Search This Blog

Monday, September 20, 2010

Writing.com

Hey if you get a chance and you don't want to read over my stuff here it might be easier to read on writing.com where everything is all set up more comprehensibly. Just search F.G. King.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Typical College Student

Well I've passed from the halls of high school to the alien campus of college. I guess I'm now one of the many college students who utilizes a 'blog.' Well, I guess I should include that I'm still writing, and that I'm working on the second part of my series, while still seeking out a good publishing agent. I've given up on the idea of using a subsidy publisher, as they are far to expensive, and the potential returns are seriously limited. As it is I do have a few new legends to post, so you can look for those, and if you're just running through this site, then please feel free to bookmark it and come back later, it will be expanding, I promise.

Friday, July 2, 2010

****Disclaimer type thing****

I was recently given a warning from a particular cousin of mine who is a bit more experienced in basically life in general. So I'd like to include in this blog what she told me. Self-publishing is not a good way to get a book out into the world as it is nearly impossible to get a retailer to market it for you. Publishing houses are vital to writers because of all the connections they have in the industry. She also directed me to a website that will help you to determine the legitimacy of these "vanity publishers." Head over to www.pred-ed.com to take a look at their extensive list of publishers, self-publishers, and editors. Given this listing....I have abandoned my quest to create a list of self-publishing companies and their prices, as this is already a pretty good source for finding what you need. I'll also include this link at the bottom of my page from now on.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Falling behind, but still alive

It's been a while since I've written anything at all on here, but I haven't placed this little project completely out of mind just yet. Lately I've been busy with a variety of activities. It's the usual end-of-the-school-year mashup, though with the added bonus of having to get everything aligned for college. I've been working on some short stories, and haven't been able to focus on a price comparison of the self-publishing companies I'd been planning on. I'm uncertain as to weather or not this will happen at all, but from the looks of things you need to at least have a substantial financial base just to kick it off with them. A standard publishing package will run you over a thousand dollars, and that's not even including the price of getting the books printed. I'm going to be including more legends from the histories of the Existence Chronicles, and hopefully they will develop into some greater semblance of order in the future. In the mean time I'm going to see if I can get a better form of financial grounding so that when my book is at last ready I won't have to wonder where the money for self publishing will come from.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Day 4, I don't know why I'm still going by days...

Ok, so yesterday there wasn't any new blog posts by me, but I did add a couple of new pages. First is a map of the world in which the Existence Chronicles takes place. I will be adding things to this map as time goes on, such as general history of some areas as well as the governments and factions in control and so on and so forth. The second page is dedicated to the "Legends" in my book. These legends are the framework of their history. There are going to be a lot of these, and I'm definitely going to need to make a better way to keep track of all of them on this site. I'm only allowed ten separate pages though, so it'll take a little creativity. That's for later on anyway though.
Today I spent some time editing some portions of my book. One of the people I gave it to gave me a bunch of suggestions, and I'm putting all the areas of uncertainty under very close scrutiny. I've decided I'm also going to assemble a list of self-publishers and their prices as that could be valuable for some people to be able to find a good sized list all in one place. Dog Ear Publishing has already done something like that, which I find convenient, but they also leave out competitors that offer deals that some people might find more appealing. So, I'm going to try to piece together that little corporate puzzle. Also I saw today that my site is now locatable on google after having signed it into the google directory. Of course, you have to look for the site almost directly, "Existence Chronicles," in the toolbar is about the only thing that does it. Still it's good to see that.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Day 2, the backstory....

Well, for those of you seeing a trend here (OK I know nobody is even looking at this site yet, but I'll pretend I'm talking to somebody in the off chance that I actually catch someone's interest this early on) I've posted two consecutive days. That's probably going to be a trend that is broken by tomorrow, but I figured it would be good to provide you with where I presently stand in my quest for finding a publisher. I have contacted a couple publishing agents, which I found on www.agentquery.com. I'm not going to say which ones specifically, but I'll give you what they said. Quite simply, cold hard rejection, but hey, that's to be expected the first couple of times. I've looked around at a bunch of different publishing houses, including Random House, Scholastic, and Pearson, all of which do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. I have assembled a list of publishers, but I haven't yet sorted through them to see which ones do not require you to have a publishing agent. I do know that Tate Publishing doesn't require an agent, but apparently they've never had a book reach the best seller list. I'd prefer a better track record than that.
If you want to see a list of the big wigs in publishing you can take a look at this site: http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/06/top-ten-book-publishers-in-america-through-march-2008.html
Which lists the top ten publishers of 08, a little outdated yes, but all of these guys are still the top dogs in their industry.
As for where I stand with my actual accomplishments in publishing I have actually gotten some short stories accepted, nothing big, but still. In total I was paid thirty-five bucks for my work, which technically makes me a professional writer. If you want to take a look then check out FriedFiction.com or Short-Story.Me. Both of the stories were written under my name, just look for F.G. King and you'll be able to find them pretty quick.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Day 1, and Desperate

There is a lot to be gleaned from a title. A title contains so many hints as to what the following information may pertain to. I suppose that from the title you see above, that you would be able to infer that this is my first day ever engaging in the activity known as "blogging." Then the second part is that I am desperate about something. So, as it is my first day in the trials of this endeavor I obviously should clear up a few things. I am F. G. King, a prospective author (that's the more interesting bit, but I'll get back to that later). I'm still in high school at the time of this post, though it is my last year of the dreaded, hormone-laden halls of the secondary stage of the public school system. Soon enough, I'll be free. Yes, the freedom of completing the most basic level of education, displayed by the ever so coveted High School Diploma. Almost done, and that is where my desperation enters the field. As pointed out above, I hope to be a professional author, but I had intended on having my first book in print before the completion of my senior year. After six long years of writing (Yes six, I started going insane when I was 12 and have been mad ever since) I have learned and matured and learned some more. I now know that the possibilities of me being published are fairly slim, as it takes resources that I have yet to acquire, as well as time that I don't have to spare. The odds are not in my favor, but if life were easy it wouldn't be any fun. Publishing before high school is over is now no longer part of my intentions. This blog is instead going to be my public forum for my continued quest to publish my manuscript. For those of you enterprising in the same venture you can use this place to follow my footsteps, or learn from my mistakes. Of course, this blog isn't going to be dedicated solely to that purpose. For the rest of you reading this who aren't interested in me babbling on about how many publishing houses have rejected me, I will be posting small snippets of back-story, unrelated short stories, and maybe even portions of my manuscript itself. Welcome to day one, and our journey begins...