by Megan Hart

Created on: November 08, 2009   Last Updated: November 09, 2009

There is No Golden Ticket

You've written the next international best-seller. You can sit back, relax and count the checks rolling in. Right?

Wrong.

Writing can be a hobby, or it can be a job. It can also be a career, and a lucrative one, if you're persistent and fortunate enough to become successful. It is possible to make a living writing novels, but as with any job, authors who seek to solely support themselves with their writing should prepare themselves for the reality of what writing for a living means.

It means work.

KNOW YOUR MARKET

It's not enough to write a good book. That good book also has to be put in front of an editor who will love it enough to take the book to marketing, to make an offer on it, and to promote it to the people within the publishing house who will then (hopefully) become so excited about it they'll in turn go out and promote your book to the folks who buy the books for stores. Ideally, those people will be excited enough to hand-sell the book to customers, who in turn will become so eager to read your book they'll actually shell out their money to purchase it. So, your first task after writing the best book you can? Get it in front of an editor who will buy it, or an agent who will do the same job for you.

How to do that? Research your market. Find out who's buying what you're writing. If you're unagented, make sure you're submitting to publishers who take unagented submissions. If you're submitting to agents, be certain they represent the kind of material you've written. Prepare your submissions according to their guidelines and submit what they want, how they want it. Half the battle in getting your submission read by an editor or agent is simply following instructions. Don't give them reason to reject you before they've even read a word of your book.

IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO WRITE THE BOOK

You wrote the book. You sold the book. Now it's time to sit back and wait for the money to roll in, right? Absolutely not. Since the process of acquiring an agent and selling to a publisher can often take months, if not years, it's not enough to write the book. You have to write another. And another. Finish a book, take a bit of a break to recharge, start another. There are writers who make enough money off one incredibly successful book to never write again - but they don't have careers. If you want to make a living with your writing, you need to write more than one book. Often, publishers want to build an author, not simply one title. Make sure

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>