The Truth About Getting Published

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Greetings and welcome once again to Prose, the "top shelf" for readers and writers. Today, for your reading pleasure, we are pleased to introduce renowned writer and prolific blogger, Jill Jepson.

Jill is the author of Writing as a Sacred Path and the Writing a Sacred Path Blog. She offers free weekly strategies for writers and has agreed to be this week's featured guest.

What follows is an article she wrote exclusively for you, dear Prosers, to help us all distinguish fact from fiction in the publishing world...

"Four False Beliefs about Getting Published that May Be Holding You Back"

The publishing industry is a mystery to most writers. Sometimes, it’s a mystery to people who work in it. It has changed so much in recent years that it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen next.

Unfortunately, this has led to a lot of confusion among writers. Rumors circulate and ideas take root that have little basis in fact. In my coaching practice, I often come across writers who have been held back by their false ideas about publishing. Clearing through these mistaken notions can be one of the best steps you take to achieve success as an author.

Here are the 4 most common misconceptions I hear from writers about publishing.

1.) It’s impossible for new authors to get published by traditional publishers.

You can hardly have a conversation with a writer without hearing how difficult it is for first-time authors to break in. This is not new. I was discouraged from going into writing as a child because “very few people make it”—and that was decades ago.

The truth is, it’s always been tough to get published—and it’s gotten tougher over the past few years. But there is a long way between tough and impossible.

First-time writers break through all the time. Every year, new voices are added to the list. In 2014, Katy Simpson Smith, Phil Clay, Lindsay Hunter, Celeste Ng, Matthew Thomas, Molly Antopol, Yannick Grannec, Edan Lepucki, and Michael Pitre all had successful debut novels—and they are just a handful of the many who saw their first novels published last year.

Getting derailed because you believe you don’t stand a chance is one of the great mistakes a lot of writers make. Don’t be one of them.

2.) You need connections to get published.

Not a single one of the successful writers I know got published because they knew someone in the publishing community.

Might connections help? Perhaps to some degree. Your book is more likely to be read by an agent or editor if they know you personally. But that’s not going to take you very far. Even your best friend isn’t likely to put her whole career on the line by supporting your work if it isn’t marketable.

Conversely, if you have something that publishing professionals think is going to sell, they don’t care if they know you personally or not.

3.) Your first book is going to be a bestseller.

I’ve worked with dozens of authors who truly believe their first novel or memoir is going to find a major publisher, land them a lucrative contract, and make them famous over night. We hear so much about going for the gold and thinking positively that I’m reluctant to rain on the parade.

I’m not saying your book isn’t going to be a bestseller. I’m just saying it might not be. And that’s perfectly all right! Very, very few writers land major contracts for their first book and only a tiny percentage of those make large sums of money. That’s true even if your book is powerful, unique, and brilliantly written.

The problem with oversized expectations is that they can lead to some pretty bitter disappointment. They can even make writers give up when they don’t get the spectacular success they were imagining. I’ve known far too many talented writers who abandoned their books—and their writing careers—after five or six rejections.

A much better approach is to realize that a well-written, marketable book could lead to any one of a range of outcomes—from publication by a small publisher to a major contract complete with a movie deal. Most of the time, the outcome is not huge overnight success.

4.) The key to success is writing like [insert famous author of your choice here].

After the Harry Potter series soared into the stratosphere, editors were deluged with stories of children going to wizard school. With the success of Dan Brown’s work, aspiring writers started churning out Da Vinci Code-type novels. Later, many tried to imitate Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

It’s very tempting to get drawn into the idea that what worked for one author is going to work for you. The problem is that you aren’t that author. You’re you. Developing your own style, writing in a genre that you love and that feels natural for you, and being authentic on the page will take you a lot further than trying to be an author you’re not.

A good practice is to be skeptical of any rumors you hear about publishing. They are usually discouraging—and almost always false. Don’t let misconceptions about the industry keep you from getting your work out there and giving it your all.

- Jill Jepson, May 2015

For more information about Jill and her work please visit www.writingasacredpath.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @Jill_Jepson.

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