you never can begin to live until you dare to die...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Writers, does this make you nervous?

One Year Adventure Novel, my writing/English program for this year recently contained a quote I found very thought-provoking. It said, more or less:

'It nears the impossible to get published these days. Fewer people than ever are actually reading books... and more people than ever are submitting manuscripts.'

It gets you thinking, doesn't it? So all you aspiring authors, what makes you think you have a chance?

And what I really want to know-- have you ever submitted a manuscript? A letter? I want to hear about your publishing attempts.

10 comments:

Brenna said...

One year adventure novel... my brother did that. I read the some of the textbook, but didn't do the program. I kept yelling at the author of the program when I disagreed with him, though, so mom eventually took it away from me. ::sheepish grin::

Publishing isn't the important part, for me. I like sharing with my friends and family, and maybe small online communities, but publishing into the Big Bad World has never been a huge attraction. If I happen to scribble something up that has a chance, maybe I'll consider it.

HOWEVER, while the idea of getting published being hard doesn't disturb me, the fact that people aren't reading as much DOES disturb me!

Willis said...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"Persevere"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

No, it doesn't bother me... yet. Actually, Grey, did you know that there is a girl on the OYAN forum whose mom runs a small publishing company and who will publish OYAN novels if they don't contain objectional material? I could give you that info if you'd like. It's a small place, so your book wouldn't be going on bookstore shelves, but it'd be out there. And it wouldn't cost you any money! (always a bonus) I was going to do that with last year's novel, but now I'm not so sure. It just isn't good now that I come back to it! And I don't want friends and family members buying a book that I had published and not finishing it cause it was so bad. So we'll see about that one. I think I'll get the one I'm working on now done though through that. Something that is rather encouraging about that is this: if you get a novel published like that, will agents consider you later on??? I wonder.

~Haley Christine

ElizabethMarieKauffman said...

Honestly. . . I don't know if I'll ever get published. I mean I would love, Love, LOVE to, and it's been this dream of mine ever since I was tiny. But mostly I just write because I love it. And I know, that since God has put this passion for writing into me, He must have some sort of a plan for it. Wether it's that I get published, or some other thing that only He would know what it is (like He seems to so often enjoy tossing our way :) ). So ya. . . . :) There's my answer.

And no, I haven't really ever sent anything in. . . yet. I did once send a poem in to a magazine, but I never heard anything back. . . .

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Rachel Kimberly said...

When I was younger, I got a poem published by Creative Kids Magazine, which is a creative writing mag for and by kids. I didn't get paid anything, but just seeing my work published was cool enough. I also had a music concert review published there.

I don't entirely agree with the quote. Reading will never die out, and publishing is still highly possible, if you work hard and constantly improve your craft. I'm hoping to be a published author. That's my goal for my career, but not only that-- I write because I love it. I couldn't STOP writing if I tried. It's what I was born to do, no matter what the publishing world is like at the moment.

At this stage in my life, I'm not quite ready to submit any book-length manuscript. Right now I'm learning, learning, learning, and getting my work ready for that step.

Cheerio!
~Evergreena

emily said...

I've never published anything. I hope to. It would be really cool to have a book published. I'm still reching for my goal to become a screenplay writer:]

Marian said...

My goal at the moment is to self-publish. Even if I got published by some big, well-known company, I'd probably still be doing a lot of the promotion anyway. Self-publishing will, in theory, give me more control; and, since I don't care about making money right now, I think it's the best way to go. :)

Thursday said...

Competition for being published is a challenge. Public illiteracy is a threat. Bit of a distinction there.

Liz Patterson said...

I submitted a novel I wrote to several different publishers... I sent excerpts to my favorite authors asking for feedback... I tried a lot. Now my only option, I'm thinking, is to self-publish. There just isn't much of a market for a Christian fantasy novel! But I'm not giving up!

AMZi said...

Hey there! Just saw your comment and popped over to check it out! Love the blog, very cool.

As for the question. I submitted AVERILL to Zondervan publishing (actually my Dad did). I got what Mr. S called THE nicest rejection letter he'd ever seen, as well as a critique by the head editor and several others. I was so shocked they read the whole thing. So... not so dismal a story, for a first ever submission! :)