Sometimes creativity can help you get a book published.
Getting published today is as great a challenge as it's ever been. Do a search online and, though you'll find competing statistics. Conventional wisdom says more than 95 percent of fiction and non-fiction book submissions are summarily rejected. Rejections often occur because the work isn't represented by an agent. But agents often won't (or don't want to) represent authors who haven't been published. So how does a passionate author get his or her work published outside the system?
Become Vain
Which is to say, explore vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is a style of self-publishing, in which the author pays a publishing house a fee to print his or her book. The publisher generally makes all of its money from the fees authors pay it. If that sounds a little suspect, it should. Since the vanity publisher's business model is to make money from you rather than your work, they're likely to have little or no involvement in the actual marketing of your book. Still, all you need to do is contract with a vanity publisher, pay your fees and, ta-da, you're published.
Go Digital
The newest way authors are self-publishing their work is through eBooks, and it's certainly one of the most affordable avenues for the go-it-alone author. Kindle self-publishing, from Amazon.com, for example, is a free service. Upload your novel or book and share royalties with Amazon for every sold electronic copy of your book. Success is possible, too. Ebook author Amanda Hocking has sold more than a million copies of her self-published paranormal romances -- and recently garnered a $2 million, four-book deal with traditional publisher St. Martin's Press.
Tell it on a Blog
Similar in some respects to publishing via ebook, consider publishing your work via blog or on a dedicated website. This venue would allow you to serialize the book, publishing chapters weekly or monthly, and build an audience for your work. As demand grows, you could then consider publishing a follow-up ebook, with a built-in audience eager to consume your work.
Advertise Your Work
If you want to avoid self-publishing altogether, then you'll need to develop a marketing campaign to get your work in front of agents and publishers. This is a true "radical" way to get published. Think of it as the "Blair Witch Project" of publishing. By creating a website, blog and other collateral teasing potential readers about your work, providing sample chapters and talking about the process and who you are as an author, you could attract a publishing house. If your marketing campaign really takes off, you may even find yourself courted by a number of publishing companies. Be smart, be creative and be honest in your execution, however. If you oversell your talent or personality, the plan could backfire.
