Toby Neighbors - Writing For A Living: A Look Inside Modern Publishing

Writing For A Living

A Look Inside Modern Publishing

by

Toby Neighbors

Writing For A Living

2016, Toby Neighbors

Published by Mythic Adventure Publishing, LLC

Idaho, USA

All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any print or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Copy Editing by Alexandra Mandzak

Books By Toby Neighbors

Avondale Series

Avondale

Draggah

Balestone

Arcanius

Avondale V

Five Kingdoms Series

Wizard Rising

Magic Awakening

Hidden Fire

Fierce Loyalty

Crying Havoc

Evil Tide

Wizard Falling

Chaos Descending

Into Chaos

Lorik Trilogy

Lorik

Lorik the Defender

Lorik the Protector

Other Novels

Third Prince

Royal Destiny

The Other Side

The New World

Zompocalypse

Short Stories

Dark Origin

Dedication

To my fellow writers,

May you have the success you dream of.

And to Camille, my first dream come true,

My partner in all the dreams to come.

Introduction

There are lots of books on the market today for writers. It seems that as publishing gets easier, writers are becoming increasingly surrounded by people and businesses created solely to profit from our desire to be successful. It can be hard to know what resources we can trust and which we should avoid.

This book is for people who want to be full-time professional writers; more specifically, its for people who want to have a career writing books. It isnt about getting rich quickly, or making money writing blogs or articles. It isn't for journalists or magazine writers. Those are great and wonderful ways to make a living as a writer, but this book is focused on helping people who want to write books. I've written over 22 full-length novels, and before I was able to solely write my own works, I made a living ghost writing books for other people. I've written business books, diet books, self-help books, and even financial books.

I meet people all the time who want to know how I make a living writing books. With publishing now more accessible than it ever has been, that dream of being a successful writer is closer to us than ever before. The barriers are gone, the tools are accessible, and our ability to make this dream a reality is closer than most people realize. But most of the aspiring writers I meet want someone to show them how to find an audience, to express in ways that they can understand exactly how to make a living as a writer. And while our publishing options can be easily laid out, unfortunately there is no formula that will guarantee you will sell books. There is no secret to becoming a successful writer, no one proven way that works for everybody. And writing is certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme. This book is intended to help people who are willing to work hard at their craft, whose desire to write is almost a compulsion. This book is meant to help people understand the world of writing, and publishing, so that they can find the success that they are looking for through diligent effort. My goal is to help you avoid the pitfalls along the way, the busywork and the distractions that keep you from being able to find the success you're looking for with your writing.

I'll be outlining the path that I took, and talking about what I have found to work, not only in my own career, but for the other writers that I know and spend time with. While I am a strong believer in independent publishing, I will also talk about traditional publishing. I do not believe that one way is better than the other way, because each can lead a writer toward completely different goals. It is important for writers to know and understand the difference, so they can pursue what is truly important to them.

So let's jump right in and discover what it takes to become a successful writer. I'll start with my own story, then help you define what success as a writer means to you. We'll talk about the writing process and what it takes to create a finished book. We'll talk about publishing options and how to get your books into readers hands. We will also explore marketing, branding, and the publishing industry, so that you have a well-rounded understanding of exactly what it means to be a writer in today's world.

Thanks so much for picking up this book; it is my earnest desire to help you grow as a writer. I believe in giving back and helping those around us. The best way I can do that is to help you find success, however you define it, with your writing. I honestly believe anyone can be a writer, so let's get started.

Chapter 1

My Story

I have always loved to read. I can remember as a child loving book fairs at my school, and my mother taking me to the library to pick out books. The mall in my hometown had two bookstores, Walden Books and B. Dalton Bookseller. No shopping trip was complete until I had a chance to browse the narrow aisles searching for a great book to buy.

I thought it was the greatest thing ever to get lost in the story, but as a child and even through my teenage years, I never imagined writing books because I didn't enjoy writing at school. Writing assignments were difficult, I was not a good speller, and certainly didn't have good penmanship. No one ever encouraged me to write, and the idea of writing a full-length book terrified me. I can remember thinking how amazing it would be to be an author, but I never believed that I could ever accomplish that goal. So, like a lot of childhoods whimsical fantasies, I turned away from the entire idea of writing until I got to college.

At Arkansas Tech University I was allowed a wide choice of classes within my fine arts major. One of the electives I was naturally drawn to was a creative writing class, an introductory-level course taught by one of the most dreaded professors in the English department: Dr. Michael Karl Ritchie. I can remember being absolutely terrified of him, but I wanted to take the class anyway.

Our first assignment was to write a short story of fewer than 2,000 words. I remember Dr. Ritchie called it sudden fiction, and I found that to be exciting. Of course I was nervous, but sitting down at a computer and struggling to type my story, I discovered for the first time that writing could be fun! The words seemed to come from nowhere as I stared at the screen. They surged up and bubbled out of me almost as if I were hearing the story spoken into my head and all I had to do was write it down.

We turned in our stories, at least those of us who managed to actually complete the assignment. Dr. Ritchie made copies for everyone and we went home with a new assignment to read our classmates stories and come back ready to talk about them. The stories didn't have our names on them, so no one knew which story was mine, but I was still anxious. When Dr. Ritchie held mine up as the first story for us to discuss, I felt my face flush with embarrassment and fear. I was petrified that he would say it was horrible or point out all the things I had done wrong. But, to my surprise, he talked about everything that was right about my story. I couldn't believe it, and for the first time in my life I started to imagine that I could actually do something that I never dreamed was possible. In that moment a dream was born in me to become a writer. That story was of course the last time Dr. Ritchie ever praised any of my work. I was still very much a people pleaser in that stage of my life and spent most of my assignments trying to emulate the very things that my professors said they admired in stories they loved, rather than being true to myselfa key to being successful in any endeavor.