“So, How Do I Get Published?”
It’s a question that most writers get at one time or another. Sometimes it has the undertone, of “How did somebody like YOU ever get published?” I have two answers to that question, the one I give depending on my mood and who’s asking. There’s this: “Okay, here’s what you do. Go to Harvard. Arrange to room with someone whose Father/Mother/favorite Uncle owns or runs a major publishing house. Then spend the next four years sucking up to your roomie, big time, while you write your novel.”
It’s a question that most writers get at one time or another. Sometimes it has the undertone, of “How did somebody like YOU ever get published?” I have two answers to that question, the one I give depending on my mood and who’s asking. There’s this: “Okay, here’s what you do. Go to Harvard. Arrange to room with someone whose Father/Mother/favorite Uncle owns or runs a major publishing house. Then spend the next four years sucking up to your roomie, big time, while you write your novel.”
Then there’s the other answer, the real one: “There are three factors involved in becoming a published author: talent, persistence, and luck. And they all matter.”
My own “career,” if it may be called that (three novels in print and another under contract, and I’ve just signed with an imprint of HarperCollins to do a new urban fantasy series, for which they’re committing to three books, to start), is a pretty good illustration of this principle.
My first novel, THE HADES PROJECT, isn’t all that good a case study. It was published by a small (but legitimate – no Author House vanity press here) publisher who didn’t have a lot of money for promotion. But that book is important to the story, nonetheless, because it gave me a foot in the door when it came to selling the second book. BLACK MAGIC WOMAN was published four years later by Solaris Books, a mid-sized publisher affiliated with Simon and Schuster.
So, let’s start with the notion of talent. I suppose several dozen books could be (and have been) written about what writing talent is and how to get it. Like most aspects of personhood, it’s a combination of nature and nurture (i.e., genetics and environment), the exact proportion varying in each of us. And when it comes to writing, a big part of the “nurture” aspect involves working at it. Being good with words and having a natural understanding of story structure is worthless -- if you stop there. Look, Michael Jordon was born with certain useful skills – I imagine these included quick reflexes, excellent eyesight, superior hand-eye coordination, and a lot of fast-twitch muscle fiber. But none of that would have got him into the Hall of Fame if he had not busted his hump on the court, practicing and playing, over and over, for years.
It’s the same with writing. Sure, there are books you can read, workshops, critique groups, and classes, the value of which varies widely. But there is just one way to become a writer, my friends. It, too, offers us the pleasing symmetry of three, and can be attributed, I think, to Andre Norton. Ready? Okay, here it is: 1) place butt in chair 2) write 3) repeat. There is no other way.
Okay, that’s the talent part of our program. Now let’s consider persistence. It took me five years to find a publisher (even a small one) for THE HADES PROJECT. Did I ever consider just throwing it in a desk drawer and finding another hobby? Oh, no more than a thousand times. But I kept sending it out, to publishers and agents alike, all of whom ignored it completely – until the day I entered a novel contest sponsored by Wahmpreneur Publishing, which led to a contract offer.
Fast forward four years. I’d been sending the manuscript of BLACK MAGIC WOMAN out for about two years when good fortune smiled on me (See? Luck again). I was reading an issue of REALMS OF FANTASY magazine (a fine publication, whose forthcoming demise is to be greatly lamented). I saw an ad for a novel that looked like the kind of thing I like (a small group of hunters secretly battling vampires in the streets of a modern city). Then it occurred to me that the publisher, Solaris Books, was one I’d never heard of. The chain of reasoning that followed went like this: “Hmmm, these guys publish urban fantasy, which is the kind of stuff I like to read; the stuff I read is also the stuff I write, like BLACK MAGIC WOMAN; consequently, these guys might be interested in publishing my book.”
I checked them out on the web. Solaris was a relatively new publisher, part of Black Library, which does all those RPG tie-in novels; Black Library is, in turn, part of Warhammer, the second-biggest publisher of RPGs in the world. I clicked on “Submissions” and read, “We are only accepting queries from agents or established authors at this time.” Grrrr.
I still didn’t have an agent. Established author? Moi? Well, that depends on how you define your terms, doesn’t it? So I wrote to Solaris -- something along the lines of “I’ve written this novel called BLACK MAGIC WOMAN, which looks like the kind of stuff you guys publish. Established author? Well, I’ve had nine short stories published in magazines and anthologies – no FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION in there, but all paying markets nonetheless—and I also wrote this novel called THE HADES PROJECT. Although published by a small press, it did get some good response, including a favorable review in CEMETERY DANCE and a “blurb” by some guy named Jim Butcher (whom I had contacted out of the blue and asked if he’d read the manuscript. He graciously agreed – and liked it!). So, Solaris guys, is that ‘established’ enough for you?”
Apparently it was. I heard back from Christian Dunn, acquisitions editor at Solaris, asking for a digital copy of the manuscript. Nine days later, I get a phone call from England: “Hi, this is Christian Dunn, and we’d like to publish your book.” From slush pile to contract offer in nine days – something of a record, except it was really nine days and even seven years, if not more.
I found out later that Solaris had decided on a six-week window during which they were going to consider new manuscripts, and then not again for a couple of years. Guess who happened to contact them in Week Five? There’s luck, again. But if the manuscript had sucked, then they wouldn’t have published it – so there’s your talent factor. And if I didn’t have a policy of sending the manuscript to every publisher who might possibly consider it, I never would have gone to the trouble of finding out about the publisher of the novel I saw being advertised – persistence.
Talent, persistence, and luck. And the greatest of these is all of them.
Today, Justin is giving away two signed copies of Black Magic Woman. Want to win? Just leave a comment! The winners will be picked late tonight, so make sure to check back.
