[Johnparker999]

hello all. I just wanted to let you know that since first finding this site I have sent in, and had published, half a dozen short stories under the pen name of Ashley Parker. This gave me the encouragement to have a go at writing a full length scifi book and I took my short story 'The Far Rowers' and expanded it into a book. I then sent this off to an internet publisher quellheartbooks.com and they have just come back to me and said they want to publish it. Needless to say, having sent the book to only one publisher, I am very pleased that they are willing to go ahead and publish. But the main point is, because this website was willing to publish my stories it gave me the encouragement to keep writing. So a big thank you to all the staff here and keep up the good work!!

[Erebus]

Congratulations, John!

I wish you every success in your publishing venture, and thanks so much for your kind words about SFFW. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Steven Savile]

Way to go John, may this be the first of many many many novel sales -

Steve

[Cedric Frost]

Congratulations. What is the expected publication date? Does the publisher sell in stores or only online?

Ced

[Johnparker999]

thanks for the positive comments everybody. It is much appreciated.
I first found out about www.Quellheartbooks.com (http://www.Quellheartbooks.com) after seeing an advert about them in the magazine 'Writing.' What they do is provide an online site for writers but also produce books in a paperback form. The idea is that first of all they see how well the book goes on the internet and if it sells well then they produce it in paperback form. This keeps there costs down as well as allowing anyone in the world to buy the books they have on sale.
However, for me the main point is that they are willing to publish my book, simply because they will only accept books of a certain standard which means I must be able to write to a certain standard.
Once they accept a book I don't think it takes them very long to put it online as there is no immediate publishing in paperback carried out which saves a lot of time and money.
It means that if they accept your book you can be published quite quickly and I don't think it will be long before they print mine.
(at least I hope not.)
However, I am not too worried about how well the book sells at this stage. What is more important to me is that I can now go on and write another book, and in the meantime start to approach agents who are connected to more mainstream publishing companies, because I can now say to the agent "I have a book called ... published by ... " which gives me a far better chance of the agent/publisher even looking at my work. Also, as you will probably be aware, any of us writers can send a manuscript off to dozens of publishers and have the lot rejected out of hand, so to send a book off to one publisher and have it accepted right away, needless to say I'm quite pleased.
Anyway, I hope this helps a lot of writers as I know only toooo well how hard this job can really be. Thanks again for the support.
from John