<p>I am thinking of publishing some papers that I wrote (~60 pages each), but the thing is, I have no idea how to do it. I've read about getting a copyright and that part seems easy. </p>
<p>Do you think it's reasonable for high school kids that aren't even 18 years old yet to get things published? How much money does it cost to publish and print your material + other expenses? Will it run me down deep into debt if I publish something? Should I try to just create my own website and publish it online (make it into a PDF format and upload it)?</p>
<p>It's certainly a longshot to get yourself published. Chris Paolini, the kid who wrote Eragon when he was about 15 (correct me if I'm wrong) had parents who owned a small publishing company...They published him first, then he got signed onto a big publishing house. Not to detract from his achievement (though I really hated Eragon), but just know that it's really difficult for teens to get published.</p>
<p>Wow, I just went through that lulu website. Is it really that easy to get something published?!?! Is there some hidden catch? Since the books are only made if someone has decided to buy a copy, there's no possible way of actually losing money on your book, right?</p>
<p>only publish if you know there's a market for your books...i feel like it's a big venture, and for paolini - he was homeschooled so he had a lot of time. but if you're really busy, it could take over your life.
there's cover art necessary, promotion, editing, contracts, copyrights, trust me...i thot about it once. but i'm waiting until after college.</p>
<p>usually published scientific papers are much, much shorter than 60 pages, if you want to publish them you'd have to trim them down a lot first. could be different in other fields.</p>
<p>Publishing books is a lot of work. You can do self-publishing, vanity publishing (either can often be time-consuming or even a scam), or you can go the traditional way which is: find an agent by submitting some of your work and a query letter (I think that's what it's called); have that agent try to sell your work to publishers. All a crapshoot from the beginning.</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to have some of my poems published in Immortal Verses. It was a long process, but it was absolutely worth it. I had them published when I was 16, so it is not a problem to get them published when you are under 18. However, you need to watch out for scams or for publising companies where the fee is unbelieveable. I was luckliy enough to have them published without paying the fee and still retaining the rights to the poem. I would recommend finding a writing competition where the winner has the winning entry published. I had some poems published that way, too. It is a lot easier in some terms.</p>
<p>for social science research, there's a prestigious academic journal called 'the concord review' which publishes papers written by high school students.</p>