Get Novel Published
More Guidance Counselors Would Help More Children Get Ahead
By Stuart Nachbar
Before becoming a writer, I spent ten years marketing Web-based job posting and resume tools to college career centers. One outcome of this experience is that I gained considerable appreciation for career counselors and guidance counselors at the high school level.
When I was in high school, I visited my guidance counselor to make my class schedule and research colleges. I had some idea of what I wanted before I came into the guidance office, so I probably benefited less than other students who were less certain about their career and educational options, or needed to speak to a counselor to get help on a personal problem.
Under No Child Left Behind, guidance counselors have several roles under participation and proficiency; they, more than teachers try to prevent students from dropping out of school and try to find assistance for students in need of tutoring or social services that their schools do not provide.
I would have to believe that schools that are continually in need of improvement under No Child Left Behind need qualified guidance counselors as badly as they need qualified teachers. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected a 13 percent growth in employment for school counselors, from 260,000 professionals in 2006 to 292,000 professionals by 2016. The American School Counselor Association recommends an average of one counselor for every 250 elementary and secondary school students; the national average is one counselor for every 476 students.
From FY 2005 through FY 2007, the federal government provided, on average .7 million funds for local education agencies to hire more elementary school counselors. In FY 2008, the Bush Administration finally appropriated sufficient funds – .6 million – to allow local education agencies to add secondary school counselors.
The increase is welcome, but the funding was still just a drop in the bucket. There is also a proposed Put School Counselors Where They’re Needed Act to support 10 demonstration projects in poor performing schools that has been sitting in a House subcommittee since September 2007. That proposal is also not ambitious enough.
Given the major intentions of No Child Left Behind, to eliminate the “achievement gap,” and to attain 100 percent proficiency within six years, I wish to offer a funding solution: to redirect 0 million allocated for the Youth Anti Drug Advertising Program in FY 2009 to help more schools, especially the worst performing, attract guidance counselors.
I know that’s a stretch, but the federal Office of Management and Budget has stated on their web site, ExpectMore, that an independent, long-term evaluation found no connection between these anti-drug advertisements and youth drug use behavior. I also believe this is a great example of an opportunity for private sector volunteerism to take over for a government program.
If the federal government is serious about supporting a world-class education system, then an investment in counseling would be far more productive than an investment in advertising that hasn’t worked.
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It has never been easy to break into the published novel market although there are a few ways, but all of them need you to believe in yourself fully and never give up.
To tell you how I did it eventually after 23 rejections for my first novel I have to go back to 1971 and was just about beaten even though I had received a multitude of great critique from professionals.
I was 20 years old then and still at Vet college.
I had started out by submitting to all the large book publishing companies with rejection after rejection, and was gradually working down through a list I’d compiled before hand but I don’t think most of my submissions even crossed a desk before the rejection slip was sent out to me, but that’s always the same for a total unknown author I’ve since learned.
I was studying in Scotland at the time and struggled to keep on finding the extra cash to pay postage to keep on submitting and was even getting pretty angry about the whole thing and in the end I wrote a letter to one of the major British newspapers enclosing my full manuscript with a deal offer that went a bit like this:
Dear Editor,
Please read my book manuscript before you reject it and throw it in your bloody trashcan as everyone else seems to do.
Once you’ve read I want you to think about breaking it down into four parts to print as a serial book form in your Sunday edition.
If you are willing to print the first part of my manuscript you have my full consent to go ahead and do it without any obligation.
I am aware that all newspapers know their ‘standard’ sales receipts so by the time the final part of my manuscript appears in your paper you will know if it helped to boost your weekly sales figures or not.
Now here’s my deal sir:
If your sales figures have remained roughly the same during the four weeks that my manuscript appeared in your paper then you owe me absolutely nothing at all, and I will owe you my thanks for being prepared to give my first novel a public airing, but if your sales figures did rise by a minimum of 5% during the final two weeks you pay me one thousand pounds for the rights to publish my book.
I have no way to know if you decide to cheat me or not, but while the sum of money we’re talking about here may be small to you, it is a hell of a lot to a struggling student, so please bear that in mind.
OK, so that’s not my exact wording, but it went something like that, it’s far too long ago to remember how much cheek I had then and I’d got to the stage where I felt I had nothing left to lose anyway.
To my surprise I receive a letter back from that editor a week later with a cheque for the full amount I’d asked for if things went well.
The letter told me that they would publish my novel just as I’d suggested and he though the sum I’d asked for the ‘one off’ publishing rights was a gift as far as the paper was concerned.
Needless to say that my book was published in the four parts over the next month, but the best part of all was that after the final section appeared in the paper I received an offer to publish it in a book form with a contract for a follow up book that had to be finished and handed into the publisher within 12 months.
Well, I’ve published 17 books since then, so the risk I took paid off, and that newspaper editor and I became and remained friends until his death from natural causes in 2002.
It’s a friendship I value and cherish even today.
wwww.writersmarket.com has a list of publishers and literary agents that are reputable. If you get a good agent or publisher, you shouldn’t have to pay anything. What happens is when your book gets published, they get a percentage of the profits. How much of a percentage they get is determined by your contract.
How do I get my novel published and noticed?
I’ve written a novel that I think is pretty good. How can I get my novel (and maybe other stories as well) published and noticed when I don’t have a lot of money to pay a publisher and literary agent?
Do I need to have money to get my work noticed?
How does a normal person without connections to the publishing world, get a novel published?
I was just wondering. If you were a normal person, and didn’t know anybody at all in the publishing world, how exactly do you get a book published? I mean, the postage would just cost to much to send a whole couple hundred page novel to a bunch of publishers. Besides, most publishers will just turn you down, right? Is there like a website where you can send your story to the publishers or something? I think it would just be so hard to get your work out there and published, you know?
You need to get some information on what publishers to submit the book to. Try the Writer’s Digest. They have a great deal of articles and books on this subject.
It also depends on the subject matter. See if you can find a publisher that is interested in that particular subject matter.
Or worse comes to worse find a vanity press and sell on the web.
Good luck.
I wish I could get started on writing.
An unsolicited manuscript will be completely ignored. Contact a literary agent. Here is a website to help find one. Good luck.
http://www.writers.net/agents.html
How did you get your first novel published?
I’m interested to know what you went through to get your first novel published (Not self publishing) and how you managed it in the end as I know how tough it is to make it.
How many rejections did you get along the way, and how did you finally find a way to break through the barriers that keep 99.9% of new authors out of the market.
I ask that you please give as much detail as possible, but not because I’m trying to get published myself.
I will reveal why I ask after I have read any/all answers.
I wrote a novel. How do I get it published and how much should I expect to get paid for it?
The title basically explains everything. I just wrote a fantasy/sci-fi novel. I have already had a few people read through it and they said that it was very good. I really want to get it published but I would also like to get paid for it. Any ideas on publishers?
How do i get a novel published?
I am currently working on my second novel, neither is published and i have no idea how to even get started on getting published.