I know how things work in the world of 3rd Party Publishing for RPGs. The writers and artwork and editors and layout and direct PDF sales and Print-on-demand. I am familiar with how a very few have parleyed that into something that pays enough to be a real job rather than a hobby. I am also aware of the reality of getting into a distribution chain and getting your book into a Bricks and Mortar Gaming store (and the bleak economic reality of that path).

What I am ignorant of, and find myself needing good advice on, is the nuts and bolts reality of the world of published fiction. I know of only two people who operate in that circle and overlap into my circle of gamers.

From one I learned that "a good editor is worth their weight in gold" and can make or break the final product. Since he is in England and writes mostly Military Non-Fiction for large publishing houses, he can't really help me get a grip on the world of writing and publishing Fiction ... especially getting started.

The other person that I know of used his professional relationships with an IP holder to get a foot in the door with a publisher. His path to entry is unlikely to be helpful either.

So I come here seeking guidance from those who may have been there already. Council on what investments are worth the money and where it can be saved. Advice on making a first book more appealing to prospective publishers, or how to bypass the big houses and self publish.

This is not for me. I write for personal pleasure.

I am committed to helping a friend see his first book in print. I can create the physical book. I can prepare the PDFs and the POD files. I could probably locate a printer. However, my friend wants to go through a large publishing house, and I don't know where to find a fiction editor or how to get into that door. If that door should close for him, I want to learn how he can take his product directly to the market and let them decide.

I once read that the first Harry Potter book had a hard time finding someone willing to publish it, but by the second book, the other publishers were far more willing to 'take a chance' on the new author.

So let's get specific:

1. Is it important to get an editor on-board before a publisher? Who do you use?

2. How do new authors get their first books distributed to the public? What channels are available for Fiction?

Thank you for your responses.
There have to be more people who wonder about this.
(Perhaps there was an archive topic that dealt with it).

I can address the big publishing route. Aubrey is the best person around for self-publishing.

Now, for a traditional publishing house route, when you ask about an editor, there's a distinction to keep in mind here. There are freelance editors who can be hired to be an editor and make the novel as good as it possibly can. But there are also the editors within the publishing house who will do that once the book has been accepted for publication. The question there is how much one is willing to spend.

For publishing houses, in most cases, an author's first step is find a literary agent who can represent the novel to the major publishing houses and secure a deal, along with some initial editing and the like. And then for distribution, the publishing house usually has deals with booksellers, both physical and online, to distribute the book. However, much of the publicity now depends on the author to market their work.

I remember back in the 1990's someone asked about becoming a professional Game Designer. I remember the response from someone in that field was that there were more professional astronauts than there were people who made a living designing games. That fact stuck with me and is what scares me about the major publishing house route.

That is what he wants to do, and I think he SHOULD pursue it. I just worry about anyone placing too much faith in that as a door to a first book. NaNoWriMo had how many tens of thousands of winners? So how many 'new writers' must each agent hear from? How many slots for books by an unknown author can a major publisher have? [rhetorical questions]

So for the "Commercial Publishing" route, an agent is the important link with only minor editing to fix obvious errors since the publisher has its own in-house editor. Is that about right?

I have no personal experience yet (beyond going through Writer's Market and looking up publishers' and agents' websites a decade ago ...), but the sense I get from the goodly number of how-to-be-a-writer books I've read is that even three or four decades ago both publishing houses and agencies, in general, received so many manuscripts that the "submissions editors" (or equivalent at an agency) took any excuse to reject a manuscript without having to read it thoroughly, and the situation has hardly gotten better since.

The reason many publishers demand an agent is that "this person we know, whose judgment we know from experience (or have other good reasons to believe) we can trust, thinks this manuscript will be profitable for us" is a better reason to invest staff time than "this package from an unknown author landed on my desk ..." But that just shifts the problem from "finding a publisher" to "finding an agent," and if an agent's trained but probably jaded eye sees your novel as more problematic than promising, your chances of him or her taking you on grow slimmer. Thus, hiring an independent editor may well be worth the price, even if you eventually get "conventionally published."

The joke in the scuba industry is "The best way to end up with a million dollars is to start with two million." I may be the friend atpollard is referring to. The case or not, having atpollard as a friend has certainly improved my life.

Positive Affirmations are ways to strengthen one's will for a difficult task. They are written as if a future desired state is the current truth. Here's mine: "I am a professional writer. My writing pleases my Father, encourages others, and pays the bills. I work on my craft, content, platform, and business. I show up for work every day, meet my goals, and let my Father determine success."

My part right now is honing my craft and producing good content. I must right now write what pleases my Father, I hope it encourages, others, and down the road I want it to pay the bills. Absent a desire for profit it becomes easy to let the process drag on forever and be overly flexible on quality standards. I want to be able to pay those who help the books move forward whether they create awesome covers or do editing to expose my craft challenges. Paying others costs, and the ability to continue to pay others costs more.

For example, Jeff Gerke has a range of services from USD 80 to have an apprentice review 10,000 words or US Cents 5 to have Jeff do a full edit. Since my target is 60,000 words, that's between USD 80 to 3,000. When costs hit the third digit I pay attention, the fourth or more tend to scare me away. Especially when this is the first book I've given serious thought to getting published. My wife and atpollard have enjoyed both books and I've committed to getting the first serious revision of Book 1 done by the end of the year.

There are a lot of things I don't know. Is my writing within the bounds of "if you work these areas it can earn money". That's the question an agent can answer, yet I want to do as much as I can so the agent has interest. At this point atopllard knows the setting and my wife knows me. What would a total stranger get from the books?

The other side of the coin is those pesky publisher editors. If I go with a Christian imprint there's less chance of theology being quashed or perverted. Less chance of a best seller paying the bills, too. atpollard has some ideas on incremental market penetration and we're bouncing those around. That may be the way to go, but I'm still fixated on figuring out a realistic end state for my fiction.

You called? I love that you're asking these questions and sharing them here, so everyone can learn. These are the kind of discussions we should be having here.

As a publisher/professional editor, and an author who is self-published, I can verify what Varon said. Whether you submit directly to the publishers or go through an agent, the process is largely the same. Researching whether or not an agent or publisher is looking for what you've written is a big part of the process that a lot of authors miss. Publishers have specific requirements, and agents have areas they specialize in. You can write a brilliant sci-fi novel, but if the agent doesn't do sci-fi, you won't get anywhere. It's also important to pay very close attention to any requirements the publisher or agent may set out--font size, what to include in your pitch, etc. If you don't follow those, it looks like you can't read directions (or think the directions are beneath you), and they will reject you without reading the manuscript.

The process will take a lot of time. A lot of agents or publishers allow up to six months or more to reply to your query. If you're doing exclusive submission (only submitting to one agent or publisher at a time), then your manuscript will be stuck until they respond. And, of course, you're probably looking at submitting to dozens upon dozens of publishers and agents. Regarding J. K. Rowling, she submitted to and was rejected by several major houses before she finally got accepted. If you can handle rejection, and are willing to put in the work, you can get picked up.

Of course, getting published is no guarantee of success, and there will likely be a lot of promotional work that is still the author's responsibility. In all honesty, self-publishing and traditional publishing take about the same amount of work for about the same chance of return. It just depends on what your dream is, and what kind of person you are, and which challenge is better for you and your book.

However, regarding editors--no matter which route you take your book, you need to do everything in your power to make your book the very best it can be before you submit it. That includes having beta-readers and editors--including a really solid proofread for grammar and typos. The publisher has in-house editors to do final proofreads and/or any editing changes they dictate, but that's only if they love your work enough to pick it up. Publishers and agents aren't your editor. They are not there to help you get your book ready for publication, and most agents will be offended if you send them a manuscript that's not ready and expect them to make it ready. When you pitch, you are selling a product. You are trying to convince them that they want your product because it's a good product that will make them money. Hence, that product needs to be brilliant.

So yes, you definitely need to thoroughly edit your book. However, there is a vast price range in editors, and oftentimes you can get help from friends. It doesn't have to cost triple digits. But you need to be harsh on your work, and you need several readers/editors who will be harsh on your work, to make sure it's worth publishing before you attempt to pitch it. (Which means, if you do use free labor from friends, make sure they are either skilled writers, or someone who is not afraid to tell you the truth.)

If you decide to go the self-publishing route, thanks to very accessible services like CreateSpace, it is very easy to get a book out on all the major channels, including Amazon and the Ingram catalog that libraries and bookstores buy from. The trouble is convincing people and bookstores to buy the book. The hardest part of self-publishing is promotion. It takes a lot of time, and sometimes a lot of money. You will still have to do promotion work if you get picked up by a major publisher, but it might not cost you so much out of pocket, and there will be some assistance offered by the publisher. With self-publishing, you have no name and no publishing label to give you any clout, so you have to start from the ground up and build your own audience.

Of the many things atpollard has contributed is the idea of smaller products done on a recurring bases. That should help build visibility and brand, as well as test the waters of the revenue stream. The goal is building a universe setting with game rules, images, ships, and works of fiction.

I'm sort of looking forward to the business and marketing part. That's not my natural bent, but one of the planned books centers on Ian Domici, a merchant. Putting out the first books will be gathering material for one of the next.

I've committed to major edits on Book 1 through the end of the year. It sounds like the next step, unless there are serious edits still needed, would be to find critique readers to expose the issues I'm too close to see. Fix the issues they raise and then look at professional editing. That sound reasonable?

Between this and working on some of atpollard's suggestions 2017 is shaping up to be a busy year.

Yes, that's generally the process I follow. I'll get the book to a solid state, and then seek outside feedback. If major revisions are needed, I'll sometimes have it read again after revising. Then I do a professional proofread, which is just focusing on typos.