The Writing Life: Where Do You Get Educated About Publishing?

For years I've been studying the publishing world. A key part of the process is building relationships with editors and agents and others in the community such as publicity people. Something you can't control is timing but you can continue to be submitting or pitching and building relationships. Then you can be at the right place at the right time with the right material.

The publishing community is always changing and I can illustrate it with one of my 21 “secrets” in the first edition of Book Proposals That Sell: always enclose an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). At that time, there was no electronic submissions. Publishers received thousands of submissions (as they do today) and if you didn't include the return postage, then your submission was thrown away and not returned. Today everything is electronic and if an editor is interested, they will request you to send the full manuscript as an attachment.

How can get educated about publishing? It is an on-going process but in this article I want to give you several resources. My first resource is to read the articles in my Twitter stream or that I post on LinkedIn. It is a steady stream of information about various aspects of publishing and education. I read all of these articles which are in this steam and learn from them.

The second way to learn about publishing is to study how-to-write books. For years I've been reading at least one how-to-write book a month and learning from them. You can get them from your public library and read them. I've written three how-to-write books. Originally I self-published Jumptart Your Publishing Dreams but now the revised edition is available in bookstores online and brick and mortar stores. Follow this link for a free sample. This book has helped many writers learn more about publishing. Check out the illustration from a reader who marked different sections to study with post-it notes.

I also wrote 10 Publishing Myths to help writers have a realistic view of publishing. You can get my book for only $10 including shipping plus over $200 in bonuses if you follow this link. Or you can get it at any bookstore whether online or brick and mortar. I encourage you to get the 11th myth as a free download.

Finally the revised edition of Book Proposals That Sell will help you understand the book publishing world and many authors have used this book to find a publisher or a literary agent. At the book website, you can get a free book proposal checklist (the pop-up when you go to the book site).

Another means to get educated about publishing is to attend a writer's conference. There are some excellent events and opportunities for you to meet personally meet editors and agents. I'm headed two two of these live events next month and would love to meet with you during these events.

The publishing world is full of opportunity for every writer but you must take action, learn what the editor or agent wants and expects, then make appropriate pitches. Each of us can get educated about publishing and I've given you some seasoned places to explore and improve your possibilities.

In this article I gave you a number of different means to get educated about publishing. Are there other ways you would suggest? Let me know in the comments below.

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Where do you get educated about publishing? This prolific editor and author gives a number of different action steps in this article. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)