How Not To Get Published
HOW NOT TO GET PUBLISHED Copyright 2001 Michael LaRocca
If someone had told me in 2000 that I'd publish four books in2001, I'd have called him an eejit.
The last time I'd been published was 1989, and that doesn'tcount because I paid someone to do it. I'd long since given upon getting published again. In fact, I doubted I'd ever writeagain.
By now you may wonder how I made it from Point A to Point B. Orfor that matter, why I stopped writing.
The second part is simple. I was chasing money, becoming ahigh-powered businessman and losing myself. The first part is alittle more difficult to explain.
In December 1999, I flew to Hong Kong for a vacation. The firstvacation in my life, really. I intended to stay for a month.Instead, I married an Australian who taught English there. Iquit my job in North Carolina by email.
I found myself unable to legally work in Hong Kong. So what wasI to do with my time? I dusted off a childhood dream and resumedwriting.
I had a slush pile full of old short stories, and I ran themthrough the on-line writing workshops. There are two parts towriting--story and style. I wasn't changing my stories--theycame from me and were what I wanted to write--but my style waspathetic. Style is also the part that can be learned. So I did.
Then came something that amazed me. New stories. Mixing with the"writing culture" got my creative juices flowing again. Afterall those years. Better than ever, in fact.
Next, I published them. Between March and December 2000, Ipublished twenty stories in twenty different e-zines. I onlymade $6, but I was building my resume. I believed that I had ashort story anthology in me, and I'd decided to try publishingit. I felt I needed a "track record," so I got one.
I also had a novel in my slush pile. A gripping imaginativestory, badly told. But I'd finally learned about the craft, thestructure, and the hard work that comes after that originalflash of inspiration.
You see where I'm leading by now. I wrote two new novels, andsigned contracts to publish all three novels plus the new shortstory collection in 2001.
It's a common sight among new writers, and really it's a bitsad. People who have the story--the part that can't belearned--but tell it badly. They rush in on the adrenaline highthat authors know so well, then get rejected and give up.
What defines a great story? That depends on which reader youask. If you're writing a story that moves you, someone somewherewith similar tastes will like it. Some stories will be morepopular than others, but almost every story will be consideredgreat by someone. But if it's badly written, the reader willsimply put the book down and read something else.
As a teenaged author, gathering up enough rejection slips towallpaper the room, I didn't give up. I just got arrogant anddecided "You don't understand me, ya eejit." That's no solution.Nor is paying to be published.
Nope, if you want to get published, learn how to tell yourstory. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, pacing, dialogue... allthat stuff you may have slept through in high school will becomesecond nature with enough practice.
I did quite well in high school English, by the way, but it'snot like they taught pacing and dialogue and real story- tellingthere. To learn those, you've gotta read. But that's no problemfor an author. If you don't enjoy reading, you can't writesomething that others will enjoy reading.
Also, you must listen to the criticisms. Accept some and rejectothers, but always listen. I believe the Internet makes it mucheasier to get those criticisms.
I work as an editor now, and one of my authors told me that hesees movies inside his head. It shows in his writing! I don'twrite that way, unfortunately, but I still know how he feels.When "the Muse" pays me a visit, I've gotta write it down asfast as it comes to me. That's the one part that can't bepackaged, taught or mass-produced. That part comes from you, theauthor, and no one else can do it the way that you do.
Kurt Vonnegut, whose works I greatly admire, writes one sentenceat a time, and makes each one perfect before he begins the next.But I don't write like that, nor do most of the authors I know.We just let it fly, then go back and fix it later.
But if you don't want to get published, don't go back and fixit. Pass that raw copy around to your friends and family and letthem tell you how wonderful it is for fear of hurting yourfeelings. Then send it to the publishers and collect therejection letters. That's what I did in my younger days, and Iwasn't published.
It took me twenty years to learn my lesson. It would genuinelymake me feel good to hear that most writers aren't taking quiteso long.
|