Your Writing Career

AKA Not that Other Author's

As many questions as there are about how to have a professional writing career, there are almost as many answers.

we three

The one constant you will find in those answers, however, is how much of that career relies on you.

It is up to you to write the novel. It is up to you to edit your drafts into a polished manuscript so it is worthy of being considered by others in the industry. It is up to you to submit to agents and/or publishers. It is up to you to respond in a professional manner to critique and feedback about your work.

It is all up to you.

There are folks out there willing to help you, like friends and family and critique groups and writing partners and books and workshops and conventions and agents and editors and publishers.

There are also folks out there who will use your dream of being published against you and take your money, like agents who charge a fee or recommend fee-charging editors and vanity presses.

It is up to you to do the research about what’s real and what’s a scam.

Your career could have these kinds of milestones

• sign an agent in six months
• debut novel ends up on the New York Times Best-seller list
• your eighth book is the one that that gets you the agent
• you have to change your name twice because of low book sales
• you self-publish, then small press publish, then get a contract with a New York publisher and also get paid for the German and UK rights for your next series

I know people who have done all of the above.

But that is their writing careers.

I have to create my own.

And so do you.

Young Doc: This reminds me of the time I attempted to reach the center of the earth. I’d be reading my favorite author, Jules Verne. I spent weeks preparing that expedition, I didn’t even get this far. Of course, I was only 12 at the time. You know, it was the writings of Jules Verne that had a profound effect on my life. It was when I was 11 that I first read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was then that I realized that I must devote my life to science.
- Back to the Future, Part III

Dec 8, 2009

Tags: career

Categories: writing