The first thing you have to do is review it (right?). And keep checking it until it’s a polished gem. Once those reviews are complete, it’s time to make a decision: what happens now? Here are several possibilities.
-
File it and forget it.
-
Try an agent and / or a traditional publisher.
-
Register with a service company
-
Self-publish it.
Let’s explore each of these options.
-
File it and forget it:
What? After all that hard work and sweat for a whole month? No way! You have to believe in yourself! You have to believe that your manuscript is great and that someone (even many people) wants to read it. I recommend that you do not put it in your sock drawer and forget about it. Try one of the other options listed. You can have a book published successfully!
-
Try an agent and / or a traditional publisher:
This is a popular option and many writers try it as their first option. This route can take a long time, possibly years. Some of the big publishers now accept submissions without an agent and that simplifies things if the publisher matches your manuscript. Freelance publishers offer a slightly different path. Most of these smaller publishers don’t trust agents, making it easier to get in touch with them. In general, smaller independent publishers are more open to new authors and have much shorter intervals.
The great advantage of this option is that the publisher does all the work and incurs all the expenses related to the production of the book.
-
Register with a service company:
These service companies appear to be a growing industry. They are popping up all over the landscape and they have some controversy around them. Their basic method of operation is to pay them to produce and publish the book. That is the exact opposite of the previous option. The cost to the author is not money either, they are thousands of dollars. Granted for that money, the service company does a lot of work. Create a cover, edit the manuscript, format the book, and take care of all the other details involved in the publishing process.
My concern for service companies is this: toilet presses do the same. So why are service companies different from vanity press editors? I have not heard a satisfactory answer to this question and until I do, I will not be a fan of service companies. I suppose if you have the money to spend on this option, it is something to consider, although I am a bit suspicious of the concept of service companies.
Before deciding to use a service company, be sure to read all the fine print on all web pages and especially in contracts. If you have a question, please do not sign until the answer is satisfactory. Don’t accept any fancy verbiage.
-
Auto-publish it:
This option is becoming increasingly popular with authors, both new and established.
An inexperienced author considering desktop publishing her book will often turn to the internet to research the process. That’s when problems arise. There is a lot of excellent information available on the web. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of misinformation and other material that is just plain wrong. The problem for the novice author is figuring out which information is accurate and which is not.
An example of incorrect information is the advice to take your raw, unedited manuscript and upload it to your Kindle. This produces the kind of book that gives desktop publishing a bad name. It also indicates a complete lack of understanding of what desktop publishing is. Simply put, desktop publishing means that the author is the publisher and as such must do all the work that a publisher would do if the author sold the book to the publisher. Here’s a short list of the work involved in desktop publishing the book: getting a unique cover, getting the manuscript professionally edited, designing the layout, and formatting the book. This last element is especially important in the case of e-books because what you see on your computer screen is probably not compatible with e-books. E-books must be formatted according to the Epub3 standard and the default word processor settings assume that you will print the material. So these settings don’t complain about the Epub3 standard.
Another unpleasant situation that can arise is with scammers browsing the Internet looking for new and / or inexperienced authors. Scammers will make attractive offers that do nothing more than drain your wallet.
One solution to this information conundrum is to get a mentor – an experienced self-published author who can offer advice on a number of issues that will arise during the publishing process along with the decisions that need to be made. Another solution is to ignore most of the information on the Internet and read a good book on the subject.
Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck with your story and congratulations on completing the NaNoWriMo challenge.