Writing a novel.

[SecretPro]

Im currently giving it a go, for the third time. Previously my Initial ideas felt great but the process of fleshing them out into a fully fledged book is ridiculously hard. I think I might have the right story this time.

 

Anyone else done it? Anybody feel like they've got a book in them that they may get round to writing? 

[StanSP]

I've got a story about an author that failed twice and then absolutely nailed it third time.

[Dr The Singh]

My mate wrote a book, made no money

[Trav Le Bleu]

39 minutes ago, SecretPro said:

Im currently giving it a go, for the third time. Previously my Initial ideas felt great but the process of fleshing them out into a fully fledged book is ridiculously hard. I think I might have the right story this time.

 

Anyone else done it? Anybody feel like they've got a book in them that they may get round to writing? 

I have twice sent novels to publishers, but nothing came of either. I still think I could get it done though.This was all pre-internet, in fact I wrote the first one on an Amiga. I've no idea how it'd work now, with online self-publishing.

 

By way of encouragement, Watership Down was turned down by 40 publishers and is now considered a modern classic.

[SecretPro]

55 minutes ago, Dr The Singh said:

My mate wrote a book, made no money

Yeah I think pretty much 99.9% of novelists make pretty much fook all. 

[Dunge]

I’ve written one. Self-published on Amazon, although never did anything more with it. Writing is ridiculously hard though and can take so long (In my case around 4 years). I also wrote another novel before it that turned out to be trash, and have written about 2/3 of a first draft of one that’s currently on hold because I’m not feeling it right now.

 

I wish you good luck with yours; it’s hard for me to offer any advice because I’ve never had any success. Perhaps too afraid of failure, which doesn’t help, but also I’m a very poor salesman. But what I will say is that I’m very proud of the self-adjudged “good” story I wrote, success or otherwise. I hope that you find the continued enthusiasm to work at yours, that you enjoy the moments of magic and inspiration that come to you, and that you’re proud of the result.

Edited 24 August 2025 by Dunge

[davieG]

Unless you're already known to the public in which case you can write any old rubbish they'll not be interested in you. Most unknowns self publish.

 

You need to make yourself famous or have 3 trillion followers on some shitty media site.

 

Try walking down the High Street naked just before you're due to finish it.

 

 

[Jattdogg]

9 minutes ago, davieG said:

Unless you're already known to the public in which case you can write any old rubbish they'll not be interested in you. Most unknowns self publish.

 

You need to make yourself famous or have 3 trillion followers on some shitty media site.

 

Try walking down the High Street naked just before you're due to finish it.

 

 

Only fans account reading your novel naked might help.

[Brainy]

3 hours ago, Dr The Singh said:

My mate wrote a book, made no money

I've read that before, it was shite

[CheeseHead]

4 hours ago, Dr The Singh said:

My mate wrote a book, made no money

I've read your mate's book, and much like it

[Trav Le Bleu]

9 hours ago, Dunge said:

I’ve written one. Self-published on Amazon, although never did anything more with it. Writing is ridiculously hard though and can take so long (In my case around 4 years). I also wrote another novel before it that turned out to be trash, and have written about 2/3 of a first draft of one that’s currently on hold because I’m not feeling it right now.

 

I wish you good luck with yours; it’s hard for me to offer any advice because I’ve never had any success. Perhaps too afraid of failure, which doesn’t help, but also I’m a very poor salesman. But what I will say is that I’m very proud of the self-adjudged “good” story I wrote, success or otherwise. I hope that you find the continued enthusiasm to work at yours, that you enjoy the moments of magic and inspiration that come to you, and that you’re proud of the result.

How easy was it to self-publish on Amazon?

[Trav Le Bleu]

8 hours ago, davieG said:

Unless you're already known to the public in which case you can write any old rubbish they'll not be interested in you. Most unknowns self publish.

 

You need to make yourself famous or have 3 trillion followers on some shitty media site.

 

Try walking down the High Street naked just before you're due to finish it.

 

 

The fact that Katie Price is a successful author does my head in.

[SkidsFox]

If you're hoping to get a good readership/earn money, then you have virtually no chance with a novel (although at least you may get some interest from other posters on here).

Instead try a book on local history. Maybe old shops or old pubs of Leicester. Do the research and get plenty of historic photos, and you'll stand a chance. You still won't sell a million, but if the book's good enough you'll probably cover the printing costs and have a steady (but small) income from online sales - people who've moved away from the Midlands but feel nostalgic. If.

An opinion from an ex bookshop manager.

 

[Dunge]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

How easy was it to self-publish on Amazon?

Not too difficult.

 

I had to convert it to a different format to create a small batch in paperback form using Blurb* - that took a little time because the auto-conversion wouldn’t de-italicise so I had to go through the whole novel tweaking that. I can’t remember whether I used that Blurb format or the original Word document to self-publish on Amazon but I don’t remember there being any problem either way.

 

The thing I most remember about it was having to fill out a massive online tax declaration due to Amazon being American-based. I never heard anything about that again, which means either I filled it in correctly or sales are too low for anyone to care.

 

 

*I mean by this that I wanted to create a paperback batch; I don’t believe this to be a necessity for publishing on Amazon. In fact, publishing on Amazon is very likely far cheaper.

Edited 25 August 2025 by Dunge

[Blueman1967]

Not got the ability, fair play to any one that can, story telling l think would be easier, collecting facts, and research would be harder.

[reynard]

On 24/08/2025 at 20:45, SecretPro said:

Im currently giving it a go, for the third time. Previously my Initial ideas felt great but the process of fleshing them out into a fully fledged book is ridiculously hard. I think I might have the right story this time.

 

Anyone else done it? Anybody feel like they've got a book in them that they may get round to writing? 

Best of luck to you. Quite a lot of authors don't ever publish their first attempt. There are books that can help you. This is a good one.

Writers' & Artists' Guide to How to Write: How to plan, structure and write your novel: Writers' and Artists' William Ryan Bloomsbury Yearbooks - Bloomsbury

 

The people behind the Artist and writers series of books also have a decent website with lots of tips and access to courses to help you.

Homepage | Writers & Artists

 

If you are serious about this then once you have written it you really need to get an agent if you want to publish properly unless you self publish on Amazon which is pretty easy. Just sending in manuscripts to publishers is a long shot. Only around 2% of books published in the UK come from what is called the slush pile, ie books just sent to publishers unsolicited. The Writers and Artists yearbook comes out every year and is the bible for helping people find relevant agents to whom you can send your book.  Once you have an agent they may do some early editorial work with you but they will send out the manuscript directly to publishing editors who they think would be interested. 

 

I tried years ago and you are right about how hard it actually is. You think you have a decent idea and then you start to write and then you read it back and think well that isn't very good is it.

 

 

 

[reynard]

22 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

If you're hoping to get a good readership/earn money, then you have virtually no chance with a novel (although at least you may get some interest from other posters on here).

Instead try a book on local history. Maybe old shops or old pubs of Leicester. Do the research and get plenty of historic photos, and you'll stand a chance. You still won't sell a million, but if the book's good enough you'll probably cover the printing costs and have a steady (but small) income from online sales - people who've moved away from the Midlands but feel nostalgic. If.

An opinion from an ex bookshop manager.

 

It isn't easy to make money from writing that's for sure but unless you are a celebrity writing their autobiography then the biggest money in advances and royalties lies in fiction, whether it be adult or children's fiction. To make real money though it is about publishing into what genre is hot  at that particular moment. Right now that would be so-called romantasy fiction or even straightforward romance.  Sales of these books can be massive driven a lot by social media such as tik-tok etc.

Most writers don't make a living just from writing books though. But for some people just tog et a book professionally published is like a lifetime achievement and quite right too. 

[SecretPro]

4 hours ago, reynard said:

Best of luck to you. Quite a lot of authors don't ever publish their first attempt. There are books that can help you. This is a good one.

Writers' & Artists' Guide to How to Write: How to plan, structure and write your novel: Writers' and Artists' William Ryan Bloomsbury Yearbooks - Bloomsbury

 

The people behind the Artist and writers series of books also have a decent website with lots of tips and access to courses to help you.

Homepage | Writers & Artists

 

If you are serious about this then once you have written it you really need to get an agent if you want to publish properly unless you self publish on Amazon which is pretty easy. Just sending in manuscripts to publishers is a long shot. Only around 2% of books published in the UK come from what is called the slush pile, ie books just sent to publishers unsolicited. The Writers and Artists yearbook comes out every year and is the bible for helping people find relevant agents to whom you can send your book.  Once you have an agent they may do some early editorial work with you but they will send out the manuscript directly to publishing editors who they think would be interested. 

 

I tried years ago and you are right about how hard it actually is. You think you have a decent idea and then you start to write and then you read it back and think well that isn't very good is it.

 

 

 

Thank you - some great stuff there!

[bovril]

Thought about it but don't have the ability or perseverance.

Would like to write a non fiction book though, but that requires a lot of research I don't really have time for. 

Best of luck to anybody trying to do it.

[RoboFox]

It was hard before, but now made infinitely more difficult because Amazon refuses to get a grip on their AI garbage problem. Search for any book on there and you'll see ten more AI ripoffs created in some content farm somewhere hoping to profit from unassuming consumers. 

 

I don't write but I do release my own music and any creative endeavour at the moment is in a very weird place and platforms can't decide what to do about it. 

 

In a few years consumers will be sick of AI and will naturally start to seek out genuine human works again, but until then it's a bit shit out there TBH. 

[urban.spaceman]

Writing prose ****ing terrifies me. I'm far better with a structure like a screenplay where there's rules that you can break if you know what you're doing. 

 

The government should introduce a basic income for writers IMO.