www.ditl.org

Not sure which catagory this belonged in but so many of us here have a book we're working on or want to work on and most of ours are good. I know mine is amazing But how exactly do we go about that?

Sending books in to publishers is a lot like sending scripts in to directors. One in a million that a great script will get read. You really need to have a connection and you really need an agent.

So since if we have 10 people here wanting to write a book and all 10 of us get it done its not going to harm each other and will probably only serve to expand the use of these forums; I thought it'd be wise for us to pool our collective knowledge into getting our stories published.

What we need is a connection. So many people in the world want to be authors that you really need to set yourself apart from the herd if you want to get your story told.

So anyone have any ideas for that?

My work speaks for itself.

Seriously, if you guys have any short stories, send them here:

http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.co ... ticle=home

Looks to be a damn good shot if you ask me, and they pay pretty well. As for books... I'm going to fire off a series of short stories before I ever try for a novel.

Uh, I think you should do a little more research about the literary industry before you even think about trying to get published. Yeah, the reason you have only a one in a million chance of getting your manuscript read by a publisher is because the vast majority of publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts anymore. What you should be doing is sending what's called a query letter to literary agents instead, they will usually read every letter that they receive. Yeah, most will reject, but so what? You're going to be racking up rejection after rejection no matter how you try to get published, independent of the quality of your manuscript.

You don't need a connection to get published. It certainly helps to have one, but ultimately you don't need one. If you really want to find a connection, network, but not on an internet message board devoted to Star Trek. Get out there in the real world, join writers clubs, attend workshops, attend public speaking events by published writers. If you really are a good writer (no offence, but 95% of the people who think they're good writers actually suck at writing), you will make connections and eventually will get a referral to an agent.