I've had some queries on the publishing process, and I'm going to do the best I can to outline it for you. Keep in mind that I have never attempted to publish a book and I am not well-educated on this topic. However, I will do my best and hopefully that will help you out.

Before I begin, I'm going to give you an idea on how this chapter is going to look. First, I'm going to explain the different ways to publish a book because you do have options and it's very important to consider them so that you can make the best choice possible. Next, I will outline the steps prior to publishing your story and on. Lastly, I will let you know the things that publishers look for or will not accept as well as basic tips or pieces of information you should know. Some of this you may recognize from other chapters.

Traditional publishing is probably the one that you would think of whenever you hear the word "publish". It's where writers find an agent willing to represent them and that agent of theirs sells their proposal/book to a publishing company. Authors are given some money in advance. Writers would then work through revisions with help from editors at a publishing house. The cover, format, etc is all handled by the publisher.

If you are vanity publishing, that means that the publishing company isn't selecting books because of their content; you are paying them to publish it. The company prints your books, but you are responsible for editing and designing everything, usually. This is a form of self-publishing and is often looked down upon. However, it's perfectly acceptable and common for people to use this method to print books for personal reasons, like a family album or such.

Subsidy publishers have a partnership with the authors. Unlike in traditional publishing, people going this route must make a financial investment prior to their book being published instead of receiving money. The company handles distribution, marketing, etc and authors start being paid right away once the book starts getting sold. Subsidy publishers are less selective in what they publish.

In self-publishing you are entirely responsible for editing, cover-making, layout, distribution, and marketing. Usually self-publishers hire people to cover certain aspects of this process. Usually they publish their book on platforms like Amazon. A con is that the author must cover all of the publishing costs by themselves, but they also retain all the rights and ownership of their work.

For this part of the chapter, I'm going to focus primarily on traditional publishing because I suspect that is the route that the people asking these questions were intending to go. Plus, it is arguably the most common kind of publishing. As I begin, you'll notice that I cover things before the actual publishing process.

Write the story. That should be fairly self-explanatory.

Revise the story. This is really important because agents aren't going to want to represent a story that is rough around the edges. Smooth over the jagged parts before submitting it to an agent. Not to mention that corrections made by an editor are very expensive and you will be responsible for those costs.

Consider the format of your story. Is anything awkward? Are your chapter lengths purposeful and consistent? And if they aren't consistent, do you have a reason for making it that way? Is the length of your overall story acceptable for the genre that you are writing?

Once you are done with the first four steps and are as confident as you will ever be, it's time to find an agent, if you decide to go this route. If you don't, ignore this step. First of all, you should decide if you need one. If you are intending to get published by a well-known publishing company that has higher standards, it's definitely not a bad idea. Statistics show that 80% of books are sold to publishing houses by agents.

Other important things to know is that generally agents receive about 15% if the money from your sales. Try to avoid agents who are going to charge you more than that. Also, its a good idea to do your research when selecting an agent. The ones that have sold more books are your best bet, obviously. Furthermore, consider the genres they tend to work with. Certain agents are better suited to different audiences and genres. Look at the kinds of publishing companies that they send to often; are they suited for you? Something really important is how the agent treats their clients. Are they professional and clear? Are they efficient? Make sure that they won't withhold any information from you. You can find agents on listings all over the web.

So you have managed to find an agent. Great. Now you need to convince them that you are worth their time. Clearly you need to have a story that is well written and has a good premise, but a large part of finding an agent is how you portray your story. Always make sure that you submit everything that the agent asks for in the format that they have requested. I'll give you a list of the basic things they want.

Query Letter: Think of this as the blurb on the front of your story, except longer -- about one page. You have to make sure that it is written well. See the club "Industry Insiders" for help writing one or search up tutorials online. There is always the option of hiring someone to do it for you, but you may find that you are perfectly -- maybe even best -- suited for writing it yourself. You are the author, after all. Who else knows your story better than you?

Synopsis: By synopsis, I am not referring to the one on the back of your book. It is a summary, start to finish, of all the main events in your story. It should be about one to two pages. That isn't a lot when you take everything into consideration. Make sure that you only include the most important and intriguing events/information. Plus, your ending is mandatory. Agents like to know these things.

Sample Chapters: Contrary to popular belief in young writers, you do not send your entire story to an agent. Instead, you choose about three chapters (including the prologue). That is a good guideline for what to send and that is why those first few chapters are so important. They have to be good. That's another thing: always send your first chapters. I don't care if your middle chapters really show off your skill, send the first ones. However, you should only send around fifty pages worth of chapters so if three chapters adds up to seventy pages, opt for two instead.

Something important to remember is that if an agent is interested, they will ask for more chapters, maybe even all of them. This is just to give them an idea at what your story is like. Also, once you do find an agent, they will most likely work with you to improve this composition of documents when attempting to sell to a publishing company.

Once you have (or have not) found an agent, it's time to find a publishing company. If you do have an agent, then you can slap your hands together and for the most part let them do the hard work. You will, of course, have to work with them and communicate regularly but they are the experts at sales and you probably aren't, so let them do their job.

Your agent will help you revise your submission, as I said, but if you don't have an agent, you will have to do all of this yourself. Don't get all panicky, now. You are just going through the same process you would have if you were trying to get an agent to believe in your story. Except you are doing it with a publishing company. On the bright side, if you don't have an agent, you were probably intending to get published by a smaller company with, naturally, smaller standards.

You are going to get rejected. It's just a fact of life. And if you don't get rejected, can I have an autograph?

That was a joke, but seriously: that would be insanely impressive. So don't get too down on yourself. If it's been a very, very long time and you still have received no reply, you have most likely been rejected. So try and think of how you can improve. Reword your submission and create even more revisions. Through the help of critics, pinpoint just what isn't working in your story and do your best to fix it. Also, maybe you're aiming too high. Try lesser known companies and your chances of getting published will improve.

This is the part that is a bit lacking in information online. After you have been accepted by a publishing company, I suspect that most of the hard work is basically done but, again, I can't say that for sure. Every publishing house will be different and that's why I believe there is less information on what happens once you get to this stage.

What I suspect happens next (besides the introductions and formalities) is that you would move on to working with an editor. This part I don't think should spark too many questions; it's a commonly known fact about writing that you need to go through a professional editing process before your story is made available for purchase.

Once you have completed step nine, I'm assuming that there are all sorts of legal contracts and documents but basically the publishing company will finally publish your book and advertise/market it as they think will be best. Remember that they are earning a profit off of your book, too, so they will be very interested in it's sales. I may add more tips to this as I think of them, just so you know.

Any tips or tid-bits of information that I don't have already will be included under this section. It will be a little less-organized and more random but it is certainly worth your time if you are interested in publishing.

Many people are concerned with their age for publishing. Usually, I would suggest waiting until you are at least eighteen before trying to publish a novel. A simple fact of the matter is that during your youth your brain is still developing and, therefore, your writing skills are, too. As you get older, you will have a wider capacity of knowledge that could be beneficial to your story.

Also, most publishing companies just won't want to publish a teenager. If you are determined to do this, though, make sure you are submitting to agents and publishing companies that will accept you. I would research this more if it's a large concern of yours.

If you are planning on publishing, remove your story from Wattpad or any other writing website, at least temporarily. Most publishing companies, unless your story is a major hit online, won't want to publish a story that is already available for free. It's only common sense: if anyone can view it without going to the extra expense of buying the story, why would they?

You should always select a trustworthy publisher. If they are a name you have never heard of, there's more of a risk that they won't be legit. "Industry Insiders" has a list of trustworthy publishers that have worked with Wattpad before. I highly suggest checking it out.

Please utilize this club. The people there will help inform you about the publishing process in depth and even polish out your submission and answer questions you may have. It is such a wonderful resource and it would be ridiculous not to at least visit this club.

Before approaching any agent or publishing company, know the ins and outs of both the publishing process, but also the association that you want to work with. It will not only make your chances of publishing greater, but lower the risk of walking into a bad deal. There are a lot of scams on the net; always be aware of that.

This is not only to help you improve as a writer, but give you an idea at what, exactly, specific publishing companies want. Even consider the blurbs on the back so that you can figure out the format and techniques used for your own time.

Wow, that was quite the chapter. I must say, though, that I certainly learned a lot as I wrote it and feel all the better. I hope you feel the same way. If you have any questions, please, I'd love to hear them. Since I am not an "expert" on this topic, I will try my best to answer your questions but if I can't, I'll redirect you to either a person or website that can. Otherwise, I would just like to know your opinion on this chapter in particular or anything to do with publishing. Thanks so much for reading and I hope to hear from you.