TECH: 101 Tips (34)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 8 July 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Smart first-time authors focus on their writing. They'll celebrate their first sale, then ask, 'What should I do next?'" Donald Maass

Interesting point. Especially given the current sales and length of time for making sales, it's important not to get invested in the individual sale, especially that first one. Set up your process for writing, your regular approach to getting the words out. When a sale comes, that's great. But the key is to keep writing.

It's a bit like pottery or almost anything else. Having one selected and honored -- sold -- is great, but you want to have a selection on the shelves. That's what makes the customer browse the shelves, and gives you something to show the customer who says that's almost right, do you have it in a little different shade?

Celebrate your sales. And then ask yourself, "What should I do next?"

QOTD: Chances of Selling

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting Fri, 20 Aug 1993 18:00:04 JST

From "On Writing Science Fiction" by George H. Scithers, Darrell Schweitzer, and John M. Ford, Owlswick Press, 1981. p.7

"What are your chances of actually being published?..."

"If you write prose that is at all competent, if your ideas show any novelty, your characters any believability, your backgrounds any color, then your chances are very good indeed, because you will be better than 90 to 99 percent of the people who think they are writers. Any writer of good science fiction will have no difficulty selling virtually all the material he can create."

Who are these people, daring to contradict the folk wisdom that selling fiction is hard, and the chances slim?

The subtitle of the book is "The Editors Strike Back." These are working editors, who I suspect know what they are seeing... Further, while they refer specifically to SF, I suspect the same is true in every writing arena (except, possibly, poetry...).

So - write, finish, and submit. Those editors are waiting for competent work, let alone the sparkling wonders we have around here...

(sorry, gotta get back to work on my next potboiler...:-)