You Don’t Want to Be Published (and Other Things Nobody Tells You When You First Start Writing)
by Peter M. Ball
Genres
Publication date
- February 27, 2018
There are plenty of books that tell you how to get published, but very few that focus on how to build a career. You Don’t Want to Be Published features sixteen essays focused on the mindset and psychology that lie at the heart of being a long-term writer: learning to treat your business like business, building a network that will help you succeed, setting smarter goals, and dealing with the realities of making your living through your words.
Most importantly, it asks you to accept one counter-intuitive fact: you don’t really want to be published. What you really want happens after your book comes out–and learning to focus on those desires will help you build a longer, more satisfying career as a writer.
As the former manager of the Australian Writers Marketplace and Australia’s GenreCon writers conference, Peter M. Ball draws on his own experience as a speculative fiction writer in addition the lessons learned by talking to hundreds of other writers at every level of success and experience. His advice is blunt, honest, and personal—aimed directly at some of the biggest mistakes he’s seen writers make while building their career.
If you’re sick of people offering up easy answers, then settle in for some straight talk about the hard, complicated stuff that lies at the heart of the writing business.
Essays featured in this book include:
