CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Hey guys, I know this is a shot in the dark, but I'm trying to get my full-length Christian fantasy novel published. Anyone know of any publishers who might be looking for unsolicited manuscripts or proposals? Even if they don't accept manuscripts, post 'em anyway so I can have fun harassing them needlessly. Just PLEASE do NOT tell me to go look at Literary Marketplace or Author's Guild junk.

...I've been hearing that too much lately. It inspires my wrath....

Dear USSR Girl,

I have never actually tried to publish a novel before however, I believe you might have some luck if you went to a Christian book store and took selective samples of a similair genre to what you are currently writing or have written. Then write down the publishers inside (towards the front of the book generally along with other stuff for bibliographies) after taking these selective publishers compare to see who publishes the most stuff in your area, this would probobly be a good publisher to try your work out on. Good luck to you.

Sadly its really hard to get a publisher to look at your manuscript without an agent. I'm writing a fantasy novel also with strong Christian stuff but hopefully to cater to those 'outside the choir' also. I'll be doing a lot of praying about it. I suggest you do the same.

This is a great Christian writers website. They have all sorts of things. Maybe they could help you out?
http://4believers.com/writers/

I hope this is not that Author's Guild junk you were referring to..

I know that AuthorHouse publishes books for people at a reasonable cost.

It cost me around $1,500 USD to get a book published. That package came with a bit of promotion (but I got it for the 5 free copies). Their prices may have changed by now however.

The upside is they don't charge you any additional fee other than the $20 USD a year to keep your book in their publication listings (in case people buy it), and so if people keep ordering it, they will keep printing however many copies they need to print without charging you more money.

The downside is they don't explicitly place your books in bookshops, but people need to order them online (I think they may put some copies at Borders bookshops though), so this may hurt your sales.

They are not a Christian publisher, but my dealings with them were good and I haven't had any problems with them.

If you're interested, the site is:
http://www.authorhouse.com/

I hope that helped.

OOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad I found your thread! I am an inspiring young Christian Fantasy author and I know exactly how you can get your book published! First off you are going about it the wrong way. Unsolicited manuscripts and proposals are a thing of the past. Most modern publishing companies don't even accept manuscripts anymore. The reason that is so is because from the largest to the smallest publishing companies had to downsize when their info-market was cut in on by the internet. Now that all publishing companies are smaller they only work through "Agents." In the year 2005, 173,000 titles where published bringing in an earning of $40 billion to the writing market. 90% of all those published works came to be published through special publishing agents. Publishing agents work very similar to a Real Estate Agent. They work for a commission but they only receive profits once your book is selling. So there is no fear of working with one. You don't pay them anything until your book starts making money! Next, agents know all the tips and trick of selling books to publishers. These guys are the experts in getting manuscripts to the right publishers for the right price. The only part you have to play is: first "write the book," second, "send a quarry letters to as many agents as you deem fit," third, "wait for the replay and go with the agent that you best like," forth, "work out a deal and send to him/her the manuscript," fifth, "sit back and wait for the agent to wheel and deal with the publishing companies." That's it! The agent handles the big bad publishers so you don’t have too. Hey, you wouldn’t sell a house without an agent… so why would you sell a book without an agent? Agents are how the modern writer gets published. Oh, and finding an agent isn't hard. There are websites, book guides, or my personal favorite, "going to the book store and finding the latest books and looking for which agent has his/her name in the credits page." Anyway, I hope that helps. If you have any more questions feel free to send me a PM.
Good luck with the book

God Bless
~HS5K

Thanks for those tips Ben! Is that what your doing?

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:Thanks for those tips Ben! Is that what your doing?

Yeah. The reason I haven’t been on the CAA in a while is because I have been focusing on my education in English/Writing/Publishing. This is the info that I have been finding. I mean, if you go to a publishers website it is a little depressing because they will tell you they "don't except manuscripts." But then I found out why. Because about all work is done through agents. Now there are some works which are not done through agents but that is mostly non-fiction. And if you are going the route of non-fiction it is actually better to go "self-publishing" and to not go through an agent. But non-fiction and fiction are really two totally different fields. Self-publishing is not recommended for fiction though. Your chances of making any money are very slim. So I am going the way of the agent and the commission is not bad. On average an author gets 7% of all the sells of his/her book while the agent gets 10% of the authors 7%. So if a $20 book sells to 50,000 people the net gain is $1,000,000. The publishers pay for all expenses and they get 93% of the money to cover the book expenses and to make a profit. The author gets $70,000 then has to pay the agent 10% ($7000) leaving the author with $63,000. Not a bad days work at all!

God Bless
~HS5K

True, but still first time authors don't make big bucks overnight (except Paoloni = Eragon) and J K Rowling = Harry Potter), but those are very rare cases. Still getting an agent sounds like a good idea (I thought you had to pay them beforehand). Hope its that easy here in Australia. What sort of Writing and English education are you focusing on specifically?

Thanks for the advice guys. I've looked at several agents' websites before, but I'm still a little jittery about working with one. You may be right, however. I also don't have any money to spend on self-publishing or agents who want upfront fees. I'm flat broke. X.x I have been looking at the publishers on the back of books, but most of the big guys don't accept manuscripts from unagented authors. If anyone knows any fantasy/book publishers in general, be sure to post 'em here. My novel is not exclusively Christian. I just figured I'd ask in case Douglas Gresham happened to be logging on to this board. ^_^

Thanks again,
Temulin