• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Old survey, but interesting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marc Joan
  • Start date Start date
Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Interesting, and shows self publishing isn't going to lead to full publishing :rolleyes:
 
Someone mentioned in comments that being proactive is the operative word. I agree.
 
Thanks for posting..... :)......I think getting published it a mixture of......great writing.....persistence.......persistence.....persistence......a dash of good luck.......and finally someone believing in your work as much as you do...... :)
 
A fascinating article. I've read of authors writing and submitting three or four novels before getting anywhere, whereupon those early books were dusted off and found a home - so what was wrong with them in the first place? It sometimes feels like one has to learn a secret knock to get through the gatekeeper's door, and the only way is to persist with different combinations of tactics.

Simply remembering a stranger's name is tricky, and if that unknown person happens to be an author who is trying to flog their book, then pity them. I've been online for two hours as I write this, and after opening emails, perusing The Colony, checking Facebook and reading several newsletters I subscribe to, I've already taken in a couple of hundred names - forgetting all but a few of them.

This is why persistence is vital, even if the literary agent or publisher goes "oh, it's Mr Annoying again", for they might eventually say to themselves "let's see what they want" and actually deign to read your submission.
 
Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
This is why persistence is vital, even if the literary agent or publisher goes "oh, it's Mr Annoying again", for they might eventually say to themselves "let's see what they want" and actually deign to read your submission.

Persistence yes, plus the ability to listen and learn. My strategy has been 5 books in five years. The timeline was ambitious and is still slipping (currently 5 years and 2.5 books, plus loads of collateral writing), but the overal thrust remains.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Further Articles from the Author Platform

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • The Shadow Durian
    As a lifelong foreigner, I’ve learnt that being open to new things smooths the path considerably. ...
  • Goodbye Eeyore, Hello Tigger
    Granny was churchy. She grew up in an era that saw living by the Bible as an important British chara ...
  • 21st Century Song of Summer
         It’s sobering to think that while summer is celebrated in some parts of the world with mus ...
  • Falcon Theory
    “So,” said Goethe to his friend Johann Peter Eckermann, “let us call it a Novelle, for what i ...
  • The Joy of Lit Mags
    While my first novel is tentatively making its way towards agents who already have too much to read, ...
  • Advertising and Social Media
    There has been much discussion in writing circles about how much a writer has to self-promote these ...
  • Future Abstract: Fights at Night
    SATIRE ALERT: The following abstract is entirely fictional and does not represent actual events or s ...
Back
Top