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