This is the the private website for purchasers of this book. For a while we are making it available to all, and it is being regularly updated with new information. Please return to this page soon.

How new fiction writers can make it into print

by Peggy Graham

Just published!

What will be included here? This password protected site (password in the book) will include, as an example, links to information which may be helpful to fiction writers and other items of interest such as those below.

The Dylan Thomas Book Prize pays £60,000 to the author of the best book published in English anywhere in the world by an author under 30. The prize is open to writers of novels, poetry, plays and travel books. The first prize will be awarded at the Dylan Thomas Literary Festival in Swansea in September 2006.

Intellectual property covers subjects from copyright and trademarks to all kinds of protection which may be needed on ideas involved with writing, designing etc. It is UK-based information but will apply to a much wider audience. Another UK site with useful info for writers is that of the National Association of Writers' Groups.

And if you are wondering about copyright legislation, a good source is UNESCO's culture site, where you will find information on the legislation for about 100 of the member countries in that organisation. For example, you can access, as a PDF, a translation into English of the copyright law of China.

Just how bad are some of the submissions doing the rounds? Well here are some examples of prose lifted "from the slushpile" of a publisher.

The Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize is a $40,000 biennial prize for the best novel written by a resident or citizen of Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia or Polynesia. Authors must be living on the date of entryand the book must have been published in English for the first time between 2 July 2002 and 1 July 2004. Nominating publishers must send a completed nomination form and four copies of the book to Arts Tasmania by 4 October 2004. Entry fee is A$50 plus an extra $5 GST for Australian publishers only. There is also a "Tasmania Prize" of $10,000 for the most outstanding book about Tasmania.

There's a lot of information for writers on the WriteLink web site, not least of which are links to publishers who actually publish in the traditional way (like us) bearing all the expenses and paying a royalty. They also have a membership scheme which costs around $20 but that does open the prospect of being paid for articles used on the main WriteLink site and to a range of marketing leads. There are also free forums with a good number of postings.

Twilight Times publishes science fiction and fantasy, including poetry. No payment mentioned but unlike many such publications the rights are clear -- "Fiction from 1000 to 6000 words. Essays to 3000 words. Poetry to 30 lines, prefer one-time electronic rights and non-exclusive rights to retain work in the back issues archive for up to two years. Will withdraw from archives upon your written request."

The Kathleen Mitchell Award 2004 closing date for entries is Friday 30 January 2004. The Kathleen Mitchell Award, valued at $7,500, is a biennial award for a novel first published in the two calendar years preceding the award, by an author under 30 years of age at the time of the book's publication. The author must be resident in Australia for the twelve months preceding the making of the Award and must be either Australian, or British born, or be a naturalised Australian. For the first time since the inception of this Award, a winner's ceremony will take place this year at the State Library of NSW, Tuesday 27 April 2004. Further details will be distributed closer to the date. For further information, or entry forms, please contact Petrea Salter, Cauz Group on (02) 9332 1559.

The Book Doctor: A useful web site with links to publishers and other sources of information, mainly of interest to Australian authors.

Pubmart.com is Tom William's free resource site for writers and self-publishers. Tom is well known among authors and publishers in the USA particularly. He writes: "I struggled while learning the ropes, persevered while breaking in, then prospered, as I began to understand what the business of writing was all about. Best of all, I have never in my life had to do anything to make a living that I wouldn't have done for fun anyway. I do love this business. My first published article was called 'How to Teach about Poetry' and appeared in Teacher's Scholastic magazine some thirty-five years ago. I moved on to writing for regional magazines, and a bit later moved up to the big leagues with an over-the-transom query, on-spec submission, and subsequent sale to Esquire ('A Year in France on $1000')." I particularly like his piece on how writers of poetry can sell their books without needing a 'hard sell' at their presentations. He writes: "Make no mistake about it, ninety-five percent of all books of poetry are sold at poetry readings, and that is where you will sell most of yours." This is an extract from his book Poet Power.

Jane Porter is a successful US romance writer, her latest being The Spaniard's Passion for Mills & Boon, published in the UK and USA. She writes:

I'm a wuss. Until recently, I routinely cracked under pressure. Rejections decimated me. Revisions terrified me. Getting a bad review meant a week of sleepless nights (okay, there were some really bad reviews).

You'd think I'd be tougher, considering it "only" took me fifteen years to sell my first book, and in that time I received more than fifty rejection letters on 10+ books. You'd think those hard knocks would have taught me something... turned me into a veritable warrior, poster girl of tough talk, the Navy Seal of RWA. It continues at her web site <http://www.janeporter.com/articles/game.html>.

We've mentioned the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America before <http://www.sfwa.org> a site which has information much of interest to writers in general. When you visit the site, be sure to click on "Writers Beware" for some no-holds-barred comments on publishers, and other helpful info such as some model contracts.

One of the recent emails we received was offering "Get your book published in 90 days" and we noted that it has been reported on the net.abuse newsgroup as "spam". It includes much factual information about the book publishing industry (although much of it is also rather old), and infers that their way of publishing is the way to overcome the problems of large publishers being reluctant to take on unkown names. We do not know how good this firm's service is, but we do reinforce Peggy's warnings in Pathway to Publication to be wary of offers to publish which involve payment to a publisher or agent. Many famous authors have self-published, and that often involved paying for the services of others; but any would-be author needs to be very sure that he or she knows what they are getting for their money.

The Dewey Decimal system provides those long numbers on most books (often listed inside and then used by libraries to sort the order of books on their shelves. The system is owned by a group of libraries and they are upset that a hotel is using the numbers for its rooms, all of which have collections of books. Room 700.003 includes books on the performing arts, for example, while room 800.001 has a collection of erotic literature. The Library Hotel is in midtown New York and has a webpage at <http://www.libraryhotel.com/>; click on the Concept page

In Pathway to Publication Peggy mentions the growing trend of ChickLit and that is confirmed by a story on the website of the American ABC News. An ABC news story (no longer available) quoted: "The mega authors — John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy — all have had a fall-off in sales," said Sessalee Hensley, fiction buyer for Barnes & Noble. "But the chick lit is growing, and they're growing exponentially."

The Booker Prize: Details on books which have been selected for the Booker prize can be found at <http://www.themanbookerprize.com>

"Here's to the ladies who launch". Here's a story from the San Francisco Chronicle on Aug 14, 2003, telling how a group of women writers banded together to launch their writing as a book, and the success they and other groups have had:
<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/08/14/DD83287.DTL>

World Wide Words is all about English words and phrases—what they mean, where they came from, how they have evolved, and sometimes the ways in which people misuse them. Find all 1300+ pages at <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>

If you are an SF writer, you should look up <http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Ansible/>. The pages include lists of recently received SF books.

A 15-year-old writes a fantasy novel. His parents publish it for him and they sell 10,000 copies in a year on the road presenting the book at shows, bookstores, anywhere he could talk about it. Then a major publisher picks it up and does a first run of 100,000 copies. It's a true story: the book is Eragon, the author Christopher Paolini and the publisher is Knopf. Read a press report at
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0807/p20s01-bogn.html>

Consider the problem of including real people in novels... when do you give real names, when do you use their characteristics but change the names and some other identifying factors? A recent article in the Guardian newspaper in the UK by author John Lanchester is a worthy guide. The article can be read at:

<http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1010434,00.html>

Have you considered using a publish-on-demand company? PC Magazine in the USA recently carried a survey by Troy Dreier of the major players in that market in the US and the results contain some interesting information regardless of whether you are likely to use any of the individual firms featured, and even if you are elsewhere in the world. The article is at:

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1043161,00.asp>

For access to many of the older titles we mention, a good starting point may be <http://www.gutenberg.org/>. This is one means of access to Project Gutenberg, the brainchild of Michael Hart, who in 1971 decided that it would be a really good idea if lots of famous and important texts were freely available to everyone in the world. Since then, he has been joined by hundreds of volunteers who share his vision. As at 2006 there were a total of 20,000 Project Gutenberg eBooks. 600 eBooks have been posted so far by Project Gutenberg of Australia.