![]() 10,000 hours is 5 years of full time hard work. That’s roughly how much work and practice it takes to become accomplished in any field, whether it be sporting, creative or professional. Most writers work for 5-10 years before getting their first book published (my first took 9 years.) See also my Writing Tips on this site. I was once in a roomful of writers when that question was asked, and only three writers raised their hands. Rarely, someone will write a book and get it published straight away, but that’s pretty unusual. If you want to be a successful writer, be prepared to work as hard, and as long, as if you wanted to be a violinist in an orchestra, a professional cricketer or, God forbid, a lawyer. Writing isn’t easy and, even after you’ve been doing it for a few years, you’re still a novice. “I’m going to write a book one day when I get the time,” or “I’m going to take six months off and write a book and then I’ll use the advance to write full time/go round the world/pay off the mortgage.” Writers often meet people who assume that writing is easy. ![]() If you don’t, it’s goodbye, no matter how much she likes your writing. If you write books that sell, your publisher will love you. Publishers are in business for the long term and they have to make a profit. Just don’t expect success or you’re bound to be disappointed. It probably won’t.Ī rare few will ignore all this and succeed, but they’re the lottery winners. And when you do, enjoy the adventure while it lasts, but don’t expect it to last forever. It’s the writers who work hardest at every aspect of their craft, and never give up, that get there. To succeed, you have to write the best story you possibly can, for the genre you’re writing in, and be professional in every other way. But writing talent isn’t nearly enough thousands of people have it. By all means hope to get published, and dream of having a bestseller or even a long string of them – people do, after all. So don’t expect anything from your writing apart from the personal fulfilment of having learned your craft and created a work that didn’t exist before. What’s more, half the titles in any given bookshop won’t sell a single copy there, and most published writers won’t earn anything from their book apart from the advance. Here’s the sad truth: most people who write a book will never get it published, half the writers who are published won’t see a second book in print, and most books published are never reprinted. The public will feel equally free to ignore them. The Truth About Publishing Part 1: Getting There Lesson 1: Got expectations? Lower themįeel free to write the most beautiful, thought-provoking words in the English language.
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