So you wanna be a writer.
And with being a writer comes learning to write. Gets your tenses correct. Knowing where to put your prepositions at. All that good stuff. Once you can write clean, compelling copy, it should be a cake walk… right?
Wrong.
Because unless your grand ambition is to have your grandmother and her knitting circle tell you how * wonderful* you are… at some point you gotta learn about the business. Because if you don’t, you’re going to waste a lot of time blundering around like a buffalo in a bookstore.
Nobody wants to be the buffalo in the bookstore.
So first and foremost, educate yourself! There are many, MANY, many places to find reliable information.
Here’s a list of places to get the info you need:
General Info:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums
How to avoid a SCAM:
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/
Another important thing to do: Follow industry pros on Twitter and Facebook. You can glean a lot of good info from the things they say and the links they share. Hashtags like #askagent and #askeditor are great– but research the people you are listening to. Any yahoo can get a twitter and pretend to be a maven.
Okay, so you have some tools. But really, it comes down to a few simple rules.
Publishing is a SMALL BUSINESS. Be polite. People talk.
Publishers, Agents, and Managers don’t get paid up front. Ever. If they try, they are scam artists.
Make connections. Talk to people. We can all learn from each others experiences. But maintain healthy skepticism. If someone seems overly enthusiastic/bitter… they probably have something to gain or an axe to grind. Beware those people.
XO Lela
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Lela Gwenn (@LGwenn) is a comic book nerd, a smuttress (or smuttrix), a writer, and a model… perhaps in that order. Her bold expressions, nerd-ethic, and interest in a sub-culture make Lela a perfect match for the smut stores she tells. Lela has just published a book entitled Home Coming and is represented by Eric Ruben.