Writer Question – How Do You Get Published?

Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars. ~Nicholas Sparks

Not long ago, I asked what questions you would like to ask me or perhaps any writer. I answered Lavon’s question about Hobbies, Ideas and Inspiration a week or so ago. You can click on the link if you missed it and want to know how I answered. A few others also asked a question or two and I’ll get to all of them eventually. Tonight I’m talking about Susan’s question although answering it might be more than I can do successfully.

How do you go about getting published?

For aspiring writers that can be the million dollar question. Or the ten cent question. Whatever you pay, you might get a dozen different answers. I’m not the best writer to try to answer that question for writers working toward publication in this day and age. I certainly was as mystified by how to go about getting published when I was a wanna-be published writer many years ago as any beginning writer. I say published writer because I was already a writer scribbling or typing words to make stories.

I was very young at the time with two babies. My son was only twenty months old when I had his little sister. That can keep a mama hopping. But I was still intent on finding time to write.

Find time to write.

That’s the first thing a writer must do to go about getting published. Thinking about writing doesn’t get it done. Wanting to write doesn’t get it done. A person has to sit down in front of a keyboard or with a notebook and pen and write that story or novel. I started out writing short pieces. My first published stories were personal experience pieces about being a mother that were published in church affiliated magazines or other special interest publications. By then, I’d done plenty of practice writing and I had another baby. To keep me focused on making that time to write, I started keeping a writing journal of how much time I spent writing each week and what stories I had written. I set goals for myself. I also took a correspondence course to help me become a better writer. Way back then, everything was done by mail. That pre-dated computers on every writer’s desk. I wrote on a manual typewriter and was thrilled when I was able to buy a typewriter that had a correction tape some years later. I often wrote at the kitchen table while the older kids played nearby and the baby was in one of those baby seats, the kind that would be banned by the safety people these days, on the table beside my typewriter. Luckily, I never bounced him off the table and he must have liked napping to the sound of a typewriter clacking away.

Eventually, I had an assignment to write an outline for a novel, and since I detest writing outlines, I wrote the novel instead. I knew, at once, that novel writing was what I wanted to do. So we come to another important step on the road to publication.

Discover what you want to write and in what genre.

After I wrote that first novel, I’ve written very few short pieces since. That is, if you don’t count blog posts, but those are like writing letters to friends. Blogging can be practice putting words together, but not coming up with story ideas and inventing characters. But if you are serious about being published, you need to discover what you are best at doing or like doing the most. You also need to be realistic about the market and what has the best chance to be published. I wrote two novels before the third novel I wrote was published way back in 1978. So how did I find out about publishing and know what to do to have the chance of being published?

Steps toward seeing your work published.

Here is where I’m not much help to a current writer. Back when I finished that very first book and wondered how to get it published, I had to depend on research in my local library to find out what next. I found writing books that helped answer the questions I had. I found a book with agents listed and picked a likely one to contact. I read advice articles on how to write queries. All that can be found on the internet these days with lots more help than I could have found back then. You could spend weeks or months reading all the advice out there for new writers or old writers now. If you have a question, just type it into Google and most of the time, hundreds of answers will pop up. There are many writers organizations online. You can find one that matches what you want to write. If you are writing a novel, you generally need to have it written in entirety before you seek a publisher when you are a new writer.

Traditional publishing or independent publishing – which is best for you?

I am mostly traditionally published with thirty-five plus books published by various publishers. My twenty-two Christian novels are published by Revell Books. I have self-published two titles – one a non-fiction life story of a friend, Angels at the Crossroads, and the other a fiction book for middle readers, Freak of the Week. So I have limited experience about independent or self-publishing. You can find plenty about self-publishing online, but I would advise you to be careful as some of the companies charge what I consider exorbitant fees. Publishing with a traditional publisher can be a more difficult path since the competition at publishing companies is intense and they only put out so many new books a year. That’s not to say you can’t do it. New writers get published every year.

Things you can do to improve your writing and your chances to be published traditionally.

While this wasn’t something that I did, it is a path many writers I know have taken to successful publishing and that is go to writers’ conferences or take online courses in writing to learn more about publishing. Also, many agencies have blogs where they share advice on how to make your writing shine and how to find publishing opportunities. You can also find other writers to be critique partners or hire freelance editors to improve your final product.

Read.

Reading is so important in making a writer better. It’s a good way to learn more about what makes a book successful too. It can be helpful to check out books online or in bookstores to see what is being published and to get more familiar with popular genres.

Write what’s in your heart.

While it is good to think about market trends, the fact is most books take at least a year from acceptance at a publishing house to being available for readers. By the time you note a trend, write a book, find a publisher, get published, that popular trend may have fallen out of favor. After I went through several years of rejections, I decided to stop worrying about markets and simply write a book I wanted to write. That turned out well for me with Scent of Lilacs finding a home with Revell Books.

Persevere.

Believe in yourself and keep writing. Love each story you write, but don’t love it so much that you can’t move on to write another story. More characters will spring to life in your imagination and with each story you write, you can hope your writing will improve. I know I’m a much better writer now than when I wrote that first book years ago. By the way, it never got published. If I had pinned all my hopes of being a published writer on it, I would have never seen one of my stories in print.

We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. ~Ira Glass

I know this might not have answered your question the way you hoped, Susan, but unfortunately, I don’t have a magic string to pull that will open up the publishing world to you like that string on the top of some bags of bird seed or dog food. Besides, I have to admit that I’m the world’s worst at finding the right string to open those bags anyway. Most of the time I have to get scissors to open the bags. Your perseverance is your scissors to find a way to open up the world of publishing to you.

Have you ever thought about writing a book or perhaps you are already a writer? If so, what advice would you add to answer Susan’s question? 

If you are only a dedicated reader, do you have other questions you would like me to answer or at least try to answer?