WOW: Breaking in as a novelist...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 24 March 2010

Jim Hines wondered about the actual truth of breaking in as a novelist, and instead of just offering up his anecdote, did a survey of published novelists. Now, you might quibble about the methodology and what not, but there's still a pile of interesting information. So... go to

http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/24/first-pro-novel-survey-results/

and then follow the links to the various results. Helps put data behind such questions as:

• Do short stories help publication? (116 of 246 sold their first novel without short fiction sales)
• What about self-publishing and publication? (The main path is submitting to agent, who sells to publisher. Second most popular is submit to publisher.)
• Are writers overnight successes? (Average is about 11-12 years. Median/mode 10 years. Overnight? Not exactly.)
• Do you have to know somebody? (140 of 246 sold without connection to agent or publisher.)

Go ahead. Find out what's really behind those authors getting published.

Then decide what your goal is in writing. And if you want to get published, now you've got some information about what it takes.