On 10/10/10

[AntoniaB]

Tad, unfortunately I don't have any experience publishing novels/fiction. I only know about non-fiction/academic publishing and proposals.

I know a lot of people are doing self-publishing via amazon. I don't know what the cost is or if there is no cost or what--but I guess I'd start looking there.

There are many "vanity" presses--those are other places that will let you publish if you pay the fees--but they can range a lot in pricing. That avenue wouldn't be acceptable in my field so I never pursued it, so I don't know the costs involved.

I have a friend who has tried unsuccessfully for years to get a novel published. What he's done is to just try to send it to publishers or try to find a literary agent. He gets rejected over and over. I think the reason is that he has no resume at all. I've suggested to him that he start "small" and contribute some short pieces to regional literary journals to build a resume of sorts, but he just keeps going for the whole novel, and I think it's very rare that someone writes a novel and some big company picks it up.

Your best bet is probably self-publishing at a cost or trying for some short story publications in small literary journals.