By Robert Crouch
Writing and getting work published has changed beyond recognition since I wrote and submitted my first novel to a traditional publisher.
In those days, you submitted typed paper copies, usually the first three chapters, along with a detailed synopsis and a query letter. You had to include a self-addressed envelope with the correct postage if you wanted your sample returned.
If you submitted to agents and publishers abroad, the postage costs soon mounted up.
Today, if you want to show your work to a wider audience, the opportunities today seem almost endless.
The internet offers you
- online groups and forums, magazines and journals, websites like this
- you can publish your own books through Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and more
- social media, including YouTube
- Google, which is so much more than a search engine
- blogs, such as the one I produced for seven years
(Image of Fisher’s Fables)
You can create anything you want.
- you can set up a blog, often for free on certain platforms. A Google search will soon show you the most common.
- You can create your own website. There are usually costs in doing this.
- You can create your own author page on social media platforms
The choice and opportunities can be bewildering. And while there are plenty of people and businesses out there, willing to help you, not all of them have your best interests at heart.
It pays to be careful, especially when someone offers to make your novel a bestseller in a couple of months, or increase your social media followers by thousands.
How do you know what’s best for you and your work?
Who can you trust?
Where do you start?
It depends on what you want.
If you want your novel or nonfiction book to be traditionally published by one of the many publishers out there, you either have to find an agent or submit your manuscripts or non-fiction ideas direct.
If you write poetry or short stories, there are plenty of online opportunities, which accept submissions. You can also enter competitions, which can be a good way to get work noticed. In some cases, you can obtain useful feedback.
Articles and features for magazines and journals can often be submitted online or by email.
But whichever route you take, please check out the submission guidelines.
Better still, check out the publications and publishers first
- read previous poems, short stories or articles
- check out the advertisers, as this will give you a good indication of the target audience of the publication
- adhere to their requirements. If they ask for short stories up to 3,000 words, don’t send them one with 5,000. If they prohibit sexual or political or religious content, make sure your work complies
The rest is down to you and your writing.
But even though there are so many opportunities available, the competition can be fierce.
While you need to prepare for disappointment, there’s a lot you can do to improve your chances.
You could follow the ‘rules for writers’
Life has taught me that rules are often inflexible, which doesn’t sit well when you’re creative and pushing boundaries.
I prefer to look at these ‘rules’ as principles or guidelines to good practice.
Most of the ones I follow have been with me all my writing life and mean as much today as they did before. While there are too many to list here, let me leave you with the top principle I follow –
Produce the best work you can.
Or to put it another way – never settle for less.
As your confidence and experience grow, you’ll improve as a writer. You’ll learn from mistakes, from others and from a desire to get better.
Ultimately, it depends on what you want to do, and where you want to go with your writing.
You can start by asking yourself a key question.
What does success look like to you?
Is it the satisfaction of finishing a short story or novel?
Is it seeing your work published online or in a paperback copy you can sign and give to your family and friends?
Is it learning your craft and improving what you write?
Do you want to appear on the Graham Norton show to talk about your latest bestseller?
Whatever your dreams or aspirations, produce the best you can – from idea to the final, polished work.
The Write Site gives you an opportunity to put your work in front of others.
Make it shine.
Website: https://robertcrouch.co.uk
Robert Crouch has published 10 novels in the Downland Murder Mystery series, available from Amazon.
He has had a novel traditionally published, though he prefers to publish his work himself these days.
His articles and features have been published in national and local magazines, and he once wrote a regular column in Writers’ Monthly magazine on technology and the internet. (He also won a national short story competition when he was 13, but he forgot to take a copy before he sent it off.)
