Why is it so hard to get a good book looked at?

April, if you really do have talent, it will be found.

I suspect that you have a lot of work to do before you're ready to be published.

Have you had your book(s) read and critiqued by someone other than friends, and relatives? You need to get an HONEST and OBJECTIVE opinion.

You need to join a group, go to workshops, attend writing conferences, and Listen and Learn, no matter how much it hurts.

Someone else responded that a writer doesn't "bind" their manuscripts and you've stated that you've done covers. They're right. The fact that you have tells me you have no idea how to go about writing a book. Publishers expect (sometimes very strict) formatting guidelines to be met. You need to learn how to "show" your story and not "tell" it. Do you use dialog? Do you build good characters?

Writing is WORK and not something that you just do because you have a story that you think everyone will want to read.

These notes are a few hard facts about writing. I have written four books and scads of short stories, not of them was easy and all have been rewritten many times (still not sure their done). I'm in the process of submitting stories and novels for publication. I'm collecting scores of rejections, but with personal notes of encouragement. Its all part of the business, and have no illustions, it is a business. A hard business to get into, and don't expect to "get rich", at least not right away, it takes years.

There is lots of good advice here. Just to add a little more. If the way you've written your question is indicative of the way your books are written, then you're never going to be published big time. It's full of misspellings and grammatical errors. You might say that you're much more careful with your work, but a writer should write everything that she presents to the public to the very best of her ability. You never know who will see it. What if a publisher or agent had read your question? You can be sure she would have been turned off by the mistakes and also by the whiny and bragging tone. You can ask the same question in a more positive manner. This question is a way of selling yourself - I would be reluctant to try one of your books from this sample of your writing.

If you want to get out of small presses and self publishing, you have to have an agent. Start going to writing conferences, where you can sign up to present to an agent in person. Forget the cover art. Just bring fifty pages of the novel. If there is a workshop at the conference about presenting your novel to an agent be sure and take it first.

Everyone has given you some great advice, and they're right. I looked at your website and read some excerpts of your work, and I'll add to the chorus of voices saying that you need to work on editing. Join a local writer's group. Be brutal. What you have posted works as a first draft but isn't near final draft quality. For example, here are some suggestions (from the excerpt posted of "Enter"):

First, you have very little dialog. You have paragraph after paragraph of things like "Dan stopped one of the officers and asked what they had so far? The young officer told him that the house was in such tidy order, that other than the crime scene area, they didn''t know what all to take that didn''t scream evidence. Dan asked what had been found without going through drawers and cupboards. The officer told him that they had bagged a stack of mail, receipts and a few pieces of paper that had been laying on a counter, the women''s purse that had been sitting in the kitchen unopened, and apparently in tact, and a couple of glasses that were in the sink. He also told Dan that they had found evidence of cigarette ashes in the kitchen sink, but no cigarette butts, and no evidence that the two original occupants of the house were smokers. No ashtrays, lighters, or empty cigarette packs, just ashes in the kitchen sink. He reported that they had bagged the garbage from the can in the kitchen, and the one in the bathroom, but that nothing looked out of the ordinary. He also told Dan that they were checking out her car, but again, they hadn''t found anything out of the ordinary."

That whole section is tedious. It needs to be written as actual dialog. Another example of a problem is this:

Dan asked about forced entry, and the officer told him “None that they could find. It looked like she let whoever did this in, or her door was unlocked, or that she knew her attacker maybe. At this time it didn''t look like a break in or a robbery, and he like everyone else, was surprised at the fact that the women had not been sexually assaulted.”

The quotation marks in the beginning indicate that the officer is speaking, but at some point in the middle it wanders away and it's obvious that the officer is no longer speaking (why would he say "he like everyone else..."?). It's very confusing.

You need a lot of help to make this publishing quality. That means working with other writers, writing groups, whatever you can find. It's too late for this year, but maybe you could look into some of the resources available through nanowrimo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)

I really don't know what to say, April. I'm a writer myself, and I checked out your site and your books.

I agree with everyone here that you need to get out there, contact publishers like crazy, etc. Getting published and getting your name out there isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Perhaps, too, you might want to work on your writing itself if you'd like to get picked up and promoted by major publishers. I'm sure the stories themselves are great, but there were a number of grammatical and spelling errors in your published work "Enter" on amazon.com...in just the first three pages; I was able to read excerpts - scanned pages right from the book! Legit publishing houses won't care about your work if it appears you don't care about it, so I would definitely spend more time on proof-reading, and perhaps hunting down a good editor.

Editing can also help with the choppy writing, and "flow" of things. It's a difficult world, the writing/publishing one, and I wish you luck. Also, take the above posters' suggestions and work on that website - it is very unprofessional and, again, gives a "I don't really care" feel.

Best of luck!

Because unfortunately for you, it's you and about 10 million other people that have "really great" books they think are great. I'm not suggesting yours aren't you realise, just that if you are a publisher you have 1000 "great" books sent to you a week, you just aren't going to look at all of them. The autobiography in particular, sorry but unless you are famous, nobody, apart from your family perhaps, cares what happened in your life, however interesting it may be to you. It's a fact.

However, there is hope if you really really believe your books are that good, these days it is very easy to self publish. I promise this is not spam and I don't work for the company. My husband decided to self publish his book (The locksmiths encyclopedia - in case you are interested) he choose that route basically because the publisher deals with marketing and as it was such a specialist book, he felt he knew the market better than any publisher anyway. He expected to sell around 300 copies, he sold advertising to cover the cost of publish. We've lost track of how many copied have sold, all over the world as well, nobody was more surprised than he was.

Anyway, I digress, if your books are really that good, publish and market them yourself. It's hard work but if you really believe in them why not put your money where your mouth is. We used www.authorsonline.co.uk

Good luck, if you get really famous dedicate one to me. Oh and let me know when the thriller comes out, I love thrillers.

Have you contacted any professional writers to give you some feed back? What you think is great my not be what the industry is looking for (ie, what sells).

There are several websites and forums for creative industries to critique each others work, I would suggest starting there.

Don't worry about painting covers for your book, the publisher will take care of that. Sometimes a photograph or design is more appropriate.

First, the fact that you "painted the pictures on the covers" raises a read flag. What are you doing to get published? Writer's do not bind their work. It is printed in manuscript formatting and after extensive research, sent to either agents or editors. Painting your own cover brands you as a novice who doesn't understand the industry.

Also that you have 6 books in atleast 3 different genres doesn't bode well-- you should study the craft and create a name for yourself in ONE genre first, as most agents will agree, unles you're really prolific and already have one deal i one genre.

please don't take this as me being mean! but if they were GREAT books then they would be out there if your showing them?

I mean you say it's not just you saying that they are great! well who are saying they are great!

friends family people in a book club?

random people in your town or are they realiable sources of book crediting <-- can't spell it you dont want to know what spell check suggested...

I'm going to check out your web site~

have you tried self publishing?

you won't get turned down that way

but you will have to bit the cost but if your books are as great as you say they are that will be a large profit for you! so the cost would be more of an investment in yourself and your books!

off to play on your web site! then to work I just have to get out of these questions!

Best of luck to you!

http://pril.deviantart.com/ if you like art work! <-- shameless self promotion! :)

FYI - your first link it doesn't get dark till midnight is not working ...

nice job with the online book selling! that's a great step!

I would do yourself a tiny favor and make a more professional website! it is really hard to follow!

you need a naviagtional menu.. finding the arrows that are the only thing to be clicked on isn't very user friendly and if it wern't for you question i would of done went to another site!

GREAT Photo's tho! I would say leave those in the web site and add a few more!

when you click on enter at your own risk they have a short bio up on you! THAT should be on your page!

a nice summary of each book...

okay sorry you didn't come here for a site review.. damn it! old habits are hard to break!

Want a trade out! book for layout design?

I'm no talent agent, but I would assume my response couldn't hurt. I would imagine getting noticed is all about who you know through networking. The more influential people you meet out there, that have the power to really get your name and message out there, the better. I wish I could point you in the right direction as to who to speak with, but I wish you luck.

I'm sure that even posting on here was a good move.

Well you're reaching out with this question. I bet everyone who read this did a search on your name and books. I did. You're not at my local library, but I found you books on Amazon and Yahoo shopping.

I don't know what else you can do except try to get on a TV show to promote your books. Good luck !!