Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Sushan]

Then you need to ask what are the qualifications needed for getting published.
These days that bar is very low, since there is a range of self publishing routes.

I know someone, who paid a lot of money to have his book published. He believed he had made some serious breakthroughs in the study of consciousness and dark matter. I purchased his book, mostly in support of his work, but found that he was in serious need of an editor, ghost writer, or proofreader. That can be a problem when one is not a professional writer, so I would not recommend this route for most people.

You can self publish at no cost. You can also get free advice about editting and proof reading.
You will also need to promote your book. That is the thing that legacy publishers already have an infrastructure for, and the only good reason to go the old route.

We used to be able to send short stories to magazines for publication, but magazines are not doing well right now, so I am not sure this is a viable way to gain experience.

The opportunities for this are way bigger than they ever have been in history. You can even get your short stories read out by volunatray and professional voice actors too, with no loss of copyright.
The only difference is that the story will be podcast rather than in paper.

If you are going to send your work to a publisher, I recommend that you make your first chapter a "grabber" with emotional interest -- or else no one will read the rest of the book. So, it won't get published. These people have to read a lot of books, so if you can't get their interest in the first chapter, they are not going to read the rest -- they will go on to another book.

Grabber strategy is good for all routes, unless you are established with a following.
Most films not begin in the middle with the action and immediately retreat to "One year earlier" - or one week etc. As mosny films are designed for Netlfix, and other open source outlets where people surf the intro before choosing to stop and watch the whole thing.

Beyond that the needs are the same for any book. Why would another person want to read what you write, is the question.

Because you have allowed them to get inside you. That is what makes the writing good, it is like looking through someone else's purse or their bedroom dresser drawers; good writing is damned personal. And we are curious about other people, other perspectives, other experiences.

Celebrities and other notorious people have the advantage here. If you are an unknown then you have a hill to climb.

It does not matter if you live in interesting times because all times can be interesting, all lives can be interesting, and all circumstances can be interesting, if the writer finds them interesting and they are presented in a personal way. My English professor tried to get me to take a class that teaches one how to write a book because he thought I was a natural writer, but I did not want to write a book. I knew that I would have to put too much of myself into it in order for the book to be good, and I like my privacy. Even a fictional book tells a great deal about the author.

Gee

True.

People are quite busy these days. So unless one is really commited he/she will not spend much time on a single thing. It is up to the content creator to grab the attention of the audience within this short period of time. Maintaining interest is equally important. But that initial grabbing is far too important. We see this in Youtube as well. The videos that have millions of views are usually short and sweet. People love to be entertained within a short time period sine they are busy with their own stuff. Any creator should properly understand his/her audience first, and also the common trend as well.

[Sushan]

I agree. Getting it published is another story; if you can't, then what you have written is a journal or maybe a diary.

Gee

Then you need to ask what are the qualifications needed for getting published.
These days that bar is very low, since there is a range of self publishing routes.

Beyond that the needs are the same for any book. Why would another person want to read what you write, is the question.

Self-published books have become best-sellers. At the same time the ones that have selected by editors have gone into dustbin. So maybe it is not just about writing or publishing, but marketing and actually selling.

Most importantly it is about the content- let's not forget that.

An editor can read a book and decide whether it is a good one or a bad one. But how can he really guess whether it will be well sold or not? And what makes an editor the ultimate judge to select what books to be published or not? I think it just depends on the experience of the editor, with some luck included too.

It's probably worth saying that quality, literary merit, and excellent insight may result in a failure.
IN a world that thinks that Rebel Wilson loosing 70lbs in weight should be more newsworthy than all of her successful films, one has to question the value of merit and quality.

People can be interested in different things due to various reasons. One's interest can be seen by someone else as really odd. But all these people are there in an author's audience, and it is upto him to choose who to target ad who not to target. Some people prefer quality while others prefer quite specific stuff, such as your weight loosing example. Anyway, in the long run I think quality matters more.