Don't you wish there was someone in the literary world that was genuinely and personally interested in making your writing work? Somebody you could run to when inspiration is elusive; when every sentence you write seems dry and stilted. Somebody who would reassure you that its not all for naught, the hours and days and weeks you spend on getting your manuscript just right, so that eager editors can fight each other to snap it up. Don't you wish that some bigshot would come along and read one paragraph that you have written, maybe even a chapter or an essay, and exclaim, "Fantastic! Profound! You are a genius, a natural, I want more, more, more! I'm taking you under my wing immediately; we must nurture this amazing raw talent that you have!" Me too! *back to work...and daydreams...*
That would be nice. Sadly it doesn't always work out that way. You have to prove yourself to most editors. The editors that I know happen to think that you're not an author until you've written five books. Once they see that it doesn't matter if you make no money at it, and you're still willing to rough it out and create something because you're making something worth doing, that's when they're willing to market your work. I actually met Dave Wolverton (Real name is just Wolvert). He's actually really quite well known and lives in St. George (where I live... not that he'd tell me where that is). I used to email him stuff and talk to him quite often, but I'm affraid that he probubly spent more time writing to me than writing his books. So... eventually he stopped. But I wish I picked his brain better... Or maybe I did it too well?... who knows.
Strange as it may seem, I actually did have a guy come up to me and say those EXACT words. "Fantastic! Profound! You are a genius, a natural, I want more, more, more! I'm taking you under my wing immediately; we must nurture this amazing raw talent that you have!" Oh no, hang on. That was my mum.
Well, my advice to you all is... Seek out some local authors, find them at book signings, email them..be polite..ask questions, first and foremost, make sure you have read the work of the author you are emailing. You would all be surprised just how many of these authors are willing to correspond with aspiring writers. A perfect example....I have had two (count that, TWO) emails returned from Tess Gerritsen. Im a hard core Gerritsen fan and she is a hard core literary advocate and VERY polite. She gave me some awesome advice that I took and it worked well for me. Seek our your local authors..send them a fan mail..ask for advice..most of them are very willing to give out advice. And who knows, maybe someday that author just might be willing to review a novel for you. One addition, dont ever be so forward as to send a manuscript to one unvinvited. I would discourage even asking them to review it as in Gerritsens case she is supremely busy on book tours and such. But most of these published authors ARE approachable people and they have a wealth of advice. You never know what will become of a chance meeting with someone so NEVER rule out the possibility
It rarely works that way, but I'm sure we've all thought that at one point or another. I do think that local authors might be a good group of people to pursue their thoughts if they're willing. Ya never know until you try.
Stay positive in your attrempts no matter what happens. You're a fully qualified author the moment you have finished your first book regardless whether it's in print or not. Success is actually relative. Not all rejections are the result of bad work but the demand of that time as is usually the case. A lot of publishers won't even publish the damn bible[sic] if they anticipated that the market is not open to it at that time. Grind , grind, grind!
