OF GEEKS AND ARTISTS

...Options. An author has options for getting their work published. As you read what follows, keep in mind what has been presented to you in previous posts. Traditional publishing - This is the Holy Grail of publishing--someone actually pays you, the author, for the right to publish your work. Now, since they are paying you for this right, they will have some (a lot) of say in what is actually published (remember "content editing") and how it is published. But, they do take care of all those other tasks (sometimes they even let you input your own thoughts.) The biggest problem is just getting a publisher to look at your stuff, which is why many authors search out the services of an agent. Of course, finding an agent (especially if your are unpublished) is probably as hard as finding a publisher, but no one said this would be easy. Now a brief word about financial side of selling a book: Traditionally, books are published with their price printed on the cover (sometimes it...

...What is publishing? Just a scant few years ago, having a book published meant writing a manuscript, submitting it to a publishing company, who, upon acceptance, would pay you a royalty for the privilege of printing and selling you tome. Upon acceptance, perhaps before, you would hire an agent, who would take over the onerous task of dealing with the publisher. The publisher, in turn,would take over all of the tasks that were associated with turning your manuscript into a real, physical book. You, on the other hand, worked on your next tome. Today, this has all changed and it has changed because of cheap PCs, cheap laser printers, and the Internet. Unfortunately, many would-be authors seem to still be caught in the pre-Internet mind-set. Before we continue, go and grab a hard cover book, preferably one with an intact dust jacket. Now, take your book and examine it closely: Look at how the covers are made and attached to the body of the book. See how the pages are grouped toget...