Top 3 tips for authors seeking publication

Being an author, agented or otherwise, can be an overwhelming career path. There are so many hats to wear, so many things to know, and there aren't a lot of places where everyone agrees on one specific method to get you where you want to go.

There are a lot of reasons for this. For one, there isn't just one path to success. And for that matter, success looks different for everyone. There's no guarantee that what worked for one book will work for a second, even published by the same author in the same series.

Aside from writing the best possible book you can and making sure it's polished within an inch of its life, here are my top 3 (universal) tips for authors seeking publication.

Take your time

Something I, myself, am guilty of is constantly feeling like the clock is running out. I feel like I haven't accomplished enough at this point in my life, like I'm being left behind by all my amazing author friends and that somehow means there's less room for me to step up to the podium with them, eventually. (As if there is a finite space in which authors can co-exist *rolls eyes*)

This feeling can often lead to rushing the process. It can mean submitting a manuscript that's not ready, or sometimes, submitting a manuscript that may be ready but with a mindset that isn't ready. I often like to ask my friends: If you got a book deal tomorrow, were suddenly on contract with readers and expectations, could you handle that pressure? If the answer is no, maybe that's a sign to pace expectations.

But even if the answer is yes, it doesn't matter if the book isn't in the same place.

While I may not have agreed with this next statement pre-publication: Having the time to perfect a novel without a timeline is a gift.

Yes, I too, wanted to just get my work out there. But now that I have a few novels out and a readership and all the pressure that comes with putting out the latest shiny thing as fast as possible, it's a lot less fun to write.

Don't get me wrong, I will never, ever complain about all the people who are waiting on my next book. That is the reason I get to keep doing this thing that I love at all. But it's also a different ball game to have external expectations rather than just writing a book because you love it.

So take the time while you have it. Enjoy the process. And make sure that it's exactly what you want it to be before diving into the next step.

Know the market

While I may not like it, the truth is that to be a full-time author, there needs to be a certain number of people willing to continuously buy the stories we're writing. And because of that, understanding the publishing market, even at a surface level, is super important.

I am a firm believer that nearly every story has its readership, but it's also important to know how to reach them. It doesn't matter if I've written the best book ever about dogs if I'm telling all the people who actually like cats.

This is why knowing the market matters.

Screaming into a void doesn't sell books. Screaming to people who love what we write does.

Comp titles are an excellent place to start. Agents love comp titles because it tells them we know how to talk about our books to the people who matter most: the ones who are going to spend money on them.

There's really no way around this. Take some time to do some research and understand what genre we're writing in, what other big names in that genre are currently putting out, and how what we're doing might fit into that bigger picture.

Don't get caught up in trends

At first glance, this may seem a bit contradictory to the statement above, but hear me out. The market is like the ocean and trends are like fish. We can always see the ocean. It may be sunny one day and stormy the next, but the ocean is still there. Fish, on the other hand, are sometimes easy to see and sometimes not there at all. We have to really pay attention and be on our game to spot fish in the ocean.

In the same way, trends hit fast and disappear just as quickly. It is really hard to predict what's going to be popular two months from now. Even more so if we're planning a year or two in advance. And it's near impossible to write, edit, format, print, and publish a book in the time it takes for trends to peak and leave.

While it can be useful to pay attention to (because maybe we're in the right place at the right time publishing a pirate fantasy when they're really popular), it's not worth the stress to chase trends.

It is worth the stress to write the best book we've ever written.

All in all, every author's journey is there own, but there are always things we can do to give our books the best possible chance. As an honourable mention, I'd also like to add finding a writing community. Writing can be really lonely, but we don't have to do it alone. And in fact, we don't just learn how to write better by reading and writing in a vacuum, we also learn by connecting with other writers.

So even when it's tough, lean on your people. <3 And if you're looking for more writing advice, feel free to check out my other posts here.

Happy writing,

Erin