few similar ones in each group will stand out, so isolate these and then decide on the most important ones from each group.

Once you have done this you can now write your deeper character journey in one simple sentence.

 I am interested in writing a story about a character who goes from being.. to being..

What is your characters weakness?

Every character has a weakness  something they need to apprise to have a stop life. Your characters weakness should now be pretty clear to you, as it is strongly connected to what they need to learn the importance of from the above exercise. With your characters weakness in place, you can now begin to put them and their weakness under squeeze and suddenly your story is off and running.

troth

Stephen King says he starts a story with a character in a predicament and watches them to see how they get out of it. So at the start of your story your main character must be in some sort of predicament or stuck in some way. The predicament your main character is in should be a symptom of their weakness. They are aware of their predicament, but they are not aware of their weakness.

For example, a character who needs to learn the importance of patience, is stuck underground on a broken down train. He becomes more and more exasperated and angry as the minutes tick by as he needs to be at an important face-off. As hes underground his mobile phone has no signal, and he also cant just jump off the train, as the doors are electronically sealed, and besides hes underground so he cant just wander off up the tracks in the dark.

So we know our characters predicament will give way his weakness, which is impatience. The head? for you to answer is, what does he do? How does he respond? What choice does he make? And he will make that choice based on his personal values.

Values in Conflict

Conflict lies at the sum of all powerful stories. It is a well worn adage in story writing that nothing moves forward in a story leave out through conflict.

But a good story also isnt just a sequence of random conflicts, things that happen with no plain pattern or meaning. It is a series of events, putting your character(s) under more and more pressure, forcing them to respond. This then shows us their true character.

Values underlie our choices, our decisions, and in storytelling they drive the story through the characters being forced to make difficult decisions where their values are challenged. A value is a belief schema based on what is important to the individual. A value represents something in your characterÂ’s life that they are unforced to fight for. So if you have a married woman who is attracted to another man, her choice of whether to go with the other man or stay with her husband will be based on the values of motor hotel versus fidelity or loyalty.

Once you have nailed the values underlying your characters choices, you will have connected strongly with your characters deeper journey. This in turn connects you to your readers, who will recognise similar conflicts in their own lives.

And you also have the essence of the story that only you can write.

Are you interested in getting a book that you wrote published? You need to fine the elusive “perfect” publisher that will work on behalf of you and your new book. This may become the most difficult part of completing your project. Book publishers are picky about which books and authors they choose to work with. Publishing is like any relationship, not everyone is compatible and it takes some looking around before you will find the right organization to work with you to publish your book.

Your book needs to be in a final draft stage before you consider showing it to a publisher. Once this is complete, you can start researching publishers and considering which one’s to approach. Unfortunately, this is a step that many hopeful published authors do not take. Many simply just send copies of their books off to publishers that they already know of. This approach is okay, but it limits your chances of getting a book published. Instead, you will want to examine as many book publishers as possible. Compared to the creative process, this may seem like a difficult or wearisome process, but it is necessary to increase the chances of having your book published.

A good resource for finding publishers is to consult printed resource guides for authors. These manuals come in a selection of various types. Quite a few are grouped by genre, such as children’s books, Christian books, and so forth. What they typically do is outline publishers that accept manuscripts, as well as other detailed information and facts. These printed resource manuals are usually updated often; therefore, if you do make a purchase, be sure to buy an updated guide. Speaking of making your purchase, you can find these publishing guides for authors available for sale online and in most bookstores.

As previously explained, there are a variety of printed reference guides for authors that you can use to go about discovering publishers to submit your manuscript to. One guide that comes highly ranked and recommend is that of the Writer’s Market. The Writer’s Market books include a number of styles and they are updated on a yearly basis. Information that is included tends to include themes that book publishers are looking for, requirements on submitting a manuscript, the address to which the manuscript must be submitted to and much more. The Writer’s Market books are also well-known for their expert tips and tips, which is typically provided by experienced authors.

Although most Writer’s Market books and other similar printed resource guides for authors can often be purchased for under $20, many authors do not like having to pay for something that they can find for free online. If you are looking to use the internet to find book publishers, you will find that you do have a number of different options. For starters, you will want to perform a standard internet search with the phrase “book publishers.” If you are targeting a specific genre, such as children’s books, be sure to include that in your search phrase. Your standard internet search is likely to produce a number of different results.

Another good source for finding publishers, is to do an internet seach. This will give you a list of name and their websites which are full of great information about the companies. These websites may either list publishers with detailed information or you may be provided with a link to a publisher’s website. Speaking of publisher websites, these websites can also be found mixed in with your standard internet search.

If you would like to directly find the online websites of book publishers, a standard internet search with the publisher’s name should produce the results that you are looking for. The publisher You may also find authors guide books available at your local book store or library. These publications will be very useful. Finding other books in your genre and noting the publishers’ names, will also help you form a targeted list of potential publishers.

As a reminder, it is important to find the publisher that you think will be the perfect fit for you and your book. Therefore, look for publishers that are seeking just what your book has to offer.

Book Cover Examples
Book Cover Design for Self Published Authors

Currently, you’ll find a lot of people who are trying to earn a living anyway that possible. In many cases, such folk are scouring the web for openings that enable them to  do the job at their particular let them work comfortably at their own rate or to enjoy the rewards of self-employment.  In the event you happen to be among those would-be entrepreneurs , it’s possible that you might have seriously considered developing and selling on-line books.

The interest in online books has quickly developed during the past years.  Lots of consumers are not simply finding it handy to obtain them, but inexpensive.  In most instances, online books are very easy to browse using the pc, but they  can also be  but you can also print a hard copy.  Seeing as more and more buyers are thinking about buying e-books, there are correspondingly more individuals who are trying to earn money from them. If you can do this, you might achieve success; but, that potential will not likely come about without diligence.

In case you have not created an e-book before, it’s difficult to realise exactly the amount of effort it requires.  To be worth the investment, most e-books are at least one hundred pages long; although, some are still longer.  If perhaps you’re considering  producing an e-book, it could require a few months in order to finish it. Together with effort, you should also have experience of writing and familiarity with the issue that you’re talking about. This kind of know-how and experience isn’t automatically essential; however, it’s important to the success of your project.  It is a reality that buyers choose not to buy poor quality products.

In addition to producing an excellent e-book, additionally, you will have to find ways to market it. Jointly, these can require a large amount of energy. For most individuals, this can be a serious discouragement.  Having said that, one can find alternatives.  If you are interested in creating online books, for profit, you do not necessarily have to create your own.  Alternatively you can buy a PLR eBook.  Acquiring the resale rights for an e-book allows you, most of the time, to identify the writing as yours, modify the content material, and retain the money from each transaction.

The most significant downside to buying the resell rights to an e-book is how much money which you’ll need to commit.  Depending on where you buy, the charge for acquiring private label rights could be fairly expensive. Because most freelance authors spend a large amount of energy developing their e-books, as earlier mentioned, they hope to be suitably compensated. The cost of resell rights for a book continues to be deemed a disadvantage of this unique business opportunity, but it may also be considered a positive.  E-book authors that charge more money for work as a rule have fashioned a better product; a well-written and well-researched product is easier to sell.

No matter whether you choose to come up with your personal e-book or pay for the resell rights to someone else’s, you will still have to find a means to promote the work to the general public.  This, according to what method you use, is likely to take time. This is why a large number of people have a preference for buying the resell rights to an on-line which is already available.  This allows them to spend more time on promoting, which will in turn result in sales.

For anyone who is doubtful whether or not you want to produce an e-book of your own or gain access to the re-sell rights to someone else’s, you’re not by yourself. There are a bunch of others with the same dilemma. PLR rights amount to a real business opportunity for some, but it’s not for everybody. All online business opportunities take time to find rewards.  If you possess the financial backing necessary to obtain the rights to a quality e-book, I would urge you to try this out.  You are not guaranteed results, yet you may well be pleasantly surprised with what you find.

In the event you try out acquiring the resell rights to an e-book and the experience just isn’t what you had in mind you can start to compose an ebook of your own or abandon it for another business opportunity.  Unlike many other businesses, PLR rights allow you to escape when you need. Right after you’ve obtained the resell rights to a book, then  it’s yours to do whatever you like with. Consequently it is possible to give up whenever you like and proceed to something more productive, if you wish.

It’s an accepted fact that it is the words that form the central point of the copywriter’s profile. Just words alone do not make one a good copywriter. It is crucial that you are well aware of the one or two nitty gritty of the profession. Let’s have a preview into what all is required to become a good and talented copywriter.

The most significant factor for a copywriter to think about is the target audience. Your job is half complete once you really understand your audience and their essentials. It is vital for any writer to grasp the audience they are catering to and the subject as well as the writing style that should be applied according to their preferences and tastes. Do remember at each point, that you’re writing for your audience and not yourself.

Write to a person. Rather than chatting to massive audience, speak to one individual at a time. This may make your write up more personalized. Make note that personalized write-ups find more audiences as compared with the common ones. The person reading the article should feel as if the tract was written for him and not for any one else. Stop using phrases like some of you. This will take away the personal appeal and cut down the interest of the reader.

Many copywriters make the typical mistake of writing ‘down’ to make their copy more understandable. However, this must be completely dodged. Of course, you need to make your copy straightforward and easy-to-read but this doesn’t imply you need to bring down your writing levels. Write in a style that’s inherent to you, while attempting to keep it easy at the same time. More than frequently the standard of the copy suffers if the copywriter makes an attempt to write it down.

Stop overusing words. We all have words that we like and tend to use almost everywhere. This holds more than true for copywriters. They have got a bent to employ a particular word every now and then. However, if you wish to be a successful writer, you must avoid this. You must understand that the reader gets bored of reading the same word over and over again.

Focus on the first sentences. It is the first sentence that makes or breaks your copy. Your copy may possibly not be that interesting but if the 1st sentence is enticing enough, possibility is that the reader will go through the whole copy. On the other hand, if you have written a decent enough copy but the first sentence is loose, you may not be able to hold your audience for long.

So, put aside all your troubles. Simply utilize the given tips and be certain that you will soon climb up the ladder of copywriting.

Writing a novel is challenging enough, yet actually getting your book onto the shelves can be an exceptionally daunting task. When faced with the question of how to get a novel published, there is actually one important concept to focus on that will save you both time as well as money – research.

The vast majority of publishing in the United States is done through many large publishing companies that will not really accept unsolicited manuscripts, specifically from new authors. There are however, a number of small, legitimate publishing houses that continue to work directly with authors. It is very important to do your research before submitting your manuscript.

An area of focus in regards to how to get a novel published is to make an effort to find out which companies are appropriate to your particular work. There isn’t any benefit to sending your fictional novel to a company that specializes in childrens’ books, non-fiction, or educational books. At a costs of around $30.00, The Writers Market is an excellent resource for any author. It is published annually, available in most bookstores, and contains invaluable information on many different publishers. Make sure that you are targeting those houses that publish works within your genre. It is also very important to present the work to a potential publisher in the manner requested.

More often than not, the publisher will be looking for a high quality query letter. This is the initial contact with the publisher so take your time drafting your letter. It should contain the title of your novel, the genre, a word count, your contact information, and a brief synopsis of your work. It is also very important to note that the publishing industry moves very slowly. Traditional publishing houses can take six to eight months to respond to your submission, if they respond at all. It can be discouraging, especially when you are sending your letter to a publishing company that will not accept simultaneous submissions.

Do not limit yourself to the large publishing houses. A lot of first time authors discover that smaller, independent publishing companies are much more accessible and quicker to respond to submissions. Regardless of the direction you choose, research will save you time and money as you begin the process of how to get a novel published.

Visit http://www.mountainvalleypress.com to submit your manuscript.