Life of a Writer: What I Didn't Know

            I’ll admit right now that when I first decided to be a writer, I didn’t know much about anything. I knew how to type, and I knew that I needed to edit and have an editor edit before my book was ready to be published. But when it came to agents or just the entire publishing process in general, I was clueless. I did not truly know what the life of a writer looked like.

            By the time I decided to become a writer, I was already searching for colleges. College felt important when I wanted to be a lawyer, but since I read books about writing for fun, I wondered if college was truly necessary. I figured that if I didn’t know anything, I could just Google it.

            Y’all, I wouldn’t even know to Google some of the things I’ve learned.

            I won’t list everything I didn’t know (we’d be here for a while otherwise). But I do want to discuss some of the big things that I think aren’t talked about a lot. Most of these pertain to the publishing process, but some have to do with writing. Though I read books about writing, attended webinars, and watched videos, not one of those things talked about these topics. Perhaps I just missed them in my lessons, or I didn’t have the correct resources until college. But all I know is these things shocked me.

Differing Sentence Structure

            In most of the short stories and story snippets I had to write for school, my professors always told me to vary my sentences to help with the flow of the story. I had no idea what that meant. Yeah, I knew what sentence structure was, but I didn’t know it was supposed to be in a certain order. After more than a year, my writing courses finally had a lesson on varying sentence structure. In general, it means making sure you don’t have three compound sentences in a row. If you have a compound-complex sentence (at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause), it’s best to follow it up with a simple sentence (just an independent clause).

            That made so much more sense! I had learned about sentence structure back in fourth grade, but no one told me to use varying structures in my paragraphs. I just wrote what sounded right in my brain.

            Varying sentence structure really does help the flow of the story. If you feel like your story is too choppy, add complex or compound-complex sentences. If it feels too long and drawn out, try simple sentences. Now that I know about this, I have been implementing it into my writing!

Agents and Editors

            Honestly, I had no clue what agents did in the publishing process, and I certainly didn’t know they were so important. I learned that if you plan to traditionally publish, it is best to have an agent since agents are familiar with the industry. Publishing companies are also more likely to accept submissions through agents rather than directly from the author because an agent is more reliable. In fact, I heard in one of my courses that if you can convince an agent to accept your story, then there is a greater chance the publishing house will be convinced to accept it.

            Editors in publishing houses are often overloaded. That is why they may look at the first page (or even just the first paragraph) and determine from there whether to read on or reject the whole manuscript. This is one of the reasons why the industry is so competitive – your first page must stand out. Editors won’t wait for the “good part.” In the short amount of time they give your novel, you have to impress them.

            No stress there.

Timing

            No one told me that waiting for your book to be published could take so long. Since my favorite author released a new book in a series once a year, I figured that the writing and publishing process only took that long.

            Well, if you’re already a published author, it does take about that long. But when you’re traditionally publishing and starting from scratch, it can take much longer.

            Once you’re finished writing your book, you have to query an agent. The agent can take 1-8 weeks to respond, and they may even reject it (which means you start that process over again until an agent does accept your work). Once you land an agent, they must search for a publishing house or editor for your book. According to one of my professors, that could take months. Finally, assuming a publishing house finally accepts your manuscript, then the whole editing, printing, promoting, and distributing process begins – which can take at least a year.

            So that being said, you’re not a published author once your novel is complete. You may have another year and a half or more before your book is finally on shelves.

            Even if I knew this in high school, I would have still chosen to be a writer. But I would have started taking it more seriously earlier on.

Income

            At the beginning of my junior year of college, I was smacked in the face with a reality I never considered: I wouldn’t be able to support myself on writing books, at least not for a while.

            One of the things that appealed to me about writing was that I could work on my own time to make a deadline, and I could spend my days doing what I like best. Joining the workforce wasn’t something I even thought about. Yes, I might have a part-time job, but I planned for my main income to be on books.

            Even though I plan to traditionally publish, I won’t be able to support myself on the books I write for a while. Upon reflection, I see why that is the case. As a new author, I won’t sell nearly as many books as the popular ones, and with only one or two books on the market, royalties will be low. It was still discouraging though. For a couple of weeks, I went through a crisis wondering what I was supposed to do. I have it figured out now, though it still isn’t the way I hoped to live.

            If you plan to write books for your career, I encourage you to do so. But also plan to find another job to support you until your books can. Don’t be caught off guard like I was.

            And if you are planning to quit your full-time job to be a writer, expecting to make good money immediately, don’t. Only quit if you can afford to. We never know whether our books will be successful, and it is smarter to have something to fall back onto (even if it isn’t something we wanted to do).

            These are just a few things I have learned that absolutely shocked me. I would be on a completely different course in life if I didn’t know any of these (especially the part about income). These subjects aren’t often talked about, if at all, so I want to make you aware that the writing life isn’t as easy as it may seem.

            But that doesn’t mean you should quit. Despite the time, difficulties, and possible disappointments, keep writing. There are so many options for writers, and you never know if you will become the next bestselling author. All authors start somewhere!