The Road to Publication

STATUS: lethargy leave me!

Music: I'm Still Standing - Elton John 

I came to writing a bit late compared to many. I was working as a Biochemist after 12 years of university and a few post-doctoral posts, and I started writing because 1) I like creating stories, 2) I like books, and 3) I wanted to challenge myself, as I realized I had absolutely no idea how one went about producing a book. After a half-dozen years of concentrating on this new field (including starting a small press), it's very hard for me to remember what that was like.

Yet, having said that, I still find that the further I go into the field, the more I have to learn. Publishing some short fiction anthologies through Utility Fog Press was very valuable in teaching me some lessons on the editorial end of the business: why you don't submit in strange fonts and pink paper (it's happened), why you follow the submission guidelines to the letter--technical and genre--, and all the effort that goes into generating a quality book (cover image/design, front matter, interior layout, editing, copyediting, etc.). But there is so much more to learn when it comes to the authorial side.


Writing
When I began writing, I naively thought all their was to creating a story was to write. Don't get me wrong, writing is the main thing, and you can't produce a book if you don't write the story and many would-be authors fall down right at this stage.

Writing a story means learning both the technical craft of writing, and learning what makes a good story. Even more importantly, it encompasses the merging of those two. Because a good novel is more than the sum of it's parts. These two aspects must be woven together harmoniously, manipulating pace and theme, to generate the wonderous final product.

There are numerous good books out there that will teach you how to write well. And there are probably some good courses too. I tend to be of the group that favours self-teaching through writing books (pick authors or series that are respected) over the courses as my own experience tends to support the idea that courses tend to be 'feel-good' sessions that are primarily to take your money. Good things can come from courses and you may have other reasons for taking them also. For example, I wanted something to get me out of the house one day a week, and to meet other writers. A book could never do that. However, I feel that none of the recent university courses I've taken have justified their cost, from a learning viewpoint.

When I started, I understood it would not be easy to write a novel, but I had assumed that 'writing' as described above, was all that was needed.

Wrong.


Revision
Once I finished a few novels (the first year was stellar and I finished three novels in that period--and acquired numerous repetitive stress injuries which still plague me to this day), I realized there was another stage to the process of producing a novel. It quickly became clear that my stories needed to be reworked. I don't just mean edited, adverbs cut, and check for continuity. I mean settings realized more vividly, character relations fleshed out, themes woven into the story. In other words, a full revision.

I started this process thinking of it mostly as an edit. I soon realized it was much more daunting. In fact, it's pretty much another compete stage in the journey to publication and, arguably, almost and entirely new skill set (or so it feels at times). To be honest, I think I'm only starting to get to grips with this stage now (although I did only start about a year ago).

In many ways, revising a story can be the most difficult part. This is largely due to the question: where do I stop? As an editor, this is undoubtely easier to answer because you can see the story from the outside. But the author has all their plans and dreams for the story and may have trouble realizing them in the framework of what they've written. This is a problem I had with my first novel--which currently sits on the shelf after half of it was revised. And the decision must be made to accept the story that developed, rework it for years, or put it aside and start a new story. Which leads me to the next lesson...

Finishing
Regardless of what you decide to do with the story (accept, rework, put aside), it should always be finished. This doesn't mean reworking until it meets your ideal, because sometimes the story developed in a way in which that just won't happen. What it means is that you should finish each stage: writing, revising, polishing, so that the story could be sent off, if you desired.

It's important to realize that this is not just for tying up loose ends, or some other kind of bookkeeping or post-knotching, but rather, it's so you get into the habit of finishing projects.

Some professions have jobs that are quick and easily finished, and it doesn't even make sense to stop them partway in: clerical jobs, service jobs, dataentry, street-sweaping, financial advicing, post-delivery, you get the idea. Writing is not like that. It takes effort and desire to sit and write ever day, developing lives and stories and pushing through the clunky bits, and figuring out how a character does something and then writing it in a way that doesn't bore the reader. In addition, the story in a novel can be made to go on forever. Even when you decide to finish the story, revision can be done for years or even decades and the story still may not reach the desired peak.

Therefore, a writer must have the personal discipline to push through to the end of the story. And, they must be able to do this numerous times during revision. And, they must have the discpline to finally stop, at the end, when they are not capable of making the story any better.

To some this may sound trivial and if it is for you, than I envy you. Personally, I find this the most difficult part of the entire process.


Submitting
Even once the story is finished and polished, there is more to learn and many fall down at this stage, underestimating it's importance. Yes, I mean submitting to an agent. And yes, it is another important skill set for the modern writer.

Agents are the new gatekeepers, by which I mean that in the modern publishing world, no traditional publishers will accept unsolicited (i.e. not represented by an agent) manuscripts. I think it's important to realize that this new reality has not come into being just to make your life more difficult, but rather because there are so many would-be authors out there now that another level of screening is necessary. Enter the agent.

Aside: interestingly, in some places there are now book agents, which are professionals that sell your manuscript to agents. That's right, yet another gatekeeper in the making and possibly in ten years new authors will all have such book agents.

Submitting your manuscript to an agent reqires more writing: query letter, synopsis, summary. Each one has it's own style, is important in it's own way, and requires a particular skill to do well. Yet another thing to learn on the road to authorship.

Self Promotion
Finally, even when you succeed at all the previous stages, the modern author is now largely responsible for promotion. The big publishers just don't have the financial resources to push your book. Their responsibility largely ends at distribution. They get you in the door, you have to move the books off the shelves.

This means: building a web site, managing social networking like facebook and twitter, visiting conventions, book signings in bookstores... and finding time to write the next book. In addition, you'll likely have to do this around your day job, because modern authors generally don't earn enough to live off. Author is one of the few professions who's average salary hasn't increased appreciably in the last 30 years (and the current average is propped up by sales of celebrity books and the relatively few blockbusters).

So there you have it. Many of the big things I've learned about being an author and writing a novel over the last six years. And I'm sure there's much more to learn. But first I have to start getting the manuscripts out there. 'Finishing' is the keyword for this year. So watch this space.

Insight and longevity