GETTING PUBLISHED IN 2009
STATUS: Really glad I DVR’d the Oprah “Best Life” series this week. Great way to start the New Year, especially the part with Suzie Orman.
FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: If getting your financial house in better shape is on your list of 2009 resolutions, you can download Suzie Orman’s latest book, A 2009 Action Plan, for free on Oprah.com. It’s only available for free for a week, so hurry and download!
Is getting published also on your list of resolutions for 2009? If so, what are you action steps to make that dream a reality? Here are three things you can begin doing, today, to get one step closer to your publishing dreams:
Read, read, read. Then read some more. Are you looking to break into YA? If so, do you know who Stephanie Meyer is? Is Sarah Dessen on your shelves? Dude, Laura Ruby has a new book out called Play Me. Get it! Consume this stuff like it’s food, like your soul will turn to dust and blow away if you don’t. It’s impossible to be up on everything, of course, but reading what you can is a strong step toward being able to write compelling YA that will make agents sit up and take notice.
Get a BFF. And by BFF I mean a writing BFF. Find someone you trust who can look at your work and help you make it better. I’d curl up in the fetal position and cry without my writer friend Ellen. I trust what she says and I take her comments seriously. She makes my writing better. The funny thing is, she doesn’t write YA. But she’s smart and she’s well-read, and she knows what makes a good story. If you don’t have an Ellen, then perhaps there’s a local writing group you can join. Or maybe there’s a writers’ conference out there where you can meet friends with the skills to help you. Writing is a solitary craft to be sure, but there are times we need other people in the thick of it with us.
Revise. Whether ideas for changes in your novel come from your newfound BFF or your own musings, make them. So, admittedly, I’m the queen of sending out things before they’re entirely polished, but I will say this much — when I need to revise, I do. Editing is hard. Revising sucks. But it’s part of the process. Keep hacking away at your book until it’s right. Donut Days went through, like, eight revisions before it was something that was close to halfway decent. I’d thrown it away at one point until Ellen encouraged me to fish it out of the recycle bin. So, hey, shelve your project if you have to and start on something else, but don’t stop making changes and revising. It’s as much part of the process as the act of writing itself.
Okay, so those are my three thoughts. For now. Any questions out there? What are your obstacles to being published in 2009? What are you struggling with?
May 6th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I just stumbled onto your website - totally scraped my knee too :), so I’m catching up on some of what you’ve blogged. I was happy to read about your writing BFF who doesn’t write, because I’ve got one of those too, but with all the talk of writing groups, etc. I thought maybe I was missing out on something. I mean, I haven’t really felt like I was missing out, because my girl (Rebecca) is amazingly insightful and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better critique than hers. She isn’t afraid to let me know when something sounds weird, or OOC, or whatever. Anyhoo, good luck with your newest book, it sounds like a fun read!