A Writer Writes To Be Read!
FIVE KEY ELEMENTS TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL WRITER
A few words of writing wisdom from the Telling Tales Temptress herself, Adult Authoress Anika King!
For a writer there is no such thing as a bad or futile publication. Every publication counts!
Just as an athlete thrives on wins, Formula 1 drivers thrive on podiums, a pilot thrives on ratings and hours accrued, a corporate thrives on acquisitions and profit margins; a writer thrives on publications. Be they big or small, paid or unpaid, the more you have, the more you are likely to gain, it’s as simple as that.
The three main requirements for a writer to be successful are not ability, skill and talent, as most seem to proffer, though these do help and the first is generally a prerequisite to any career in writing, of course. The three initial keys to success for any writer are quite simply; consistency, punctuality and publication.
When applying for just about any kind of job nowadays; no matter how many fancy pieces of paper one has accrued to say how qualified one is; it is nigh on impossible to get a job without first having accrued some basic level of hands-on experience.
It is no different for a writer, but the qualifications needed by a writer when approaching a new magazine or major publishing house with a concept or completed work are not university degrees, diplomas or writer’s certificates; a writer needs to show they can write first and foremost and that their work is a desirable commodity; ergo a writer’s qualifications are publications themselves. Nothing more, nothing less. All other additions you may or may not have acquired throughout your writing life are simply that; additions, adornments, pieces of flotsam which will bolster nicely a blurb about you on the back of a book, but will not cut any custard with a potential publisher if you a) can’t write or b) have never been published.
The difficult part of this simplicity, however, is getting your foot in the door and achieving that first publication. It’s not easy and this is where the fourth and fifth key elements to being a successful writer come in; perseverance and determination. There will be someone out there with the same ideals, ideas, attitudes or passions as yourself who will like what you write and the way that you write it; it’s simply a matter of finding them. This will never, ever happen by sitting on your masterpiece and daydreaming about what a genius you could be if only someone would publish you! Only persistence, regardless of outcome will lead you to find that initial editor who is prepared to take a chance on your virgin writings, but first you must take a chance and damn well get it out there!
FIVE KEY ELEMENTS TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL WRITER
CONSISTENCY
PUNCTUALITY
PUBLICATION
PERSEVERANCE
DETERMINATION
1. CONSISTENCY
Discipline yourself to write every day, without fail. Consistency in writing will ensure you have an ample supply of written works in order to maintain a consistency in submissions. Consistency in submissions means getting your name known in publishing circles; the first and crucial step to getting published at all. A writer’s name is everything.
2. PUNCTUALITY
Set yourself a goal and a time frame for every piece of writing you do. This will not only train your brain not to waffle but help to ensure that when you are published and your work is sought after you will be able to work to deadline. Punctuality is everything in publishing; get it in on time and never offer anything you cannot produce in full and to deadline! It is better to submit a sub-standard work on time than to submit a shining, polished piece a week late. That is not to say one should stint on quality. A crap piece of writing won’t be published at all, so you must find a happy medium which suits you. One failed submission is all it takes to turn a writers hard-earned name to mud and in writing – your name is your life-blood.
3. PUBLICATION
Get it out there! Anywhere, everywhere, it matters not, so long as the work you have done is not being filed piece atop piece as a dust mantle in the corner of your writing room. No-one ever became a successful writer by hoarding manuscripts in an office drawer. Put it in the post or throw it in the bin. If you’re going to write it, you’re going to write it to have it read, otherwise you are just playing with yourself and there are far more pleasurable and less torturous ways of doing that. Seek out those magazines, newspapers and publishing houses whose content is compatible with your own chosen subject or alternatively write to target any magazine or publisher who you wish to publish with. Either way, you need to get it out there. Your first publication, however small, is the most important and your key to the second and third and so on.
4. PERSEVERANCE
Never give up, never give in and don’t ever be disheartened by a rejection. A rejection is not a rejection of you yourself or of your writing in general; it is a rejection of that particular piece of writing by one editor only; a single person in a world of millions. So what. Don’t be afraid of editors. If you don’t agree, speak up! If you’d like an explanation, ask for it and never be afraid to resubmit a new piece of writing to the same editor, or the same piece of writing to a different editor. It’s your writing – your rules.
Consistency and perseverance will always earn you an editors respect, even if they don’t opt to publish you at this time. Once they publish one piece they like, however, it is likely they will publish more, because they know you both write and submit consistently. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough.
5. DETERMINATION
You will never be a published, successful or best-selling author without a true belief in yourself and what you have to say, be it fact or fiction. You must be determined enough to be published against all odds, regardless of what is thrown at you. This is your writing; it is what you have to say in the way you wish to say it and it will be heard! Without determination you will never become a successful writer. Determination to succeed, determination never to be thwarted by rejection, determination to write daily, regardless of anything else, determination to submit consistently, regardless of outcome and last but not least, determination to hold a belief in yourself and your abilities which will out-stay even the most stubborn of editors in the most prestigious of publishing house.
You’ve got the goods. A writer must be read. That is the whole point. So get it out there!
All content © Anika King.
First Rights, Tezi Magazine.
