Common New Writer Mistake: You Are Not the Exception to the Rule | iWriterly

one of the biggest newbie writer mistakes is thinking that you're the exception to the rule let's talk about why that mindset could hurt your success as a writer hanger book nerds I'm Meg Latour I'm a writer and my debut novel an adult steampunk with space travel is coming out in fall of 2020 oh my gosh guys that's this year and I also formerly worked at a literary agency on this episode of I read early let's talk about a common and new writer mistake and that is thinking that you are the exception to the rule this video will be broken down into two sections number one thinking we are the exception to the rule a mindset overview number two unhealthy writer mindsets and rules writers think that they don't have to follow that further ado let's just jump into the first section I love this quote from mediums thinking that we are the exception inevitably makes us the rule ironically those of us who are the rule always think they are an exception and this is exactly what makes them the rule by thinking we are an exception we enter the boxing ring with a lower guard because we are sure to win as soon as we enter we get knocked out by reality in the article the author gives a few examples of what he means by this for example a father and a child walk down the street and the child sees a Ferrari and says oh well I have a ring but the father says of course you can achieve anything that you want although there might be a nice sentiment and it's great to encourage your children that they can achieve big things guys a mom I have a child I want to encourage my little guy to do all the wonderful things that he wants to do in his life however what about that journey to get the car perhaps that child in the story could get that car if they're willing to put in the hard work after hearing the father's words that the child might go to school with a mindset of expectation of success or maybe even entitlement and said what if the father put things into perspective for the child and said okay sweetie let's look at the number of Ferraris that you see on the street so these are the rich successful people and then five ten-year old cars however many years old vehicles that you see on the street and maybe these people are working from paycheck to paycheck there's going to be disparity between the two there's me many many more older cars and there will be Ferraris on the street therefore the father could use that as an example to show that being successful in the field is an exception and not the rule and if you work hard and smart you might be the exception to the rule but you are not guaranteed to be the exception as always a link to everything that I reference and the external sources will be in the description below one thing that I think is so important that I think this last article highlighted is that it's important to work not just hard but work smart according to another article titled hard work vs. smart work a debate hard work means putting in a lot of time and effort doing a certain amount of work whereas smart work means spending less amount of time performing the same amount of work hard work aims at the quantity and may become monotonous and boring after a certain period smart work aims at achieving goals with quality one way you can work smart is by educating yourself as a writer giving yourself the tools to achieve your goals in less time and a skill share is a great way to do just that this video is sponsored by Skillshare Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on topics like creative writing how to edit YouTube videos how to self publish how to run a successful advertising campaign on Amazon and much more specifically they have a lot of classes for writers two of which are by my sweet friend the cyber war Queen Jennah maresi those are digital marketing for writers grow your audience and author platform and the second is digital marketing for writers planning a successful book release as you guys may know my debut novel is coming out and fall of 2020 some of the things I've been working really hard to learn more about is how to run advertising on Amazon I think that is a really terrifying subject and something that I've been studying on Skillshare and it's been so helpful and another time because how to plan a successful book release because my book is coming out this year there are so many moving pieces for a book lunch and I love that Skillshare has a class from Jenna who is someone that I consider to be an expert in this subject another thing that I love about Skillshare is that not only can you search for classes based on topic you can also do a filter for classes based on length essentially you can learn and grow through these classes that fit your busy routine Skillshare is also incredibly affordable an annual subscription is less than ten dollars a month and you get access to thousands of online classes stay tuned to the end of this video to learn how you can get two months of Skillshare for free let's move on to the second section of today's video number one expecting a book steal on your very first book six-figure deals are the exception and not the rule I feel like so many people hear about these big amazing splashy six-figure book deals and the traditional publishing and they're like oh yeah and that is not the case unfortunately I wish it was according to the 2018 Authors Guild author income survey which surveyed more than 5,000 authors in the United States the median income for those authors in 2017 was 6,000 $80.00 so that was in 2017 and I think it's even more prevalent in 2020 people can't make a full-time living off of their writing alone or most people cannot unless you are a celebrity writer but in that case you are the exception and not the rule most authors have to do more than simply write to earn an income or maybe writing is like something that they do on the side and they have a full-time corporate job or full-time job elsewhere according to that same survey the survey showed a shift in book earnings to other writing related activities such as speaking engagements book reviewing or teaching including those sources respondents who identified themselves as full-time book authors still only earned a median income of twenty thousand three hundred dollars well below the federal poverty line for a family of three or more in short unfortunately six-figure deals are the exception number two not editing the book I don't know why this is the thing but it is and I speak to so many newbie writers and they're like oh yes partner I don't need banner readers I looked over it real quick it's okay I'm gonna send onto a literary agent nerd I'm gonna self-publish it and you're like what no nobody is the exception to this rule you have to edit your book many many times through in order for it to be a quality product the first draft is just you telling yourself the story as Terry Pratchett says and I say many times on this channel that those first drafts are not final drafts you have to edit the book through many many times you got to go through the different stages developmental copy editing line editing proofreading there's so many things that you should be doing don't be publishing this first drafts so many writers think that I'm just gonna polish this book up for grammar and then it'll be all set and good grammar does not make a good book number three is writing books that do not adhere to word count expectations of the age category and genre what am I talking about age category is the age range for the intended readership so if it's young adults and maybe it's ages 12 and up 12 to 17 12 to 18 if it's intended for adult readers it's anyone who's legally an adult so 18 and up in the United States these are the age categories of the readers you intend to read your book and then the genre are things like a fantasy science fiction thriller and so on if you look at the books in those genres they all tend to have certain expected links so if I look at a contemporary romance those books are going to be way shorter than if I look at an adult fantasy even then even if you're writing an adult fantasy or adult science fiction and this is something that I get a lot from newbie adult science fiction and fantasy writers and even young adult science fiction and fantasy writers is that they're like I'm these guys JK Rowling Joe John Martin they're the exception to the rule because they have an audience they are guaranteed that readers are going to pick up their books because they have an existing readership who knows and loves their writing style they can write those longer books the longer the book is the more it cost to print it and the less the publisher the retailer everyone who has hands in bringing that book to the hands of the readers they're going to make less money on a larger book including the author now if you are a debut author you're already kind of like the rule because publishers they want to publish shorter books because you are a risky investment you do not have a proven readership people that are going to pick up your book the moment that you publish it as a debut on test and author you've never published a book before so in this case word count length you are the rule I'm not the exception so look at research online to figure out what the word count is for your age category in genre because it's going to be different for different age categories and John Rousseau for example young adult fantasy is going to be a little bit shorter then I don't fantasy research it make sure you're within those word count expectations if for the only reason of publishers are not going to take book if it's too long the last thing I'll mention here with work counts is that reader expectations so again if we look at a contemporary romance readers of that genre are going to expect a quick fun read readers of heavy epic adult fantasy are going to expect a longer read so readers at least different genres are going to expect different things so even publishers aside think about the ultimate reader and what they want to see from you and a story before is having tons of POVs I don't know if you guys have heard this but when I've spoken to literary agents most of them say that they do not recommend a debut author so again someone who hasn't published a book before to have more than six POVs ideally much fewer than that POVs is essentially the point of view the people who are narrating each chapter so if you have an adult fantasy for example you might have several characters one narrates one chapter a different character narrates the next chapter a different character narrates the next chapter and so on if you have different characters narrating each chapters you are now juggling many different character arcs the short of it is is really difficult it's very hard to do that successfully especially as you're a newer writer and you only have a few novels under your belt or maybe even one novel under your belt so in general lean it towards the side of fewer POVs especially as a newer author of course like anything else this is just all subjective advice take what works for you you guys know your writing sound your stories better than I do because I've never seen them from this side of the camera however be very careful we have tons of POVs it might put off some industry professionals and it might be just difficult to write in general so that's no reason not to do a thing because it's difficult words of caution number 5 starting with a prologue as you guys may or may not have heard at this point that literary agents a lot of them really dislike prologues I kind of dislike prologues as well as a reader as well as when I was working at the literary agency that is because most newbie writers use prologues as a form of info dump they get all the background information the history of the world the history of the characters in that opening sort of pseudo chapter in the opening prologue and then by the time they get to chapter one it's like oh we can now resume with a story because you know all the backstory rather than using your skills as a writer to weave in that backstory bit by bit it's very carefully into those opening chapters without making the reader feel overwhelmed do not info-dump don't do it and if you have a prologue in your story carefully consider where does the story actually start do I need to have this prologue is it just an info dumping ground because my story actually start in chapter one or is your prologue actually necessary and it provides additional information and fun stuff for the reader number six doing zero marketing guys if you're not doing any marketing you are the exception and not the rule so many writers say hey how much because I don't want to do any marketing I just want to write bucks nope that doesn't happen anymore and as I'm recording this video it's 20/20 it might be slightly different the future I have a feeling that the more years passed and the more publishing is changing and evolving the more marketing authors are gonna have to do period unless you are a household name a celebrity author or just a celebrity in general who's writing a book you have to market your own books both traditionally published authors and self-published authors are expected to market their books as self-published authors you don't have a publisher to help you market those books but as they traditionally published author and if you want to learn more about the pros and cons of each side I've done the video of the pros and cons of traditional publishing and the pros and cons of self-publishing and I talked a lot about marketing and what a publisher doesn't doesn't do so I'll leave links those in the description below but the short of it is traditionally published authors are 100% expected to participate in the marketing you don't know what your publisher is going to do or maybe they promise you that they're gonna do one thing and then maybe they pull back on marketing because you maybe your book isn't selling as many copies as they thought that they would they're gonna go over here and support this other author and book that is selling well it's quite literally in your best interest to market your book to get it into the hands of readers one really easy example is when I was working at the literary agency one of my jobs that I would help with and this was like an exception most agencies that I know of don't do this we would try to help our authors set up in person book tours because a lot of publishers don't fund book tours anymore unless you're like the top top of their list so we would assist our authors finding library and bookstores in their area that they could travel to for in-person book signings the guy's a lot of agencies don't do that so if you want to do in-person book signings and you're a mid list author at a traditional publishing house you're gonna have to arrange those yourself so that's marketing that you're gonna have to do if you're a self-published author and doing in-person signings is important to you that is something that you're gonna have to do so marketing is for everybody the end number-7 expecting agents will come to you if you want something you have to work hard to achieve it I don't think anyone really gets success handed to them again that is the exception and not the rule success is not gonna come knocking at your door and say can you literally have to go after the thing so if you want an agent it's really really difficult to get a literary agent these days and literary agents are people that represent authors and pitch their books to traditional publishers at publishing houses and that's the way that you're traditionally published in 2020 and probably going forward whenever you watch this video so you have to get an agent for the most part unless you work with indie presses and a select few presses that do accept books from authors who are not represented so if an agent asks for you to submit your query letter synopsis opening chapters and whatever through a submission form such as query manager do exactly what they ask for the agents are not gonna come to you and say I got a pact that just rarely happens anymore unless you happen to know someone and if you do congratulations that's really wonderful and you're the exception and not the rule so do not have this entitled mindset do your research work hard on making a fantastic book and query agents you can't expect them to come to you number eight sending your query to literary agents outside of the specified submission process follow the submission guidelines as I said before if an agent asks for your query letter and your synopsis and your opening pages in the body of an email zero attachments put this thing in the subject line do the thing send it however they ask for in the email a query submission form whatever it is follow the guidelines do not be sending agents direct messages on social media or emailing them on their personal emails or even emailing them on their work emails if they say to submit your queries and your unsolicited manuscripts another way do not try to cut the line do not try to be the exception to the rule it will not work the very least your work is going to be deleted that's the worst maybe the agent will remember you for next time if you actually submit through the proper channels that's not a good kind of remembering I have had so many people back when I was working at the agency and even still to this day email me with their manuscripts and their query letters and saying hey will you represent me and you're like guys number one I'm not at the agency anymore but number two you have to go through the proper channels you are not the exception follow the rules number nine is self publishing a book and expecting it to sell well without doing anything we are in 2020 and probably in years going forward we are going to pay to play market if you want your book to be seen on Amazon you will probably have to do some advertising you can no longer publish a book on Amazon and expect readers to come in and find it or in the also bought section you can't do the $0.99 sale anymore and again expect readers to come in and droves gone are those days instead you have to market yourself and your books created an author platform maybe do some advertising on Amazon or Facebook or book club or wherever you want to advertise you can't just self publish a book or traditionally published publish a book in any manner and expect readers to come and find you you have to seek out readers and try to get your book into the hands of your ideal reader alright guys are you ready for today's exclusive opportunity Skillshare is offering I've read early viewers two free months of premium membership click the link in the description to get two free months of your premium membership and explore your creativity thanks for tuning into this episode of I ride early common newly random mistakes specifically your thinking that you are the exception to the rule if you liked what you saw give this video a thumbs up it lets me know you liked this type of content and want more and if you're new here welcome please consider subscribing I post writing related videos one to two times per week if you have questions about anything that we cover today please leave those in the comments below be sure to connect with me on my other social media platforms I'm on Twitter and Instagram also having a monthly newsletter book nerd buys which includes exclusive insiders and giveaways for subscriber when you subscribe to the newsletter you'll receive free copies of how to format your manuscript for submission which is a Word document template and a querying checklist you will also have first access to any information about these status and publication journey of my debut novel all the links are in the description below that's it for today as always keep writing [Music]

Channel: iWriterly

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Keywords: writing tips, best writing advice, writing advice, writing mistakes, mistakes writers make, common writing mistakes to avoid, most common writing mistakes, common new writer mistakes, common mistakes new writers make, writing mistakes to avoid, creative writing tips, newbie writing mistakes, newbie writer, book writing, biggest mistakes first time writers make, biggest mistakes new writers make, how to write a novel, exception to the rule, iwriterly, meg latorre, authortube

Id: -qW2Gtb5-hg

Length: 19min 8sec (1148 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020