If you really want to be an author, then you need to be prepared to spend many hours of your day trying to come up with original and interested ideas. You may have to wake up before dawn before starting your "real" job. You may need to jot down your ideas while you are traveling by train home. Some of these hours will be frustrating, but others will reward you more than you can imagine. And the feeling of writing a book and sending it out into the world is certainly one of the most beautiful. Think you have what it takes to be an author? Follow these steps and find out.
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Developing Your Writing Skills
Step 1. Read as much as you can
This may not be what you want to hear when you hear about how exciting it is to be an author, but reading will be the key to your success. Reading everything you can will not only help you develop your writing skills, it will give you more ideas on how to shape your work, it will help you develop the patience needed to write a book all by yourself, but it will also give you an idea. what it sells on the market. Keep a couple of hours a day to read as many books as you can, and try to read as many genres as you can.
- If you already have an idea of the genre that you want to write, whether it is science fiction or non-fiction, you should focus on reading books of that genre. However, to improve your reading anyway, you should read as much as possible as soon as you can.
- The more you read, the more you will become able to recognize the most common clichés. You definitely want your book to stand out from the crowd, so if you find ten books that look a lot like it, maybe you need to look for a different perspective.
- When you find a book you really like, ask yourself what makes it so special to you. Maybe because the protagonist is ridiculous? The beautiful prose? A sense of space? The more you can find because it is an interesting book, the sharper you will be when trying to make readers like your book.
Step 2. Start small
If you want to be an author, then chances are you will have to start by publishing a complete non-fiction work or a novel. It is very difficult to sell a collection of short stories or essays as a first job. That said, it's also hard to jump headlong into a novel or a complete non-fiction work. So, if fiction is your industry, try writing a few short stories first in order to master it. If fiction isn't your thing, try writing a short essay before trying your hand at a longer job.
This is not to say that short stories are inferior to novels. Alice Munro, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, has never published a novel in the course of her illustrious career. However, it is also true that nowadays it is more difficult to earn a reputation by writing short stories
Step 3. Consider the idea of a writing degree
If you want to publish a work of literary or non-fiction fiction, the typical route to take is to take a master's degree or postgraduate degree in fiction or non-fiction. If you want to write something more commercial, like science fiction or a romance novel, then this path is not that necessary, although it could still help. A creative writing degree can introduce you to the life of a writer, place you in a community of other writers like you who will give you important opinions, as well as give you two or three years to focus on your work.
- Many successful writers who publish books find work as teachers in postgraduate degree courses or undergraduate writing programs. To do this, you will need a degree in creative writing, so if this is your ultimate goal, consider graduating.
- Getting a degree in creative writing can also help you open up your network of connections. You will meet faculty members who can help you publish your work or develop as a writer in other senses.
- Graduating is not a path that leads directly to success as a writer. But it can help you develop your art in a meaningful way.
Step 4. Ask for advice
If you have chosen to enroll in a writing course, you will need to spend most of your time writing for workshops, in which you will receive a great deal of feedback from your peers. You will also need to work independently with faculty council members and receive individual feedback from them. But if you're not going to go this route, then you could join a writing group in your community, attend a college or adult school writing workshop, or just ask a few trusted friends to review yours. work.
- While feedback should always be taken with a grain of salt, it will give you a greater understanding of where you are with your work.
- Getting feedback will help you figure out if your work is ready for publication, or if you still need to work on it. You have to make sure you ask the right readers - people who really understand your work and know what it is all about.
Step 5. Start submitting your work to small publishing houses
If you have short stories or essays that you think are ready to be published, then you should try submitting them to literature magazines or magazines that publish works of your genre, such as journals specializing in historical fiction or romance. All you have to do is check that the manuscript is in order and send a short cover letter to the editor of the magazine; after that, you'll just have to wait.
- This will be the first time you've exposed yourself to something all writers have in common: a lot of negative responses. Try not to take it personally and consider it a way to cut your skin.
- Some magazines charge a 2-3 € fee to submit your work. It's not the best, but it doesn't mean the magazine is trying to scam you; very often they have a very tight budget.
Part 2 of 4: Writing a Book
Step 1. Generate an original idea
The first thing you need to do is come up with an idea that people will find intriguing and exciting. You may have to start writing even before you find the right idea - you may even write 300 pages before you understand what your book is really about. Anyway, start with a general premise - the story of a girl growing up in Ukraine during the Bolshevik Revolution, a non-fiction work that talks about the growing importance of grant-aided private schools in America - and see where you can go.
You may want to completely complete your book before you even think about whether it is actually marketable. In any case, it may be helpful to do market research related to your topic before starting. You may find that there is already a book on the market on the same subject that you would like to cover and that you should therefore slightly modify your idea
Step 2. Choose a genre
Although multi-genre books are becoming more and more popular - like Margaret Atwood's rom-coms, which combine literary fiction and science fiction, it may be more useful to choose a single genre to work on to better communicate your ideas. Once you understand what your gender is, you should learn to understand what the conventions are within that genre, and start thinking about how you want these conventions to be spelled out, or if you want to stick to the rules. Here are some popular genres you should consider:
- Non-fiction
- Science-fiction
- Micro-stories
- Action stories
- Horror stories
- Tales of Mystery
- Romance novels
- Adventure tales
- Fantasy tales
- Political fiction
- "55 fiction" (a genre of fiction in which the stories have a maximum of 55 words)
- Fiction for children +12 years
- Fiction for children 8-12 years old
Step 3. The basics of writing a book
This can be something you do as you go along with your writing, or you can study the basics before you start writing. Here are some points you will need to consider as you write your book:
- Who: the protagonist and / or co-star, the antagonist.
- Point of view: Will your book be written in first, second or third person?
- Where: the choice of the place and the historical period of your work, if the protagonists will travel through history.
- What: the main idea or the plot.
- Why: what the characters want / hope to achieve.
- How: how they will get it.
Step 4. Write a draft
In her classic book about writing, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes about the importance of the "terrible first draft". And that's exactly what you're going to have to write: a truly awful, embarrassing, confusing piece that will contain the gist of the final draft you will one day write about. You don't have to have someone read the first draft, but the important part will be knowing that you have achieved something. Write without self-censoring or worrying about what people will think. this is the time to jot down your ideas; you can refine them later.
After your first rough draft, keep writing. If you're lucky, you may have something presentable after the first or second draft, or you may have to write five drafts before you really make it. This can take you several months, a year, or even years, depending on how much time you have and how long you need to develop your project
Step 5. Ask for feedback when you feel ready
Getting feedback too early can repress your creativity and make you think you're not getting your work done in the right direction. But once you've written enough drafts of your book and are serious about publishing it, it's important to get some feedback to know where you're headed. Ask some trusted friend who is also a critical and helpful reader, turn it into a writing workshop, or ask an expert on the subject to take a look if you are writing something non-fiction.
- If you've written a novel, you can try sending a few chapters to publishing houses for feedback.
- Once you've gotten some feedback you can trust, work on putting it into practice. You may have to write another draft or two before taking the right path.
Step 6. Review your work
You won't get very far if there is a spelling mistake on the first page of your book. Once your work is really ready, you should print and reread it for any spelling errors, grammar errors, repetitive wording, or any other errors that you will need to eliminate from the book before submitting it. You may have to read your work aloud to see if the sentences go smoothly or if the commas are in the right place.
Revision is the final step in getting your novel ready for publication. Although it is useful to revise during the writing phase, there is no reason to revise the drafts too much because the sentences are not yet in their final draft
Part 3 of 4: Publish the Book
Step 1. Consider the path you want to take
There are three main routes you can take once you feel like you have a book ready to be released. They are:
- The traditional way. This includes sending your book to an agent, who will send it to the publishers. Most people will tell you that an agent is required for your work to be published by a publishing house.
- Submit your work directly to the publisher. You can renounce the agent and go directly to the publishing house (to those that still lend themselves to reading unpublished manuscripts). But without an agent, this is very, very difficult.
- Auto-publish your book. Self-publishing your book will get it out into the world, but the book is unlikely to get the attention you were looking for when you wanted to live an author's life. But if your goal is simply to get your job out, then that's a great option. There are online services through which you can self-publish, you can pay to have your work published or do it completely yourself.
Step 2. Prepare your manuscript for submission
Whether you want to submit your book manuscript to a publishing house or a fiction agent, there are some basic conventions you should follow. Your manuscript must be double-spaced, in a readable font such as Times New Roman, have a suitable cover and numbered pages with your surname and title of the work.
You can also do an internet search to find more information on how to structure your manuscript. If you are submitting it directly to a publishing house, be aware that each of them may have slightly different instructions on how your manuscript should look
Step 3. Submit your work to an agent
Don't blindly send it to any agent who is willing to read unedited submissions. Use a guide for writers and poets, or do some research on the internet to find agents who are actively seeking new customers, who are open and enthusiastic about reading something you have written about, and who have a reputation for actually responding to the material you submit. The biggest hit you can do is look for an agent who accepts multiple jobs simultaneously, so that you can send your book to 5 or 6 agents all at once instead of waiting for a six-month response from a "luxury" agent who he will never answer you.
- To send your work to an agent, you will need to write a letter of request, i.e. a very summary cover letter that briefly describes the plot of your book, that places your book in the market frame and that spends a few words about yours. biographical information.
- Check each agent's submission guidelines. Some may want to see only the request letter or may ask you to view the first two chapters only.
- Do not send your manuscript to 20 agents at the same time. It may happen that you get the same feedback over and over, which could help make your job more interesting to agents. If an agent rejects you, you won't be able to resend the same book to him unless he asks you to review it, so take advantage of all possibilities.
- The key word in this game is patience. It could take months for an agent to show up, so you'll have to learn the art of waiting and avoid checking your e-mail every three seconds if you don't want to go crazy.
Step 4. Sign a contract with an agent
Wow! An agent wrote to you that he fell in love with your book and wants you to sign a contract with him. Would you sign a contract as soon as possible? Absolutely not. You talk to the agent, ask a lot of questions, discuss his view of the book, and make sure he has the right and intention to sell your work. A legitimate agent never asks for money upfront and will only receive a percentage of the profit if they are able to sell your book.
- If an agent makes you an offer, it is a good idea to let the other agents you send your manuscript to know to see if anyone else has an offer to make you. You'll be surprised to see how quickly they'll get back to you once they know someone else really wants you.
- Talk to the agent on the phone, or meet him in person, if geographically possible. It will help you get an idea of his personality, to understand if there is an understanding between you two or not.
- You and your agent don't have to be best friends, but you do need to be able to share ideas.
- Your agent should be at least a little aggressive. This is the trait that will most help you get your book sold.
- Your agent should also be well connected and should have a record of important sales so they know exactly who to send your book to.
Step 5. Make a deal with a publisher
Once you have signed the contract with the right agent, you will have to work hard, sometimes for a year or two, to review the novel, until the agent tells you that it is ready for sale. Then you will have to prepare a package and the agent will take the book to the publishers of different publishing houses, and hopefully you will get an offer from at least one of them. Sit back and wait for this stressful process to be concluded, and hopefully you will hear about the sale!
If you get more offers, you and your agent will have to decide which is the best one
Step 6. Work with the publisher at the publishing house
Perfect, you signed a contract with a publisher in a publishing house! Get ready to see your book in bookstores next week… NO. Guess what's in store for you? Still other reviews. The publisher will have a vision of how the book should be, and you will also have to work on revisions of very small details. This process will take you a little longer, usually at least a year from when your book is sold to when it comes out in the bookstore.
There will be other details to be defined, such as the cover, the advertising strip on the back of the book, and the people to be included in the awards at the beginning or at the end of the book
Step 7. View your published book
Once you have worked with the publisher and your book is deemed ready, you will see your work for sale in stores. You will be notified of the publication date, and it is likely that you will count the days between you and the day your book hits Amazon's virtual stores and shelves! But your work has only just begun.
Part 4 of 4: Living the Author's Life
Step 1. Don't quit your day job
Unless you've written a best-seller, your book sales are unlikely to allow you to buy a villa and a Ferrari. Maybe you can get some money, and the chance to take a little break from your real job. However, you need to be ready to keep your daily job, or find a part-time job, or consider the option of getting a job as a creative writing teacher if you have a degree and your book is successful enough.
- If you really want to fully live the author's life, the most common way is to teach creative writing. But these jobs are hard to find, and the book you have published must be truly outstanding.
- You can also teach in different summer workshops. If you have the opportunity to create such events, they will give you some extra cash and the chance to travel to very beautiful places.
Step 2. Maintain an internet presence
If you want to be a true author nowadays, you will need to be able to maintain a virtual presence as well. Even if you're not a tech savvy, you need to learn how to advertise online and develop your virtual identity. Create a Facebook page dedicated to you; use your Facebook profile to promote your book. Create a Twitter account and tweet events related to your book. Make sure you have a website that is well maintained and that all your online profiles are linked to it.
- Start a blog about the life of a writer and update it as often as you can. Keep the news fresh so people keep reading.
- Don't feel guilty about brazenly promoting yourself. Even if you have an advertising agent, your job from now on will be 50% writing and 50% promoting yourself as a writer. Get used to this.
Step 3. Join a reading circuit
If you have an advertising agent and your book is successful, then you will most likely have a number of commitments related to reading your book. You will probably have to travel far and wide and read excerpts from your book, autograph copies, and promote the book to your readers. You may need to read in small bookstores or large chains. This will be a great opportunity to meet new people, make connections, and get people to buy your book.
Promote your events on social networks so people know where they can find you
Step 4. Create a network in the community of writers
A writer is not an island. Be sure to attend other writers' reading events, join discussion committees or agree to participate as a jury if you are invited to do so, stay in touch with writers in your area, and generally let everyone know where you are. Meet other authors at writer's retreats, writing workshops, or in the institution you belong to (if you belong to any institution).
Make friends with writers in your field and genre. They can help you get on with work
Step 5. Start working on your second book… and then the next one
You've published a book and are touring - perfect. But this does not mean that you can rest on your laurels, consider yourself okay for a long time, or celebrate your success for months. In fact, when you sell the first book, you can also already speak with the publisher about the second book you are already writing, or you may have to present your second book to another agent as soon as possible if you have not already done so. The writer's work never ends, and if you really want to be an author, then you must always keep the next book in mind.
Don't worry if you still don't have a clear idea for the second book. Set yourself the goal of writing every day and as soon as possible, an idea will present itself
Advice
- If you have a block on where to start, read a book and see what kind of words a professional author uses. Take note of punctuation, paragraphs, descriptions.
- Don't give up in the middle of a story. Something very beautiful could turn out!
- If it can help you, why not draw the characters to get a better idea of how to describe them? You could do the same thing for places.
- Write a little story about the book you are about to write.
