Help for authors timid about technology
These rules are not universal. But this is what I have noticed working with dozens of authors and wanna-be authors.
Think of this as a list of best practices.
Difference #1 – Consistancy
- Published authors wake up early and write everyday.
- Unpublished writers write sporadically, often at night.
Difference #2 – Purpose
- Published authors write to help & inspire others. They write to do something.
- Unpublished authors write for themselves. They write to be somebody.
Difference #3 – Platform
- Published authors have a platform that they start building years before their first book comes out.
- Unpublished authors have little or no platform. Some don’t even know what a platform is.
Difference #4 – Reading
- Published authors read books about writing and selling books.
- Unpublished authors complain that the publishing world is ignoring their ground breaking work.
Difference #5 – Work
- Published authors know that the difference between Great and Lame lies is hard work. They know they must earn industry attention by being faithful in the little things (tweets, blog posts, magazine articles).
- Unpublished authors feel that they are the next best thing just waiting to be discovered.
Difference #6 – Website
- Published authors have a website usually www.TheirName.com.
- Unpublished authors have a free Blogger blog that they rarely update.
Difference #7 – Marketing
- Published authors see marketing as part of their mission to help & inspire others.
- Unpublished authors see marketing as their publisher’s job.
I hope this encourages you. None of these differences are secrets or are hard to emulate.
What do you think?
Do you agree? What are some other differences you have noticed?
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It’s the difference between wanting to be an author and being an author.
This is insightful and right on the mark, except that it isn’t necessary to get up early to write consistently. It’s possible to become a published writer by writing for several hours every evening instead.
Agree.
(Thank goodness I tick all the right boxes, although I write in the mornings and in the evenings. Could’ve been embarrassing otherwise!)
I must admit the writing mornings is difficult when you’re tied to a day job for income. Otherwise I would happily write all day.
Andrea,
I would agree with you if things didn’t come up in the evenings. After a special meeting a church, PTA and date night suddenly it becomes hard to be consistent.
I do know authors who write from 11pm-1am every day. There is nothing magic about mornings other than that it is easier to be truly constant in the mornings. Generally, Everyone is free from 5:30am till 7:30am.
Except for those of us who also have young children we have to get ready at that hour because they go to daycare early. There is no universal constant.
Seriously, get out of the “morning is always better”. Not everyone functions the same way you do, Thomas. There’s no universal truth that starting early in the morning makes you a better anything.
I can agree with the other points, but I feel you should be more careful judging other people’s lives based on your own. I have no PTA meetings, no church and I don’t date. I have a choir practice 1 evening every week, the rest is open and I rarely entertain friends. As long as you write -consistently- every day, it doesn’t really matter when you do. My office hours are 3 pm till 3 am. If you call me 10 in the morning I’m not available, that’s my personal time.
Just saying.
Not only do I write fiction but I also do business writing and I would agree with most of these things, but the time of day is true, I stay up late for my international clients and so oftentimes I write a new short story or poetry at 4:30 A.M. because thats when I have some time. I usually sleep from about 7 am to around 2, thats the schedule and it works usually! I think consistency is very crucial and marketing myself for my business will make marketing any potential books and such absolutely crucial as well. I think you should write everyday, when you can, if its a blog post before bed or 10 pages during breakfast.
Frankly, you may alienate some writers with the tone. I’m not easily offended, but I was thinking there would be some irony here to balance the meanness. But it came across as just mean. Though your points are most likely true, for someone who is attempting to market their services to writers, I would think that a more collegial, or instructional approach to these binary oppositions would be more universally accepted.
Hiya
These 7 points are not only very true for writers and authors, they are amazingly true for business owners and probably anybody else who is a success compared to a wannabe.
I know very quickly which of my business coaching clients have a snowball’s chance of owing a successful business just by a few simple characteristics such as you’ve described.
Nicely done. Love it when things are plainly said.
Gwen McCauley
Provocative, but apt. I think it may be better to talk about the difference between a successful writer and an unsuccessful writer, rather than published vs unpublished. Publication is a measure of success, but its not the only one. JD Salinger wilfully avoided publication after he saw points 2-7 looming like the grim reaper. I think he foresaw that phoniness would creep into his work if he was driven by hype. But today, there is only one JD and the rest of us need the extra help…
Agree with title of #1 and that’s it. In general I think published writers write every day. The time of day is utterly irrelevant as long as the consistency in hours is there. The rest of it I not only disagree with but know is patently untrue.
Strongly disagree with just about all of this.
Agree with many of your readers about the time of day thing. No way would anything I write before 10am be worth anyone’s time to read a single paragraph. I am at my most clear and coherent about 6pm- midnight. And I write just about every night. CONSISTENTLY. Why not change this to something like : A writer knows when his/her peak time of day is, and capitalizes upon this by dedicating this time to his/her craft by using it consistently to write, every day. There. Much better.
I have had a small book published by a major professional organization, numerous articles and will have another article coming out soon in a very reputable journal, for which I got very strong positive feedback. I am a published author – and have done almost none of the above. I consider myself a success as a writer; my writing and professional colleagues regard me as such too, I believe. I am not a full time writer. I have a full time Other Job.
For me, success is not about how much money I make, how many people know my name, or how many copies of whatever have sold. (Although it appears that this might be the definition of success used above in your post). Success is seeing my work published, enjoying the research and writing that go into it, and having others tell me they enjoyed what they read or that they learned something.
Perhaps your list should be qualified by the type of writing you are talking about. Is this the Great American Novel we’re talking about here? Maybe your points are more applicable to that type of writing than other types of writing.
Many of these points are not even applicable when you do niche writing. Finding a niche and making it mine, and marketing my work the old fashioned way – finding a unique subject and perspective and persuading the publisher it will be of interest to their readers or fit their niche is how I have been successful. It is what has worked for me.
I’m a pretty widely-published writer: I’ve written and edited fiction and non-fiction books, lots of articles, and poetry even; and I’ve won a whole heap of prizes for my work.
Not a single one of these points works for me. It’s all too prescriptive, and lecturing: especially the one about having to get up early and write “everyday” [sic].
From my perspective you’ve got this one seriously wrong, I’m afraid.
Yeah, some of these points are good, but mostly you’ve phrased them in such a didactic, I-know-all tone, that the good is lost.
I doubt very much that every successful author follows your ‘rules’. There is no one path to publication, other than writing an appealing book. Not necessarily good, or literary, or ground-breaking; just appealing.
#1 – I happen to be a morning person, but I have to agree with the other commenters that you need to know your own best time. I prefer to write before my day-job because I’m usually too wiped afterwards, but the night-owls out there would probably struggle to even be out of bed at 6am, same as I rarely see midnight.
#2 – No, no, no! I write fiction purely to entertain, not to help or inspire others (non-fiction is another matter). Sure there’s a danger of self-indulgence when writing purely for yourself – you have to be aware of current readers’ tastes if you want to sell – but in my genre, “inspirational” narrative would be a total turn-off.
#7 – you need to distinguish between marketing and promotion. You can and should get involved with promoting yourself, through networking and connecting with readers, but marketing your book (getting it into shops, etc) is your publisher’s responsibility. Otherwise you’re on the slippery slope to vanity publishing…
The rest I more or less agree with – I can hardly disagree with #6 since I have one!
Thomas,
This was certainly provocative! You gave me much to think about. While there might not be any true hard and fast rules, your experience is worthy of consideration.
Me, I’m more a night owl but most people are free probably at 5:30am…but me, I’m usually busy getting my beauty sleep
I also disagree with a lot of this, too. I'm published in short fiction and articles and have written three unpublished novels. Writing is writing. If you write five pages in the morning or in the evening, it's still the same page count.
Platform sounds like you're talking about non-fiction authors, but a lot of the commentary is directed at novelists. The two forms of writing are not the same. It's pretty hard to have a platform for a novel.
Work–You mean the unpublished author isn't out there working hard to write good books and submitting to agents?
Web site–A sweeping generalization that isn't true.
Marketing–I'm happy to go out and promote the book–but "help & inspire"? On a novel? Seriously?
I'm an unpublished author and i would check off most of the boxes on the published side. What really bugs me is this post seems to give the impression that unpublished writers are unprofessional lazy whiners. Which in many cases is flat out untrue. Unpublished authors don't have the luxury of picking when they write because they usually have to keep a day job, and they write with no guarantee of financial compensation All authors were unpublished at some point and their work ethic didn't suddenly change the moment their book rolled off the press.
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Great job, you have really differentiate the difference between published and unpublished. Keep up the good work.
It was an interesting post.. Although I see your points as being less about published vs. unpublished as serious in pursuing a career vs. not being serious. I had that work ethic long before I signed my contracts. And like Sarah, I did all the right things in order to sell my books.
One more thing – platforms. I really really hate that term.. I know, I know – it's a competitive industry and it's market or die. I get that. But we, as an industry, spend so much time worrying building our "platforms" when we should be worrying about creating good, sellable, readable books. A good platform, like good marketing and good networking, is based in authenticity. I think unpublished writers are far better served worrying about keeping their writing a priority than they are worrying about their platform. But that's just my opinion.
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I agree with you on the unpublished writers worrying about keeping their writing a priority. A writer can have the best marketing material but if the writing is not good then it's all a waste of money and time. Concentrate on getting your writing skills down and something good to present, and then worry about the rest.
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I disagree with all of this, because at some point published authors were unpublished authors. The time and day doesn't determine if someone is a good writer or passionate. And wanting money out of it isn't bad either, some people want to get paid doing what they love. In hard times like these, money doesn't get you complete happiness but it helps take care of the family and bills/life expenses; which are unfortunate struggles.
I will like to also add your wrong about the website thing, some people cannot simply afford owning a real website in their monthly or yearly expenses. I'm an unpublished author a young one at that. but I'm not lazy like on your list, I want to give entertaining and original plots. I'm researching the market on not just the internet but taking surveys at the local libraries. looking at the most demanding genre's in novels and most repeated storyline.
yeah, I write at a slow paste but I write in the day and at night. Plus I re-read my work to not just see mistakes, but see if everything flows and connect.
I think most people take writing to lightly and never put forth the effort to promote themselves like a business. Your manuscript isn't enough anymore. A website, IMO, is one of the best marketing tools for a writer. Nice article!
Allen Applegarth
Published Author
Outdoor Writer
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This speaks of truth, hard work, and dedication. It takes a great deal to be a published author! Thanks for this article!
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Does the 'get a website in your name' difference count for a teenage writer as well? To be more specific, a teenager in a third world country about to go to med-school for the next five years?
And, is there any substitute for writers' conferences in a place where there are none!
Any help would be really appreciated!
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Armaghan,
The best substitute for writers conferences is reading books on writing.
I recommend:
-The Elements of Style (4th Edition )http://amzn.to/h9NiLO
-Writing the Breakout Novel http://amzn.to/ehREjE
-On Writing' by Stephen King http://amzn.to/dXr5qU
Wow – well, Thomas if it makes you feel better I agree with you. Writing is more about hard work than talent, and while story must come before message there are numerous examples in history where truths and traditions were taught and maintained through story. It doesn't matter how well you write, if you want more than your own immediate network of family and friends to buy your book – you need to think about marketing and platform long before you publish. Platform isn't required for fiction writers true, it's considered icing on the cake – but I'm going to do everything I possibly can to stand out from the crowd. I can't think of many successful fiction authors who don't have a website/blog/facebook page/twitter profile. If I want the latest novel Stephen King novel, checking out stephenking.com seems fairly logical – Unless you only ever plan to publish one novel.
(from one half of the Mt Hermon peanut gallery)
Lisa
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I agree with you, these rules are not universal. But that's what I noticed with dozens of writers and aspiring writers.
I don't have platform or maybe I do. It's called, 'I don't give a schtook'. All the 'mainstream' Anglo-Saxon business puritan bull hockey is listed there. If a 'writer' is gifted, he/she will succeed regardless of the rules of the 'establishment'. History is filled with those 'untrained', 'uneducated' authors who made their way, became famous and sold some serious books despite all the upright, seasoned publishers and big corporations who despise them.
Ah yes, Marketing and Promotions, irreplaceable 'platforms' of the greatly flawed entrepreneurial system. Why are your rules better than the rules of those who are unpublished and unsuccessful by your standards? There seem to be an attitude in that list that implies that all unpublished writers are not worth as much as those who are published. A great work will find a way to its audience no matter what.
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This is the most unique article I have read in quite some time.
Thank you for presenting your points and providing this information.
I have learned something about this topic.
Ouch! As a writer who is self-published but yet to be picked up by a publisher, I’m really dumbfounded that you would get that impression of someone like me just because I’m not “published” yet. This is really great article for someone who is published and feeling pretty good about themselves, but for those of us who are writing and doing our very best, who believe in our message but the timing hasn’t been favorable yet, I would bet that we would all be pretty offended. How can you judge our heart motives based on whether or not we are published yet? Every published author started somewhere…and it wasn’t at the top.
I love your writing style really loving this website .
Wow…. I’m not a published author and I do not regard myself as an unpublished author either. I write to help myself understand the real problems in my life that don’t make much sense and I use my characters to explore choices that in real life could have disastrous effects. My books have not only helped me understand teenage angst and family rivalry but they have a similar effect on my friends who I’ve let read my books.
Your “list” is grossly wrong and I can name 17 authors who literally stumbled into being a published author. They wrote books because their heart and mind was set on converting their inner most thoughts and feelings into words and from there into a story. History writers, biographers, novelists, fiction writers etc they all do it because the desire is strong within them to see their mind exposed on paper.
The time they spent writing is irrelevant. Some write a page a day and others may write a chapter a day. Regardless, it’s their story to tell at their own leisure.
Like paintings, sometimes your vision is only understood 30 years after you made the painting because no 2 people think the same way or feel the same way. Your medium in which you express yourself needs to be understood by the audience for you to be able to share your story with them.
Bide your time.