My top tip for aspiring authors
And why I struggle to follow it
Last weekend at Manly Writers’ Festival I was asked to give advice to writers hoping to be published one day. My answer was to take your time, enjoy the process and view publishing a book as a longterm goal. Writing is a craft that takes years to learn, and each book presents new challenges and obstacles to overcome. Like me, you may find that your first attempt at writing a novel will not result in a publishing deal. Overnight success is the exception rather than the rule. In short, good things take time.
Later that day it occurred to me that I should follow my own advice. My next book is not under contract, and I’m keen to secure representation for this and future novels. So I once again find myself in the uncomfortable position of pitching a manuscript to literary agents. After cutting 20K words from the previous draft and applying feedback from beta readers, I thought (hoped) the manuscript was ready to share. Now, having received valuable feedback from an excellent agent, I realise the story still needs more work.
I’m not an inherently patient person, so I find it difficult to acknowledge that this book will take a little longer to write than I’d hoped it might. The feedback resonates with me, that door is still open, and I know that another round of edits with a touch of literary liposuction will result in a much stronger novel. So I’m off to roll my sleeves up and get to work.
In the meantime, whenever a fellow debut author announces a publication deal for their next novel I’m going to congratulate them and remind myself that when my second novel is published no-one will care how long it took to get there, that I need to run my own race. I’m also going to ignore, for now, the shiny new novel idea that’s begging to be written. That story will wait until I’m in the position to write it. Here’s hoping it’s easier to wrangle than its predecessor.
It’s also difficult to embrace the slow work of creativity in a rapidly changing publishing landscape in which my book, as well as books by almost every author I know, is in the LibGen database of pirated books used by Meta to train its AI. It’s bad enough to confirm that, not for the first time, my debut novel has been pirated. But to then know that it may have been stolen by Meta to train generative AI systems is devastating. If you are an Australian author with work in the database, please let the ASA know so they can use this information to lobby the Australian government to protect creators’ copyright.
Upcoming Events:
This Sunday I’ll be at Newcastle Writers Festival and I have a couple of Blue Mountains events coming up as well. Keep an eye on my socials or the events page on my website for details as they are announced.
For now, though, I’d better get back to draft 456 of my work in progress. Just as well it’s not a race!
