What would you do?

If you're wanting to do this on your own, rather than through a commercial publisher, you can start with the self-publishing forum here. There are tons of folks in there with experience, and you can read their threads to see what has and hasn't worked for them.

Why not try commercial publishing first? If you want a large market, and want people to realize the book probably has quality writing, this is the way to go. You can always self-publish later.

A good developmental editor is going to cost a lot of money. If you really lack great storytelling talent and skill, you may also need a book doctor, and this, too, can cost a lot of money.

That said, I think you're putting the cart before the horse. Plant your butt and write the book. Until you do this, not much else matters.

In my writing club, many people self publish. These people put a lot of money into finding the right development editors, copy editors, etc. in order to make their work the best it can be. I would say some of them are successful on a local scale, and some have found specialized niches that traditional publishers did not think would sell. For example, one author has written a World War II Female Spy Series. They are well written and fun books!

When you self publish, you have to put all the money and work into finding the right people to assist you into making your work the best that it can be because you can't do it all yourself. Why? Because no matter how good you are, you do not have all the required skills to do everything for your self published work.

If you go the traditional way, get an agent and/or publisher, then you are provided people to work with and you don't front any money.

I have nothing at all against self-publishing, but I believe it is best to try the traditional route first.

GhostReader, I agree that you should check out the Self Publishing forums here. Self publishing may not turn out to be your best avenue, but no one other than you can determine that. Arm yourself with researched facts about self publishing, and about trade publishing as well, so you can make informed choices.

I also agree that writing your book is what you'd best focus on. As it develops, you may find that your sense of how to market it changes, but in any case the book itself has to be the main thing.

Good luck to you!

GhostReader said:

I am new to writing and I am in the beginning stages of writing my story. Mainstream fiction is the genre I think. It's a story centered around the labor movement and social justice. It's a story that for years, Ive been saying "someone needs to tell this story" and no one has so Ive decided to be that someone. I'm trying to learn all I can about the many choices out there to get this story out. I feel that I will have a leg up on distribution as I have a large network of people who I feel will embrace it. Everyone has high expectations I know and perhaps I'm being naive but I really believe in this story's potential. I know you can spend very little to get your book out and I dont have a large budget but I'm willing to invest in a developmental editor and perhaps cover design and distribution. What press should I use? What would you do? Where to start?

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First things first - write the book.

After that then you need to decide what route you are going to take - are you doing to attempt to get a publisher or agent? if so then you need to start looking at options which fit your genre - check out other clients and authors to see the sort of thing they rep or publish.

If you decide to go it on your own then there are lots of self publishing options out there - the SP forum here has tons of information. How much you spend on self publishing depends entirely on how much you WANT to spend on it.

GhostReader said:

I am new to writing and I am in the beginning stages of writing my story. Mainstream fiction is the genre I think. It's a story centered around the labor movement and social justice. It's a story that for years, Ive been saying "someone needs to tell this story" and no one has so Ive decided to be that someone. I'm trying to learn all I can about the many choices out there to get this story out. I feel that I will have a leg up on distribution as I have a large network of people who I feel will embrace it. Everyone has high expectations I know and perhaps I'm being naive but I really believe in this story's potential. I know you can spend very little to get your book out and I dont have a large budget but I'm willing to invest in a developmental editor and perhaps cover design and distribution. What press should I use? What would you do? Where to start?

Click to expand...

Read Stephen King's, On writing

Sit. Write.