There's no doubt that being published already helps, but not necessarily for the reasons one might suspect. Witness some of the big names who occasionally bring out a novel that, frankly, wouldn't have had a cat in hell's chance if it had been submitted by an unknown. Such novels will be bought by ardent fans of the famous name's work, and it might not even stop them buying the next one if they regard the drop in quality as a blip. But even a big name cannot do that repeatedly, so ultimately, it's the quality of the work which matters, because that's what will sell, and artistic pretensions notwithstanding, publishing is a business like any other, and in busines it's the bottom line which counts. I've had both factual and fictional works published, but I'm under no illusion that it's going to give me some automatic greenlight for a publisher to say yes if I submit something. However, one thing I do know for sure, is that having written stuff for years, and having had stuff published, I do have experience, so if something I submit gets published, to say it is because I've already opened the door would be a false step of logic; it would be far more likely that it was my experience which enabled me to write something worthy of consideration. If you are a writer, you are only as good as the last piece of writing you produced, otherwise you are merely living off past glory. Getting published once is something you could luck your way into, getting several things published and consistently managing to do so, is indicative that you are doing something right. Al
care to share some of your published works' titles with us, al?... you seem to be quite a helpful addition to our happy hangout... hope you'll stick around... are you working on anything new? love and hugs, maia
