{"id":43822,"date":"2014-11-06T17:11:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T23:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=43822"},"modified":"2021-09-25T19:02:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T00:02:15","slug":"writing-a-commercially-published-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/advice\/writing-a-commercially-published-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Insanely Difficult Steps to Writing a Commercially-Published Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

November is National Novel Writing Month<\/a> (NaNoWriMo), an annual novel-writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.<\/p>\n

The ardent task of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It\u2019s an official competition with prizes and acclaim. Last year more than 310,000 adults signed up for the program, along with another 89,500 students.<\/p>\n

At Art of Manliness, we\u2019re big fans of manly fiction<\/a>, and we\u2019ve previously covered the nuts and bolts of how to write a novel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What we haven\u2019t discussed in detail is how arduous the task can be. It isn\u2019t easy. But it can be done.<\/p>\n

How about you? Have you ever thought about writing a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean, a really good novel that starts off with Call Me Ishmael<\/em> and gets a commercial publishing contract and inspires people and hopefully flies off store shelves for the next 20-plus years?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the encouraging word: it can be done. And you don\u2019t necessarily need to participate in NaNoWriMo to do it, either. I\u2019d say if you want to write a novel, then write your novel. Write it in your time, in your way. Pour your blood into it. Plenty of folks figure out how it\u2019s done. Why not you?<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d also say to be prepared for a heavy dose of reality. Commercial publishing is a mercenary business, and works of fiction are harder to get published than nonfiction books. Publishing fiction is a longshot at best, and there are no failsafe solutions anyone can prescribe to guarantee you success.<\/p>\n

So, I offer a paradoxical sort of encouragement. For anyone contemplating writing a novel, I\u2019d give two messages: both \u201cyou can do it\u201d and \u201cbeware,\u201d at the same time. The caution means that almost anyone can write and publish a novel, true, but there\u2019s a high price to pay to do it, for which you need to be prepared. I\u2019d be doing you a disservice if I told you otherwise.<\/p>\n

One of the main problems is that people tend to think that the actual writing of the book is the only battle they will face in the process. But the writing is only about a quarter of what\u2019s needed. The second quarter is the fight to get your manuscript published. The next quarter is relentlessly marketing your book once it comes out, which publishers expect you to do these days.<\/p>\n

Then the final quarter is going to primal scream therapy after your book sales fail miserably, because by then you\u2019re depressed and broke and visionless, and insanely jealous of John Grisham, James Patterson, Ken Follett, and Lee Child\u2014pretty much the only four male scribblers who actually make money at this game.<\/p>\n

That said, if you still want to write your own heartbreaking work of staggering genius, here\u2019s how you can begin navigating down that good and winding road. I call these the \u201c5 insanely difficult yet necessary steps\u201d to writing a commercially-published novel.<\/p>\n

1. Commit to an unsustainable schedule.<\/h3>\n

You won\u2019t find<\/em> the time.<\/p>\n

You must create <\/em>the time.<\/p>\n

I wrote my first novel in 2003. It took me a year to write it. I had a wife and child and mortgage by then and was working 40 hours a week at a newspaper and moonlighting for a publishing company by editing their books at night. But I desperately wanted to write my own book.<\/p>\n

So I wrote it.<\/p>\n

I just wrote it.<\/p>\n

I wrote on nights and weekends. In my rare spare moments I played with my baby, kissed my wife, and went to work, and I kept writing until my book was finished.<\/p>\n

That type of unsustainable schedule is typical in the writing industry, at least when you\u2019re starting out. You can\u2019t maintain that schedule for the rest of your life. But any man can do it for a season or two.<\/p>\n

The great novelist Elmore Leonard worked at an advertising company while he wrote his first novel. While he worked, he kept one hand in his desk drawer and penned the whole thing longhand.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what it takes. No one will give you time. You must create <\/em>time.<\/p>\n

2. Woo a literary agent.<\/h3>\n

Once your book is finished and has been polished to a shine, you will need to woo a literary agent, who will represent your book to publishing houses.<\/p>\n

I say \u201cwoo,\u201d because agents can\u2019t be hired. At least not reputable ones. Agents make their money when\u2014and only when\u2014they sell your book to acquisition editors, so that means they absolutely must fall in love with it first. They must believe your book is commercially viable. Their jobs depend upon it.<\/p>\n

You can email or cold-call agents, pitch your book, and see if they\u2019re interested, but that\u2019s hard-going because working agents already have full rosters of authors they represent.<\/p>\n

One of the best ways to find an agent is to invest in going to a literary conference. Search online and find a reputable regional conference near you. You\u2019ll meet agents face to face there, and it\u2019s harder for them to slam the door.<\/p>\n

Even then, wooing an agent isn\u2019t easy. By the time you factor in transportation, meals, and hotel costs, it might cost you a thousand bucks to attend the conference. That\u2019s money you undoubtedly don\u2019t have handy in your account, so you must prioritize and sacrifice. Not to mention that 500 other people will be at the conference along with you, all vying for an agent\u2019s attention. Still, getting an agent can be done.<\/p>\n

I landed my first agent at a writer\u2019s conference in California. On a handshake, he promised to represent my manuscript, but told me to be wary of pestering him by telephone to see how the process was going, since he was so extremely busy all the time. Three months later, I still hadn\u2019t heard a peep out of him, so I steeled my nerve and called. He had switched agencies by then and had completely forgotten about me.<\/p>\n

I went with somebody else, my second choice from the conference. He shopped my manuscript around New York but couldn\u2019t find a buyer, so he released me from our exclusivity contract.<\/p>\n

I went to another writer\u2019s conference, this one in Seattle. I landed another agent who told me\u2014with blunt honesty\u2014that I was a top-tier writer but that my book wasn\u2019t commercial enough and couldn\u2019t be fixed or sold. He asked if I wanted to collaborate on a book with another author until I could write another novel of my own. I needed cash, so I said yes.<\/p>\n

We sold that book to Simon & Schuster. That meant a mark of success, and decent money too, although a different type of success than I\u2019d imagined.<\/p>\n

See, I had good connections now and a cover credit on a larger book. But no novel of my own. And if you want to publish your own novel, then you absolutely need your own novel!<\/p>\n

3. Write a second novel when your first one fails.<\/h3>\n

I wrote a second novel in 2005 and showed it to yet another agent. (I had my 4th<\/sup> agent by then, as the previous one had gone out of business.) This agent liked the dialogue and pacing but said the plot was a disaster. He recommended shelving it and starting over again.<\/p>\n

The news that my second novel stunk was hard to hear, but it didn\u2019t sting as much as it might have. I\u2019d left the newspaper by then and was working full-time as a freelance collaborative writer and editor in the book business, so it felt like I was seeing some success in the direction of my dream.<\/p>\n

In 2007 I wrote the first five chapters of a third novel and showed it to my agent. It was an experimental sci-fi thriller, and early readers liked it, but my agent hated it. Like I say, an agent stakes his reputation and business on yours. If he doesn\u2019t think he can sell your book to acquisition editors, then he won\u2019t bother trying.<\/p>\n

It might sound like a lot of work to write more than one novel when the first doesn\u2019t sell, but that\u2019s surprisingly common.<\/p>\n

If you check out any great novelist\u2019s Wikipedia page, it will often say something like, \u201c[Dude with three names] wrote three unpublished books before [hipster title] was finally published. It stayed on the bestseller\u2019s list for 15 years and won the Pulitzer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those first unpublished novels aren\u2019t remembered anymore\u2014not the works themselves, nor the agony and exhaustion involved in the throwing away process. They\u2019re just a necessary part of the experience.<\/p>\n

4. Voraciously study the novel-writing technique books — and preferably do this first<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re smart, then you will do this step first. But if you already think you\u2019re a good writer, like I did when I first started writing professionally, then you will write a bunch of books that you throw away first. Then, when all those fail, out of necessity you will go back and read the how-to books.<\/p>\n

There are specifics of novel writing that you can learn from how-to books. Plot development techniques. Dialogue. Pacing. Genres that sell. Word count minimums and maximums. How to craft a book around a failsafe 3-act structure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Try these 3 classic how-to books for starters:<\/p>\n