Anyone can write a book, getting it published is the difficult part! (Getting your work published.)

Member Name: lellagrace

Product:	Getting your work published.
Date:	16/03/08 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great feeling to see your name in print

Disadvantages: Very hard if you have no contacts in publishing

"Getting your work published" is a very broad title, but if you write a review on Dooyoo, then you are already having your work published. Even if all you write are comments on others' reviews, your own work is being published.

But why stop there? Maybe you want to become a published writer of books or write for magazines, but don't know how to set about it.

There are lots of books out there about how to become a writer, how to write that novel or how to write for children. There are magazines, such as Writers Forum and Writing Magazine, which are available at W H Smiths and other good booksellers. All these things give the aspiring writer hints and tips on how to write. The internet has masses of information for aspiring writers, just do a google search and you will find them.

However, getting your work published is a totally different ballgame to the actual writing. It is also an expensive and time consuming process. It could be that you have already written a book, believing it will be a bestseller. You may think it is easy to get your novel published, surely if you send it off to a publisher or an agent they will jump at the chance to publish your work. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Every writer will tell you that you have to get used to having your work rejected before it is a success. Agents are hard to find unless you have contacts or are already successful, many publishers won't even consider your work unless it is submitted via an agent. Catch 22 situation.

So why not start small and aim to get something other than that novel published first? You could start by writing a letter to a newspaper or magazine or maybe letters to teletext. Write about something you know (that is the first golden rule of writing anything!). Maybe you have a trade journal or company magazine connected with your job, start with that. Or the women's magazines, or hobby magazines. Many of these pay for letters written by readers. If your letter is published you will know that the editor considered your work good enough to be read by a wider audience. This should then spur you on to write more letters. All good practice in the art of writing for publication.

As you become more confident and have had more letters accepted, you could try writing feature articles about your interests.

Invest in a copy of the Writers' Handbook or the Writers' and Artists' Year book. In there you will find details of publications who accept articles for publication.

It is also a good idea to borrow books from your library on writing to see how to set out your work and other useful tips. Good presentation is essential if you are submitting work. If your library doesn't have many books on writing then look on E Bay to see if you can buy secondhand or browse in your local booksellers. A lot of "how to write" books are not very informative or they are repetitive, so it is best to borrow or buy cheaply if you can.

There are many writing courses you could take, some of these offer a money back guarantee if you don't recover the course fees after completing the course. But be warned, these courses are not cheap and you may lose motivation to complete the assignments. If you just want to know how to write, without having to complete assignments, then again look on E Bay to see if there are any writing courses for sale. You will learn how to write, but not have the critique service available like you would if you purchase the course firsthand.

An alternative is to take a university course in Creative Writing, these are very useful in that they often enable you to have contact with agents, as well as giving you a worthwhile qualification.

I have been writing for many years now and have had lots of things published, books as well as magazine articles, but it is a long hard slog. I am convinced that it is often a case of not "what you know" but "who you know." So if you already have a writer in your family or know a publisher or agent, then you are probably well on the way to having your work published. Unlike the rest of us who have had to struggle through the mountains of rejection slips to achieve our aims!

You can always self publish of course. This is not as daunting as it sounds, all you need is to write your book and then get copies printed off to sell. Selling is the hardest part. It is not easy to get self published books stocked by the larger bookstores. Even if you self publish, you have to do all the PR stuff yourself to get your book noticed. If you write about something that is specialised or of local interest then you may have a market in mind, but for general novels I would not advise self publishing.

A word of caution, beware of so called "vanity publishers". These are companies which promise to publish your book, often at extortionate fees, then you are left to do all the marketing and selling yourself.

Put off getting your work published after reading this review? Don't be, like I said, if you write on Dooyoo then others are reading your work, so set about tackling other markets.

Never forget the advice to any writer is ALWAYS have a notebook handy to jot down your thoughts, then write something every day and keep on sending out your work. If you don't send it out to markets then you will never get it published!

Summary: Write every day and keep sending in your work