I've gotten my first request from a teen reader:
"Can you tell me how I can get published?"
I'm not sure how to answer him, and I think it's because I really have no good answers.
The thing is, the only thing a writer can control is his writing. The publishing part is out of our hands. We have to rely on someone else to do that for us.
(No, we are not going to divert into the self-publishing option right now.)
So how do you get published? You can only do your best at what YOU can control:
1. Write, write, and write some more. Become the best writer you can be, which takes practice. Think of yourself as the literary version of a concert violinist. You don't get to Carnegie Hall without practice.
2. Read a lot of what you like to write...so you won't be derivative, but you WILL learn what's being published now, so you can teach yourself to recognize a marketable book idea when you get one.
3. Learn as much as you can about publishing, so you don't spin your wheels when you're ready to submit.
4. Don't give up. You have to want it. Bad.
And if you've read this far, and you know any print or online publications specifically for teen writers, please let me know so I can pass it on.
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By: Stacy DeKeyser,
on 10/14/2009
Blog: Reading, writing, and chocolate (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Stacy DeKeyser,
on 10/14/2009
Blog: Reading, writing, and chocolate (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing advice; getting published; teen, Add a tag