Path to Publication

Writing is often considered to be an activity from the heart. It is personal, it speaks of what you think, what you know, who you are. Could it, then, be that you as a writer have committed a sin? Maybe more than one…maybe a deadly one? How could this be? You’ve worked hard; your boss likes most of your work. There comes a time in every writer’s career when introspection is necessary.  Is it time for you? This list might help…

1.   Deadly Careless Research. Nonfiction readers want accurate, reliable information. Non-fiction writers need to engage readers as never before.  After all, you are competing against the 30-second commercial and all those TV shows that cover your subject. Don’t rely on your memory of something you saw on television; look it up. And look it up in an authoritative source (preferably two or three); never be satisfied with a random Internet search.
2.  Deadly Dullness. Even if your facts are accurate, overdoses of straight information put readers to sleep. People want to read about more than facts and figures. Lighten any technical explanation or historical exposition. Include action or quotations from experts, especially experts who have name recognition.
3.  Deadly Stereotyping. Avoid describing habits of people using “conventional wisdom” no matter how well you think it explains a point. Never refer to a person’s race, creed or other characteristics that are beyond the person’s control in a way that could be construed as negative.
4.  Deadly Carelessness. No busy editor will correct a typo-laden manuscript for a writer who is too lazy to proofread personally. Even with self-published books, mistakes on every page annoy readers and make them suspect you are equally careless with facts. Don’t expect your word processor to do the proofing, either; few spell checkers know the difference between “their” and “there.” Word processing and e-mail software can even create errors; so check visually to make sure automatic formatting hasn’t put any tabs where they shouldn’t be!
5.  Deadly Thoughtless Marketing. Never just open a market database and start querying publishers in alphabetical order. Read the entries in full; publishers are disgusted with nonfiction writers’ ignoring clear statements that “we publish only fiction.” Read your chosen publisher’s full official guidelines (market guides explain how to locate these). And even if you’re self-publishing, have a clear demographic vision of your expected readers and where to find them. Remember: writers who aim at “everyone” never hit anyone. 

6.   Deadly Ego. Probably the number-one reason writers fail is that they expect their talent to absolve them of any real need to work. No author ever outgrows the imperfect first draft! Every author can benefit from input from other authors in the form of critique or collaboration. No successful author works in a vacuum.

7.  Deadly Fear of Rejection. If a writer is paralyzed by the fear of rejection, the work never is submitted and, thus, never published. Every writer has experienced rejection at some time. It goes with the work. Relax and learn from it.  Earnest Hemingway suffered 39 rejections. All famous authors received rejections but they didn’t let it stop them.