Brotheralexos wrote:Hello!, I had posted some fluff on my Blood Sons, a DIY chapter that I made in my free time, and everyone liked it, so I am toying around with the Idea of making a small book on this subject. Immediately there were posts about the release date, price, where it was to be sold, and if it would be in hard or paperback.
Seeing as I do not want to be sued to death, I was wondering as to how this works. I would like to contact
GW, and the Black library, so that I could get permission or at least a chance/ interview about this...
I don't know what I am doing, and I'm more scared than the grot in this pic...
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=236504
It should be the second spoiler.
You would need permission from
BL or
GW (whoever owns the copyright, I don't know if
BL is just a front for
GW or if they have full rights to publish the material, it won't matter in the writing process but it may in the publishing) to make money off their work. If you simply put some short stories out on the net it's not a violation but writing a full novel and distributing it in a solid medium like soft cover is a violation of copyright even if you don't make money from it.
Its unlikely you can just approach them and get permission. I doubt they'll give you a go ahead at all to write something if you've never been published before. Most authors who do this kind of thing have had moderate success on their own and usually approach the company they want to write for. You could try sending you manuscript to them via mail but they're likely to just toss it in the trash and never even look at it (most publishers are like this). You'll need to get some success on your own before trying to write for these guys, and even then they might deny you if they don't like your style or the idea you present.
Its unlikely a new author can get a hardcover novel published. You usually need to hit best seller status to get those goodies.
Here's a quick crash course in Publishing:
1. NEVER post a significant portion of a piece on the internet! EVER. Most publishes will require first rights to the work before signing off on it. If a large amount of the document (a few chapters is enough) is present on the net, this can endanger your contract and possibly get you sued. First rights is big, and implies that the publish will be the first medium to produce the work. If its found elsewhere and you don't tell them you are in breach of contract, and in lots of trouble. If you do tell them and they think too much is out there, they'll either send you home or tell you to work on something else. Its nice to show off and all but resist the temptation.
2. You're age matters. If you're under 18, and you're not the best thing since Earnest Hemingway, and you're under 18, don't expect to get far. Publishers in general just don't take young folk that seriously. You can get short stories and poetry published in magazines sure, but a full novel or novella on the bookstore shelves? Unlikely. I know people can list me a lot of examples that break this general idea, but for most people this will hold true. Unless your a very good writer or the publisher really thinks what you wrote will make them a lot of money, they won't give you a second glance. You'd be lucky to even get a first one. Don't let that discourage you though, its more a notice than a warning. Use those years to practice and read and get your skills up.
3. Writing is A LOT of work. You could spend 2 years on a piece, get the go ahead for publishing and spend as much as another 2 years with your editor working on the piece fixing errors improving the work and getting it to publishing quality. This will vary on the genre and the publisher mostly but writing a book is a significant investment in time.
4. Don't give up. You'll likely be turned down a lot before you finally get something actually in the works for publishing. Do research. What kind of book have you made, what is the intended audience, the themes genre content? Most publish publish certain kinds of books and you can find the ones who will be most interested in what you have with a little research. It might also help to at times, suck it up and write something you might not like to boost your chance to get published. Once you've gotten some books out there, your options in publisher and what you can get published increase drastically.
5. Read a lot if you want to write. You need to learn a lot about language, form, and vocabulary to be a good writer. There are a lot of taboos in writing as well you should familiarize yourself with like purple prose and passive sentences (they're not forbidden but unless used very well tend to turn a reader off). The best way to be a better writer is to read as much as you can. If you're looking at going into something like
40k at some point, a mix of science fiction and fantasy can best serve your. Lord of the Rings is THE fantasy novel. You won't find a fantasy book that hasn't ripped something off form it. Enders Game, Foundation, Dune, and the original Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein will all serve you well on the sci fi front. I've read your fluff but don't be confused. A concept is very different from a full novel. Maintaining quality and consistency over the typical 80,000 words is not easy.
6. That said, there are many faulty mistakes even published writers make (some of the worst written books in recent history have ironically become best sellers *I'm glaring at you Eragon*). It takes little writing talent to make it these days in the general industry, what matters is interest. If your work is interesting enough or if the publisher thinks it will sell they will print it regardless of the quality of the work (to a reasonable extent, Eragon is perfectly readable, the writing is just very poorly done). Though I'd love to say don't bother if your not that good, I'd be lying. Meyer and Paloni are both horrible horrible authors, but Eragon and Twilight hit big because of the appeal of their content. As much as it infuriates me that they did, thats the way the cookie crumbles. You don't have to be good to be published.