I have a book in the works... still really haven't finished it, but I'm getting together an outline and my ideas and I've always thought about writing. But lately I've been thinking about the trouble I might have getting my book published... mostly due to my lack of experience. My writing experience, as lame as it sounds, has come from three to four years of roleplaying and the beginnings of other books I've written. Other than that, I have no degree in college (I'm twenty years old and am taking courses at a correspondence school for vet assistant, aside from the one year I spent at regular college as a music ed. major). Will that be a problem when I go to get my book published? Will they even look at my resume and query letter after seeing that I have such minimal experience? Am I doing all this for nothing? I'm quite new to the world of writing novels, but I've been thinking about it for a long, long while and any insights you all have would be fabulous.
Education shouldn't have any effect on publication. Assuming you're not writing anything that requires mastery in that subject (some nonfiction for example), it doesn't matter if you have a 5th education or you're a college graduate. And it's ok if you don't have any publishing experience. You just have to make sure your novel is written to the very best of your ability when you submit it.
thirdwind is correct. The story's the thing, not your experience, or lack of same. Just make sure you do your due diligence when it comes to shopping the finished ms. When the writing's done, the business begins and few writers - at least early in their careers - consider the business aspects. They're too eager to show off their baby to the world. Don't make the same mistake. Good luck.
Write your story and complete it. Than polish it until you can't do no more with it. If you treat your story with respect and be as professional and business-like as you can possibly be, then their is nothing else to really worry over (Apart from a lot of luck). The story and the way you present yourself is all that truly matters at this stage. I have had a few short stories published (nothing as major as a novel though), The only experience i had was writing reviews for somg music gig site. And the people behind publishing my stories never actually cared for it , only what i can them (The story and myself).
if you have no paid writing credits, you shouldn't be saying anything about yourself in your query letters to agents/publishers, anyway! your novel will have to sell itself, regardless of whether it's the first thing you wrote, or the hundredth... no one wants to know what schooling you've had, as it has no bearing on whether the book is good enough to be published, or not... and agents/publishers don't want to see your resume, as you're not applying for a job... they only want a well-written query letter that sells them on the book, period!
Am I doing all this for nothing? Only you can answer that…Would you consider your efforts wasted if you did not get published? If your answer is “yes”, you should probably take up another pursuit.
Raymond E Feist and Steven Erickson started out as gamers, and both adapted their experiences into good first novels. Go for it, I say. I'm taking a longer route and focussing on getting short fiction published in e-zies or on web-sites. I'm trying to build up a credit list to put in a query letter when I get round to writing that first novel (and its good experience and practice for me too)
