Book on IVF

[Junior]

This morning I received an email from a publishing company saying "my work has been approved and accepted for publication"!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh

For those who don't know, I have written a book about the emotional impact of being an IVF patient. It is my own journey and was extremely painful for me. The most painful thing I've ever gone through.

My aim in writing the book is to provide support for others going through the same process. When my son's autism was diagnosed, I found it helpful reading about the experiences of others.

Now... seeing as I know NOTHING of the world of publishing, I have to have a careful look at the two contract offers (I can choose which one I prefer) and maybe get some legal advice.

I have a LOT to think about.

[Cosette123]

Wow!!!Congratulations, Junior!

[Sheila]

Junior, this is fantastic! It is a lot of work to write a book! And it is very hard to get published! But synchronicity, I was going to post an article about self-publishing this morning.

Would it be OK with you if I moved this thread to "Start-ups"? This is you following one of your passions, and it's exactly the kind of project that I would like to use the Start-up forum to promote. Then, you can keep talking to us about what you learn about the process of publishing and promoting a book. And it would be an inspiration to others in w/d, some of whom might not have registered with the forum yet. (Take a look at the Start-ups sticky.)

I'm sure this book has helped you to heal and will continue to help you heal, and it is a wonderful contribution to the world that will help a lot of other people. Well done!

[stan]

Junior, i am happy for you, i do not know you were writer when i see you! Bravo!

This is a good new

[Junior]

Junior, this is fantastic! It is a lot of work to write a book! And it is very hard to get published! But synchronicity, I was going to post an article about self-publishing this morning.

Would it be OK with you if I moved this thread to "Start-ups"? This is you following one of your passions, and it's exactly the kind of project that I would like to use the Start-up forum to promote. Then, you can keep talking to us about what you learn about the process of publishing and promoting a book. And it would be an inspiration to others in w/d, some of whom might not have registered with the forum yet. (Take a look at the Start-ups sticky.)

I'm sure this book has helped you to heal and will continue to help you heal, and it is a wonderful contribution to the world that will help a lot of other people. Well done!

Sheila, by all means move this thread to Start Ups. I almost put it there myself but I wasn't sure so I just posted in the lounge

Yes, writing the book was cathartic. It helped me to kind of ... tie it all up. If that makes sense!
As far as getting published, this has been amazing. I started looking for an agent in 2008 then stopped when we moved house in March / April 2009. I only started looking again recently. I'd exhausted the list of literary agents in Australia that I had so I googled 'getting published' and found this http://wlwritersagency.com/main/. I submitted, mostly just looking for an appraisal of my work and they got back to me with an offer from a publisher!! I'm still stunned as I'd heard (and was finding out for myself) that it is hard for a new writer to get published and was going to look into things more fully once I'd had my lap band surgery (umm.. don't think I've mentioned that here yet! will do .. later). But then I got the email!!!

[Junior]

Junior, i am happy for you, i do not know you were writer when i see you! Bravo!

This is a good new

Thanks Stan. No, we didn't have enough time together and you were keen to talk about w/d. That is ok :)

[Junior]

Before getting into something I might regret, I thought I'd better do some checking.

I was looking at literary agents in the US to see if they could give me any advice on my two contract offers. Australia has the Australian Society of Authors and offers a contract assessment service (for a fee of course) and since the publisher is in the US I thought I'd see if I could find something similar there.

Then it occurred to me that my original submission had been made via a website purporting to be WL Writers Agency so I checked and they were not on the list of US agents. I also remembered that their emails were from Strategic Book Publishing which seemed weird. So I checked the WL Writers Agency site and couldn't find any contact details on it. That set my alarm bells ringing so I googled Strategic Book Publishing. This is what I found:

http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/alerts/

The contents of the site are copyrighted so I can't reproduce them here. Sorry!

Needless to say, I will be rejecting their offer.

*sigh*

[stan]

very sorry for you, Junior

i put WL Writers Agency on google and found many infos, it is a rip-off;
it is very good you have searched

courage, it will come!

[Sheila]

OK, Junior, it's just part of the process. Consider this a preview of the good stuff coming up.

Maybe you might want to look at that thread I started about self-publishing. If I ever write a book, I am seriously considering going this route. You pay someone to edit your book well and format it well. Then, you publish it yourself. You earn much, much more per book than if you go the traditional route. Of course, you might want to do some advertising, too. It's definitely something I am seriously considering if I ever get to that exalted place of having written a book.

[Barbara]

Junior

What an accomplishment it is just to write a book. Absolutely do not give up. It will happen.