Tag Archive: Writing

You want to write? Then read this

March 5, 2009 0 Comments

I spotted this post over at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing and couldn’t walk away without passing it on, because it’s about as essential as essential gets. Confident or Delusional? ‘Tis a brilliant (and entirely true) entry. Some highlights: Confident writers expect to be periodically rejected. Delusional writers are shocked every time someone fails to recognize their brilliance. Confident writers take suggestion. Delusional writers believe their words are written in stone. Confident writers work even when it’s hard. Delusional writers believe they need to be inspired first. If you write or have any inkling of writing, you need to read this. Read it and ABSORB it. A lot of those lessons are hard learned. You need to set aside the naive arrogance of youth or,…
Read more

Writing

, , , , , ,

How I got published, part 6 – all that other stuff

February 27, 2009 1 Comment

There is a lot of stuff they don’t tell you about getting a book published. You hear about the process of writing, and crafting cover letters, and how to approach agents and publishers, and on and on and on, but what about all the stuff the happens after you secure a deal? No one tells you about that. By this point I had done a pretty good job of educating myself on The Process. Thanks to loads of reading — books, articles, and blogs — I knew what to expect at almost every step of the way. But I had no idea what would come after we had gotten a contract. Well, here’s what happens: You still have a whole helluva lot of work to…
Read more

Works by Eric, Writing

, , , , , , ,

How I got published, part 5 – Revising and rewriting

February 23, 2009 0 Comments

A Year of Hitchcock

(If you’re joining me in progress, this is the 5th part in a series devoted to outlining how my co-author and I managed to get our book, A Year of Hitchcock, published.) So here’s the part where the joy of getting a contract is smothered in the giant pile of WORK no one tells you about when you first start writing. Because make no mistake, writing is not what you think it is when you daydream about a career as an author. It’s WORK. Never forget that. As noted in my last post, it took a full year from the moment we first made contact with a publisher interested in our work to actually getting a contract. And getting that contract meant agreeing to a…
Read more

Works by Eric, Writing

, , , , ,

How I got published, part 4 – The Waiting Game

February 19, 2009 3 Comments

Welcome to part 4 of a series detailing from start to finish how A Year of Hitchcock went from a neat idea to a published book (Scarecrow Press, 2009). Every step of the way, from writing to pitching to all the work we had to do after it was sold. If you’re an aspiring writer, hopefully this will help give you some insight on the process as my co-author Jim and I experienced it. The query letter was the subject of my last blog post. If you’re not familiar with what a query letter is, go read that post. I’ve even included the text of the letter that helped us grab the eye of a few publishers. So in our first batch of six queries…
Read more

Works by Eric, Writing

, , , , ,