Write a book proposal. Find an agent. Build a platform on social…The to do list to get a first book published can feel totally overwhelming. But there’s a secret to getting published faster…
I’m Nicole Breit, award winning writer and creator of the Spark Your Story Lab. I help writers craft their best work and share it with the world. In this video, I’m sharing a simple step-by-step publication strategy that’s going to help you no matter what stage you’re at with your book project.
Watch The Video Here.
In ‘The Secret To Getting Published Now’, You’ll learn:
- A simple strategy to streamline the publication of your book
- The first step to becoming a published author
- An easy (and dare I say faster?) way to build your literary CV.
- How to convince a publisher to consider your proposal
- Another shortcut to getting your book in the world (Plus a MAJOR time saving tip)
- An action step you can take NOW
Resources:
Your key takeaways from ‘‘The Secret To Getting Published Now’’.
What if you had a simple strategy to streamline the publication of your book that didn’t feel overwhelming – and instead felt empowering?
Before you worry about getting an agent or writing a book proposal or researching presses that might be a good fit for your book, you need a plan. If you are worried about time – how long it’s going to take to write your book, find a publisher and finally see your book on a shelf – here’s the thing…
… it takes time to write a book you’re proud of.
It’s going to take longer to share it with the world if you don’t implement the steps you should be taking now to get published.
Here’s the first step to getting published: building a literary CV.
A literary CV (i.e. curriculum vitae) highlights your writing achievements to date. It includes your list of publication credits in anthologies, magazines and journals, as well as award nominations.
If you aren’t submitting short work to literary journals now I highly recommend you do – especially if you’re an emerging writer who hasn’t been published before. In addition to the awesome validation of hearing YES now… and not sometime in the far off future when you’re ready to sell your book… those publication credits are going to help you convince a publisher to consider your proposal.
A literary CV is going to make the process of writing your book proposal easier and more fun. It’s also going to be a useful reference document when you’re drafting a short bio to accompany future submissions to journals and contests. It will come in handy, too, if you ever want to apply for a grant or a writing residency.
Now I want to check in with you: if you’re feeling intimidated by what I’ve just shared, I get it… but listen. You can do this. Getting that first or next publication credit or even an award nomination isn’t as difficult or out of reach as you might think. I am all about finding ways to get writers from here to there as quickly as possible.
OK, here’s my time-saving tip to building a literary CV faster
Write and submit micro-length CNF. I’m talking personal essays that are 100, 200 or 500 words in length. How quickly could you write and submit a handful of short-form creative nonfiction pieces – compared to writing and polishing a 2000 or 5000 word short story or essay?
In my recent 555 Story Challenge I tasked writers with drafting five 100 word stories in 5 days. True story: Two weeks after the challenge I heard from a writer who had submitted a 100 word story she wrote in the challenge to a contest and was selected as a runner up. I have witnessed a LOT of success stories from my students over the years but WOW. I was impressed. That is the fastest draft to award nomination I’ve ever heard of!
So here’s the action I want you to take now.
Set a goal of five to ten accomplishments to add to your literary CV by the end of this year. It could be publication credits, award nominations or wins. Start crafting short-form creative nonfiction and submit them. Look for short form contests.
Here’s one more pro tip: write about the theme or subject matter you’re exploring in your book – whether you’re working on a novel, short story essay or poetry collection. That way you’re building interest and awareness of the long-form project you hope to publish and getting it in front of people who might one day help you.
Now, I want to leave you with one last thought:
Just like you want your manuscript to stand out from the slush pile and that’s why you’re working on building a literary CV, your short-form work has to stand out, too… but I’ve run out of time in this video! So be sure to tune into my next video to learn the ONE thing editors and contest judges want to see in their submissions but rarely do.
Can’t wait to learn the secrets to writing essays that get published and win awards? Click on the link in my resources section above to watch my FREE training video.
“How to write award worthy essays (even if you only have 30 minutes a day) is going to change the way you think about contests and offer creative tips to help you become a more productive and efficient writer.