by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
My son is a rising sophomore in high school. I’ve heard from several friends with older kids that it might be smart for my son and I to get an early start researching colleges.
I started looking up information on college admissions. I realized that there’s an overwhelming amount of information out there. In fact, there’s so much information that it’s hard to know where to start looking. Not only is there information on various schools, but there are tips for activities to get involved in that look good on admissions forms, college interview tips, essay tips, and a tremendous amount of info on grants and scholarships.
My head started spinning.
I reminded myself that we have plenty of time to figure this stuff out and that’s the whole reason we’re starting early. There’s no magic pill to take to immediately know all there is to know about the college admission process. We’re just gradually going to need to absorb it.
This is remarkably like the process of finding out about publishing. Yes, there’s a lot of information. There might be too much information.
I’ve recently had two different new writers contact me about publishing. They were both local writers and just starting out. They asked me to bring them into the loop when it came to information about pursuing publishing.
I’m always happy to help out new writers. I had helpful writers point me in the right direction when I was the one asking a lot of questions. (And boy, has the publishing landscape changed since I started investigating it in the early 00s.)
It’s very hard to know how to advise new writers. I think it’s necessary to know a lot about where they are right now. Do they have a finished manuscript? Have they been working with a critique group? Have they been reading writing or publishing blogs? What do they know? How long have they been serious about writing? Is it a lifelong dream for them to be on a bookstore shelf or will they consider other options?
When I’ve mentioned self-publishing as an option in the recent past, new writers have almost seemed rebuffed by my suggestion. As if I somehow thought their work wasn’t of good enough quality to submit to New York publishers.
That wasn’t the case at all—it was more that I wanted to encourage them to find out more about a viable option for their books that might even enable them to reach the audience they’re looking for.
What I think is one of the most important traits for writers interested in publishing (either traditional or self-publishing), is patience. We need to have patience with ourselves to fully learn and explore our options and patience with our story—the patience necessary to rework or revise it to make sure it’s ready for readers. And we need patience to learn our options and the current state of the industry. We need patience in order to develop our craft.
It can be nice, however, to at least have a starting point for our research (I’m finding one for the college search.) As a starting point for learning about publishing, I recommend industry expert Jane Friedman’s post—it’s sort of a beginner’s guide to publishing: Wanting to have your book published? A beginner’s guide.
How are you approaching gathering information on the industry and the writing craft? Any other traits that could be helpful for new writers?
Image: By English106
I commiserate with the college extravaganza. The whole thing is kinda crazy, how far some suggest you go to ‘prepare’ and ‘look good’.
I’m pretty ‘new’ myself in that I finished my first full manuscript last year. Before that I’d been in college and too busy to look much into the publishing industry (or do much writing besides academic), but now that I’m out, I’ve found blogs by writers and agents to be very useful to catch up on the fantasy genre and how the business functions.
Given the vast uncertainty with the ‘Direction of Publishing’, it’s been useful to read a wide variety of thoughtful opinions on different options: whether self publishing, or indie, or smaller presses or the large ones.
Elizabeth – No doubt about it at all! Patience is a critical trait, and I actually think it’s important whether one’s a new author or a veteran. I think another trait new writers need to have is flexibility. There are a lot of ways now to pursue writing and a lot of ways to get one’s work published. It’s important to be open to all the different alternatives until one finds the one that works best for one’s particular. I love your analogy, too, to the search for the right college!
People underestimate how daunting it can be to be given a range of options and complete freedom to choose. Sometimes it’s better to present a more limited selection just to gauge initial interest and see how they respond.
One of our blogging buddies is about to publish a how to about writing and publishing, so perhaps that will help beginning writers.
Karen
I’d never dreamed about becoming a writer. I started writing rather late in life (as an established card-carrying AARP member), and thought it was fun. My crit group insisted I start submitting to agents–and even that relatively short time ago, that was the only way to get published.
I agree wholeheartedly that patience is essential–patience to enure you have the best possible product. Just because you can publish a book yourself now doesn’t mean your book is ready to be published.
Linds–Oh, it’s a little crazy, isn’t it? Very different from when I was in the admissions process–if you had a good SAT score, good grades, and a nice essay, you were pretty much ‘in.’ Very different now!
There’s just so much info, isn’t it? I do like the industry-related blogs that give thoughtful discussions about both types of publishing. Right now, I think it’s hard to go wrong with either option. But we have to stay current with the publishing news, too…it’s changing.
Paul–You’re right. I think it’s tough for us because we know *so* many options that it’s hard to narrow it down to a few for a new writer to absorb.
Margot–Flexibility! Another key trait. We need to be flexible with our writing schedule and adapt it to the changing demands of a day. We need to be flexible when considering options to traditional publishing (if they might get our book in the hands of more readers.)
Patience and set realistic goals!
I wonder if it might be wise to mention that other publishers, besides New York publishers, exist. Small presses abound and perhaps that might be a better place to begin if a new writer wants a publisher.
Alex–Realistic goals! Yes, that’s really key, too. Otherwise, it’s so easy to get discouraged.
Susan–Good point. One I should have thought of, since I started out with a smaller press, myself.
Karen–Diane Wolfe’s book? I’m looking forward to it! That will be a great guide. :)
There really is an awful lot of information out there – an intimidating amount. When I first started writing, I stumbled onto Agent Query and its forum Agent Query Connect. It’s a fabulous site!
The top advice I have for new writers is not always easy to accept. My advice is write and edit. Finish a manuscript, then set it aside and write another. Put some time between you and your work, then go back and read it again.
As to college, Elizabeth, about the best you can do at this stage is narrow down the possibilities. Your son may have ideas or he may have aspirations, like playing football or researching the microcosms of the stink beetle. Those kinds of things will narrow down the search. For our daughter, the deciding factor was visiting campuses. She didn’t really care which ones my husband loved. She chose the one that she loved.
There is such an avalanche of information out there, and not all of it is accurate.
My advice – do your research first. Worst thing in the world is writing a whole manuscript and then not having a clue what to do with it. Often writers end up doing all the wrong things before they figure it out.
Terry–Agents were *the* way to go, even in 2009-2012. Funny how fast it’s changed. You had a great crit group! Nice to have so much support.
Helen–I love your tips for finishing a manuscript and writing another one! Otherwise, we end up with only child syndrome for our book when we really need to be working on another and improving our skills.
Good tips for the college search! We’ll start thinking about what he really enjoys doing and maybe it will help point us in the right direction.
Diane–Research is key. I think back on my first queries and wince…
Jemi–You’re right! A fantastic site and nice community of writers there.
The three Ps:
Patience, Persistence and Postage. (Nowadays, the postage part is more symbolic….)
It’s really hard to know what to tell newbies these days. There are SO many options. Your advice is good — I’ll just rephrase it my own way:
Patience.
Learn your craft.
Remember that it will take a long time, so you don’t have to do anything until you feel comfortable with it.
And feel free to experiment and make mistakes.
Excellent post! Patience is key with any foray into the world of the arts. Patience while you suss out grants and residencies and how to get published. Patience while you send out your work and hope someone will like it. Patience when someone likes it but needs changes. All along the path. I’m heading over to the site you put a link to – looks wonderful!
This blog is perfect timing! Finally, after saying I want to write a book, I’m going to see success! It’s only taken 40 years of preparing and two years of writing. But it’s almost there. Thanks for your advice! One point on college, my daughter signed up for engineering, but when we went to college day at Auburn, she wanted to change to Business Administration, but I persuaded her to stick with engineering, big mistake, even though she is good with riddles, quick calculations and can draw fantastically, the advanced math that she needed to study wasn’t her cup of tea. She quit and even though she’s a project manager for a construction company, which is what she wanted, she and her husband also just started their own business and she so needs that business degree! I wish I had known about changing majors and that the first two years were mainly about the basic courses, English, etc.
Camille–Good tip about experimenting and failing, too! I’ve done plenty of that with my writing and it’s helped me to improve.
Jan–Jane’s site is a great resource for writers–all kinds of info there! She’s been involved with the industry on many different levels.
Judy-Congratulations! I know you’ve been working on it for a while. You must feel so great to be on the home stretch!!
Good tip about the majors. And one that I needed to hear! I was one of those people who was a born English major, since that’s all I can do. But my son is good at lots of things, which makes it confusing. Good to know about changing majors!
What a perfect analogy! My son is also about to begin his sophomore year, and like you said, the amount of information out there is boggling. And you’re right…same with writing. I sometimes have to turn off the “searching for information” part of me and just sit down and wring the darn thing.