Writing for a living

[Ketsbaia 0]

Does anyone have any knowledge of how hard / easy it is to get into and whether there is much money to be made for the average joe with a half decent book. I have always wanted to write childrens stories (think gruffalo), but have never really looked into it.

 

Anyone else have a dream job that is not impossible but seems so improbable that they don't go for it.

Everyone here would probably say their dream job as a bairn was to be a footballer, but you need so much luck, focus and dedication. It isn't all about talent, I bet there are people in this forum with more natural ability than some professional footballers, you just need everything to click in to place, not just in football but in any job where there are infinitely fewer opportunities than people willing to do it.

 

My ambition was to be a journalist of sorts, I don't think that could ever happen now, I'd need to go and get a degree for one, and fuck that, but good luck in whatever dream you chase.

 

You don't need a degree.

 

Apart from footie what would you like to write about or have some degree of knowledge about?

You needed a media qualification I know that for an absolute nailed on fact, certainly to get a job at Thomson House. Football would be what I would like to write about, or be a travel reporter, I'm not as well travelled as the likes of that cunt on here who's old forget his name, you know who I mean, but who is, I've been about a bit though. I'd be a good news reporter for a trashy paper as well, who need sensationalist stories for non-events.

 

NCTJ qualifications are more important than a degree nowadays but the courses cost upwards of £1000 if I remember correctly. Trouble is even if you have the time and money to do the course the chances of you getting a job in journalism at the minute are slim.

 

 

All you need is an aptitude for discursive writing and some will power, the rest is cobblers.

 

How I wish that was true

 

I'm living proof.

 

It was possible in the past. I know Jez Robinson, the bloke behind ALS, he basically started off the fanzine with no prior writing experience and ended up working for the local and national press. Nowadays though because jobs are so thin on the ground you need to be well qualified or related to someone with their foot already in the door.

 

I've now done 3 corporate books and working on my 4th, I have no kind of writing qualification whatsoever.

 

Aye, but that's a completely different kettle of fish to working for a newspaper or magazine.

 

I have written for at least a half dozen mags.

 

Was it paid work?

 

 

 

I don't do it for fun.

 

I mean was it for a prolonged period. Was it technically your 'job'?

[Park Life 71]

Does anyone have any knowledge of how hard / easy it is to get into and whether there is much money to be made for the average joe with a half decent book. I have always wanted to write childrens stories (think gruffalo), but have never really looked into it.

 

Anyone else have a dream job that is not impossible but seems so improbable that they don't go for it.

Everyone here would probably say their dream job as a bairn was to be a footballer, but you need so much luck, focus and dedication. It isn't all about talent, I bet there are people in this forum with more natural ability than some professional footballers, you just need everything to click in to place, not just in football but in any job where there are infinitely fewer opportunities than people willing to do it.

 

My ambition was to be a journalist of sorts, I don't think that could ever happen now, I'd need to go and get a degree for one, and fuck that, but good luck in whatever dream you chase.

 

You don't need a degree.

 

Apart from footie what would you like to write about or have some degree of knowledge about?

You needed a media qualification I know that for an absolute nailed on fact, certainly to get a job at Thomson House. Football would be what I would like to write about, or be a travel reporter, I'm not as well travelled as the likes of that cunt on here who's old forget his name, you know who I mean, but who is, I've been about a bit though. I'd be a good news reporter for a trashy paper as well, who need sensationalist stories for non-events.

 

NCTJ qualifications are more important than a degree nowadays but the courses cost upwards of £1000 if I remember correctly. Trouble is even if you have the time and money to do the course the chances of you getting a job in journalism at the minute are slim.

 

 

All you need is an aptitude for discursive writing and some will power, the rest is cobblers.

 

How I wish that was true

 

I'm living proof.

 

It was possible in the past. I know Jez Robinson, the bloke behind ALS, he basically started off the fanzine with no prior writing experience and ended up working for the local and national press. Nowadays though because jobs are so thin on the ground you need to be well qualified or related to someone with their foot already in the door.

 

I've now done 3 corporate books and working on my 4th, I have no kind of writing qualification whatsoever.

Corporate books eh I'm getting an image of a young Rolf Harris type in German clothes.

 

 

Stevie if you want to write, then write. Look for stories and send sample articles to whoever takes your fancy. If you send me one I can help you.

[Guest alex]

There's a difference between writing for a living and being a writer. I'm living proof.

 

All this writing for money is holding up the novel.

Shite excuse tbh

[Park Life 71]

Does anyone have any knowledge of how hard / easy it is to get into and whether there is much money to be made for the average joe with a half decent book. I have always wanted to write childrens stories (think gruffalo), but have never really looked into it.

 

Anyone else have a dream job that is not impossible but seems so improbable that they don't go for it.

Everyone here would probably say their dream job as a bairn was to be a footballer, but you need so much luck, focus and dedication. It isn't all about talent, I bet there are people in this forum with more natural ability than some professional footballers, you just need everything to click in to place, not just in football but in any job where there are infinitely fewer opportunities than people willing to do it.

 

My ambition was to be a journalist of sorts, I don't think that could ever happen now, I'd need to go and get a degree for one, and fuck that, but good luck in whatever dream you chase.

 

You don't need a degree.

 

Apart from footie what would you like to write about or have some degree of knowledge about?

You needed a media qualification I know that for an absolute nailed on fact, certainly to get a job at Thomson House. Football would be what I would like to write about, or be a travel reporter, I'm not as well travelled as the likes of that cunt on here who's old forget his name, you know who I mean, but who is, I've been about a bit though. I'd be a good news reporter for a trashy paper as well, who need sensationalist stories for non-events.

 

NCTJ qualifications are more important than a degree nowadays but the courses cost upwards of £1000 if I remember correctly. Trouble is even if you have the time and money to do the course the chances of you getting a job in journalism at the minute are slim.

 

 

All you need is an aptitude for discursive writing and some will power, the rest is cobblers.

 

How I wish that was true

 

I'm living proof.

 

It was possible in the past. I know Jez Robinson, the bloke behind ALS, he basically started off the fanzine with no prior writing experience and ended up working for the local and national press. Nowadays though because jobs are so thin on the ground you need to be well qualified or related to someone with their foot already in the door.

 

I've now done 3 corporate books and working on my 4th, I have no kind of writing qualification whatsoever.

 

Aye, but that's a completely different kettle of fish to working for a newspaper or magazine.

 

I have written for at least a half dozen mags.

 

Was it paid work?

 

 

 

I don't do it for fun.

 

I mean was it for a prolonged period. Was it technically your 'job'?

 

Yes.

[ChezGiven 0]

Does anyone have any knowledge of how hard / easy it is to get into and whether there is much money to be made for the average joe with a half decent book. I have always wanted to write childrens stories (think gruffalo), but have never really looked into it.

 

Anyone else have a dream job that is not impossible but seems so improbable that they don't go for it.

Everyone here would probably say their dream job as a bairn was to be a footballer, but you need so much luck, focus and dedication. It isn't all about talent, I bet there are people in this forum with more natural ability than some professional footballers, you just need everything to click in to place, not just in football but in any job where there are infinitely fewer opportunities than people willing to do it.

 

My ambition was to be a journalist of sorts, I don't think that could ever happen now, I'd need to go and get a degree for one, and fuck that, but good luck in whatever dream you chase.

 

You don't need a degree.

 

Apart from footie what would you like to write about or have some degree of knowledge about?

You needed a media qualification I know that for an absolute nailed on fact, certainly to get a job at Thomson House. Football would be what I would like to write about, or be a travel reporter, I'm not as well travelled as the likes of that cunt on here who's old forget his name, you know who I mean, but who is, I've been about a bit though. I'd be a good news reporter for a trashy paper as well, who need sensationalist stories for non-events.

 

NCTJ qualifications are more important than a degree nowadays but the courses cost upwards of £1000 if I remember correctly. Trouble is even if you have the time and money to do the course the chances of you getting a job in journalism at the minute are slim.

 

 

All you need is an aptitude for discursive writing and some will power, the rest is cobblers.

 

How I wish that was true

 

I'm living proof.

 

It was possible in the past. I know Jez Robinson, the bloke behind ALS, he basically started off the fanzine with no prior writing experience and ended up working for the local and national press. Nowadays though because jobs are so thin on the ground you need to be well qualified or related to someone with their foot already in the door.

 

I've now done 3 corporate books and working on my 4th, I have no kind of writing qualification whatsoever.

 

Aye, but that's a completely different kettle of fish to working for a newspaper or magazine.

 

I have written for at least a half dozen mags.

 

Was it paid work?

 

 

 

I don't do it for fun.

 

I mean was it for a prolonged period. Was it technically your 'job'?

 

'Technically' Parky doesnt even exist.

[Ketsbaia 0]

Fair play, you lucky fucker

[Park Life 71]

Fair play, you lucky fucker

 

Thank you.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

This is the website of Mcmillan Childrens books, publishers of the Gruffalo and many more. Below is a link to their writers page which may be of interest to any budding authors.

 

http://www.panmacmillan.com/Authors%20Illu...er's%20Area

 

And yes, I'll still post when Im famous, infact I might even buy the club!

[Christmas Tree 4858]

And this site is even better. If your still interested after reading all the do's and dont's your doing well.

 

http://www.shavick.com/getpublished.htm

 

Anyway, sent in a little ryhme jotted yesterday in the taxi and we'll see if I get a reply!

[snakehips 0]

And this site is even better. If your still interested after reading all the do's and dont's your doing well.

 

http://www.shavick.com/getpublished.htm

 

Anyway, sent in a little ryhme jotted yesterday in the taxi and we'll see if I get a reply!

 

Sorry for sounding a complete cockend, C/T, but does a writer not have to have grasp of the English language first, to become a writer?

[Cid_MCDP 0]

I wrote a novel about five years ago and subsequently found out a ton about the publishing industry.

 

First off, really even before you go to the trouble to write the fucker (assuming you're not nuts like me and just needed to get it out of your system to be able to sleep at night), once you come up with an idea and an outline that's fairly coherent, it's time to start looking for an agent. Dunno what the situation is like over there per se, but here in the States, if you want to sell a book straight away, you better make it marketable to the female demographic from about 25-45 because that's who buys books over here. If you write a book like mine that you think would appeal to dudes, prepare for a ton of rejection.

 

I didn't even bother contacting publishers- I went through about 75 agents who were all looking for general fiction/ crime fiction which is the closest category my novel fell into before I found one agent who was even willing to read some chapters. I sent my pages off and she read them and said I needed to tune up. She liked the idea and all, but it was too "loose."

 

Again- that was five years ago.

 

I used to be a college instructor so I had a lot of free time to do shit like that, but shortly thereafter, I left teaching and got back into manufacturing, which didn't.

 

I recently entered it in this contest deal Amazon was having. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Turns out I didn't make the cut because my "pitch" wasn't good enough. Didn't realize it was the fucking Amazon Breakthrough Pitch Award, y'know? Cunts. If I could write a pitch, I probably would've sold the fucker by now, y'know?

 

Anyway, if you really want to be a professional writer, I'd suggest you approach it like a job- do what it takes to get published. Throw away the idea of putting your book out there and put a book out there. One that'll sell. Look up the past bestsellers from previous weeks/ months/ years and write something similar. Again, dunno what sells over there, but over here that'd be something aimed at middle-aged white women. Probably a mystery involving a serial killer. Maybe a romantic interest that gets captured by the serial killer. Or poofy vampires. I hear that's selling well too.

 

I still break it out and read it a couple times a year, make some more edits, then compile it all again. I've let a lot of folks read it- co-workers from the college and whatnot. Overall, people seem to enjoy it, but I'll most likely never sell it. It'd just be too difficult to get a publisher to take a chance on it. I've thought about writing it up as a screenplay for a movie or a TV show. Who knows, I have to take a week off unpaid (U.S. auto industry, y'know)... maybe I'll work on it then.

 

EDIT: Oh, and if you're serious about writing for a living, do whatever it takes to get some sort of paying writing gig. I can't tell you how many times I had to answer, "No.", when asked the question, "Do you have any professional writing experience?" Remember how when you were trying to get your first job and no one wanted to give you a job because you had no job experience? Yeah, it's just like that. I'm still not sure how to pull that one off. Even the local papers around here look at you funny when you walk in and ask if you could possibly write something, anything for them. And no, most folks don't consider blogs or message board posts "professional." Hell, even when I tried to pull out, "Well, I composed all of my own class lectures and wrote some freelance tech documentation for local businesses.", they weren't impressed.

 

Good luck mate!

Edited March 25, 2009 by Cid_MCDP

[Christmas Tree 4858]

And this site is even better. If your still interested after reading all the do's and dont's your doing well.

 

http://www.shavick.com/getpublished.htm

 

Anyway, sent in a little ryhme jotted yesterday in the taxi and we'll see if I get a reply!

 

Sorry for sounding a complete cockend, C/T, but does a writer not have to have grasp of the English language first, to become a writer?

 

Ouch!

 

No. There are many well educated buffoons who may be able to quote and spout very high brow words, but have not a creative bone in there body.

 

You also have to bear in mind the audience, children. Barely out of primary school there vocabularly is fairly limited. They are much more interested in the story than fancy words, hence the fact any idiot can enthrall a child with the re-telling of three little pigs, red riding hood etc.

 

If you can put together a half decent rhyme or Limerick you are most of the way there. Most childrens picture stories such as the gruffalo are only 130 to 300 words long.

 

It's quite amusing that what sent me down this route was Reading a few bedtime stories that were obviously wrote by a wordsmith, but the content was dullness itself.

[snakehips 0]

And this site is even better. If your still interested after reading all the do's and dont's your doing well.

 

http://www.shavick.com/getpublished.htm

 

Anyway, sent in a little ryhme jotted yesterday in the taxi and we'll see if I get a reply!

 

Sorry for sounding a complete cockend, C/T, but does a writer not have to have grasp of the English language first, to become a writer?

 

Ouch!

 

No. There are many well educated buffoons who may be able to quote and spout very high brow words, but have not a creative bone in there body.

 

You also have to bear in mind the audience, children. Barely out of primary school there vocabularly is fairly limited. They are much more interested in the story than fancy words, hence the fact any idiot can enthrall a child with the re-telling of three little pigs, red riding hood etc.

 

If you can put together a half decent rhyme or Limerick you are most of the way there. Most childrens picture stories such as the gruffalo are only 130 to 300 words long.

 

It's quite amusing that what sent me down this route was Reading a few bedtime stories that were obviously wrote by a wordsmith, but the content was dullness itself.

 

I almost deleted my post immediately after sending it, as it actually sounds far worse than I meant it to. The main point was that if a publisher received a story, or whatever, with poor English they would more likely chuck it in the bin, and move on to the next offer from someone else.

 

As the yank most graphically spelled out, above, there seems a heck of a lot of competition out there!!

[Christmas Tree 4858]

CID_mcdp

 

Bloody hell man!!!!

 

Good luck with it, everything I've read lately says that writing the novels the easy bit!!!

 

I'm sure you've been down this road, but the mcmillan link above has a section for submitting unsolicited manuscripts.

 

I'm sure you need to have thick skin getting all those no,s before a yes.

[luckyluke 2]

This is the website of Mcmillan Childrens books, publishers of the Gruffalo and many more. Below is a link to their writers page which may be of interest to any budding authors.

 

http://www.panmacmillan.com/Authors%20Illu...er's%20Area

 

And yes, I'll still post when Im famous, infact I might even buy the club!

 

This month's profaniosaurus:

 

An unacceptable, unpleasant and misogynistic term which can be applied to a female blessed with a lovely personality. Other, similarily unacceptable, unpleasant and misogynistic terms include pig in knickers, bush pig, swamp hog, swamp donkey, hippocrocapig, rhinocerpig and sea monster.

 

[Park Life 71]

I wrote a novel about five years ago and subsequently found out a ton about the publishing industry.

 

First off, really even before you go to the trouble to write the fucker (assuming you're not nuts like me and just needed to get it out of your system to be able to sleep at night), once you come up with an idea and an outline that's fairly coherent, it's time to start looking for an agent. Dunno what the situation is like over there per se, but here in the States, if you want to sell a book straight away, you better make it marketable to the female demographic from about 25-45 because that's who buys books over here. If you write a book like mine that you think would appeal to dudes, prepare for a ton of rejection.

 

I didn't even bother contacting publishers- I went through about 75 agents who were all looking for general fiction/ crime fiction which is the closest category my novel fell into before I found one agent who was even willing to read some chapters. I sent my pages off and she read them and said I needed to tune up. She liked the idea and all, but it was too "loose."

 

Again- that was five years ago.

 

I used to be a college instructor so I had a lot of free time to do shit like that, but shortly thereafter, I left teaching and got back into manufacturing, which didn't.

 

I recently entered it in this contest deal Amazon was having. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Turns out I didn't make the cut because my "pitch" wasn't good enough. Didn't realize it was the fucking Amazon Breakthrough Pitch Award, y'know? Cunts. If I could write a pitch, I probably would've sold the fucker by now, y'know?

 

Anyway, if you really want to be a professional writer, I'd suggest you approach it like a job- do what it takes to get published. Throw away the idea of putting your book out there and put a book out there. One that'll sell. Look up the past bestsellers from previous weeks/ months/ years and write something similar. Again, dunno what sells over there, but over here that'd be something aimed at middle-aged white women. Probably a mystery involving a serial killer. Maybe a romantic interest that gets captured by the serial killer. Or poofy vampires. I hear that's selling well too.

 

I still break it out and read it a couple times a year, make some more edits, then compile it all again. I've let a lot of folks read it- co-workers from the college and whatnot. Overall, people seem to enjoy it, but I'll most likely never sell it. It'd just be too difficult to get a publisher to take a chance on it. I've thought about writing it up as a screenplay for a movie or a TV show. Who knows, I have to take a week off unpaid (U.S. auto industry, y'know)... maybe I'll work on it then.

 

EDIT: Oh, and if you're serious about writing for a living, do whatever it takes to get some sort of paying writing gig. I can't tell you how many times I had to answer, "No.", when asked the question, "Do you have any professional writing experience?" Remember how when you were trying to get your first job and no one wanted to give you a job because you had no job experience? Yeah, it's just like that. I'm still not sure how to pull that one off. Even the local papers around here look at you funny when you walk in and ask if you could possibly write something, anything for them. And no, most folks don't consider blogs or message board posts "professional." Hell, even when I tried to pull out, "Well, I composed all of my own class lectures and wrote some freelance tech documentation for local businesses.", they weren't impressed.

 

Good luck mate!

 

 

Do you have a pdf version you can send me?

[Cid_MCDP 0]

I wrote a novel about five years ago and subsequently found out a ton about the publishing industry.

 

First off, really even before you go to the trouble to write the fucker (assuming you're not nuts like me and just needed to get it out of your system to be able to sleep at night), once you come up with an idea and an outline that's fairly coherent, it's time to start looking for an agent. Dunno what the situation is like over there per se, but here in the States, if you want to sell a book straight away, you better make it marketable to the female demographic from about 25-45 because that's who buys books over here. If you write a book like mine that you think would appeal to dudes, prepare for a ton of rejection.

 

I didn't even bother contacting publishers- I went through about 75 agents who were all looking for general fiction/ crime fiction which is the closest category my novel fell into before I found one agent who was even willing to read some chapters. I sent my pages off and she read them and said I needed to tune up. She liked the idea and all, but it was too "loose."

 

Again- that was five years ago.

 

I used to be a college instructor so I had a lot of free time to do shit like that, but shortly thereafter, I left teaching and got back into manufacturing, which didn't.

 

I recently entered it in this contest deal Amazon was having. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Turns out I didn't make the cut because my "pitch" wasn't good enough. Didn't realize it was the fucking Amazon Breakthrough Pitch Award, y'know? Cunts. If I could write a pitch, I probably would've sold the fucker by now, y'know?

 

Anyway, if you really want to be a professional writer, I'd suggest you approach it like a job- do what it takes to get published. Throw away the idea of putting your book out there and put a book out there. One that'll sell. Look up the past bestsellers from previous weeks/ months/ years and write something similar. Again, dunno what sells over there, but over here that'd be something aimed at middle-aged white women. Probably a mystery involving a serial killer. Maybe a romantic interest that gets captured by the serial killer. Or poofy vampires. I hear that's selling well too.

 

I still break it out and read it a couple times a year, make some more edits, then compile it all again. I've let a lot of folks read it- co-workers from the college and whatnot. Overall, people seem to enjoy it, but I'll most likely never sell it. It'd just be too difficult to get a publisher to take a chance on it. I've thought about writing it up as a screenplay for a movie or a TV show. Who knows, I have to take a week off unpaid (U.S. auto industry, y'know)... maybe I'll work on it then.

 

EDIT: Oh, and if you're serious about writing for a living, do whatever it takes to get some sort of paying writing gig. I can't tell you how many times I had to answer, "No.", when asked the question, "Do you have any professional writing experience?" Remember how when you were trying to get your first job and no one wanted to give you a job because you had no job experience? Yeah, it's just like that. I'm still not sure how to pull that one off. Even the local papers around here look at you funny when you walk in and ask if you could possibly write something, anything for them. And no, most folks don't consider blogs or message board posts "professional." Hell, even when I tried to pull out, "Well, I composed all of my own class lectures and wrote some freelance tech documentation for local businesses.", they weren't impressed.

 

Good luck mate!

 

 

Do you have a pdf version you can send me?

 

Not on me, but I could open the file in OpenOffice and generate one when I get home from work today.

 

I wouldn't suggest you steal it though... the story is about an average joe office worker who with the assistance of a self-help guru, decides to realize his true calling of being a professional killer.

 

It's sorta like The Office meets The Professional.

 

PM me an email address. I'll shoot it to you tonight.

Edited March 25, 2009 by Cid_MCDP

[Cid_MCDP 0]

CID_mcdp

 

Bloody hell man!!!!

 

Good luck with it, everything I've read lately says that writing the novels the easy bit!!!

 

I'm sure you've been down this road, but the mcmillan link above has a section for submitting unsolicited manuscripts.

 

I'm sure you need to have thick skin getting all those no,s before a yes.

 

Ah, after the first 30 or so, you stop dying a little inside and build up a callous.

 

I haven't worked on it much lately. I've been working on this idea I had for a comic book series the last month or two. Got the rough draft done, thought of a better opening and ending, now I'm generating that. My Mac has this program on it called Comic Life that makes it super easy to lay out a comic page. I can't draw for shit, but with Google and this image filter that makes photographs look drawn inside Comic Life, I've somehow managed to make a comic book all on my own (with a lot of unapproved assistance from image sources like the Associated Press). Lols.

Edited March 25, 2009 by Cid_MCDP

[Park Life 71]

I wrote a novel about five years ago and subsequently found out a ton about the publishing industry.

 

First off, really even before you go to the trouble to write the fucker (assuming you're not nuts like me and just needed to get it out of your system to be able to sleep at night), once you come up with an idea and an outline that's fairly coherent, it's time to start looking for an agent. Dunno what the situation is like over there per se, but here in the States, if you want to sell a book straight away, you better make it marketable to the female demographic from about 25-45 because that's who buys books over here. If you write a book like mine that you think would appeal to dudes, prepare for a ton of rejection.

 

I didn't even bother contacting publishers- I went through about 75 agents who were all looking for general fiction/ crime fiction which is the closest category my novel fell into before I found one agent who was even willing to read some chapters. I sent my pages off and she read them and said I needed to tune up. She liked the idea and all, but it was too "loose."

 

Again- that was five years ago.

 

I used to be a college instructor so I had a lot of free time to do shit like that, but shortly thereafter, I left teaching and got back into manufacturing, which didn't.

 

I recently entered it in this contest deal Amazon was having. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Turns out I didn't make the cut because my "pitch" wasn't good enough. Didn't realize it was the fucking Amazon Breakthrough Pitch Award, y'know? Cunts. If I could write a pitch, I probably would've sold the fucker by now, y'know?

 

Anyway, if you really want to be a professional writer, I'd suggest you approach it like a job- do what it takes to get published. Throw away the idea of putting your book out there and put a book out there. One that'll sell. Look up the past bestsellers from previous weeks/ months/ years and write something similar. Again, dunno what sells over there, but over here that'd be something aimed at middle-aged white women. Probably a mystery involving a serial killer. Maybe a romantic interest that gets captured by the serial killer. Or poofy vampires. I hear that's selling well too.

 

I still break it out and read it a couple times a year, make some more edits, then compile it all again. I've let a lot of folks read it- co-workers from the college and whatnot. Overall, people seem to enjoy it, but I'll most likely never sell it. It'd just be too difficult to get a publisher to take a chance on it. I've thought about writing it up as a screenplay for a movie or a TV show. Who knows, I have to take a week off unpaid (U.S. auto industry, y'know)... maybe I'll work on it then.

 

EDIT: Oh, and if you're serious about writing for a living, do whatever it takes to get some sort of paying writing gig. I can't tell you how many times I had to answer, "No.", when asked the question, "Do you have any professional writing experience?" Remember how when you were trying to get your first job and no one wanted to give you a job because you had no job experience? Yeah, it's just like that. I'm still not sure how to pull that one off. Even the local papers around here look at you funny when you walk in and ask if you could possibly write something, anything for them. And no, most folks don't consider blogs or message board posts "professional." Hell, even when I tried to pull out, "Well, I composed all of my own class lectures and wrote some freelance tech documentation for local businesses.", they weren't impressed.

 

Good luck mate!

 

 

Do you have a pdf version you can send me?

 

Not on me, but I could open the file in OpenOffice and generate one when I get home from work today.

 

I wouldn't suggest you steal it though... the story is about an average joe office worker who with the assistance of a self-help guru, decides to realize his true calling of being a professional killer.

 

It's sorta like The Office meets The Professional.

 

PM me an email address. I'll shoot it to you tonight.

 

Coming over.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

And this site is even better. If your still interested after reading all the do's and dont's your doing well.

 

http://www.shavick.com/getpublished.htm

 

Anyway, sent in a little ryhme jotted yesterday in the taxi and we'll see if I get a reply!

 

Sorry for sounding a complete cockend, C/T, but does a writer not have to have grasp of the English language first, to become a writer?

 

Ouch!

 

No. There are many well educated buffoons who may be able to quote and spout very high brow words, but have not a creative bone in there body.

 

You also have to bear in mind the audience, children. Barely out of primary school there vocabularly is fairly limited. They are much more interested in the story than fancy words, hence the fact any idiot can enthrall a child with the re-telling of three little pigs, red riding hood etc.

 

If you can put together a half decent rhyme or Limerick you are most of the way there. Most childrens picture stories such as the gruffalo are only 130 to 300 words long.

 

It's quite amusing that what sent me down this route was Reading a few bedtime stories that were obviously wrote by a wordsmith, but the content was dullness itself.

 

I almost deleted my post immediately after sending it, as it actually sounds far worse than I meant it to. The main point was that if a publisher received a story, or whatever, with poor English they would more likely chuck it in the bin, and move on to the next offer from someone else.

 

As the yank most graphically spelled out, above, there seems a heck of a lot of competition out there!!

 

From what Ive read thats very true. In fact these guys get so many novels over there desks, that most people reccomend that you only send them a one paragraph advert for your story. If the idea seems good, they'll ring you.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

CID_mcdp

 

Bloody hell man!!!!

 

Good luck with it, everything I've read lately says that writing the novels the easy bit!!!

 

I'm sure you've been down this road, but the mcmillan link above has a section for submitting unsolicited manuscripts.

 

I'm sure you need to have thick skin getting all those no,s before a yes.

 

Ah, after the first 30 or so, you stop dying a little inside and build up a callous.

 

I haven't worked on it much lately. I've been working on this idea I had for a comic book series the last month or two. Got the rough draft done, thought of a better opening and ending, now I'm generating that. My Mac has this program on it called Comic Life that makes it super easy to lay out a comic page. I can't draw for shit, but with Google and this image filter that makes photographs look drawn inside Comic Life, I've somehow managed to make a comic book all on my own (with a lot of unapproved assistance from image sources like the Associated Press). Lols.

 

 

Truth is like a lot of creative activities, the real pleasure is in doing it, not flogging it. I sat and wrote a story for my daughter this morning in about 40 minutes in between jobs. Great fun at the time.

[Cid_MCDP 0]

CID_mcdp

 

Bloody hell man!!!!

 

Good luck with it, everything I've read lately says that writing the novels the easy bit!!!

 

I'm sure you've been down this road, but the mcmillan link above has a section for submitting unsolicited manuscripts.

 

I'm sure you need to have thick skin getting all those no,s before a yes.

 

Ah, after the first 30 or so, you stop dying a little inside and build up a callous.

 

I haven't worked on it much lately. I've been working on this idea I had for a comic book series the last month or two. Got the rough draft done, thought of a better opening and ending, now I'm generating that. My Mac has this program on it called Comic Life that makes it super easy to lay out a comic page. I can't draw for shit, but with Google and this image filter that makes photographs look drawn inside Comic Life, I've somehow managed to make a comic book all on my own (with a lot of unapproved assistance from image sources like the Associated Press). Lols.

 

 

Truth is like a lot of creative activities, the real pleasure is in doing it, not flogging it. I sat and wrote a story for my daughter this morning in about 40 minutes in between jobs. Great fun at the time.

 

Totally agree. I've tried to write novels in the past- I've been writing short stories and making up stuff since I was a kid, but once I got the idea in my head for this book, I had to get it out of me. The summer I wrote it, it was tough. I would teach summer sessions from around 9am until 3pm, go home and spend some time with the wife, then from around midnight until whenever, it was book time.

 

Being as how I'm not a professional writer, I've never been good with the discipline aspect- I don't write everyday and shit like that. Sure, I could cop out and say my job demands a lot of me, which it does, but truth is, even if I were unemployed, I wouldn't write everyday. When I have to, I do- simple as that.

 

With the novel, once I'd start, I wouldn't be able to stop. I used to tell my wife it was sort of like vomiting- the times I tried to stop early, it didn't work. I just couldn't stop- I'd lie in bed going, "Oh Christ, I have to be teaching in 4 hours. I have to get some sleep!", but if I stopped before I was ready, I would just lay there in bed thinking of the next lines, then eventually stumble back into the computer.

 

It took me 3 months of lost sleep, and even though I've done jack shit with it up to this point, I did it. I wrote a fucking 300 page novel. May sound odd, but I'm more proud of that than just about anything else I've done in the 35 years I've been fucking about on this planet.

 

For what it's worth, I don't know if there's really all that much competition out there, it's just so hard for a publisher to turn a profit these days. Book sales are shite, at least in the U.S. Unless it's a slam dunk like Harry Potter or Stephen King or something, it's really difficult to get publishers to take a chance because the return on investment is so low.

 

It's sort of like the music business- it's easy to keep on cranking out U2 albums because they'll sell almost no matter what, but even if your band is super talented or fresh or whatever, it's still tough to talk the powers that be into backing you because it's just such a massive financial risk, whereas they could instead press a couple million "That's What I Call Music" compilations, pay the royalties out to the bands involved, and still be assured of making some money.

 

I've seriously considered self-publishing simply because, again, like the music business, if you can talk to an agent and tell them, "I printed 1,000 copies of my book myself and sold it out in a month.", it makes an impression. It shows you're selling without all the support and resources, just like when you can talk to a music agent and tell them you've been selling CDs out of your trunk (er, boot ) and at gigs and have moved several thousand units since last summer or whatever.

 

I'm completely talking out of my ass here, but I think at one time publishers took pride in their authors. If you had Jack Kerouac or Bukowski, that was like having signed Dylan- it seems as though there was a certain amount of acknowledgement not only for the author, but also for the publisher who took a chance on him. That's of course long gone- now it's just about staying afloat in the rising tide of TV, movies, video games, and the internet.

Edited March 25, 2009 by Cid_MCDP

[Park Life 71]

Cid,

 

Thanks, started reading it this morning. 5 pages in.

 

Why is it so dialogue heavy (so far)? What is the city like? What is the mood?

 

Seems little scene setting or internal (thoughts) of our hero (first person screams for it). Need to take him sideways (too plot driven in parts).

 

Wanted to carry on reading...Which is a good sign.

Edited March 26, 2009 by Park Life

[Park Life 71]

Wanting entrance of subsidiary character by ch 4....

[Tooj 17]

Wanting entrance of subsidiary character by ch 4....

Where is your hooker documentary set in Hamburg anyways?