Thursday, December 30, 2021

How to Write a Book

This morning I had a Facebook notification that a friend had tagged me on a post of a friend of hers, which read in part, "Has anyone written a book before?! I need to know where to start. I have like 7-8pg." I realized my advice would be rather lengthy for a Facebook post, then I thought hey, I could do this as a blogpost. Pretty good topic.

First of all, the friend-of-a-friend appears to be an adult. I say that only because I'm often asked the exact same question by children, and my answers to children would be somewhat different. I'm against children seeking publication--they have no idea how hard it can be and they're up against adult professionals, both of which are also true of adults new to writing, but they're also still kids. They shouldn't be making something fun into work, not yet, and they're often being pushed to make "real books" by the adults in their lives. You don't expect Little Leaguers to play for the Braves. Quit expecting the equivalent from young writers.

Now. Said FOF is an adult woman, knows very little about publishing. Is inspired to write. GREAT. She's got everything she needs: a story and the ability to learn. Because publishing is a business. It helps very much if you think of it like performing onstage: those actors in Hamilton are making bank, because that show is amazing, they're incredibly talented, and they've worked very, very hard for a very long time. You, too, could work that hard. Whether you're that talented is your own business--but--I'm loving this analogy here--there are lots of parts of writing, like performing onstage, that can be learned. Some people are total naturals, complete freaks of nature. Most, even the very successful ones, aren't. I'll say it here: Lin Manuel Miranda's natural voice, while good, isn't on par with most Broadway musical stars. But he's learned enough and worked enough and is good enough at other things that it all works out pretty well.

But just as there's Broadway, so too is there off-Broadway. Regional theaters. Local amateur productions. You don't have to streak straight to the top of the bestseller lists, and, in fact, you aren't likely to. That's fine.

Back to writing. Let's start with a few questions. One: who is your story for? Children? If so, which children? Toddlers being read to? First graders starting to read on their own? Sixteen-year-olds? Those are all very different. If it's for adults, that's not a monolithic audience either. Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Memoir? Different rules. (I'm going to go ahead and assume you're not writing for an academic audience--that's another branch entirely.) Then think about genre: historical fiction, romance, mystery, fantasy, etc. If you're not sure, that's okay, just start thinking about it.

Here's another primary question. What is your ultimate aim? There's a wide difference between wanting to write up some family stories to pass down to the next generation and wanting to become the next Stephen King. Publishing right now can be divided into two types: traditional and self-published. When you write for a traditional publisher, as I do, you submit a manuscript to the publisher. They decide whether or not they want to publish it. (I'm simplifying here a bit.) They assign you an editor, and you and the editor revise the manuscript until everyone is happy with the result. (If you're happy and they aren't, tough noogies. Back to work.) Then they have in-house staff design the layout, cover, trim size. They put your book into their marketing plan, their salespeople pitch it to bookstores and distributors, standard reviewing journals (Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, etc.) review it, and it gets sold in bookstores nationwide without the author having to do very much. The author is paid an advance on royalties and then a certain percentage of the price of all the books sold. You never have to pay back the advance even if your book tanks, but an advance for beginning writers will be in the low thousands of dollars, not necessarily a lot--but if your book sells well, you'll get more.

When you self-publish, you, the author, bear the cost of producing the book. You will likely pay for an editor to review your work and suggest edits, but if you don't want to do the edits that's up to you. You'll either pay someone else or you yourself will supervise the design and select the cover. You'll direct the marketing. You'll pay upfront for your book to be physically produced. You'll be responsible for trying to get it into bookstores, and this will likely be difficult to do. You can pay some journals to review your book, but not all of them, and you do have to pay them. On the other hand, you get complete control of your product, and you get a higher percentage of the book's price as profit. You might pay $3 per copy to create your book but sell it for $15--$12 profit per copy, instead of the $1.50 per copy profit you'll make traditionally publishing. On the other hand, better distribution means you're much more likely to sell lots of copies through traditional publishing. With self-publishing you take the risk. It's worth understanding that most people who self-publish do not sell enough copies of their book to make any profit at all. Most are out money. On the other hand, I have personal friends who have done very well for themselves through self-publishing: they understand their market and are very good at that end of the business, as well as being good writers.

Here's the other thing: self-publishing is akin to amateur theatrics, in that anyone can do it. Some people are going to be very talented, and work very hard, but a lot of people are just dabbling. That's fine. There's plenty of room for dabblers. But it you want to be traditionally published, you're going to have to think of that more as Broadway--there are a lot of people trying to get onstage, and they don't reserve spots for newbies. You'll have to audition and prove yourself.

(This is also why the person who suggested you write to publishers and ask for advice is off base: because it's the equivalent of asking Lin Manuel Miranda how to get started in theatre. It's not that he doesn't know or isn't a nice guy, he just doesn't have time to send you an answer.)

So. This is a lot of words, and I still haven't given you any advice. So here it is: take some time and do your research. You don't have to stop writing while you do that. Write whatever you like, enjoy yourself, and at the same time, start learning. Read a lot of books in your genre. Develop a feel for the structure, characters, general rules. At the same time, start learning about the business side. Go to the library and get the current Writer's Market. There's one published every year, and most libraries have them. (There's a separate one for writing for children.) Read it. Read Stephen King's book On Writing. Practice. Learn to revise. Think about your craft. Take yourself seriously, while still having fun. If you're writing for kids, there's an organization called the Society of Chidren's Book Writers and Illustrators that runs conferences and has lots of good information online. There are organizations for writers for adults, too, though I don't know them by name.

Join a writer's group, if you can. Learn to have your work critiqued, and to offer critiques. Practice. Finish a story, even if halfway through you think it's crap (and it probably is.). You'll learn things by writing a story all the way to the end that you can't learn otherwise. 

Understand that there are very, very few overnight successes in this world. There are a few, and some of them are even nice people, but most of us have to work at our craft for a long time. It took me nine years of writing for horse magazines and doing random bits of journalism and working my way up to remote editing and writing work-for-hire before my first novel was published. It took me 9 drafts to get my penultimate book right--and that was my 17th (traditionally) published book. It's a lot of work no matter how talented you are.

Also? It's worth it. Start now.


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