Note: Previously published as a guest post at Thoughts of a Sojourner My Unconventional Path to Publication My boss sank into a chair across from my desk, hung his head, and delivered news no employee wants to hear. “We’re making cutbacks here at the college, and I’m afraid”—he took a deep breath and let it out—”your position is being eliminated.” A two-by-four to the side of the head couldn’t have jolted me more. What!? They’re cutting my job? It was January 13, 2006, and I was sitting in my office (see photo) at Northland Baptist Bible College (now Northland International University), where I’d been serving as an editor since 1995. With a BA in print journalism, I was in charge of editing and writing content for all sorts of campus publications: promotional brochures, a magazine, the academic catalog, the yearbook, even the website. And now, in five months, I’d no longer…
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See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and Part 9. #10: If a publisher accepts my novel, they’ll just make a few changes and print it. Acceptance of a novel for publication means a publisher is happy with the heart—the essence—of the overall story and believes that publication of said story shows strong potential for bringing in a good financial return. But that doesn’t mean the novel is perfect. Not by a long stretch. Rare is a manuscript that doesn’t need some level of work. That’s what the revision stage is for. Revisions? Say what? The newbie says in a timid voice, “But I thought . . . well . . . I guess I thought the publisher would . . . well, you know . . . just have the manuscript proofread and then print it.” Uh no. Before publication, manuscripts can go through quite a bit of…
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“How can I get started in novel writing?” Someone recently asked me this question, and my mind swam with a myriad of thoughts and questions. Such an elementary question forced me to stomp on my mental brakes and flash back about thirty years to the days when I filled notebooks with all sorts of strange tales with my childlike, loopy handwriting. What the questioner really wanted to know was, How can I publish novels? But the answer to that question—and what a big question it is—is only part of the journey. So let’s start at the beginning. Before anyone should seriously pursue novel publication in any formal sense, I believe he or she should first ask the following five questions: 1. Do I love fiction? To be a great writer of fiction, you must first be a great lover of it. I firmly believe that. You’ll need extraordinary perseverance not…
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See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7. #8: Once I publish my novel, I’ll have arrived in the literary world. Can you believe it? I actually thought this once. I thought my novel was that good. Very prideful of me. At the time, it seemed like a simple and logical conclusion. Publish a novel=be a published novelist=enjoy literary acclaim. Right? Well, no. That’s sort of like saying, “If I win a race, I’ll have won the men’s marathon at the Olympics.” When it comes to literary status, publishing a novel isn’t reaching the top of Everest. It’s cresting one of its tiny foothills. Being “Somebody” Becoming recognized as “somebody” in the literary world isn’t as simple as we’ve been led to believe. Think about movies or TV shows you’ve seen about struggling writers who persevere and overcome tremendous odds, only to achieve a big contract, fame, and…
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