English For (New) Writers! Your Guide to Success!
How to get published as a new writer!
by
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Books
Books just do not happen. Ideas happen first. Ideas
originate with editors and publishers. They also come from literary agents and
writers. Some ideas are better than other ideas. Publishers claim they
instinctively know a really good idea when they see one. But when they look
back over their list of books, they notice with dismay just how many mistakes
they made in selecting one topic or idea over another. Nevertheless, this
selection process is the one that is used. Writers, for some good and valued
reasons, do not like the system but they cannot change it.
Acquisition editors at publishing firms rarely have
the authority to accept a manuscript for publication. Usually, a committee is
established to make that decision. The committee, established from the
marketing, financial and editorial sections of the publishing business,
determines the need and usefulness of
the material and its potential to make a
profit for the publisher. The bottom line is this: Is publishing this book
in our best interest?
Books must compete for business just as video tape
rentals of movies do, the purchase of tickets to see a movie, or buy a CD-ROM.
Purchasing most books is an entertainment decision. Therefore book publishers
are not just competing against other books published by competitors, they are
also competing against every other product and service in the entertainment
field.
“Blockbuster” mentality still exists
The largest publishers tend to repeat themselves
over and over and over again. They do this by repeating books by the same
author who made money for them with their last book. This is especially true of
novelists. Of the top eleven best-selling novels in a recent year, nine of the
authors had best sellers the previous year. Again, the motivation is the
bottom-line. It simply makes sense to stick with success.
On the other hand, however, more new novelists are
being published than ever before in history. An incredible number of them are
actually experiencing tremendous support from the publishers and their works are
selling extremely well.
Of the best-selling novels listed in Publishers Weekly Top 15 list, eleven
were authors repeating who had been on the list the previous year! If you read
novels, you know who they are: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Danielle Steele,
Mary Higgins Clark and Anne Rice.
Our conclusion is that breaking into this elite
group is extremely doubtful but on the other hand, each of them did it. It
would be, however, a very lofty goal to strive for reaching that kind of
success by writing fiction. It is recommended each author be studied for clues
to their success, if your interest is in the fiction area.
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Book Details
About the Book
Writing for Success
Writers who intend to be successful writing must
first define what they see as success. Is your version of success publishing an
article in a magazine? Or is it writing and having published a novel of epic
proportions? Perhaps you will be satisfied with nothing less than fame and
fortune! Either way, you must have a guide to help you along the way.
There are different paths to follow to reach varying
goals. Your roadmap to a successful freelance career should be personalized by
you to take advantage of your unique talents, background, education and
experience. Every writer who has achieved publication has found the way that
was best for him or her. This is what you must do. Fortunately for you, since
you have a copy of this publication, you will have us along to help!
Finding your niche
You must find your subject of expertise or define
your area of interest. It is difficult to be a ‘generalist’ as a writer.
Writers, almost by definition, are thought of as authorities or even experts on
the subjects on which they write. Think about it. When you read an article in a
magazine about a specific subject, let’s say you have an interest in movie
making, that you expect the person authoring the article is extremely well
informed at the very least. More than likely, you want to know what the
author’s qualifications are before you weigh the opinions expressed in the
article.
As your career as a freelance writer blossoms,
opportunities to expand your interest shall arise. When they do, you can
determine whether to change roads or stay on the one you had already chosen.
About the Author
The author is a director of two business graduate
universities (www.southernstatesuniversity.com and www.ashingtonuniversity.com).
He also serves as a Special Assistant to the Governor of the state of
Louisiana. His memberships in professional organizations include the Chartered
Institute of Professional Management, World Association for Online Education,
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, American Evaluation
Association and Canadian Association for Distance Education.
Payne is also the author of two non fiction books, Caught
in the Crossfire (also a NBC-TV movie and Above the Law, the hidden
career of John Volz, USA. He is perhaps best known for his international
best selling periodical The Death of Brandon Lee: The Untold Story.
His most recent work is the Guerilla Tactics for
Job Seekers, a manual on how to find a good job, quickly.