Going pro: are you ready?

(This article will also appear in the forthcoming April issue of Backspace's newsletter.)

It’s a big scary day for many writers when agents and editors grab hold of their work and begin analyzing it with intimidating jargon like market viability or niche potential. Suddenly a writer’s blood and sweat are wrung out and hung to dry, or so it seems. These abstractions are necessary, however, as a publisher needs to sell your book the best way it can, and our market is rife with labels. Your book is going to be labeled and relabeled and scrutinized, possibly to your discomfort. The good news: the better prepared you are for this professional step, the better you’ll be able to usher that process along.

Let’s back up a step, though. How does this process even begin? How can you better prepare yourself to think of your work as a product in the market? My answer: start from the beginning. Where does your writing fit in the world right now? The only three possible answers (in my simple paradigm, anyway) are as follows…

Answer number one: it’s private, between me and my journal and my fountain pen; sometimes I share bits and pieces with my cat.

Answer number two: it’s public, in classes or in writing groups; I’m willing to share it but need more time to explore my voice and style.

Answer number three: it’s professional, in submission, offered upon, chasing the dream, etc.; I really think I’m ready to make something of this here writing career.

Be warned. This third level must be consciously and actively broached. When I present this paradigm at writing conferences, I emphasize that there is value in all levels of writing. Writing is an art, through-and-through, but it’s simple reality that a writer must take many additional factors into consideration when deciding to push her writing to the professional level.

And that’s just what it is – a push, from the comfortable, lofty confines of the college writing class or the afternoon spent scribbling thoughts on the back porch, to a living, breathing industry that is set out to do one thing in the end: make money, if at all possible. Publishing professionals sometimes lose sight of the value in non-professional writing, but likewise writers must approach the publishing industry aware of its realities. Don’t expect your work to be coddled, and do all you can now to prepare yourself for these conversations.

This can begin as simply as labeling the genre in which your book would fit if a publisher could only place it on one shelf at the bookstore. Visit your local shop. Spend twenty minutes in front of that one shelf. Read the jacket copy of various books. Notice the publishers and the specific imprints. If this section doesn’t feel right to you, maybe you’re mislabeling your work from the beginning. Browse more. Find the shelf that would be the perfect home for your book, and absorb that which the publishers have done for existing books.

From there, browse the web for writers who would be marketed just like you. Check out their blogs and take notice of what they’re doing online to find their readers. Google has a great blog search tool: blogsearch.google.com. Spend some time on Amazon, too, which smartly links each book to similar titles that readers have also purchased. Pay close attention to best sellers or books that have garnered great reviews and blurbs from other well-known authors. Don’t do this in hopes of mimicking that which is hot on the market. Rather, it’s a self-study you should complete to gain fluency in the market, your genre, and your writing’s place in the world.

Take these initial steps if you haven’t already. This knowledge will eventually show itself in everything from your query letter to your synopsis to your actual prose. More importantly, you’ll have an easier time convincing agents and editors that you’ve done your research and are, in fact, ready for the world of professional writing.