Here's a question published & produced writers get
fairly often:
"Can you give me advice on how to get published?"
This is a tough question.
There’s no satisfactory answer of which I’m aware. The easy answer is "yes, I can give you
some advice," but there's a second question underneath there, which is
"can you help me get
published?" the answer to which is "no."
Nobody wants to be the “no” guy. But you’ve already seen all the advice in the
world on how to get published -- and it’s going to be a hell of a lot more
useful coming from an agent, editor, or publisher. I can only advise you on how I got to this point. Otherwise, I’m repeating the same advice from
agents, editors, and publishers that you’ve already seen.
The fact is, I don't know how one breaks into the author
business. My experience is exceedingly
limited; there was far more serendipity involved in what little success I’ve
had than anything else. But for the
record, here’s what I know.
- Write. It’s a big deal to write your first novel or
screenplay. Sadly, it’s not a big deal
for the folks who get paid to read them, because they read ten a week. So if you get all the way through the gauntlet
of obstacles to that crucial person’s desk, there’s no guarantee it will
capture their interest. Don’t be
discouraged. This isn’t a one-shot game:
you may have to write a dozen manuscripts before one of them catches on. As long as you keep working, you can still
succeed.
- Hustle. It’s not enough to keep writing. Go out there and get exposure. A friend of mine has gotten her short stories
into anthologies; others have self-published, entered competitions, or kept a
well-crafted blog. Everything helps. I
wrote hundreds of essays on politics and culture during the reign of Bush the
Lesser. Never made a dime, but the
experience improved my writing and helped me figure out how to handle
criticism, controversy, death threats, and so on. Had I not written those pieces, I could never
have completed my first novel -- nor would I have had the confidence to
champion it.
- Get
representation. Writers are generally terrible advocates for
themselves. You need somebody to keep
your work out of the dreaded slush pile.
A good agent, entertainment lawyer, or similar intermediary will do far
more for your reputation than you ever will.
When I started writing movie scripts as a youth, I got my first agent
with a query letter that took me longer to write than the screenplay to which
it was attached. Sent it to sixty
agencies, got one positive response.
That was probably the biggest hurdle I ever faced. Having representation in the movie business
raised my stock: I was officially a writer.
That’s all I know about getting published. It’s not much.
The hardest part, as I said up top, is that I can’t help anybody get published. This isn’t just a matter of
disinclination. I would love to see all my writer friends published. I’d make everybody gin and tonics and we
could sit around talking about writer stuff.
But you know who nobody in publishing, movies, or any other
writing-dependent medium wants a recommendation from? A writer.
I used to think my more successful writer acquaintances were
pricks for not throwing me a recommendation, a phone number, a name, anything to help a pal out. They wouldn’t even read my material. But I get it now. Even if somebody handed me the greatest
unpublished manuscript in the entire world, all I could do is say to my agent,
“hey, this is really good. Please read
it.” And he would say “awesome, I’ll get
to it as soon as I can.” And it would go
on the dreaded slush pile.
There is also a liability issue. Everybody thinks they’re the first person to
have had an idea, when in fact there are only about six unique stories out
there. It’s all in the retelling. Every time I read something unpublished, my
lawyer has a stroke, because thereafter if I write anything within spitting
distance of it, I can get sued for stealing the other party’s idea. This happens to writers a lot, sadly. We are strongly cautioned not to read things
that haven’t been circulated already. I
do read things from folks I’ve known a long time, by which I mean 20 years or
more; they know who they are, and I apologize for not getting back to them. It’s at the top of my to-do list, swear to god.
Finally, there’s the matter of taste. If you write the bestest urban fantasy
romance in the world, I’m probably still going to think it’s awful, because I
don’t like the genre. If your prose
style isn’t my bag, same deal. And
Ganesh help us all if it’s simply bad writing, because now what the hell am I
supposed to say? “You suck?” or “Try
setting it to music?” So as bad as it is
for a friendship not to read
someone’s lovingly crafted manuscript, it can often be worse to read it.
Advice is easy. Help,
not so much. If I can offer some helpful
advice, please consider it the best a writer can do.
