Most writers desire to get their work published. This is a worthy goal towards which to strive. Many writers get a few articles, poems, stories and even the odd novel published. A few writers get hundreds of pieces of writing published and even fewer actually make a living from their writing.
How do you improve your chances of getting published?
8 Steps to Getting Published:
- Read: most, if not all published authors are voracious readers.
- Write: this may seem obvious, but writers write; they don’t only read about writing or talk about writing, they actually write often and write in quantity.
- Goals: successful, published authors set goals for their writing. This could include setting the number of words to write each day, the number of hours spent writing each day, deadline dates to complete a novel, story or article and so on.
- Edit: published authors edit their writing until it is as near to perfect as they can get it.
- Markets: the authors who study the markets know where to send their writing for the best chance of getting published.
- Guidelines: published writers read the publisher’s guidelines so they give themselves the best chance of being accepted for publication.
- Submit: Successful writers submit their writing to publishers. Often. A story won’t get published if it sits languishing in a desk drawer or on your hard-drive.
- Persist: Successful authors don’t give up; they are persistent. As soon as one rejection letter comes they sent off the story to another publisher. And they keep on doing it until they are successful.
- Write: Successful writers keep on writing, accepting that rejection is not personal. It’s the story that has been rejected – for whatever reason – not the author.
- Remember to read every day.
- Remember to write every day.
- Remember to take time for yourself every day.
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