Hurdles
There are many hurdles to overcome if you want to be a writer.
If you have a story to tell and the ability to write well, then that is a good starting point. If you have the time, energy and dedication to actually put pen to paper - or finger to keyboard - then you might just make it to the foothills of publishing.
And that is as far as you've come at this point.
With your new manuscript hot off the printer, if you can get the damn thing to work, you can now join a melee consisting of hundreds of thousands of other writers, all after the same prize. The prize is to see your book on the shelves at your local bookshop and obviously for your bank account to fill up with money...
And this is where it gets discouraging. Almost gone are the days where you can send your manuscript to a publisher and cross your fingers. You could do that twenty-six years ago when I started out but now you need an agent.
Agents received hundreds of submissions and take on very few writers. Often they are working hard for their existing clients and not keen to take on new ones. It isn't necessarily the quality of your writing which is holding you up now, but a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time and other factors about which you know nothing.
Well done if you get an agent. I never managed it. They perform a valuable role as a quality control mechanism for the publishing industry, so if they take you on, then you know you can write. The next step is for them to lure a publisher for you and there is no guarantee that they will be able to do so. The top agents presumably have a better chance of doing this because they have had the luxury of being more discerning about who they take on.
Your agent finds you a publisher... truly a great day. They publish your book and you receive a copy of your work through the post. You have your book in your hand and have your photo taken to post on Twitter (at least, that's what I did) and life is good.
Now all you have to do is hope that people buy it.
And that is where the real work begins...
If you have a story to tell and the ability to write well, then that is a good starting point. If you have the time, energy and dedication to actually put pen to paper - or finger to keyboard - then you might just make it to the foothills of publishing.
And that is as far as you've come at this point.
With your new manuscript hot off the printer, if you can get the damn thing to work, you can now join a melee consisting of hundreds of thousands of other writers, all after the same prize. The prize is to see your book on the shelves at your local bookshop and obviously for your bank account to fill up with money...
And this is where it gets discouraging. Almost gone are the days where you can send your manuscript to a publisher and cross your fingers. You could do that twenty-six years ago when I started out but now you need an agent.
Agents received hundreds of submissions and take on very few writers. Often they are working hard for their existing clients and not keen to take on new ones. It isn't necessarily the quality of your writing which is holding you up now, but a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time and other factors about which you know nothing.
Well done if you get an agent. I never managed it. They perform a valuable role as a quality control mechanism for the publishing industry, so if they take you on, then you know you can write. The next step is for them to lure a publisher for you and there is no guarantee that they will be able to do so. The top agents presumably have a better chance of doing this because they have had the luxury of being more discerning about who they take on.
Your agent finds you a publisher... truly a great day. They publish your book and you receive a copy of your work through the post. You have your book in your hand and have your photo taken to post on Twitter (at least, that's what I did) and life is good.
Now all you have to do is hope that people buy it.
And that is where the real work begins...
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