Pretty much since I can remember I've always wanted to be

>>8796193
Dude if your shits good then someone'll publish it.

>How hard is it to get a book published?

Very hard, even if you're good.....especially if you're good.

>Is it as easy as writing a novel and sending it to a publisher

Uh...no.

>or is there political hoops I have to jump through

Knowing people in publishing will definitely help.

>initial costs I'll have to pay for first?

Going to writers conferences and hobbnobbing with other writers an agents will greatly increase your chances, but admission to these things are extremely expensive.

>I'd rather not have to pay anything

Really? Wow, I'd never have guessed that about you. Your chances go way down without networking, but it's not impossible....like winning the lottery isn't impossible.

>If my shit's good

Stop thinking in terms of good or not. Think in terms of marketable, or not, from now on.

>will front all the costs of printing and publication, right

Yes, they pay for everything up front, and claim 80% of the profit later.

>Or will they just see a document from an unknown author and immediately throw it in the trash?

Most likely thing to happen, yes. If you're not published, strike one. If your project isn't very similar to something that's already selling, strikes two and three.

>>8796216
Can you only publish a book if you have notoriety nowadays? Do you have to have something published in a literary magazine or newspaper before anyone will even talk to you?

The publishing world has changed since the advent of the Internet. There is no need for anyone, anywhere to sit around and wait for some publisher to give them the green light.

Not only are most publishers nowadays only looking for that which will sell (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Dan Brown, etc.), they also will ask you your plans on marketing the thing. Gone are the Fitzgerald and Hemigway days where a writer could send a bundle to an editor who'd work with the writer to polish it up then handle everything else.

It's all on the author, now.

>>8796226
>Can you only publish a book if you have notoriety nowadays?

It definitely fucking helps. If you start researching agents, you'll see the term, "Existing platforms," over and over. This is what they're talking about. Are you already a proven (marketable), published author? Or a celebrity of some sort with a fanbase? Then yeah, your chances basically skyrocket.

If not, it's not impossible...but you have to work the system, study your shit, plan your moves, shuck and grove, do the time warp, beat it, and all that.

>Do you have to have something published in a literary magazine or newspaper before anyone will even talk to you?

You don't HAVE to, but it definitely fucking helps. it'll massively increase your chances if you do.

>>8796216
I do have a few published authors in my family, mostly for shit like historical non-fiction, textbooks and medical journals, but one that was a poet and has a few poetry books out. I dont really know how I'd get them to help me though.

>>8796227
Makes sense I guess, but I really don't know any mediums or places to put my work online where people will actually see and care about it. I ran a successful blog when I was a teenager, and had a few very successful kind of never-ending adventure stories on forums with hundreds of thousands to millions of views (no it wasn't erotic fan-fiction), which was a metric fuckton back in the early 00s, especially for a forum that only got a few million hits a month. But I just don't see that shit being popular anymore, people only seem to want clickbaity top 10 lists, or shitty review/lets-play videos on youtube nowadays. I know I have never read a novel written by someone online, and I read quite a bit. Im not about to just start copy/pasting my stories onto tumblr or something gay like that, I'd get absolutely ripped to shreds by their pc, sjw audience

>>8796253
>I ran a successful blog

That's just as valid as being published these days, definitely mention it in your query letters.

>>8796193
The one thing everyone on /lit/ forgets: GET A FUCKING AGENT
The big 5 pretty much never, ever pick up their books from the slushpile, it's all from agents.
When it comes to connections as above poster has mentioned, AWP is good for meeting other writers, but not agents, and I've heard good things about Sewanee and Breadloaf for meeting a mix of both.

>>8796253
>I know I have never read a novel written by someone online, and I read quite a bit.

More than likely you have. See, if they're successful online, publishers will pick them up and put them out in their markets. Lots of modern bestsellers started out as self published.

>>8796276
>The one thing everyone on /lit/ forgets: GET A FUCKING AGENT

Dude....that's what we're talking about. That's something that kind of goes without saying.

It's not even worth attempting to send directly to a publisher, it's basically like hoping to win the lottery. Getting an agent is about as hard as winning the lottery, getting a deal directly from a publisher is about as hard as getting hit by lightening under the ocean.

>>8796281
also, you probably wouldn't even want to accept a deal directly from a publisher, even if you were lucky enough to get it, unless you had someone advising you with tons of experience in publishing (like an agent).

>>8796261
Whats really funny is if I didn't get bored of it and kept up with my online popularity at the time I'd probably be a millionaire now because I could just make shitty youtube videos that would get millions of hits and cash in on the adsense gravy train. When I was doing it there wasn't really a way to realistically monetize that shit, or it wasn't as easy to do so anyways. You had to put malicious ads on your site that no one would ever click and you'd only get paid if people clicked them, and I hated that shit as a consumer so never did it as a content creator.

I'm not that bad on a camera/microphone, and have done podcasts before too, but everything now just seems so shilly and sellouty, it feels like good content kind of died online. I really dont want to be some asshole who just reviews stuff or bitches about other e-celebs to cash in on their run-off popularity and try to force myself into the youtube circlejerk

>>8796339

If you can work all that shit, you can probably figure out how to work your way through self publishing.