I was thrilled to be able to participate in an amazing author meetup event featuring three incredibly talented authors – Nafiza Azad, Sabina Khan and Elsie Chapman. It was a fun, welcoming, inspiring event, and I walked away just bursting with great ideas. Now, I could honestly write an entire thesis based on all the inspiration I took away from this meetup, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll do my best to keep things to a brief-ish tome. I’d still recommend grabbing a cup of tea and settling in, though, because this is probably going to be a bit of a read!
Writing is HARD.
Sometimes when you’re writing the words just flow smooth and clear like a river, spilling onto the paper without much effort at all. And sometimes you just want to bang your head against the keyboard and curse yourself for ever thinking you could write in the first place. Everyone at the meetup agreed that writing is hard, regardless of what you write or how experienced an author you might be. But so many worthwhile tasks are hard, and just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you are without skill or talent! This is such a valuable reminder to keep in mind on those days when nothing seems to go right and everything you write seems wrong. Writing can be hard for everyone, at least some of the time.
Be In It For the Long Haul
Just like you can’t hurry love, you can’t hurry publishing. If you want to be an author, you have to be prepared to stay in it for the long haul. Getting from first draft to published author can take years and years of ups and downs, disappointments, successes, hard work and patience. Even so-called “overnight successes” are rarely as overnight as the media might have you believe. If you want immediate gratification, publishing is not the right fit for you, but if you’re willing to be patient, determined and resourceful, you have a much better chance of making it in this business. Also, if you want to be a long-term, established author, don’t limit yourself to writing what’s “hot” or trending – write your stories, not what you think might be profitable or popular. Trends come and go, but good writing is timeless.
Publishing is a Business
Which leads us nicely into our next point – while writing is, for many of us at least, a form of creative self-expression, for publishers it is a business. That’s not to say that editors and publishers aren’t creative and passionate about the written word, but the cold hard truth is that if they don’t sell books they can’t pay the electricity bills. What does this mean for writers? Well, it might mean that your beautiful, well-written and carefully edited manuscript receives rejection after rejection because it’s not deemed commercial enough. It might mean that editors want you to change things in your story to be more commercial. It might mean being expected to do more promotion to support your sales, which may not come naturally to everyone, especially those of us who are more introverted. And what it definitely means is that none of this is personal. The rejections, the suggestions, none of it is personal. It’s just business.
Rejection
Repeat after me – the only way to avoid ever being rejected is to never submit anything in the first place. Rejection is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes upsetting. Just like clowns. Which is how I’m justifying including a picture of a clown in this post. If you want to read all about my experiences with rejection, I’ve written all about it here.
Know When To Hold ‘Em, Known When to Fold ‘Em
Having just said that publishing is a business, it’s worth considering how much of yourself and your creative vision you’re willing to compromise in order to be a part of that business. Are you willing to change your story to be considered more commercial, and if so, how much are you willing to change? Small changes might be acceptable, while major changes might not be. Are you comfortable putting yourself out there on social media to support your publisher’s marketing efforts? If you’re naturally private, this might be very uncomfortable. Is it more important to you to be published or to retain complete creative control? If so, perhaps self-publishing might be a better fit. Are you so eager to have an agent that you’re willing to sign with someone who might not “get” your writing as well as another agent might? There are no right or wrong answers here, just things all writers need to consider.
Reading is Research
To paraphrase Stephen King, you can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. I mean, you obviously can, but reading exposes you to new ideas, vocabulary, genres, styles and tones. So don’t ever feel guilty about reading instead of writing, because the two are intrinsically linked. Reading is research, and it’s part of being a writer.
Find Your Support Group
Writing can be a lonely activity. Finding a group of supportive fellow creative types can make a world of difference. Don’t be afraid to test drive writing groups before settling on one that feels right to you. If you write middle grade novels, a group composed entirely of adult romance writers might not be the most useful fit for you, but then again, if the people are awesome, it just might! Connecting with fellow writers can help you stay ahead of industry news, develop your writing and marketing skills, and build a fantastic critique group who can help you fine-tune your stories. And folks, take it from me, if I can network, so can you. I am painfully shy and have suffered from almost debilitating social anxiety for my entire life, and I have found writers to be by and large some of the kindest, warmest, most welcoming people I’ve ever met. There will always be some snobs out there, but don’t let them put you off. These are your people, and you have just as much right to call yourself a writer as anyone, no matter where you are on your writing or publishing journey.
I could honestly go on and on gushing about the inspiration I drew from this awesome writer’s meetup, but if you only take one thing away from this entire post, please let it be the importance of connecting with other writers. You can learn so much from just being around other writers at different points in their publishing journeys, I can’t recommend it enough.
Do you belong to a writer’s community? How did you find and connect with your people? I’m always looking for ways to connect with other writers, which hasn’t come naturally given my painful shyness, but it’s so, so worth it!
Also – be sure to check out some of the incredible works put out by the authors in the meetup, follow them on twitter, and add their books to your Goodreads lists!
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