HOW DID YOU GET PUBLISHED?

TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE ASKING AN AUTHOR:

How to Get an Agent?

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1. Already have something written B besides a grocery list, your resume, a diary, a journal or letters to your family, friends and/or lovers. Have a good idea why you want to write. Consider Rainier Maria Rilke=s treaty: AIf, as I have said, one feels one could live without writing then one shouldn=t write at all.@

2. Be as close to Anne Lamott=s, Bird by Bird and Natalie Goldberg=s Writing Down the Bones as you are to your loved ones. Also consider, Jewel Parker Rhodes, Angela Benson and Bell Hook=s books, which specifically address African American and minority writers. Study the styles of great writers but don=t copy them B find your own voice. And a great new book for those of you who want to write for children, penned by my good friend and past editor, Harold Underdown called The Idiots Guide to Children's Books. 

3. Know which genre you write in B that requires you to know what Agenre@ means and the definitions of other writing terms. Join a professional organization like, Society of Children=s Book Writers and Illustrators, National Writers Association, Austin Hispanic Writer=s Guild, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Mystery Writers of America, Sisters-in-Crime, Black Screenwriter=s Organization, International Women=s Writers Guild, African American Online Writers Guild, Romance Writers of America, or other organizations, in order to meet other writers with interest in the same genre. Read books in that genre. If you don=t like reading them, maybe you don=t know how to write them either. Be mindful, if you=re interested in mysteries with minority protagonists, you need Paula Woods=, Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes on your shelf. Be sure to read reviews so you=ll know what=s already out there and who published it. Check out Books in Print and Forthcoming Books in Print, plus the recommended book lists in magazines B hip hop magazines have book sections too.

4. Read the industry staples for marketing your work: Writer=s Digest, Children=s Book Insider, The Writer, Inc., The Writer=s Journal, The Hollywood Scriptwriter, Poets and Writers magazines, and the books: Writer=s Market, Literary Market Place, Children=s Writer=s Market, Horror and Science Fiction Writers Market, Poet=s Market, Mystery Writer=s Source Book Short Story and Fiction Writer=s Market, plus other Ahow to@ writing books, just like they were ropes and you were already swinging from them.

5. Even if you=re spending your hours dreaming of your Oprah appearance B still read many books by different authors and practice, practice, practice your craft. Remember a writer B writes. But a good writer also reads. After all, a writer should be in love with books.

6. Approach an author who writes in your area B don=t ask a poet how to get a romance novel published. If you don=t want anything but praise, go worship, don=t request advice on your work. If you=re asking an author to recommend you to their agent, but you can=t share a sample of your work because you think they=ll steal it, then by all means keep it B and forget the recommendation. And, remember, ideas cannot be copyrighted. If you write a story about seagulls and later an author, whose taken the time to read your work, also has a seagull flying over head in a story, don=t think they stole it. After all you didn=t invent the flight of seagulls.

7. Do your homework B it probably took that author years of research, struggle, hard work and sacrifice, to answer the question B How to get Published or get an agent? B so please recognize they can=t give you the answer in a ten minute phone conversation, an email or standing in line at a book signing. One of the best ways to query an author is to take a class under them, or attend a conference where they=re appearing and/or critiquing manuscripts, usually there is only a small fee to submit your work and you will be guaranteed a one-on-one experience plus, some feedback.

8. If you=re serious about being a writer B investigate it as though you were buying a car, house or getting married, oops, we don=t investigate that do we. Take some weekend or longer courses, attend writing seminars, conferences and maybe even join or start a critique group. Attend a writer=s colony or compete in writing contests/and or fellowships. If you happen to be one of those folk who usually end up buying a Alemon@ when you=re shopping for wheels, that=s a good indication you don=t do enough research B and it=s a habit well worth breaking. If you=re discouraged by all this work without pay, accept it, purchase a Atalisman@ of some kind that represents your transition to becoming a Awriter@ and get busy.

9. Be old enough to have something to say B hopefully it is either, profound, wise, heart wrenching, funny, witty or entertaining, enough that someone other than your family and school teachers would want to read it. The fact that you can carve a turkey with a steady knife doesn=t mean you=re ready to be a surgeon, any more than, the fact that you can put sentences together means you can write the Greatest Novel Ever Written.

10. If you do approach an author with these questions, at least, have read one of the author=s books all the way through B even if you didn=t buy it. Out of respect for your profession, at the very minimum, be familiar with their work. Try to remember, when you become an author, notice I said when, and not if, you will only survive if folks actually buy your books. Merely having an agent and getting a book published will not automatically put food in your mouth or another book contract on your table.

Of course, if you=re already famous, or have the type Ajob@ profile that is the book industries= flavor of the month, committed a horrendous crime, or diddled with the President of the USA, none of the above probably matters. You=ll get a million-dollar contract and you won=t even have to write the book yourself B just show up for the tour and the Oprah show.