September 23, 2005
Here it is, my 6 steps to becoming a professional writer. Follow these and the odds are very much with you.

1. Learn to write well. In fact, this may be the most important advice. Study. Read. Write. Write some more. Read some more. Write. Re-write. The only real way to learn to write well is to write a lot. Here is something I believe: nobody writes as well as they think they do. Me included. But the better you get and the more experienced you get, the more accurate your estimation of your own abilities. Learning what you do well and what you don't becomes part of writing well.

2. Send to the right markets. Don't send a romance story to Men's Health. Don't pitch a story on "How My Doctor Screwed Up and I Sued Him Successfully for $25,000,000" to Medical Economics. Don't query an agent who only handles nonfiction about your novel. Don't query an editor who only handles chick-lit with your hard-boiled private eye novel. Seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people do this. In other words, learn the business. And it is a business.

3. Neatness counts. This made more sense when things were predominantly done on that dead tree stuff called paper, but we're mostly electronic now. Still, neatness counts--and that includes spelling and grammar, double-spacing fiction manuscripts, one-inch margins, 12-point font in Times New Roman or Arial or something similarly bland and easy-to-read. Nonfiction manuscripts are a bit different in terms of format, but the basic point is the same--neat and clean.

4. Get used to rejection. Life is full of rejection. You apply for jobs you don't get. You try to get laid and you don't. You buy a Lotto ticket and don't win a penny. Your kids don't think your jokes are funny and your spouse doesn't like the restaurant you picked out. Your writing life, no matter how successful you are, will be filled with rejection. Freelancers typically get 11 out of 12 queries rejected, or so I'm told. Even clients who work with you regularly won't like all your pitches. Your agent won't like all your novels and may not be able to sell all your work. Even accepted work may get canceled and rejected or editors will change jobs or publishers will go out of business. File REJECTION under the SHIT HAPPENS category and get used to it. If you can't handle it, consider a different line of work.

5. Stick to it. Persistence. Write every day. Send stuff out. Don't take rejection as an estimation of your self-worth. Most of the time it's not even an estimation of your work's value. Most of the time it means that on that particular day that particular editor didn't need, want or like that particular piece of work or story idea. If you can build the Great Wall of China a brick at a time or wear down rock a drop of water at a time, you can break into publishing one query or submission at a time.

6. Quit. Go ahead. Do it. There are too many writers as it is. It's very competitive. I'd like the competition to decrease. 195,000 books published each year, about 10,000 in the crime genre. The American Medical Writers Association has about 3000 members. So does Mystery Writers of America. God knows how many members the Association of Health Care Journalists has. If a plague would wipe out half of them, I'd have a lot more work. So go ahead. Quit trying. Take up macrame or soap carving or guitar. Want to make money? Try Internet porn. There always seems to be a need for that.

But if you can't do it, if you return to writing no matter what... if you ignore the rejection letters, the disappointment, the snubs, the nasty comments, the fact your spouse wishes you'd work overtime or spend time with her and your kids resent your being at the computer and your dog is frustrated with you and you've got papercuts and carpal tunnel syndrome and near-sightedness...

And you keep on writing...

Then you're a writer and may one day be successful at it.

Or you're delusional and in need of medication.

Best,
Mark Terry