No two writer's are the same, even those who don't consider themselves writer's, if you pick up a pen or write on a keyboard, you are a writer. Most of us will write or doodle everyday and the shapes we form, create a message, designed to be read by others or just ourselves, from a shopping list to a manuscript, to my mind none is more or less important than the other in the moment. Each piece has an emotional attachment to the Author and is viewed differently than it would be by any other, each tells a story from full length manuscript to a single stanza and herein lies the first obstacle to publication. How to detach yourself from your finished creation and consider it with a critical eye? just as you would expect from your audience, be it publisher, Agent, or best friend. Personally I write because I love to write, but it wasn't always that way, had my income been dependant on my writing I would have starved long ago.
I started out with all of the enthusiasm of a small child writing their name for the first time, sure that my autobiography 'Coal Dust and Memories would be snapped up by the first publisher or indeed Agent who had been given the pleasure of reading my first few chapters and in a short time I would be a best selling rich household name, the stuff of fairytale s, admittedly some are lucky, but it is more luck than judgement.
Back to the drawing board (before I learn't to use a computer) with my ignorance, I needed a little research, rather than my usual bull at a gate attitude and learn't that there was one book, described in some circles as the Writers Bible that any would be or wannabe needs and is still my number1 purchase, published every August
I trawled the pages of 'The Writer's and Artists yearbook' published by A&C Black 2007, (I am now trawling the pages of 2011) and have a book shelf set aside for back copies. If you are serious about a career in, in my case writing it is packed full of invaluable information and advise, there are no guarantees of finding a Publisher or Agent but at least it will point you in the right direction, with invaluable advice on writing and indeed who may be interested in your chosen genre, although my choice of Non fiction publishers, I find a little confusing and covers a multitude of subject matter and is an easy mistake to make (my excuse and I'm sticking to it) is to send it to the wrong publisher, well in my experience anyway! When the rejection letters wing their way back with your returned manuscript with the 'thanks but no thanks' we don't publish this sort of etc. In itself that can be quite a boost, especially if you can convince yourself that they would have published had it been right for they're title list and so your ego may not be quite so dented as it may be with a rejection letter from the right publisher, the main thing is never to give up and to have written that first albeit as yet unpublished piece,it is a real achievement in itself and something that you can be extremely proud of . So my first advice would be buy a copy of 'The Writer's and Artists year book' ASAP
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