You want to be a what?? Are you crazy?? Let’s see—years of grueling hard work, rejection, frustration, terrible odds, impossible-to-reach goals. You have more hope of winning the lottery than becoming a best-selling author. You’ve heard the statistics. Each year hundreds of thousands of books are written. Literary agents get over three hundred queries a week, but they might only take on a handful of authors. Acquisitions editors receive a hundred submissions from top agents weekly, but they may pick only three of those titles to publish in a year.
Some authors have it easier. They may write to a specific genre, such as short romantic suspense, that needs formulaic novels, which allows for a proficient writer to have steady contracts writing similar books.
But for most wanna-be novelists, the prospect of getting published by a top publishing house and becoming a successful (read: making enough money to quit your day job and having people in the market recognize your name) is close to nothing. Continue Reading…
