Quote:
Originally Posted by Fletch XXX
Thanks for your reply. And congrats, I admire people who do things like writing and art, despite it not paying the bills most of the time.
I appreciate any advice someone who has been published can give me, yes.
I've never written with the goal of being published or paid, as I've mentioned, I just fill up notebooks. I have done so for most of my life. But over the past few years I have thought about trying to get things published vs self publish etc... not even sure how agents work with writing. Do they get a cut or do you pay them up front?
Whether it was poetry, short stories, or songs - I just like to write. As I look over at boxes of notebooks, it only makes sense to try and get others to read some of it and publish some of the words Ive written before I die. Everytime I try to find places to submit short stories to I get frustrated LOL
As I have gotten older I am much more focused now, so to sum it up, sure, I'd appreciate any advice you have for someone like me... I do not write with the intent of becoming the next Stephen King, I just like putting words together and invoking emotion and using my wild life as a means to relate my experience on this planet to other lost souls via sentences.
Reading and writing is just what I like to do, I dont care if it ever pays the bills.
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Okay, here is where the long reply comes in
I guess my advice would be to first choose a direction. I really don't know much about poetry or songwriting markets. Short stories are kind of a hit and miss kind of thing depending on what genre you write in. More and more it is harder to sell short stories. Magazines are having such a hard time competing with online stuff that they often now only feature short stories by known authors. That isn't to say you still can't publish with a smaller magazine and there is nothing wrong with writing a short story just to get it out of your system. Because of this, I personally would choose to write a book, but if you know about these other markets you might move in that direction.
Once you have chosen a direction I would suggest finding something from your work and focusing hard on it. If you have a ton of notebooks you probably have a lot of ideas. some of those will be better than others. I would pick something you feel passionate about and that you think other people will find interesting. Ignore everything else you are writing and just focus on finishing that one piece. Once you are done, put it in a drawer for at least a few weeks and get some distance from it then go back and read it with a very critical eye and make changes. Rewrite it at least a few times and make it as good as you possibly can. If you have friends who you know will be 100% honest with you and not just tell you what they think you want to hear let them read it and take their feedback to heart.
Eventually, you will have a finished product. If it is fiction, I would suggest now trying to get an agent. There are some great books you can buy that will help you with this. Do a search for "literary agents" in amazon and you will see them. These books will give you some good ideas on how to approach and agent and some of them even give a good listing of agencies and tell you what they are looking for. Another route is to go to writers workshops in your area and have people there read your work. You never know who you are going to meet there and who they might know. I have heard a lot of stories of people getting agents this way.
When you do submit to an agent and they reject you (and this will happen) take their criticism to heart. It isn't personal. If they give you some kind of advice really listen to them and see if you can apply it to your work. If you have 10 different agents reject you and tell you that your book needs to be edited, maybe you need to find a freelance editor to help you. If you have 10 agents all tell you that your ending sucks, maybe it does. You may choose to keep it, if you strongly believe in it, but maybe it is worth looking into.
The most important thing you can do when trying to get an agent is try to stand out and then deliver. What I mean is you need to write a cover letter that makes it seem like your book is the next big thing. Your book is the best thing they will read all year. Then you have to deliver. If you hype yourself up, then the first 10 pages of your book is boring as hell and filled with typos, they are going to shrug you off. Don't write your letter by saying: My book is the next big thing. Everyone does that. Come up with a 1 paragraph summery that blows them away. Imagine it like it was written on the back of the book. If you picked a book up and this is the summery printed on the back, you would buy the book.
Another thing about agents. You will find some agents wanting to charge a fee to read your book. I personally would avoid them. If they are real agents they are looking for clients to represent who have books they think they can sell. They are interested in finding long term clients, not just making a few dollars from a reading fee. So I would steer clear of them. Also, some of them will offer to edit the book for you for a fee. These can be legit services, but can also be expensive. I would steer clear of those too. If you think you need an editor I would try to find a local writers workshop and see if anyone there has suggestions on people they have used. Many of these editing companies agents will suggest are actually owned by the agency. They don't really care about improving your book so much as they do cashing your check.
Anyway, I'm taking up way too much space here
In summery.
1. finish the book and make it as good as you possibly can.
2. get feedback if possible.
3. use resource books and other people to locate agents.
4. listen to agents when they reject you.
5. try to stick with agents that don't want to charge you anything an who seem to have your best interests in mind.
6. have fun.
Hope this helps some.