I have heard (and read) for as long as I’ve been paying attention that publishing credits are important, especially for the fledgling writer. Now this might sound like a catch-22. You know the one: we can’t hire you for the job because you don’t have enough experience, but you can’t get experience without the job? Yes, it most certainly feels like that to me too. But why do editors and publishers and agents care if you have any publishing credits? Essentially (and this is based on what I have been told by editors, and publishers) publishing credits mean that someone has read your stuff and has considered it to be of a high enough quality to print. Before you say, […]
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The Hardest Part of Anything
There are days when I wonder if I’m cut out to be a writer. No, I’m not doubting my ability to actually put words down in a coherent order either. I’m more referring to the whole “the publishing industry takes a long time” aspect of it. Every aspect takes time: finding a publisher/agent who is interested in your writing, the publisher/agent actually accepting said work, getting a contract and so on. It means a LOT of waiting and if there is one thing I’m not good at, waiting would be it. So what has my knickers in a bunch right now? There are a couple BIG things on that list right now. As I may have mentioned previously, I am […]
Read moreKeep Things in Perspective
I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day about a writing conference and he mentioned how disappointed he was with some of the authors who attended. Now, before I go too far, let me say that the friend I was talking to is also an author. As to why he was disappointed in (some) of his fellow authors it comes down to a single word: attitude. He told me that a number of the attending authors had the attitude that they were better than everyone else and deserved to be treated like celebrities. I have a real problem with that because, as Dave Duncan once said to me, “Every professional author was an amateur just like you […]
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