How to be a successful Author
That title may seem ludicrous for a short article when books upon books have been written about the subject and just like any subjective industry or publishers, no matter how many more books are written on the subject it will still continue to be an elusive answer. To become a great doctor, a person needs to attend a great medical school, study for years and practice for even more years, to be a great lawyer is exactly the same with a different skill set.
However, to be a great author, artist or musician there is some immeasurable creative spark, an uncanny ability to view the world in a different way than others, an ability to enthrall readers with your storytelling. Together with that highly immeasurable skill there is a learned skill and that is where the artist needs to focus. Most people with practice and perseverance can learn an instrument, write well and learn to draw. How great you become after will be based on your innate abilities and most probably a little bit of luck, though the level of luck that you receive you can certainly help along with determination.
Therefore, to become a great and successful author you need to follow the next five steps.
1. Write as much as you can. The Beatles no one would deny all had amazing talent, however what took them over the top was playing for crowds every day for hours on end for two years. The constant practice and repetitiveness of their art was probably the one thing that made them such a great band and allowed them to gel. Writing is no different. Practice every spare moment you have, your success will typically be in direct correlation to your drive and determination. There is no get great pill or website or course that will get you there in thirty days or less so save your money and just write. Take writing courses, read other author website, be critical of your own writing and you will constantly improve and become a good and possibly great author.
2. Find a great editor and listen to their feedback. A good book editor is someone who has worked with many authors, been involved in the publishing house for years, has seen trends come and go, recognizes great prose and also recognizes where a book should be improved, tweaked or re-written. Without criticism a writer can't improve just like an athlete needs a coach, a doctor needs a teacher or an artist needs a muse. Nobody can look upon their own work with completely unbiased eyes, so don't try.
3. Find your voice and stick to it. Find your writing style that flows most easily for you. If writing romance seems to gush from every part of you don't try and write an adventure novel. If your mind is analytical, loves to piece together puzzles, and mysteries seem to pop into your head at three am then write mysteries. Your voice will be a mixture of your experiences, your upbringing and your internal dialogue. Don't fight it. It's no different than trying to change your personality overnight, it doesn't work so instead embrace who you are and the writing will flow.
4. Give yourself structure and time-lines. This is against every artistic bone in one's body but without structure your book editing will flounder, without purpose and end up as a myriad of essays that reflect your mood of the day. You need to know where your book is going before you start and exactly how you will get there. Tiny nuances in a novel, slight clues that are dropped, conflict and suspense, are all well planned and rarely random so don't let them be. Secondly, writing is just like any habit that is formed, do it consistently and at the same time of day and in the same place and it will become second nature for you. If you know you can write five thousand words a week and you want to write an eighty thousand word novel you can plan on having a rough draft in sixteen weeks, four weeks for revision, three weeks with book editor and another four weeks to re-write and revise. That is a realistic writing plan to create your novel. Stick to it and it will happen.
5. Once you have written your rough manuscript, be brutally honest with yourself and revise, revise and revise. Don't fall in love with three pages of prose that add nothing to your book, if a character is shallow, add depth, if gaps seem to gnaw at you when you read it, fill them. Then when your editor comes back with more items for you to change look at them from a purely analytical mindset. Don't get emotional, don't cry that your editor is messing with your creative process; simply look at each change suggested and if it makes sense, change it. If it doesn't make sense to you then find out your editors reasoning behind the change and then make an unemotional, educated decision as to whether to change it or not.
That in a nutshell is all it takes to become a great author. Now quit wasting your time and start writing.
Rick Momsen is CEO of Pegasus Publishing and author of The Complete E-book Marketing and Publishing Guide
However, to be a great author, artist or musician there is some immeasurable creative spark, an uncanny ability to view the world in a different way than others, an ability to enthrall readers with your storytelling. Together with that highly immeasurable skill there is a learned skill and that is where the artist needs to focus. Most people with practice and perseverance can learn an instrument, write well and learn to draw. How great you become after will be based on your innate abilities and most probably a little bit of luck, though the level of luck that you receive you can certainly help along with determination.
Therefore, to become a great and successful author you need to follow the next five steps.
1. Write as much as you can. The Beatles no one would deny all had amazing talent, however what took them over the top was playing for crowds every day for hours on end for two years. The constant practice and repetitiveness of their art was probably the one thing that made them such a great band and allowed them to gel. Writing is no different. Practice every spare moment you have, your success will typically be in direct correlation to your drive and determination. There is no get great pill or website or course that will get you there in thirty days or less so save your money and just write. Take writing courses, read other author website, be critical of your own writing and you will constantly improve and become a good and possibly great author.
2. Find a great editor and listen to their feedback. A good book editor is someone who has worked with many authors, been involved in the publishing house for years, has seen trends come and go, recognizes great prose and also recognizes where a book should be improved, tweaked or re-written. Without criticism a writer can't improve just like an athlete needs a coach, a doctor needs a teacher or an artist needs a muse. Nobody can look upon their own work with completely unbiased eyes, so don't try.
3. Find your voice and stick to it. Find your writing style that flows most easily for you. If writing romance seems to gush from every part of you don't try and write an adventure novel. If your mind is analytical, loves to piece together puzzles, and mysteries seem to pop into your head at three am then write mysteries. Your voice will be a mixture of your experiences, your upbringing and your internal dialogue. Don't fight it. It's no different than trying to change your personality overnight, it doesn't work so instead embrace who you are and the writing will flow.
4. Give yourself structure and time-lines. This is against every artistic bone in one's body but without structure your book editing will flounder, without purpose and end up as a myriad of essays that reflect your mood of the day. You need to know where your book is going before you start and exactly how you will get there. Tiny nuances in a novel, slight clues that are dropped, conflict and suspense, are all well planned and rarely random so don't let them be. Secondly, writing is just like any habit that is formed, do it consistently and at the same time of day and in the same place and it will become second nature for you. If you know you can write five thousand words a week and you want to write an eighty thousand word novel you can plan on having a rough draft in sixteen weeks, four weeks for revision, three weeks with book editor and another four weeks to re-write and revise. That is a realistic writing plan to create your novel. Stick to it and it will happen.
5. Once you have written your rough manuscript, be brutally honest with yourself and revise, revise and revise. Don't fall in love with three pages of prose that add nothing to your book, if a character is shallow, add depth, if gaps seem to gnaw at you when you read it, fill them. Then when your editor comes back with more items for you to change look at them from a purely analytical mindset. Don't get emotional, don't cry that your editor is messing with your creative process; simply look at each change suggested and if it makes sense, change it. If it doesn't make sense to you then find out your editors reasoning behind the change and then make an unemotional, educated decision as to whether to change it or not.
That in a nutshell is all it takes to become a great author. Now quit wasting your time and start writing.
Rick Momsen is CEO of Pegasus Publishing and author of The Complete E-book Marketing and Publishing Guide