The Road to Being Published by Daniel Lance Wright

Sharing knowledge has to be one of the most important things for a writer to do on a regular basis.

Find others that share the passion then share the experience, too.  That’s what I want to do here, share tidbits I’ve learned.  Just like a critique of a beloved manuscript, take this information and do what you will with it.  I hope there is a shiny little nugget of wisdom somewhere here you can use.

All it takes is a short foray into the frustrating world of searching for a publisher and/or agent to realize that the field is incredibly glutted. 

Gone are the days that the agent works for the writer.  Gone are the days that the publisher caters to the writer.  Are these comments true?  As a writer, I’d like to think that neither agent nor publisher could survive without the talents that my peers and I can offer.  The pool of writers having already achieved success is the focus of many publishers/agents.  They clamor, often times over one another, for those writers.  Beginners, even extremely talented beginners, remain on the other side of the glass looking in.  But, how did the successful ones get to where they are?  There are as many answers to this question as tentacles on a metastasizing cancer and, I might add, just as deadly in some cases, depending on which of those tentacles we go with.

After about seven years, I’ll be having my first novel published and should be out in early spring ’07.  I was asked how I chose the publisher.  I thought that was an interesting question.  It’s sort of like being asked how I chose which fish I was going to catch when I threw the bait in the water.  The choosing part doesn’t come into play until all the fish are in the boat.  If it’s a good day of fishing then, yes, there are choices to be made.  In my case, it was a simple matter of going with a publisher who saw promise in my work, or not; to accept his contract, or not; to feel a synergy with that publisher, or not.

So, you see, I did have a choice to make.  But, it wasn’t from among a group of publishers or even between two publishers.  It was a simple choice to go with an offer or not.

It may seem a bit dire but it doesn’t have to be.  It’s a wonderful adventure and should be looked at that way.  I have had several offers over the years but none seemed appropriate.  Those were matters of all the benefit going to them, none to me.  Those choices were simple and obvious, thanks but no thanks.

At this point, I can offer advice that I feel strongly about.  Patience to a writer is more than simply virtuous.  It is an imperative trait.  If you don’t have it, learn it.  And, I might as well throw in here, too, that if you are sensitive and defensive to criticism, forget it.

WWhen a publisher came along that genuinely seemed interested in my work, my satisfaction, and me it was an easy decision to make.  He came from a background similar to mine, someone who wrote good stories that people wanted to read but found no one to share a risk with him.  With me, a sympathetic ear goes a long way.  And, I believe he’s playing me correctly because I’ll be inclined to work very hard to prove his confidence in me was well founded. I now want him to succeed from my work as much as I want me to succeed from my work.

Back to the original question:  How did I choose my publisher?

There are so many good analytical answers to that question, such as distribution, artwork, layout, promotional support, royalty split and on and on.  I don’t mean to minimize the importance of these things.  They should be known and considered.  But, let’s view this in terms of all these things being equal.  Then good old intuition comes into play.  Believe me, you’ll know when you find a publisher or agent for your cherished work.  But, it all begins with their interest in you.  If all the technicalities are sublime and the person you’re dealing with has a my-way-or-the-highway attitude and never asks your opinion about anything then you should ask serious questions about worthiness of that company.  If you have no problem with that attitude, fine.  Go with it.  If you do have a problem then walk away.  Never, ever feel obligated or trapped into doing something that feels wrong.

At a time in my life I ground away in the corporate world of revenues and spreadsheets, jockeying for position within the business world, I became fond of saying, “Even a bad idea will work, if it has full support.  Great ideas fall dead in boardrooms everyday.  It only takes one person with no faith in a roomful to kill an idea that may have been golden.”

So, if you, the writer, believe in your work and a publisher and/or agent believes in your work then you have just made a giant leap toward a successful writing career.  Your gut will tell you when those two things come together.

Daniel Lance Wright is a Texas author whose first book, Six Years' Worth, will be available in spring 2007 from Father's Press.