BEING A WRITER

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Doin' The Work

Numerous resources exist to help the would-be writer, but the most important thing to remember is that in order to be a writer, you have to write. Steadily. I don’t believe in the adage that a writer must write every single day. Taking a day off each week won’t make you lose all your skills, nor does it mean you’re less dedicated.

But you must write on a regular schedule. A lot of wannabe writers think, “Oh, I don’t feel like writing today,” or “I’m just not feeling inspired,” so they don’t write. Guess what? If you’re serious about being published, you have to write even when you don’t feel like it or even when you’re not feeling creative. You have to treat your writing with the same seriousness you would a job.

In addition to writing regularly, you also have to read. Read the genres you like to write in, so you’ll what’s out there and what’s been done to death. Read the genres you don’t write in, too. Take inspiration from other styles. Read nonfiction, so you’ll have a greater knowledge of the world around you.

Gettin' It Published

Once you’ve finished your book, then edited, polished, and polished it again, you’d like to get it published. First, save yourself the trouble of typing in “book publisher” into Google. Most of those that show up are scammers or vanity presses. Second, try your best to get it published, but work on something else in the meantime. First books are rarely ever publishable. The average seems to be three or four. This comes as a surprise a lot of people, but it shouldn’t. You don’t expect to be a professional baseball player just because you know how to run around the bases, so why would you think you can be a professional writer just because you know how to put words onto paper? It takes more than just writing the ideas as they come to you.

But you’re going to try anyway. If nothing else, it’ll help you get used to the inevitable rejections you’ll rack up. And unless you’re an incredible exception, you will rack up rejection letters. Even Stephen King and J.K. Rowling got rejection letters.

You’re probably best off going to agents first. There are more agents than publishers, and if you go to publishers first, you close off some avenues for your agent should you land one.

Before I discuss how to find an agent without getting scammed, I want to plug another book: The Street Smart Writer: Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World by Jenna Glatzer. This is a great, easy-to-read book with tons of information. Even if you think you know how to spot a scammer, you're bound to find something worthwhile in the book.

First, I go to AgentQuery.com and find a list of agents who represent the genre of book for which I'm querying. AgentQuery.com is a good site for weeding out scammers, but you can't depend on them exclusively.

Then I check Preditors & Editors. If P&E doesn't have any warnings about the agency, the last thing I do is check the Bewares & Backgrounds Check forum at the Absolute Write boards. There's an Index of agents and publishers to find the relevant threads. If you don't find a thread discussing a specific agency, you can start a new one if you still have questions. The B&BC forum is also great for just letting you know stuff about legitimate agencies: their response times, whether they seem to be nice overall, whether they're easy for their clients to get a hold of, etc.

As a last resort, and only if I'm not certain, I email Writer Beware with questions about the agent or agency.

Once all that is said and done, I can feel confident that the agency in question is legit and has sales under its belt. Whether they're a good fit for me is a whole different story, of course.

Be sure to follow an agency's guidelines when submitting to them.

Books On Writing

Numerous writing books exist, and most are quite good. A couple of my preferences are Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King and The Novelist’s Essential Guide To Crafting Scenes by Raymond Obstfeld.

You’ll find many more, some of which are surely excellent, but the important thing to remember is that reading how-to books on writing isn’t a substitute from actual writing itself. The best way to learn how to write is to write and read.

Writing Sites and Blogs

The largest writing-related forum on the Internet is Absolute Write. Published and unpublished writers, editors, agents, and publishers all hang out there, and the advice is more often than not spot on.

In addition to forums, you can learn a lot by reading blogs by agents, editors, and fellow writers. Everyone has their favorites, but my daily reads include the following:

101 Reasons To Stop Writing

Also, if you’ve never read it, Miss Snark’s now-defunct blog is still up. The archives contain a wealth of information for writers.