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It's All Just A Draft
How much does the average author make? How long should my book be? Should I outline my book? New York Times Bestselling author and World Fantasy Award winner Tobias Buckell started blogging about his path to becoming a writer in 1998. His website and frequent talks to writing workshops and universities contained snippets about his daily life, thoughts, and lots of tips about writing as he learned them. He set out to collect all these articles, posts, and speeches into a bundle he could give to people writing to him for advice. When he mentioned he was doing that, people suggested he turn it into a book, and here it is. Inside you’ll find out the average advance a science fiction author gets, how many books it takes to break in based on survey of 150 other writers, and find out how Tobias broke into a career in writing. He talks about career, burnout, short stories, novels, craft tricks, and more.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
244 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2019
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Tobias S. Buckell
216 books463 followersBorn in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 29, 2019
I haven't read any of Tobias Buckell's fiction, but I was vaguely familiar with him, and I read lots of books about writing by writers, hoping to be a writer, so I backed this on Kickstarter and read it over a few weeks on my phone when the first draft arrived.
This is a more personal book than a lot of writers' advice books. Buckell doesn't cover ground covered adequately in a hundred other books, like the basics of plotting, characterization, proofreading, etc. In that way, this book was refreshing for not being repetitive, and although Buckell is a science fiction author, very little of his advice and commentary is specific to a genre.
He talks a lot about growing up in the Caribbean, being a young kid with writing dreams and not much money, even making his way to Clarion literally without lunch money. How his career has gone, from the usual writer-with-day-job to the moment he was laid off and decided to make the big move to full-time writing, supplementing his income with freelance gigs.
He's been successful, but not blazingly successful - he has made a living, but he's not a Big Name, and he's pretty honest about how this has gotten him down a time or two, knowing that for every passionate fan, he has a hundred readers who consider him "just okay." He's never made the big money that will let him stop worrying about when the next royalty check will come in, but he tackles this head-on with advice for wannabe writers about treating their writing like the business it is.
It's All Just a Draft is more a book about being a writer than a book about writing. So for me, it was interesting but not terribly useful. I've resigned myself to never being a pro writer - even if I get published, I won't be giving up my day job. Barring wildly improbable wild success, the life of a full-time writer/freelancer is not in the cards for me. So I read this book much like a memoir, seeing a glimpse of a life I might have had if I'd taken a different path. For someone who wants to know how to "break in," or how to get that draft written in the first place, Buckell does talk about writing speed, about time management, about agents and submissions and how much writers actually get paid (first-time book advances, deals for series, royalties, etc.) He's gathered a lot of data from fellow writers, so it's nice to see actual dollar figures. (You probably won't be surprised that for most writers, the numbers are not impressive. There are a tiny handful of JK Rowlings and GRR Martins in the world, and the rest are happy to get a $10K advance for a book that will take most of a year to write.) There are other interesting tidbits, like fantasy being generally more lucrative than science fiction.
This was a worthwhile read, but mostly because I like reading about writers. The draft I had suffered from quite a few typos, but this book was essentially self-published. Buckell talks about that, too - the shift in the industry from a time when self-publishing was only for the delusional and the hopeless, to the rise of Amazon and ebooks. But the story isn't more optimistic there, since for every self-publishing success story, you have thousands of ebooks that don't get a single review, or sale. Buckell is trade published, but he's also taken advantage of Patreon and Kickstarter, which are increasingly popular for authors who are not Big Names, but have built up an audience. Buckell is precautionary here too, noting how few of his loyal fans actually converted to paid subscribers when it was time to put their money where their mouths were. There are no easy riches in publishing.
Now, I should probably read one of his novels.
This is a more personal book than a lot of writers' advice books. Buckell doesn't cover ground covered adequately in a hundred other books, like the basics of plotting, characterization, proofreading, etc. In that way, this book was refreshing for not being repetitive, and although Buckell is a science fiction author, very little of his advice and commentary is specific to a genre.
He talks a lot about growing up in the Caribbean, being a young kid with writing dreams and not much money, even making his way to Clarion literally without lunch money. How his career has gone, from the usual writer-with-day-job to the moment he was laid off and decided to make the big move to full-time writing, supplementing his income with freelance gigs.
He's been successful, but not blazingly successful - he has made a living, but he's not a Big Name, and he's pretty honest about how this has gotten him down a time or two, knowing that for every passionate fan, he has a hundred readers who consider him "just okay." He's never made the big money that will let him stop worrying about when the next royalty check will come in, but he tackles this head-on with advice for wannabe writers about treating their writing like the business it is.
It's All Just a Draft is more a book about being a writer than a book about writing. So for me, it was interesting but not terribly useful. I've resigned myself to never being a pro writer - even if I get published, I won't be giving up my day job. Barring wildly improbable wild success, the life of a full-time writer/freelancer is not in the cards for me. So I read this book much like a memoir, seeing a glimpse of a life I might have had if I'd taken a different path. For someone who wants to know how to "break in," or how to get that draft written in the first place, Buckell does talk about writing speed, about time management, about agents and submissions and how much writers actually get paid (first-time book advances, deals for series, royalties, etc.) He's gathered a lot of data from fellow writers, so it's nice to see actual dollar figures. (You probably won't be surprised that for most writers, the numbers are not impressive. There are a tiny handful of JK Rowlings and GRR Martins in the world, and the rest are happy to get a $10K advance for a book that will take most of a year to write.) There are other interesting tidbits, like fantasy being generally more lucrative than science fiction.
This was a worthwhile read, but mostly because I like reading about writers. The draft I had suffered from quite a few typos, but this book was essentially self-published. Buckell talks about that, too - the shift in the industry from a time when self-publishing was only for the delusional and the hopeless, to the rise of Amazon and ebooks. But the story isn't more optimistic there, since for every self-publishing success story, you have thousands of ebooks that don't get a single review, or sale. Buckell is trade published, but he's also taken advantage of Patreon and Kickstarter, which are increasingly popular for authors who are not Big Names, but have built up an audience. Buckell is precautionary here too, noting how few of his loyal fans actually converted to paid subscribers when it was time to put their money where their mouths were. There are no easy riches in publishing.
Now, I should probably read one of his novels.
December 13, 2019
I bought this book when it was a Kickstarter project and I've bought other books written by Tobias Buckell, the author. In this book, he's collected a number of his thoughts and experiences on the subject of becoming a professional writer. This book is a helpful and accessible collection of useful writing advice, leavened with stories of his personal journey.
Tobias, in this book, focuses on the most important part of writing - doing what works for you. There is no one way one must write, and even the same writer will approach different stories in different ways. Tobias is both self- and traditionally-published, which make his thoughts on the business of writing especially helpful. I found this book highly readable and helpful.
Tobias, in this book, focuses on the most important part of writing - doing what works for you. There is no one way one must write, and even the same writer will approach different stories in different ways. Tobias is both self- and traditionally-published, which make his thoughts on the business of writing especially helpful. I found this book highly readable and helpful.
February 23, 2022
I’m a writer.
I’m a writer.
Sometimes I need to be reminded of this because I’m not, yet, a published science fiction author (I’ve written some things that have been performed, some things that have been non-fiction articles, even a few poems, but not, yet, published genre short fiction or books. Though I am working on a novel.
I was one of 573 backers of this book on Kickstarter and to my regret I hadn’t yet gotten around to reading it. Which was a mistake as it is an excellent book for anyone who is a writer. Whether you adopt some, all, or none of the practices suggested in this book it will almost certainly remind you of why you began writing and perhaps as it has for me inspire you to keep at it.
I’m a writer.
Sometimes I need to be reminded of this because I’m not, yet, a published science fiction author (I’ve written some things that have been performed, some things that have been non-fiction articles, even a few poems, but not, yet, published genre short fiction or books. Though I am working on a novel.
I was one of 573 backers of this book on Kickstarter and to my regret I hadn’t yet gotten around to reading it. Which was a mistake as it is an excellent book for anyone who is a writer. Whether you adopt some, all, or none of the practices suggested in this book it will almost certainly remind you of why you began writing and perhaps as it has for me inspire you to keep at it.
April 29, 2019
A very good how to on writing that approaches not just the craft but the life of the writer as well, the ups and downs, and with focus on specific techniques to level up. This is not a "philosophy of writing" book, this gives examples on what worked for the author over his career, and that they might work for you too.
September 27, 2019
Some really great advice here. Some of it, for me, feels like preaching to the converted, but overall a really solid writing advice book. I got this through the Kickstarter and my only issue is I may have been reading the original pre-release because it was full of typos. I'll go back and check the updated version to make sure it was my mistake.
December 1, 2019
Some excellent advice here, and timely as well, as I have an increasingly large slush pile which I need to start sending out. Taken piecemeal, each chapter is helpful, but as a whole it provides an extremely useful framework for kick-starting (or Kickstarting!) a writer's career. Buckell is a very good writer and the book an enjoyable read.
January 16, 2022
I rather enjoyed this biography/writing manual, mainly because Toby was able to show how his "real life" influenced his writing life, and vice versa. Grounds it quite a bit, and I think anyone curious about the life of a working writer should take a look.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews