Just don’t.

Nobody will buy it but people who like or love you, because of the way they feel about you, not because they want to read it.

It will not make you a published author, merely a paying customer. Vanity presses do not screen for quality.

You will spend, at a minimum, hundreds of dollars and end up with around 45 sales if you have a large family, 65 if you count the ones you buy yourself.

Your book will never be in stores, where the vast majority of all sales still take place.

Your royalties, even with the usual high percentage such presses offer, will never come anywhere near what you spend.

Print on Demand is the name of a technology used by vanity presses, and by some legitimate presses, too. It’s simply a method by which books are stored electronically, to be printed only when someone orders one.

Learn more about self-publishing fiction at http://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php?referrerid=88 , where people with high hopes have seen their dreams wither–and received support and instruction on how to write a novel which sells.

1. Since you are not published - publishing companies probably won’t even look at you. What you want is a literary agent. What you do is send them a query letter/email about yourself/synopsis of your novel. They might like five out of the hundreds they get a day & ask those 5 to send the first 30 pages or so for them to review.

Anyways, I could go on and ON about literary agents, but I couldn’t do that as well as this FAQ does - http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2008/08/faqs.html#uds-search-results - I would look the FAQ completely over! Everything in it is very significant to publishing.

Once you get an agent, they will deal with everything for you. And you can relax (well, pretty much) Those print on demand & editorial thing you spoke of - don’t worry. Taken care of by your publishing pros.

Since you said you wrote a sci-fi - you would find a sci -fi genre literary agent. They go by genre.

2. Sometimes literary agents find it rude that you copyright your work. I found this out recently. They think it’s ridiculous you would accuse them of trying to stealing your work. Here’s what you do to copyright for almost free: Print out your novel (or just the beginning if you can’t do all pages). Send it to yourself in an envelope & just hang on to it. If it comes up somewhere that someone has stolen your idea - you have your proof by the stamp date on the envelope (which shouldn’t have been opened).

But technically - your work is already copyrighted the second you write any word down. But in this world, we need proof.

When your book is published, its copyrighted, as it was before.

3. I hear the process can take up to a full year! If the publishing company speeds it up, then maybe fewer months. Depends on book size, too.

4. Sometimes the author is given royalties before the book is even published. Because obviously - if you got that far, the book should sell.

5. The publishing company has professional book cover artists. It is VERY unlikely that they would choose something you drew because they have people with years of experience. Of course, they design books for a living. They usually know what people look for in a book cover. They want it to sell.

I have no doubt you’re a good or even amazing artist, but the publishing company usually has a different eye. You can suggest a book cover & show them something you drew for an idea, but they will go with what they want. I hear some authors get surveys on their book before the cover is made. And sometimes they show you choices of possible covers to let you express your opinion. But they will pick the one that sells. Its unfortunate that they could care less. I’m an artist too, but they probably wouldn’t care.

6. No. You should for nothing with a literary agent! If they looks at your writing and think it will sell, then they know it will profit, so they cover everything for you (if needed). But remember, your literary agent will get a cut, that being said. BUT everything is covered!

7. If an agent ask you to pay a fee - then they’re fake. If they like the writing, they know it will profit & no fee is needed.

Also - agents will find a publisher for you. They know trustworthy publishers, so don’t sweat it.

For now, PREFECT THAT NOVEL! You should be editing as much as you can. Get rid of pesky grammar errors. Find someone that will offer advice or tell you if it’s ready to be publishing. Don’t reject criticism, it is very crucial to writing a good book. Email your previous english teachers! They read all the time, so they should know a good novel! Even a librarian.

Now, I don’t mean to be rude - but none of your ‘i’s in this question are capitalized! That will turn off an agent immeadiately. Especially not capatilizing the first word of every sentence.

Hope I helped!