An appeasement to the literary gods
 

I've been bouncing around on the forum a lot lately, and it seems like there are definitely some very well-learned literary people sitting around at their computers, posting (mostly) interesting pieces of conversations. Which is probably why I've stayed on with this forum, after joining on a whim (it should be noted that this is actually the first forum I've ever joined, and I've felt pretty welcome here).

Despite all of this, I was actually kind of surprised to see that there are people in the process of novels right now. I've been working on a short story started by a friend, that turned into a novella, that has actually morphed to the point where it's almost ready for novelization. Rather, it's almost ready for some serious editing, and then to be called a manuscript, which I would really like to get published. Therefore, I have a couple of requests.

The most pressing of those is: how would I go about talking to (and dealing with) publishers? I'm going to be an unknown off the gun, but I feel like if I can be given a chance, I might be able to make this work. I'd love to write for a living, but I have absolutely no idea how to get into the game in the first place. So if anybody could give me some ideas and/or guidance onto how to go about this sort of thing, then your advice will be duly appreciated.

The other thing is actually for ideas. Not for the story, though, as I have it pretty solidly designed (even if it doesn't look quite like that yet), and when it goes through its metamorphisis, it'll have become a full-fledged story worthy of reading. What I'm really looking for is on a more technical level. The story itself is entitled Kaamos and a link to it sits in my signature, and I've been working on it on and off for about a year, I think (regardless of what the Livejournal stats say about the journal itself, which is far more recent than the first solid chunk of story). If anyone feels like glancing at it and tossing me some ideas on how to clean it up grammatically, visually, or whatever else they see, I'd love for the help there, too.

If not, that's fine. Thank you for your time and help!

To address part of your post: You might start checking your local library for resource books about getting your work published. I know my father copied me a *bunch* of information like that from a book he found at the library--it has addresses, advice, all sorts of stuff. It might be worth your while to look for similar information.

Any books in particular you think might help, or would just going up to a librarian and sobbing "help me" work?

I couldn't say; the information my father got for me was something of a surprise. All I know is if you ask for information on publishing your own work, there should be some manner of reference out there to help you.

Have you also looked online? It wouldn't be so farfetched to think that publishing companies have some sort of online presence. While I doubt any large publishing companies have an e-mail slot for just any ol' manuscripts people send their way, it might be a good start--perhaps a snail-mail address, or useful information. And there are quite a few smaller companies out there who might be able to take a look at it, too.

Thanks for the pointing of direction. Actually, I dropped by my school's library, and got a massive resource book that lists hundreds of publishers and their websites. I'm gonna see if I can't find a searchable online option, and see what I can pull down.

I heard that there's some sort of company beginning with the letter "I" that publishes fantasy work (which is what my story is, basically). Any idea who that might be?

Needless to say, getting this sort of information from my IT major of a girlfriend may not have been the most sound of ideas. :P

There's a book called Writer's Market that you could buy, though it is expensive, I'd check a library for it first.

Also, some advice given to me by an established author-- write short stories and try and get them published in magazines and the like. That way, when you send a manuscript to a publishing company you can say I already have work published in this magazine and this magazine, et cetera. It gets your name known.

I moved this to general for you. Not because you had it in the wrong spot, or anything like that, but rather because not many people check the books and comics section, so, if you're looking for help like this you'll get it sooner here.

Also, it could go in either place.

...I'd say something on topic as well, but, well... I've no idea how to get anything published.

Thanks Krylo, I appreciate it. I had sort of figured that it belonged with books and comics, but I'm glad to see it fits into the General as well.

As for the magazine thing...what sort of magazines publish short stories? I'm not very good with magazines (I can ramble off a bunch, but I'm pretty sure Rolling Stone doesn't need my stories), so I'm not sure where I'd be sending them.

And I actually went to my school's library today, and eventually ended up online back in my room Googling things like "fiction publishers." I found one in Canada that my story will probably fit the guidlines for when I finish turning into the manuscript. Which leads me to: what sort of stuff should I look for in a publisher? Keep in mind that I live in the US, and will be attmepting to move to Boston in the fall, if there are things like distance to offices that I should take into consideration.

You might want to brush up on your grammar. I didn't proofread the whole thing, but from what I've seen, you could use some variety in your sentences. I can tell you already that most publishers won't like your extensive use of commas, especially since some of them are grammatically incorrect.

I would recommend using more clauses to make the writing flow better.

Thanks for the advice. At the moment, I'm still mostly writing it as a novella in pieces for the small audience I've accumulated, so that's where most of the grammar issues come into play. Also, what did you read? The first 11 chapters (if memory serves) and another one or two were written by a different person, who started the whole thing in the first place. When she had stopped writing, I took over, and just made it my own, so there's some extensive editing to be done just to bring the whole thing into one basic style of writing, let alone proper grammer, spelling, etc, etc.

Don't take that the wrong way, though. I really do appreciate the insight, I'm just wondering what you read, so that I can take a better look at it.