Where and how to publish new work?

Question

I have made several stories, not short, but not long. They might make a small book.

But I'm new and don't know anything,

Where should I publish it, I mean, safely, as they could rip off the idea or just throw the work away. Any advice will be appreciated too.

Answer 1

You can publish them yourself. If you do that, you retain all of the rights to the stories and the book. That way, nobody can get the rights to the book and throw them away.

To publish an ebook, you can make an epub file and distribute it through Kindle, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Smashwords, and other places. They won't steal it. They want to sell it for you, so they can take their 30%.

To publish a paperback, you can design the cover and the interior, make PDFs of those, and use CreateSpace (print-on-demand) to print and ship it. CreateSpace sells through their own online store, and through Amazon. Depending on how you price the book, they can also distribute it more widely for you (so that it could end up in brick-and-mortar stores).

I do all of the above. There are likely many other options, especially for ebooks.

Answer 2

Great question! There are a couple things you could do.

1. Look at magazines that would publish your works. This would be my first recommendation. If you've never published anything in the past, publishing with magazines would build up your 'resume', so to speak. Then after that you can seek a traditional publishing system.
2. You can self-publish. Using this method, you would keep virtually all your profits. You could simply print out your stories, bind them together (might cost something depending on what kind of binding, though) and sell them however you want. Either that or you can put them online. This method can also work.
3. Check out a couple traditional publishing companies. You may or may not need an agent. This one ultimately depends on what kind of stories you have written and what kind of publishing company you look at.