Essay Online

As a three-time published author and creative writing teacher I get asked a lot: “What is the secret to getting your book published?” Many of the interrogators are disappointed, some even disbelieving, when I tell them there is no secret. Getting published is about three key elements and none of them are a secret but all three play an important role. Book publishing requires a combination of luck, timing, and talent.

I know too much about the publishing game (and it is a game as much as it is a business) to discount the importance of luck when it comes to getting your book published. I have watched a lot of authors come and go. I have watched a lot of would-be authors do everything right to exploit their talent and then fade away into oblivion. I have watched a select few authors make mistakes and still come out with successful careers. While luck isn’t everything and should certainly not be a key part of your publishing and writing strategy, you need to allow for an element of luck — whether it is bad or good.

Timing is a crucial part of becoming a published author as opposed to being simply a writer. You could have the best book idea in the world and the most incredible writing talent but if you are delivering a book too similar to one they just bought or published then your timing is bad. Likewise, you could have a good book that hits the publishing house just when they are on a buying freeze and your book could languish for weeks or months — or simply be rejected. The difference between timing and luck though is that you can control your timing much more than you can manipulate luck. Here information is the key. The more research you do into your market then the better able you will be to work timing to your favor. I have a friend who made her first sale by carefully researching the market and delivering to her chosen publisher the perfect idea at the perfect time.

Of course talent is important to getting published and becoming successful. You need to be a talented writer and possess the creative genius to create characters and plots that make for great reading. However, I save this element for last as without luck and timing then all the talent in the world may not be enough to get your published. I think in the end a talented writer could find a publisher but it would be a long arduous process and most writers become discouraged and quit before achieving their goal.

It is possible to become a published author. New writers are getting published every year. It is not easy to get published but a combination of luck, timing and talent can help you get your book published. While you cannot control your luck, you do have the power to control your timing and talent. Work on gathering information and work on your writing. You can succeed at book publishing.

Many of my students shrug their shoulders at the beginning of the semester when I tell them that time is their best friend. Just like my students, too many writers struggle with their writing because they treat time as a four letter word. However time is not the enemy if you learn to use it wisely. Time can be a tremendous help when you write if you plan ahead. Making a wise use of your time is a three-step process.

First, allow yourself enough time to live with the idea you plan to write about. Do not write. Give yourself permission to jot down notes but it is wisest to simply make these hard copy (or handwritten) notes. You want to give your muse, your subconscious mind, your brain, or whatever part of you that does your heavy lifting when it comes to writing, time to work. During this time just go about your normal life and work on other tasks, writing and otherwise. There is no need to schedule time to simply think about your future writing task. It is going on whether or not you pay attention to it. However every day you can give yourself for this process will save you much time, energy, and agony later on. Trust me. I have been there and I know whereof I speak.

Second, once you have given your brain some time to work out your rough draft (or at least the bones of it) then it is time to start writing. However before you start writing you should work out a schedule for yourself. Set goals and limitations and then stick to them. Perhaps you will write for a set amount of time or you might rather set a certain page count for your goal. Some days it will be a struggle to meet your goal and other days it will be almost painful to stop when you have met your quota, but over time your brain and writing muscles will become accustomed to the goal and the writing will come easier and faster.

Third, and this is where you need to pull out your calendar, you need to plan your schedule so you have plenty of time for that initial period of thought, a workable writing schedule, and time for drafts as well as time for breaks between drafts. Writing and revising through multiple drafts is one of the essentials to improving your writing product but if you do not allow sufficient time between those drafts then you might as well not bother with drafts at all. You need to give your brain time to rest and you need to allow yourself some distance from the initial creation.

Time is a writer’s best friend but only if you plan ahead sufficiently to allow time to live with your writing idea, plan a workable schedule, and give yourself time off between drafts. Pulling out your calendar and planning out a writing schedule can be the single biggest step you take to improve your writing.

If you have great passion for words and have a degree or diploma in any technology field, then your chances of success is beyond your wildest imaginations. You can be part of that clan of writers out there, who make anything from a thousand dollars to several thousands every month from writing technical articles online for freelance websites, building their brands and getting noticed.

It’s a really wonderful field of writing. And, with the advent of Internet and web publication technologies, the traditional text publication platform has tasted a whole revolution. Today, as an author you are free to publish anywhere at your own will. All you need is some talent in writing, which most of us inherently have.

However, in order to succeed, the most important thing is your brand. You may be a great writer offline, you may know it yourself, and possibly, your nearest friends may know of this fact as well. But the world doesn’t, your prospective client doesn’t. In such a scenario, come the freelance websites. These websites give you a platform to show off your merit and get sales for the content you make.

Examples of the best freelance websites are Guru.com, Elance.com, getafreelancer.com, and so many others. You may just do a search from Google and you will stumble upon a million of them.

What you need to succeed?

One and the most important thing you need for success in freelancing industry is a flawless language and an extensive vocabulary. This will come about as a result of a lot of reading. But do not read any ordinary web publication. You should strive hard to find out the best publications to read. Those, which can enrich your mind, give you some thoughts, and give you new words and ideas. There are not too many of them. And I assure you, top bloggers may not get one sentence correct!

So, look out for authentic sources to read or those sites or blogs, which help you in writing. There are many.

Secondly, you should have quality content in your writing. Writing anything would not make you successful. The quality comes inherently. Naturally. All you have to do is understand what you are writing about and do an in depth research on the topic. Find out the important information on the technology you are going to write about:

It’s advantages and disadvantages

It’s issues and glitches

It’s benefit on the ordinary people

The ways people may use to tweak it to their advantage

The ways to use the tool productively

Any issue with particular groups of people: like children, adults, senior citizens, etc.

Any future improvements

The general statistics of the service provider and the service itself

In any writing about technologies hitting the market and those already in, these points are very important.

To do the research, you can use tools like Google. Do an in depth search for all the terms associated with the technology and find out everything available related to it. Once you get enough information, should read through it. Reading will generate more ideas in you, and will strengthen your points. Start your writing only after you read your research content.

Topic to find

You can find out the topic of writing by various means. The best way is by looking at the current technology news from Fox News, CNN, New York Times, Reuters, BBC World, etc. Such news channels and their websites provide you with the latest happenings in the technology field. What you have to do is read through a specific interesting post and find out the proper keywords. Then do an in depth research on these keywords with Google and Wikipedia. You can get a number of research pages to concentrate your writing on. And such content-rich articles are what the people want, and what hit high in search results. So, they will be purchased for any price you set on them.

All the best to all those who wish to get successful technical writing careers.

As a published author and creative writing teacher I often get asked how writers can get published. One of the simplest ways to answer that question is tell the story of my publishing contracts with two different publishers.

Like many other writers, I have always wanted to write a book and started scribbling stories as a child. I have also always been an avid reader. When I started my first book I did not know what I was doing. It was a learning experience and I was not sure I could even write an entire book, but at last I did have a completed manuscript. I then began my search for a publisher.

As I knew no other authors or writers I started with the only place I knew. The Writers Market book. I came up with a list of publishers and started sending out queries. I had some interest from some of the big houses but as time went on I collected a pretty impressive list of rejections. I worked my way through all the major publishing houses and then started on the smaller houses. Then came the exciting day when I got the call that a small house was willing to publish my novel.

Now in hindsight I’m not so sure I should have leaped at the offer. Small publishing houses can offer opportunities that the bigger houses cannot. They are often more willing to take a risk on an unknown author or a manuscript that does not fit cleanly into a niche. But they are riskier ventures. Many small publishing houses do not have a long life span. My first publisher did print my first book and contracted with me for my second but went out of business before the second book even came out. Smaller publishers also have lower distribution. It was up to me to arrange distribution in my regional book stores as well as arrange my own book signings and promotion. However the biggest drawback for me was the lack of editorial support and guidance. Remember, this was my first book and I wasn’t even working with a critique group. I could have used more editing than I received from that publisher. While getting my first book published was a confidence booster and an education, it was not a financial boon. I received only one royalty check before the publisher went under.

After that experience, I then became even more determined to learn about publishing. I sought out writing groups, attended writers conferences, and joined a critique group. As I gained more confidence in my writing I started entering writing contests and placed in the top three in several writing competitions. One of my first place prizes included being read by a senior editor at Kensington. The editor liked my manuscript and offered me a two-book contract.

This experience was dramatically different from my first. A major publishing house meant a standard contract, a standard advance, and regular royalty payments as well as good distribution. However I also lost a great deal of control over my book. Both covers are bodice rippers and the title of the first book was chosen by the marketing department and I was not even given the right to approve it. Even worse for my writing career though was the fact that the editor who bought me quickly passed me off to another editor and then when that editor left I was handed to yet a third editor. As an orphaned author my second book received little support and I was not offered a new contract.

I would be lax if I did not mention agents during this article. Many unpublished authors ask if agents are important. Obviously as my story points out you can get published without an agent. In fact, I might have gotten published sooner the second time around if I wasn’t working with an agent who did not take advantage of some of my previous contest wins. The problem is that the type of agent who is willing to take on an unproven author is not likely to do you much good. If you can make a contact with an agent through a conference or contest or the like then definitely do so but I would not recommend spending a lot of time trying to get an agent before you are published. After I had my contract with Kensington I did work with a higher quality agent for a time but nothing came of that experience although the fault probably lies with me as well as with the agent.

I wish you luck in your pursuit of book publishing and hope me story is informative and helpful.

Writers block is one of those mysterious ailments that is blamed for late assignments, missed deadlines, and failed dreams. Some people claim it is merely a myth while others find it plagues their writing.

As someone with more than two decades of professional writing, editing and teaching experience I feel quite strongly that in 99.9 percent of reported cases of writers block are nothing more than a chimera. In my opinion, far too many would-be writers spend far too much time and energy on finding the right computer, program, paper, pen, location, mood-setting music, and the like before they can begin writing when that time and energy would be much better spent on simply getting down to the business of writing. These would-be writers treat their muse as something delicate and breakable, something as elusive and fleeting as smoke.

I know from years spent in the hurly-burly of newspaper reporting and snatching moments to write between deadlines and dinner dishes that a muse worth keeping is made of much tougher material and in fact may benefit from some abuse.

Most often writers block, or what is commonly referred to as writers block, is caused by one of three problems–lack of preparation, lack of training, and lack of development. Lack of preparation is often caused by not creating an individual writing process that can take advantage of your writing strengths and help overcome your writing weaknesses. Lack of training is similar to athletic training–you need to warm up and work out on a regular schedule to keep your writing muscles in top condition. Lack of development simply means that your particular idea may need more time to percolate or perhaps you are not ready to tackle that particular topic at the time.

I have three recommendations to help you work through writers block. First is to simply write through it. Give yourself permission to write garbage and focus on simply creating a really rough draft. Often once you stop worrying over all that is wrong with your writing the words will begin flowing again.

A second method of dealing with writers block is to get moving. Take a walk or hike. Do something physical away from your office or desk and do not let yourself return to the scene of the crime (or writers block) until several hours have passed. You might be surprised what your brain works out in the interim.

Finally, exercise and challenge your writing muscles with writing prompts and exercises. Sometimes simply changing the pace of your writing or your subject matter can be enough to help you work through your difficulty.

Remember, every writer experiences some form of writers block from time to time but you do not have to make a mountain out of a molehill. Working out an effective strategy to circumvent writers block when it strikes is one of the most important skills a real writer can develop.