I would like to write/author/publish books, can you give me any advice?

I don't intend to do this as a main job but it would be nice to see a book I write to someday be published and found at a bookstore. Have a book signing. That'd be the minimum level of success for me with a book.





After I've written a book, what should I do? How do I find an agent to solicit it to publishers?





Can you give me any advice here? thanksI would like to write/author/publish books, can you give me any advice?
You need to find a good publisher by looking through WRITER'S MARKET. Don't go the self-publishing way if you want the above mentioned details in your subquestion to become a reality.





And to answer of one of the other answerers: Yes, the good writers are compelled to write regardless of payment or fame.I would like to write/author/publish books, can you give me any advice?
The fact is that 99.9% of people who want to write a book, never finish one.





Finish one.





Then worry about publishing.





Any moment that you spend thinking about publishers %26amp; money is a moment you should be writing. Most people who want it can't write the 400 pages. See if you can first.
The problem is that *everyone* wants to be published traditionally, but by the time they get there, the door will be closed to them because of a myriad of problems:





100K+ titles published each year and growing.





Cost overruns.





A volatile and hostile book market--where genres come and go based on popularity and public demand.





A shrinking traditional publishing outlet.





Very rarely these days do the first-time author make any real money these days to get out the door. Their advances are piddley-assed, and they don't make anything close to what they were given in a contract (say $5000 for example) because of the tight competition with thousands of other published authors.





Book signings--? You don't see them anymore. I mean, you do...but they are so few are far between.





But some advice from an author who has been there and done all this?





Just concentrate on your book. Get it written and written *well*--to your liking, not the publisher's--and start marketing and promoting yourself as often as possible.





I've seen too many first-time writers wanting what you want, but ending up crashing and burning towards the goal line--with little to show for in terms of effort.





Success for you shouldn't be getting published and your name up in lights. It should be just writing a story that connects with you and your readers--even if you don't know *who* they are.
Write the book first. Spend the time, enjoy the writing process. Then, you could try obtaining a copy of Writer's Market which gives a listing of publishers and their requirements for submission. It is not a guaranteed thing that your work/book will be accepted for publication. There is also a book put out by the same company as The Writer's Market that is a guide to literary agents and gives their submission requirements.





If you decide to self-publish it is pretty much equally as hard and much more costly. However, if you have the personality to get out and sell your book, go to bookstores, get booksignings set up, it is possible to do it. It is very, very difficult and there is probably an equal amount of rejections as there is in submitting your book to publishers. The good thing about it is seeing your book in print, which might never happen if you try to break in to the writing world by traditional methods. You can get your book into book stores both on-line and in the real world (I did), you just have to be willing to work at it.





Either way you really need to perfect your work as much as you can before submitting to a publisher or distributing it as a self-published work. When you are done my advice is to get your work edited and reviewed. Try finding a book group to work with as they have lots of good advice as well.
Good luck. Every day I see the same question asked here at Yahoo dozens of times. Check out the link below to see what you're up against. And that's just people at Yahoo who think they want to be writers. In the real world, every other person who learns I'm a writer tells me, ';I've always wanted to write a book,'; or ';I'm planning to write a book, too!'; Go ahead, ask people you work with or your neighbors. I bet half of them tell you they want to be writers too.





Does ANYONE actually write because they are compelled to?
You only need funding if you are self publishing aka vanity publishing. I highly recommend you avoid that. Many people go broke self publishing. Also you will never never never get a self published book into a bookstore. It just doesnt happen. And booksignings are increasingly rare. You need to learn about traditional publishing.





When you are ready, buy a copy of Writers Market - the 2007 version is out. It will give you a lot of information on how to publish.





Also, you can go to Resolved Questions here and search words like publisher and publishing and get tons of archived answers that you can print out and study.





Good luck. Pax - C