How to begin your writing career?

How to begin your writing career?

These days I have become so easy to start your writing career, and one must utilise this opportunity to make a place for themselves out there.

At the same time, it also means that the competition is intense and, so you must be prepared for a rough ride. Buckle down, prepare some tasty snacks with a food dehydrator, and get this show on the road.

Let’s break down the entire process into steps.

  1. Decide: specialise or generalise

Before you get started, you need to decide whether you want to generalise or specialise in what you are doing. If you are freelancing and not making this a full-time option for yourself, then it is for the best to be a generalist, since they need every opportunity that they can get.

But if someone is trying to make a full-time career out of it when choosing a speciality could be a very crucial decision. Though the ride may be much more difficult for a specialist, with patience and time, it bears a very sweet fruit.

Once you have established yourself as an expert in a field, people will think of you whenever the subject comes up. It will then be them coming to you rather than the other way around.

  1. Cold calling

The most important step in beginning a career is to pitch to an agent – unless you decide you want to take the self-publishing route. The process can be tiresome and devastating with many rejections, but one must keep a positive attitude. One must be confident while communicating with the potential agents.

The best way to introduce yourself and your idea is to give a short introduction of who you are and put forth a short and crisp summary of your story.

  1. Don’t hide behind your computer.

It is very important that you are not just writing stories. Networking is as crucial as writing good stories to make a career.

Meeting more people of your line and attending relevant conferences can prove to be of great help at times. This is all about the right contacts.

Even if you are just getting started, go and attend media event invites sent by PR agencies irrespective of how important those events are.

You might just get the opportunity of meeting someone important who might open doors for you later.

  1. Use social media

Even if you are an experienced writer, blogging helps you popularise yourself a little more. Also, be aware of what you are putting up on your site because anyone can steal your ideas.

Social media can also prove to be very helpful in building a network or for researching.

  1. Choose the right agent

Since an agent is not someone you change every day, it is important that you choose your agent only after having done sufficient research on the same.

To choose the right agent, you must do a lot of research first as to the type of work they specialise in. Most of the time, the agent will accept your work only if it matches his interest or specialisation.

One can find which agents to approach by scouring the web for other writers’ experiences. Once you have found many of them, shortlist the ones who you feel might be interested in your book.

It is recommended you shortlist more than one, as rejections are common in this line of work and acceptances don’t come easy.

Hope this helps. Happy writing!

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