Step by Step

For beginning writers, the hardest step towards publication is the first. Once they achieve that first step, the others come easier. However, too many beginning writers mistakenly believe that they should begin at the top. After all, they look to bestselling authors for inspiration. One makes it into a top magazine on the first try while another lands their first book on the New York Times Bestseller List. The odds of a beginning writer making either of those are worse than winning the Mega Millions jackpot.

The first step is the all-important one. Making sure that one is solid takes perseverance and patience, plus lots of hard work. The best advice is to start small—write a short article or a short story, not a book. Writing a book is like having a baby elephant. It takes 22 months to grow in the mother’s womb and a lot of care after it’s born. On the other hand, writing a short piece is like a chicken laying an egg and sitting on it until it hatches.

Once you’ve had a piece published, you need to keep moving farther out on a limb—but without falling off.  If you write non-fiction, you might publish several short articles in your local newspaper. If you prefer fiction, you might publish a short story in a small literary magazine–for a little pay, of course.

The next step should be to contact a regional magazine, suggesting an article on a subject you know well or a short story. A good way to get feedback before jumping into unknown waters is to write an article or short story and let several friends or colleagues read it. Feedback from "readers" at this stage is more important than acceptance from an editor. If "readers" like the piece, then an editor will most likely enjoy reading it, too. But its more than just liking it. Discussing your article or story with your "readers" to obtain detailed feedback is even more important.

But before you send a piece anywhere, it’s equally important to study the periodicals to find out what they publish—a least a year’s worth of issues. Read the content as well as the ads to find out what sort of content to send the editor’s way.  And reading the letters to the editor will give you a clue to what readers are thinking.

Nothing builds confidence like money in the bank and words in print. Until these accumulate in sufficient amounts, writers rely on substitutes—hope and encouragement. Some beginning writers treasure the letters of rejection that come back with manuscripts they submitted on speculation. They pore over them with a fine-toothed comb searching for clues as to how the manuscript might be revised to become a winner. However, too often they read too much into the editor's words. It's better—and more professional—to immediately send the rejected manuscript to another market, or to revise it and begin again.

But if an editor says he or she has too many stories and might be interested later, you should put a note on your calendar to do just that. If an editor says the idea isn’t a good fit with the publication but would consider others, it’s a good idea to immediately send more ideas.

Many struggling writers feel that their work is better than comparable material they see in print. Just because a piece has been published doesn’t mean it’s good. It’s all subjective. Writers learn to depend on the likes and dislikes, and whims, of editors. Having your article or story rejected may have nothing to do with the subject or your writer’s skills.

Therefore, don’t take a rejection personally but look at the situation objectively. Is getting a piece in a particular publication all that important or will trying for another equally good publication suffice? As in the fable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race.

Choosing the Hare or Tortoise Route

As the old saying goes, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Whether you choose to go the fast route or the slow route to freelance writing success depends on how you start out. If you sprint from the starting line, you may find that soon you’ll run out of energy and slow down considerably. If you start at slow and steady, you may find that you’ll have enough energy to go to big and better things.

You may find that you can jump-start your writing career if you do one of three things. You may get some pieces published in at least six top markets within your first year or so. If you play your cards right, you may find you’ll become a regular in one or two of those markets, thus affording you a steady income. From this early success, you’ll be able to pitch more articles and books to editors because your credibility will have taken a quantum leap.

Another way to jump-start your career is by coming up with a sparkling new and innovative idea for a book which might begin a new trend in publishing. Agents may be beating down your door to get a crack at auctioning it off to the highest bidding publisher. But if you go this route, you must be prepared to continue the trend and come up with even better ideas.

The third way to jump-start your career is by publishing your own work and promoting it every way you can until you end up with one or more bestsellers. Until recently, editors and readers looked up any writer who self-published his or her work as one who wasn’t good enough to get published commercially. However, in today’s fast moving publishing environment of the Internet and E-readers, that attitude is changing fast. So if you’re a good writer and have lots of good ideas and some technical know-how, you can easily produce some great material, bypassing the slower traditional publishing route and hopping on the fast freeway to potential success. (NOTE: I’ll cover self-publishing in future blog posts.)

If you’re an enterprising writer, traveling any of the above routes will get you on the fast-track to success. Being at the right place with the right idea at the right time will guarantee it. On the other hand, you could just get lucky. A magazine editor may love your work and welcome you into his or her stable of writers, sending you assignments faster than you can tackle them. Too many beginning writers only think of this route and pitch their ideas only to top markets, then come crashing down when the editors reject their work or, worse yet, don’t even reply, leaving them in limbo.

For the majority of writers just starting out on the path to success, going slow is the best way. Unlike the hare who starts at the top and then fights to stay there, you’ll need to start at the bottom and work your way up the ladder. It’s a tough climb from which you’ll be knocked down more than a few times, but eventually you’ll reach the top. With lots of writing experience behind you, you’ll have a better chance of staying on top longer.