Hi everyone, I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but if the mods like to move it fine by me. I was just wondering ... would gaining experience give you an increased chance of getting your work published? By that, I mean entering creative writing competitions and having your short story in a newspaper etc - quite like an Artist's portfolio - so that the publishers coul refer back to that work and look a the "qualifications", or something. I know it may seem like a bit of an obvious question, but I just thought I'd ask because I was wondering if I should enter some competitions, just to learn some new stuff and to fill up my time. So, do you think it's a good idea to enter as much as these as you can? And do you think it would impact on the possibility of gettng published? -P&P.
I don't think this would really help. I've never been published, but I've people say that it just matters if you write good or not. The publishers don't care if you're dealing drugs, if you can write gold they'll publish you. That's mostly what I've heard from doing a lot of research on publishers.
Gaining experience will make you a better writer, and better writers have a better chance of being published. But I don't think gaining experience will help you publish a book you've already written.
I think the ultimate question here is what you are striving for with writing. If you're mostly doing it as a fun hobby, with the hope, but not the expectation to get published, then I would think writing contests would be a good deal. Most writing competitions that I've read about don't have amazing prizes. Ultimately, the reward is the prestige of getting your name out there and your work put into a publication. I think that competitions mesh well with writing as a hobby. If I had to consider from a publisher's standpoint, I would care more about what I have right in front of me to read that you've submitted to me, more so than what I've read in the past.
Yes, it would help you. It will help you become a better writer, and it can help you get published as well. Once you've got a finished manuscript, you want to write to a literary agent to gain representation. That literary agent will read your query letter and decide whether he wants to see your work. The more qualifications you can put in this query letter, the better your chances are of getting your work in front of the agent. (Submitting an unsolicited story to an agent, editor or publisher is generally fruitless.) If you're only working towards publishing short stories, it may not matter as much because you can often send unsolicited stories to newspapers or literary magazines.
Yes it will benefit you greatly. Im doing it right now and i felt like i improved a little bit already. Writing takes a lot of practice.
Yes paid publishing credits are always a plus and can be included in your query to an agent. Winning a prestigious writing contest can also help emphasize that you're a skilled writer. This only helps for the initial query submission, and once the agent requests a partial manuscript or a full, your novel must stand alone and even a thousand credits will count for nothing.
