Writing Blog

20220323 First Step To Publication

March 23, 2022, 9:00am

I am currently helping two writers with submitting their novels to various publishers. One I think has a decent shot, the other probably does not because her writing is quite juvenile, but they are a package deal. That's by the by - I've got the first one to help me deal with the second, as she agrees with me.

The big thing, though, for both of them is taking that first step towards publication. Oh, and this is not just traditional publishing (which I do), but also self-publishing (which I don't). The advice is exactly the same.

What is that step? Is it formatting? Finding a publisher? Getting the courage up to show your work in public?

No. It is stopping.

This has proven very hard for the two women.

Every time we go to do something else, I discover they've both edited another chapter, added some more description somewhere, re-written an entire scene, something.

You need to actually stop working on, tweaking, ruminating over what you have written. You need to draw a line under it and say, "That's as good as I can make it without a professional edit," and then go to that next step.

You need to let go of your children and let them fly free in the world to live their own life.

This seems logical. But how many writers reading this are still making subtle little changes to something they write ten years ago? How many think they just need to do one more little thing? How many think it's not quite there yet? Yes, look, I do understand that you want it to be your best, but at some point you need to realise you've done all you can, and it's time to let some-one else look over it or put it out there.

And all that fiddling means nothing a lot of the time. Empress Theresa by Norman Boutin took him 20 years of writing and re-writing before he released it, then he released two more editions, both changed/edited... and it is still really one of the very worst books ever written. EVER.

So, that's the first step: Stop. Let it go. It's going to be okay.