Aspiring Professional Writer Support

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So, quite a few of us have stated that we would like to write a novel or finish a book for publication in some form or other. State your project below and how far you have gotten this 2021. I'll check in once a month to keep my butt on track yours too. Accountability! Let's see how far this works.😜
 
The proposed novelist can do everything just right and still fail, it needs for the subject to be accepted by tomorrow's reader.
Things to consider:
What country will the target release country be, as spelling, grammar and descriptions can vary dramatically.
What subject will you be writing about in what country?
Is your spelling acceptable, not using capitals might be acceptable on a phone but not to a publishing company.
Is your use of tense acceptable.
Is the length of the story okay? America might accept short stories not many other countries do.
How many words are to be used for a story to be classified a novel?
As a sentence has varied in length over the last 50 years how long is a sentence now?
Does the agent you want to use read stories about the subject you have written.

Writing a tale about witchcraft and the agent deals with stories about witches - note - as the story is not about actual witches doing their craft the agent will probably refuse your work.

I can't remember how many times my stories have been refused. Ever heard of Charles Dickens? Many of his stories were refused in the beginning.
The list of reasons that a writer needs to accept why their manuscript could be refused reads like a book.
 
ILLYRIAN said:
The list of reasons that a writer needs to accept why their manuscript could be refused reads like a book.
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Ultimately publishing is a business not an art form, and a business - at that - that doesn't seem to have much faith in the buying public. They prefer to go safe. They will prefer a book from an unknown which is a blatant rip off of something already successful than something original and untested because that might not sell.

And they'd vastly prefer a celebrity name that writes utter drivel to an unknown who writes something amazing.

they put more money into marketing celebrity authors than unknowns despite the fact that if they marketed the unknowns properly they wouldn't be unknown for long ... but that isn't as quick a return on their cash.

What they care about is the sales figures - not how good the book is.

Considering just how many people are trying to get something published and proportionally how few break out and make a career of it, it does seem a bit pointless. You might as well set your ambition as 'winning X factor'.

But you never know - maybe this year will be the year I decide to actually bite the bullet and send something in. But with covid and brexit - it just doesn't seem like a time a business will be taking risks, so why bother?
 
I think the purpose of this thread has gone awry. I'm not suggesting any of us will get published this year, but what kind of writing schedule are we on? Have we even finished a manuscript? Are we at the stage of trying to submit to a literary agent or publisher? This should be more about keeping ourselves on task to finish a process, not necessarily to say "I will conquer the literary work this year!". It's great if you feel that way, but little steps, you know?

As for myself, I've set the one prospective book (I have no idea what to call the genre!) as my goal this year. So far I have an outline and exactly one chapter. Not great for three month's worth of work. Anyone else? Even if I don't finish it this year, I hope to at least have most of the manuscript done by Christmas.
 
So I have had this concept in my head for well over a decade, but I keep changing it and everytime I go to sit down and write, I feel like it is garbage, so I keep starting over. It is an endless cycle of self-doubt. I have envisioned it as a TV series, and have even outlined 8 seasons (because writers always settle with a 5-year plan, and recently teen sci-fi shows have continued well past 5 years, and the last like 3 seasons are always suck-tastic). And I have envisioned it as a book series that can be adapted later. But I just cannot sit down and write the details.
 
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Cohen said:
So I have had this concept in my head for well over a decade, but I keep changing it and everytime I go to sit down and write, I feel like it is garbage, so I keep starting over. It is an endless cycle of self-doubt. I have envisioned it as a TV series, and have even outlined 8 seasons (because writers always settle with a 5-year plan, and recently teen sci-fi shows have continued well past 5 years, and the last like 3 seasons are always suck-tastic). And I have envisioned it as a book series that can be adapted later. But I just cannot sit down and write the details.
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I've done this before. I think my time studying to be a writer in school sometimes did more harm than good, because it sort of creatively paralyzed me for a long time. I would kill ideas before they really got developed. You have no idea how many partial manuscripts I literally burned, just for this reason.

I finally got over it, though, when I realized that when I wanted to read or watch something, there wasn't anything that appealed to me, or rather, I had run out of things that appealed to me. So, I thought, why don't I just write for myself the kind of thing I would like to read? Plus, if I like these ideas, maybe someone else will too.

Just go for it. Editing can always be done later. Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.
 
Writing can be so much fun, some folk think it is a great thing to do, others try to find any excuse not to try.
Initially I thought along the lines that I wanted to say I tried when I'm on my death's bed.

I always write on a computer so I can alter a chapter from a failed attempt to be in another story. Writing on the similar subject helps.
Good on you for giving it a go.
 
I have a manuscript done but it needs a rework of one specific chapter. I too have a lot of self-doubt - in the writing world, it's called impostor syndrome. This is the belief that there are "real" writers around and when I write, I am just pretending to be one of them. But of course, maybe my writing does suck. I tend to write meaty great scenes then link them together with "connective tissue" writing and it's the connective tissue - some might call it gristle - that tends to drag things down.

The other problem is I have to start chopping chapters down since about half of mine are within ±100 words of 10,000 words. They should be less than half of that. I seriously wonder if I have enough lifespan left to get an agent and a publisher - these guys seem to take forever.

The next problem is once you have a book, you are expected to use social media for marketing and you have to be on top of SEO and the various algorithms used by booksellers like amazon. There are some publishers who will accept unagented work but one of them said they would like to see your first three chapters and your marketing plan. Isn't that what those guys are supposed to do?
 
Ethan Reigns said:
The other problem is I have to start chopping chapters down since about half of mine are within ±100 words of 10,000 words. They should be less than half of that. I seriously wonder if I have enough lifespan left to get an agent and a publisher - these guys seem to take forever.
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Ah, so you're in the Sophie's Choice phase. Is there any way you can just segment those chapters into more chapters, or is there really some serious culling to be done?

I'm not sure how old you are, but my old violin tutor didn't begin taking French seriously until she was in her upper 60s, and spent the last 30 years of her life fully bilingual, with a rich assortment of friends she made in France. She always told me you can never be too old to try anything. What's the worst that can happen? You made a hobby of trying to get published. Sounds like a good hobby to me.
 
@Ethan Reigns,
it sounds like the publisher you've got is a Vanity Press. They make the book if you follow their rules and do all the marketing for next to nothing.
A publisher (of books like you see in a book shop) does do the marketing. You can but you'll need their permission.
You think you might be too old, why worry just give it a go. In two years you might wish you had.
 
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ILLYRIAN said:
@Ethan Reigns,
it sounds like the publisher you've got is a Vanity Press. They make the book if you follow their rules and do all the marketing for next to nothing.
A publisher (of books like you see in a book shop) does do the marketing. You can but you'll need their permission.
You think you might be too old, why worry just give it a go. In two years you might wish you had.
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I donèt have a publisher right now and a vanity press or self-publishing scheme is not what I am looking for. All publishers now expect writers to assist in marketing with social media accounts, personal appearances, book signings and other marketing tasks. This used to be optional.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
There are some publishers who will accept unagented work but one of them said they would like to see your first three chapters and your marketing plan. Isn't that what those guys are supposed to do?
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First three chapters, fair enough. Marketing plan - step away, they're not a 'real' publisher and if you're going to market it it yourself you might as well self publish.

I'd send to an agent rather than a publisher though. If an agent accepts it they will sort out talking with the publishers and promoting your work and if they don't accept it then a publisher probably wouldn't either. An agent would also make suggestions to help you with the bits you're not sure about before they showed it to anyone else.
It's a pain to have an extra hoop to jump through though. Having to impress two people rather than one.
 
Do as much checking of the agent as you can as they often prefer to specialise, and many specialise in a facet of a subject.
A person may 'prefer' to read manuscripts of witchcraft, but a bit of deeper checking will direct you to that persons preferential target being of how a witch might bring about magical tendencies.

IE make sure you send the manuscript to the right person.
 
ILLYRIAN said:
IE make sure you send the manuscript to the right person.
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I found the most perfect agent - what she wrote in her 'what I'm looking for' section was pretty much a solid description of my book - it hit every detail ... she was on maternity leave.

Of course she was.

Why does the universe hate me?

I shudder to think what her slush pile will look like when she gets back - I think I stand a better chance of success if I give her time to clear the backlog before I submit my mss.
 
@Myheadsgonenumb,
send her a letter of introduction now, about yourself and what you have written. Explain that you would like her to read your manuscript and why. Being polite will mean a lot to some people and they might thank you for it.
 
Myheadsgonenumb said:
I found the most perfect agent - what she wrote in her 'what I'm looking for' section was pretty much a solid description of my book - it hit every detail ... she was on maternity leave.

Of course she was.

Why does the universe hate me?

I shudder to think what her slush pile will look like when she gets back - I think I stand a better chance of success if I give her time to clear the backlog before I submit my mss.
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At least you found someone with similar tastes to your own. My own work is likely a massive shot in the dark, and I have a difficult time imagining anyone would be seeking it out. The people who it's about won't like the genre, and the people who like the genre probably won't find the people relatable. I wish you success when she returns to work. Any chance on submitting to other agents in the meantime?
 
Myheadsgonenumb said:
I could ... but I know I won't 😂 The agent process is pretty soul destroying.
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I take it that you have tried before. I have yet to do so, but we were told constantly by our professors about the perils of trying to get published. My understanding was that it was like running a gauntlet. Isn't the very process of running it a bit exciting, though? Maybe I'm perverse, but I've always gotten a bit of a buzz out of people telling me "you can't". It just fires me up that much more. You believe in your work, don't you? I mean, you like your own work, right?
 
Moggin said:
Isn't the very process of running it a bit exciting,
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I don't know - is sending an email with an attachment to someone, waiting 8-12 weeks and then being told 'no' exciting? Over and over and over again. Or just never hearing back.

I believe in my work - I know it's good. I just also acknowledge the odds stacked against me, the competition I'm facing and the fact that in terms of likelihood, aiming to be a published writer is like aiming to be a successful actor. There are loads of great, massively talented actors who don't get work. When you hear someone wants to be an actor or a singer, you might say encouraging things but you don't really believe they'll be a big success, do you? Because you know the odds. Writing is the same.

When I was where you are - before I'd ever sent it off - I was more like you.
 
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