Apr 29, 2009
What separates a published writer from an unpublished one?
Like this post?
A guest post from Elizabeth Esther
Three things: 1. Persistency in researching where and how to submit her work, 2. An editor who responds to queries, 3. Patience.
* * * * *
4. Connections in the publishing/published world.
I wonder how/if things might change with the advent of companies like Lightning-Press. A few hundred bucks for startup costs, you can get books on demand, in very small or large quantities.
That leaves you with trying to get the book in people’s hands.
sorry for the messed-up post…the link still works, though :)
Not everyone who is gifted in writing is gifted in marketing. As someone who has worked on the retail side of the book industry for 35 years, I thought I knew how things worked; but getting to the acquisitions people proved to be a whole different sector of the business. Furthermore, I would probably have been willing to be more “pushy” if I were acting on someone else’s behalf than trying to do this for myself. Hence the need for agents.
(It also didn’t help having a project that was a little ‘outside the box,’ a book on pornography written for the women who were the collateral damage in someone else’s addiction; or that it was a “crisis” book that didn’t fit the standard full-length paperback size; or that the economy crashed; or… etc.)
So IMHO, the first comment from Barnabas should be factor #1.
I gave up and posted the book online for people to read for free, because I believed passionately that more info on this topic should be available. (Feel free to click the link on my name!) In the end, the publishing industry doesn’t care what you write, their interest is all wrapped up in who you are. (Which of course does have roots in Biblical principles.)
Nothing about the quality of the writing? Hard work? Skill?
Royalty Checks.
I don’t know Steve, we’ve all read some published writers where the quality is pretty poor. And then it makes me wonder how much hard work went into it..
Unfortunately, being published doesn’t assume great quality or skill. Although it should.
And with those authors I’m always left thinking that they must be related to someone in the publishing house, like the first comment said.
Any Christian author who is looking to self-publish a book for a reasonable price, utilizing professional/industry-experienced editors/designers/printers/etc hould check out the new site http://www.believerspress.com.
There’s also a great online community there that you can join to discuss issues pertaining to publishing, etc.
Shameless plug (my company is a featured cover-designer for the site :)).
I thought being published was what separated the two. hmmm…
Alas, I failed to mention skill and hard work.
I guess I just assumed those were givens? Apologies.
But Abigail is right. Sometimes I read the stuff that gets published and I’m like: dude, my 6 year old could have written that. :)
Also, sometimes stuff gets rejected because there’s overlap, not enough space, lack of advertising, etc. It’s not always because the writing stinks.
At least, that’s what I tell myself. Heh. :)
I’m thinking that with so many possible separators, the most universally true is also the most simple: the letters U and N.
A contract?????
(Though quite how you land one of these is a mystery, though I suspect it is often a question of ‘who you know’).
Ahh… Thanks for this… Great reminder for someone like myself looking to get published! :o)
An ISBN.
What constitutes “published”? Format? # of copies?
When I’ve prepared study materials for women’s studies and had to make 75 copies of my own material, my editing, rewriting, and careful examination of sourcing and grammar, etc. is no less than if it was going off to a “publisher” (which I have also done).
I’m not automatically impressed that someone has been “published” and am not sure if the assumption of this 22 words is that somehow that is inherently desirable.
I worked at a major Christian publisher years ago and learned that the majority of things published were (1) from their “stable of authors”; (2) a result of connections and (3) guaranteed to sell, chosen because they would sell, not because the message was significant in and of itself.
Of course, each of those things actually makes sense!…but “being published” should not be seen as something that is meaningful in and of itself. It’s not.
Talent
4. Amazing writing…
or
4. An amazing platform from which the author can sell thousands of books on his own!
(about a contract . . .)
5. An Agent.