Hello everyone! Welcome to my ☀Daily Book Chat☀ where I do some SERIOUS discussions that fellow book fans will get a kick out of and relate their thoughts about the subject to other book fans!
Today's topic is: Becoming a writer...what do I need to do?
Today's topic is: Becoming a writer...what do I need to do?
WHAAATTTT??? You want to be a writer, you ask? Well....OF COURSE I DO!!! I have always wanted to write some of my own books, but I could never figure out how to start this out and come out looking like one of the most SUCCESSFUL writers to ever come out of this EXISTENCE!!
After seeing some of my fellow book bloggers (Paper Fury, Xenatine, Nenia Campbell and Navessa Allen) writing their own books (basically being promoted from BOOK REVIEWERS to AUTHORS), I had decided that I wanted to give it a go and get my own books published in the BOOK COMMUNITY!
BUT...before I do that, I need to know how I can get this done the right way. So, this will be one of those UNUSUAL daily chats where I'm actually asking you guys about what it takes to be a successful writer!
1. Getting your story off the ground.
I actually have an idea about what story I want to write about (SHHH!!! I can't tell you what the story is about since I want to keep it a SECRET)! The question is, how do I make the story really click with the audience? Now, I know that if I get my story off the ground and people read it, then some people will hate my work because it's not for them. But, I wanted to know about what themes in a story works for the general audience and what themes don't work for the audience when writing a novel, so that way, I can at least get a good MAJORITY of the audience liking my work (Hey, I can dream, can I)?
2. Getting a publisher.
So, I noticed that there are like a MILLION publishers out there that could possibly take in your work. So, my question here is: How do I know which publishers are right for me when publishing my work? Does it have to be a big publisher like say Simon and Schuster or maybe an independent publisher? Does it really matter what publisher it is as long as they can get my work off the ground? And where do I search for such publishers to take in my work?
3. Do I Need to go to a Workshop?
Before I send my work to a publisher, do I need to go through a writing workshop first to get some practice with my writing? I would like to make sure that I don't have any grammatical mistakes in my work or see if my work makes sense. So, would I have to go to a writing shop first before going straight to a publisher to publish my work?
4. Do I have to rush through my story to meet a deadline?
So, say that your publisher tells you that you have to write your first draft of your book by a certain deadline. If this happens, will it affect how I write my book, especially if I still haven't finished the first draft to my book? I'm usually a slow writer (check to see how often I post up my reviews on this blog) and I tend to get worried about deadlines since I usually get things out late (it's a NASTY habit I have). I want my stories to mean something and I feel like that if I rushed through my drafts just to get it out on time, then my work will become sloppy.
So, those are my questions (or CONCERNS) about pitching off my story to a publisher to get started on becoming an author! I would love to hear everyone's opinions about this and congrats to my fellow book bloggers for becoming well-known authors in the book community!
Annnnnnddddd....as always everybody:
HAPPY READING, BOOK FANS!!!!
Hi! I also want to be an author some day and I'm currently working on a few WIPs and I do have some tips!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, don't think about your audience while you're writing your first draft. And what I mean is, don't think about whether they will like it or not, worry about that once you've got the story on the page.
Second of all, you don't pick a publisher, you have to query to agents, once an agent signs you, they look at your work, might do some editing, and then they pitch your manuscript to editors who they think will like it. Publishers don't accept manuscripts directly from the author (usually) without an agent. So after you've written your book, edited it, had some readers read it and give you some notes, edit again, then I would suggest looking up prospective agents. Maybe participate in PitMad or DVPit or Pitchwars! Or look up the agents of your favorite books that are similar to the story you're writing (the agents are often in the acknowledgements of the book somewhere) and take a look at their website.
I hope this helps! Good luck with your writing ^_^
~Brittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles
Thank you so much for the advice! I'll definitely be taking this advice once I get started on my book!
DeleteI'm not a published author, so I'm definitely not an expert, but I'd love to have my book published too one day, so I've looked into it quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteAs Brittany has said, you generally submit to agents first I think, usually once you've already finished and edited your first draft, and got it looking as good as you can.
I've also been finding it useful with short stories to get feedback before I submit them, because I think sometimes we're so close to our own stories and own writing we can't spot plot holes or errors, no matter how many times we read through them. So I'd definitely recommend getting a friend to read through your book first and give you some constructive feedback. Or you could join an online writing community to get feedback.
I think workshops can be useful to get you going, but I don't think they're 100% necessary. They can be really fun though, from my experience!
Best of luck with your book! :)
Thank you so much! I'll try all this and good luck with your writing!
DeleteI'm going to mirror a bit of what's already been said, but I'll add in some additional info as well. The best thing you can do if you want to write a book is start reading about the craft of writing and about the publishing business. There's TONS of info out there about querying and getting an agent, but you'll need to have a completed (and polished) first draft before you get to that step. You'll want to find some critique partners who can help you before you get to the point of trying to get an agent.
ReplyDeleteAs far as writing a good story, there are some wonderful books out there that can help you do just that. I recommend Story Genius by Lisa Cron and Writing Irresistible Kidlit by Mary Kole as good places to start (the second one also has info on the publishing business). The more info you have going in, the better off you'll be!
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Awesome! I'll need to pick up some writing books!
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