m-l-rio:

Some Unsolicited Advice for Aspiring Writers:
You Are Not an Exception to the Rule

If this sounds way harsh, let me explain what I mean, and where this comes from. As an author who got a book published at a relatively young age, I get a lot of questions from young(er) writers about how that happened, and a lot of those questions seem to be searching for some kind of loophole in the normal publishing process. They want to know the shortcuts, the secrets, the path of least resistance. Here’s the truth: unless you’re a celebrity, there are no loopholes, no shortcuts, no secrets. There’s just the same process everybody else goes through, and a lot mistakes to make along the way. The biggest mistake you can make is tricking yourself into thinking that the publishing industry and the craft of writing are going to be somehow different or easier for you than they are for everyone else. 

Spoiler alert: they’re not. 

I don’t think people fall into this trap because they’re arrogant. I think they fall into this trap because they just want to be published writers so badly and it seems almost impossible when you’re looking at it from the outside. The natural inclination is to hope for a lucky break. But if you’re really serious about writing, the smarter thing to do is accept that you’re going to have to go through the same rigmarole as everybody else. I’ve talked a lot about this under the writing advice tag and the publishing tag (and I encourage you to peruse those if you’re curious about the art and the industry), but I want to answer a lot of the questions I get from aspiring authors in the same place. It probably won’t be what you want to hear, but it will (I hope) improve your odds of success. 

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Is it true that many writers don’t publish their first book?

Yes. I don’t have statistics, but I would actually venture a guess that most writers don’t publish their first book, and that’s because first books usually aren’t ready for readers. Writing is an art and a craft and you can’t expect to write something brilliant the first time you pick up a pen. Your first novel will probably be garbage (mine certainly was), and years later you will be so glad you didn’t publish it, because you were simply too young and too new to the publishing game to have any idea how embarrassing it would be five years later. Most published writers I talk to wrote several books before they felt like they had one worth an agent’s/reader’s time. I wrote five. It took ten years. That’s not unusual.

Do I really need to do revisions and get beta readers?

Yes. If there is one thing I could say to all aspiring writers, it would be “Do not underestimate the importance of revision.” A first draft is never perfect (nor is the last, but that’s another conversation), even if it’s your tenth novel. Your job as a writer is not only to put a story down on paper, but to reread that story with a critical eye and rewrite it as many times as you have to until you have the best possible version. My debut novel (not my first novel) went through forty-five drafts, all told, and I did a dozen of those drafts before I even started querying. Revision is not optional. It’s essential, for everyone.

What’s the best way to get an agent’s attention?

Write something worth reading and follow the rules. Nothing makes agents angrier than writers who think the rules of the publishing industry just don’t apply to them. Don’t send letters to agents who aren’t accepting queries or aren’t looking for books in your genre. Don’t sent them pages if they didn’t ask. Don’t ambush them in an elevator at a conference when they’re not on the clock. Agents hate this kind of thing and it is a surefire way to guarantee they will not offer you representation. Don’t be obnoxious. Let your work speak for itself. 

How do I avoid getting rejected?

You can’t. Everyone who wants to publish their writing gets rejected, and you have to learn not to take it personally, because 99% of the time it isn’t personal. Agents offer to represent writers whose work they’re passionate about–and as the writer, you wouldn’t want anything less. Think of it this way: how many books have you read that you liked but wouldn’t want to read over and over again? Agents face the same dilemma when thinking about who they want to represent. Because they’re going to have to work on that book for years, they’re only going to offer to represent things they really love. And what one agent doesn’t love another one might. Variety is the spice of life. (However, if you’ve done hundreds of submissions and gotten nothing but rejections, it might be time to consider revising your query letter or your book or both.) Here’s the other thing to remember: you will continue to get rejected even after you have representation and after you’ve published your first book. Destroy the fantasy that getting an agent or a book deal means instant, uncomplicated success. You’ll still be fighting an uphill battle; you’ll just have someone on your side.

Does it really take years to get a book published? 

Absolutely. Excluding the years it takes to learn to write anything worth publishing in the first place, most books still take years to go from first draft to pub day, and that’s because you’ll be querying agents, doing revisions with your agent, submitting to editors, negotiating contracts, doing more revisions with your editor, doing more revisions with a copy editor, looking at (and often revising) cover art, helping put together a marketing plan, etc. There are also a lot of factors in a book’s release date that the author has no control over. What else is on the publisher’s list for that year, for instance, or what other big books are slated for publication. If you’re a debut author, you don’t want to be competing with Jennifer Egan. There’s no fast track, and trust me, you wouldn’t want one.

Can I make a living writing?

Don’t count on it. Most authors make a lot less than you probably think they do, and even if you get a sizable advance, that money is going to be paid out in installments over literally years, and you don’t make any royalties until your publisher makes back your advance. Many authors never make royalties at all for that reason. I’m certainly not going to see any anytime soon, and that’s on a book that’s been out a year already and even hit the bestseller list in the UK. Let me be clear: I’m not complaining about the size of my advance, because it was incredibly generous. I’m trying to illustrate how money in publishing works. Unless you’re James Patterson, sales are probably going to be disappointing and it’s probably not going to be a steady source of income. Plan on having another job.

What can I do to make this easier?

Educate yourself. There are no shortcuts in publishing, and this is one of those things you, like everybody else, have to do if you want to have any hope of success. You have to learn about the industry and learn what normal is precisely because you’re not an exception to the rule. Take writing classes and workshops and find some beta readers. Follow published writers and agents and editors online and learn the dos and don’ts of query letters, conferences, submissions, etc. Attend a publishing institute if you can. Do the research to find which agents represent the kind of stuff you write. Do the research to find out what else is out there in the world that might be comparable to what you’re writing. Learn about why you might want to hire a publicist and how to put together a decent website. Give yourself every advantage you can, not by trying to beat the system, but by learning how the system works.

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There are a dozen other questions I could include here, but I think you probably get the point by now. If you really want to make a career for yourself as a traditionally published writer, it’s going to require a lot of work, a lot of commitment, a lot of disappointment, and probably years of your life before you have anything to show for it. Are there exceptions to every rule? Of course. But odds are you probably aren’t one of them, and your chances of success will be much better if you don’t buy into that fantasy. You have to put the same time and effort in as everybody else. No loopholes, no shortcuts. 

Here’s the last thing I’ll say: Don’t rush yourself. The 21st century has fostered a culture of overachieving which has led people to believe they need to have six college classes under their belt by the time they finish high school and have their whole life figured out by the time they’re old enough to rent a car. Writing simply does not work that way. Writing requires a glacial sort of patience. And yes, it can be devastating to have to wait so long and work so hard to even get a shot at something you want so badly. Believe me, I get it. Writing is hard. But if you’re doing it for the right reason–which is that you have stories you desperately want to share with the world but not until they’re good enough that you can be really proud of them–all that waiting and all that frustration and all that disappointment will be worth it, and you will not want to go looking for loopholes.