Recently I have been sending a lot of e-mails to literary agents. I want to get a science fiction novel I wrote published, and for that I need an agent. The majority of famous authors have literary agents who represent their work and help them make money from it. Agents are skilled negotiators with lots of contacts in the publishing industry. They make money by taking a portion of the profits from a book\u2019s sales, so it is in their best interests<\/b> to make the author\u2019s work a success.<\/p>\n
There was a time when<\/b> authors could send their work directly to a publishing house and if it was good, that publisher would print it and sell it to book shops, however the industry has grown too big nowadays. To sift<\/b> through the huge number of letters from aspiring<\/b> authors, publishing houses would have to employ workers just for this purpose. Instead, dedicated literary agents have taken up this role, and they work together with publishers (and later with translators and foreign publishers) to bring books to customers.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you hear people complain that nobody reads anymore, but that clearly isn\u2019t true. It seems the book market is expanding as the world\u2019s population increases. There are more genres than ever before, some incredibly specific. For example, the simple label \u201cscience fiction\u201d doesn\u2019t tell us much in a world with so many science fiction writers and readers. The genre has been split into many sub-genres. \u2018Space opera\u2019 deals with adventures in space, travel between planets and aliens. \u2018Hard-sci-fi\u2019 uses realistic science and is usually written by those with a background in a scientific field. \u2018Dystopia\u2019s\u2019 deal with tragic or terrifying futures, usually with totalitarian<\/b> governments. \u2018Cyber-punk\u2019 usually involves highly advanced technology but characters of low social ranking\u3000-\u201cpunks\u201d. Finally, genres like \u2018Al\u2019 and \u2018Virtual Reality\u2019 are pretty self-explanatory.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, self-publishing is becoming more and more popular. The Internet is a great source of information on how to do this and many sites can help you find an editor to polish<\/b> your work, an artist to design a nice cover and a printer who can produce the book for you. Once you\u2019ve done all this, it\u2019s easy to put your book up on sites like Amazon and promote it through blogs and YouTube commercials. I think this route is a great idea for many amateur writers, but it\u2019s not for me personally. In the future, I want writing to be my career, and the fact is, almost everyone who writes as their primary source of income has had their work published by one of the world\u2019s large publishing houses. While it is possible to make money from a self-published book, it\u2019s unlikely you can make writing your career in this way.<\/p>\n
As for what I have not done recently- I haven\u2019t found a literary agent willing to represent my work yet. While there are more potential readers than ever before, there are more aspiring writers too. This means the industry is incredibly competitive! Sadly, I have submitted my work to 47 agents so far and I have already received 37 rejections. <\/p>\n
Wish me luck! I need it.<\/p>\n
Fi<\/p>\n
<\/br>
\nVocabulary<\/b><\/p>\n
in (one\u2019s) best interests (exp.) \u2013 most beneficial to
\nthere was a time when\u2026 (exp.) \u2013 in the past; once upon a time
\nsift (v) \u2013 to examine carefully and organize (usually for a large quantity of something)
\naspiring (adj.) \u2013 hoping to become\/ do something
\ntotalitarian (adj.) \u2013 relating to an all-powerful government with complete authority
\npolish (v) \u2013 improve; refine; add finishing touches to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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