The Business of Creative Writing

Maybe you've always had a flair for telling stories, and would like to give it a try in written form. Maybe you've had your head in various poetry books since you were a kid, and figure you could do it just as well. Or maybe you've just lived a fascinating life, and figure you could make a few bucks putting it in print. Regardless, the implications are the same - you're a writer, my friend, and acceptance is the first step to recovery.

The writing is the fun part - all those neat ideas have been bouncing around in your head, and it's truly rewarding to see them typed up, finally in a concrete form. The question is: what do you do with it? Where's the line between "professional writer" and "amatuer with a notebook?" And how exactly do other writers get their stuff printed, anyway?

Not to worry - it's actually a pretty simple process. The hardest part is figuring out what you're supposed to be doing in the first place, and this article has you covered there.

Lose The Illusions

To quote the great Gary Trudeau: Check your ego at the door. The writing business is a notoriously competitive one, and creative writing might well be even more unforgiving than technical or nonfiction writing. Even in this day and age, there's no clear and concise way to accurately guage the literary tastes of 300 million people. Maybe the readers will like you, maybe they won't, and you really have no idea what'll happen until the readers can see your stuff.

That's something important to know if you're getting into writing, but particularly important from a business angle. Put simply, if you approach editors with a swelled head and a bad case of Primadonna, they will simply ignore you. There are a million other guys out there, diligently typing away, who'd be overjoyed by the mere prospect of seeing their name in a byline. You need them. They don't need you.

That isn't to say that you need to bemoan your condition or give up in despair. Just understand that everything between you and an editor is a business relationship, and should be treated as such. Converse with an editor like he's your boss - because, like it or not, he is.

Finding Markets

Before you can send out your stories or poems, you need to know where you're sending them. Finding a magazine that'd be interested in your work is, by far, the biggest factor in whether or not you get published. Luckily, there are some helpful tools to point you in the right direction.

First and foremost, there's the Writer's Market series of books. A fresh Writer's Market is put out every year, and it provides a huge, easy-to-follow list of various magazines and book publishers looking for writers. Relevant details like pay, subject matter, and response time are also included. Finding someone to publish your stuff is as simple as flipping through the book. Just make sure you have an up-to-date copy, as literary magazines have a habit of folding on short notice. I spent the first three months of 2006 waiting on a response to a fiction submission, only to learn that the magazine had collapsed a few weeks before I sent it.

In addition to The Writer's Market, there are a number of online resources to help you find someone to buy your work. One of the most helpful of these is Writer's Cafe (www.writerscafe.org), a networking site for wordsmiths of all ages and skill levels, which maintains a lengthy list of markets. And with the advent of MySpace, many literary journals maintain profiles - if you're surfing around and happen to see a mag that might like your style, it couldn't hurt to send them a friend request.

The Important Part

Once you have a list of magazines that might be interested in your work, it's time to begin the tedious process of figuring out who's definitely interested in your work. This is the part most people balk at. Remember, though: nobody is going to hand you writing work on a silver platter. You have to be tenacious and persevering - get out there and do the research.

By far the most important part is the Submission Guidelines. In times past, one would have to snail-mail a written request for these, but nowadays, they're often available at the magazine's website. Read them, then read them again. If you want to be published in a particular magazine, you must follow their Submission Guidelines to the letter. Treat them as your Holy Writ. Anyone who's ever worked the slush-pile at a literary magazine will tell you most submissions are discarded before they're done reading the first page, because the writer very obviously didn't follow the stated rules. Don't put yourself in that sad demographic.

Next, and almost as importantly, you need to read the actual magazine. The Electronic Age is a huge boon here as well, as many magazines maintain online archives of past publications. If your chosen market doesn't, though, you're going to need to buckle down and order a couple dead-tree editions. Read and get a feel for what they've published before, as that's the best way to tell what they want to publish now. If your stuff doesn't fit, don't waste your time or the editor's. If, on the other hand, it looks like you'd fit right in, go ahead and get ready to submit.

What To Send

Put simply: your very best. Do not send stories riddled with spelling errors. Do not send pieces in which the grammar isn't perfect, or at least believably colloquial. Do not send first, second, or third drafts. When you can look down at your story or poem and feel that you've truly got a beautifully constructed piece of writing, then - and only then - you're ready to submit it for publication.

And then... you wait. And wait... and wait some more. Literary magazines have notoriously slow response times, as they often consist of only a few dedicated (if overworked) volunteer staff. Some online markets can get back to you in as little as two weeks, while a big, prestigious magazine may take as long as a year. Most markets are somewhere in between, typically from two to six months. Talent is important in writing, but patience definitely helps.

Go Get 'Em, Kid

Maybe I've made the world of creative writing sound pretty grim. That's because it is, in fact, pretty grim. The odds are not on your side. Not all talent is eventually recognized. You need to be a glutton for punishment to get anywhere in creative writing - even successful writers have reported as much as ten rejections for every successful submission. You're not going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature overnight.

When you do get that acceptance letter, though, despite everything arrayed against you - that glorious feeling, friends, is what being a writer is all about.