HOW TO \”GET\” PUBLISHED?

This question came up on a group I follow. I think the person asking the question was wanting an answer to \”get published\” quickly. There is no answer, and very few people are published quickly. It takes a lot of learning and hard work.

Before the majority of people are published, they have spent hours studying the craft and attending conferences. After you manuscript is published, you spend hours of studying the craft and attending conferences. Like life, publishing is a learning experience. The more you learn, the better you should write. A writer who is serious with their writing reads craft books regularly.

The more you write, the more familiar you become with words. Writing blogs is very important because it gives you a chance to try new things. You can experiment with your voice. Each of us has a voice or a way we write. People recognize our voice by our books or vice versa. Our voice makes our writing recognizable.

Most of us knew very little about writing when we began writing. Most of us could not cook when we began cooking. We had to get out a cookbook and read recipes. No one ever decided to make a cake without first reading the recipe and gathering the ingredients. It\’s the same with writing. We have to get out a craft book and start reading. We learn sentence structure, grammar, and how to put words together.

I strongly suggest Grammarly.com. I\’m an \”it\” and \”you\” person, and I scatter around a lot of \”this\” and other words that do not explain what I am saying. Grammarly has helped me to recognize those words. Every writer has  a few words or phrases they use constantly. You may grin, arch an eyebrow, put your hands on your hips, and lots of other phrases. Grammarly helps identify those words. You realize you overuse them.

One thing agents and editors look at is your sentence structure. Don\’t start each sentence with the same letter. Don\’t start each sentence with your character\’s name. Learn to construct your sentences better. You do not put words on paper, and you also have to think. Use the brain God gave you to write interesting sentences.

Do not use fonts that you think will make your proposal or manuscript stand out. Use whatever the agent/editor requests on their submissions page. Do everything they request. Everything!

Continue to study the craft. Most well-established authors still do. They continue to attend conferences. They continue to learn. As long as we have a breath in us, we should be learning more about our craft.