I have $0, can I still get published?

@Miss_Claridad Yeah, but it is so cool when you see that strangers are paying money to read your book.

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@Ctyolene yep... my friend told me that. though she was paying it to be published.... And I wanna try it...

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@Miss_Claridad Don't pay to be published.

Traditional publishing is the way to go, if possible. If that's not working out, you can go the self-pubishing route, and it's worth paying a professional editor and cover artist, but the actual pubishing of the book does not cost anything.

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@Ctyolene I can design my own cover but You pay for the editor?

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@Miss_Claridad Depends on your skill. I'm a good editor and have some honest and critical readers who help me with that stuff. But I would defintely pay a professional cover artist.

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@Miss_Claridad If you design your own cover, make sure the artwork is original. You can't just download something from the internet. Even free images are dubious if you are using them for commercial purposes. Then make sure it pops in a thumbnail size, and that the cover art and text tells the reader what to expect.

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@Ctyolene okay... now I'm confused with the cover part... Think I'll be hiring one now...

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@Shanniboo402 "my story "Cowboy Casanova" is by far my longest and probably a lot better then my others. but yea, thats the one i want to publish when i am done. but obviously a lot more polishing and reviewing/ revising to do "

I must say, for a 14 year old you have immense talent, and I don't offer praise lightly. I did look at your story, and I think that by the time you're around eighteen, with more practice, you'll be ready if you put in the work. But for now, I sincerely think you should not publish. You're simply not ready yet. No fourteen year old is,really. If you self publish now, I can promise you that when you improve even more than you have now, you'll regret publishing something that wasn't ready.

Your word usage, sentence structure, and overall coherence will improve greatly within the next four years. Trust me when I tell you this--hold out for now.

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@Miss_Claridad You can do your own, but it's not as easy as a wattpad cover. An eye-catching cover with clear text and a good title will result in sales.

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@Parogar Wow! Thank you! I wouldn't say I have immense talent , but thank you for your praise and advice! And I know, it needs deffinatly A LOT more work.

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@Ctyolene so where did you publish?

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@Shanniboo402 I'm not contradicting what @Parogar said, and I don't want to discourage you, but since you're talking about publishing I believe the advice should be more than you'll be much better in four years. I took a quick look at your story with a mindset of what I would want to read in a published book.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the length of the first paragraph. It was long. Then I began reading.

The first three sentences begin with "I" as in "I hadn't spoken..." and "I walked through..." and "I looked at my..." Since the beginning of a story is so important, starting it like that might discourage the reader from continuing (or buying the book if he was sampling it).

So my advice is to work on your writing before thinking about publishing. Learn as much as you can by reading books on writing fiction, reading articles on the Internet, and maybe taking a class or two in school (in addition to the mandatory English classes). When I read articles on the Internet I prioritized them as: 1) by publishers or literary agents, 2) by published authors, 3) by English teachers, 4) everyone else. And don't believe everything you read. Also, speaking of classes, learn grammar. It's my Achilles heel so I know what I'm talking about. :)

Keep writing. Seek critical feedback. Experiment. And have fun.

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@Miss_Claridad Ragz and Ellora's Cave.

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@Ctyolene I mean what website? I'm from Philippines though,...

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@Miss_Claridad Ellora's Cave has a website. They sell romantica ebooks. I never heard of Ragz.

Ellora's Cave has a great story behind it. An author wrote under the name of Jaid Black. She was rejected again and again by mainstream publishers. Her work was too "steamy" for mainstream. So what did she do? She formed Ellora's Cave and self-published. She was so successful that the same publishers who rejected her begged for her to sign a contract with them. Her books are now in the bookstores.

And Ellora's Cave became a publisher for the others to reckon with. It grabbed that marketshare.

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@Blayde Huge market share. They went from selling 36 books a month to 190,000 books a month.

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@AngusEcrivain do you have to be from the united states to publish it? im in canada! i cant find any other free legit sites for publishing.

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@faithjohnson_ You don't have to live in the U.S. to self-publish on Lulu or Amazon or Smashwords. You may have to follow some U.S. rules, like supplying information for taxes, and you might get paid in U.S. dollars, but you don't have to live in the U.S.

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@Blayde thank you!

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@faithjohnson_ You're welcome.

I noticed on your profile that you are 13. You'll have to sign a contract with whoever you self-publish with and in the U.S. you must be 18 or older to sign a contract. The contract covers such things as the amount of royalties you get paid. One of your parents or legal guardians would have to sign the contract for you.

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