A Writer's Curse: Behind the glamour of bestsellers

It's hard to look at the meteoric rise of books like, 'Harry Potter', 'Twilight' or 'Game of Thrones' and not romanticise the idea of being a writer. The truth is, it is romantic. Yet, these successes are as close to spotting a unicorn in a park, as you can get. It is as improbable, as a struggling actor turning into the next superstar or as a young college student wishing to supersede Zuckerberg's fame. That is not to say it's all just one big pipe dream, but that the chances of it happening are in the under 1 percentile.

Most people, including many aspiring writers, have a superficial understanding of the never-ending hurdles involved in turning a finished book/manuscript into a published work, displayed in their neighbourhood bookstores. In fact, it would be accurate to say that the toughest struggles begin after you've finished penning your literary masterpiece. This is a bitter truth to swallow, one that I personally, learned the hard way. Yet, I am grateful I didn't know this from the start; if I had, I might have never finished writing my debut novel, and that would've been a bloody shame!

When I first finished working on my book, I felt like an unstoppable force that was about to take the literary world by storm. It's been 18 months since that moment and I'm relieved to say, that I will never be that naive ever again. Having never known anyone within the publishing industry, I had to learn the in's and out's through trial and error, over far too many agonising months. One of the first things I learned, was that (barring rare exceptions) going through the entire process of turning a manuscript into a published book would take years. This led to the first (but definitely not the last) lie I told myself: that i was going to be one of those rare exceptions to this rule. I wasn't, not even close.

Over time, I learned of the many miracles that needed to happen for me to even complete this entire journey. I'm listing these miracles below, to give you an idea of the torture I agreed to put myself through, when I decided to become a published author.

1. Initial Edits – The correct term for a freshly finished manuscript is, 'First Draft'. It is said, that one cannot even contemplate showing anyone their work until at least the 3rd draft.

2. Alpha Readers – These are the 'readers' who should be giving you feedback on your very 'rough' first draft in terms of character development, pacing, structure, etc. These could be fellow writers and industry professionals like editors/agents.

3. Structural Edits – Because when you ask someone their opinion, they're going to give it, and more often than not, you know they have a point.

4. Beta Readers – Now it's time to find yourself 'readers' who will read your book, with the sole intention of poking as many holes as they can find in your manuscript. These could be family/friends or fellow writers and industry professionals. They will give you a 'reader's' perspective on how good the book was overall.

5. More Edits – These poked 'holes' will now need to be filled. Hence, more edits. Fun.

6. Synopsis & Query Letters – To publish, you need to first get yourself an agent (especially for fiction). You see, mid to large sized publishers only deal with agents. All agents require a brief synopsis (summary) of your book, along with a query letter. A query/covering letter is roughly between 350-600 words that informs the agent the following: who you are + book genre + approx. word count + target audience AND why your book is amazing (without sounding arrogant). Most writers find that composing a good synopsis and a 'stand-out' query letter is much harder to write than their entire book.

7. Finding an Agent – Be prepared for days of research on agents who 'fit the bill'. This means that the agent has to be open to receiving queries and be willing and capable of helping you publish. Not to mention that your book should be within their 'manuscript wish list' to even consider repping you. Once you find such an agent, you have to then find many many more. Most writers query/submit to anywhere between 15 to 100+ agents per manuscript!

8. Querying Agents – This actually takes a lot more time than you would think. Yes, you can 'copy & paste' your query to all agents. However, every single one of them will require slight variations of information. As a result, it can take a long time to query all the agents on your list. Imagine how painful it would be to pull your own hair out... now multiply that by two.

9. Now, you wait – Good agents usually receive hundreds of queries a week. This means that it can take them a while to get to yours.

10. Rejection or Submission Request – If by some miracle, an agent hasn't outright rejected your query, then they will either ask you for a partial or a full of your manuscript. Go over the parts you're sending over with a fine-toothed comb and press enter.

11. You wait, yet again – As long as it can take an agent to read your initial query, it can take twice as long for them to read your manuscript.

12. The Call – If an agent truly loves (and I really mean 'love') your book, they will ask to get on a call with you. This call is to offer you representation. Yea baby!

13. Editor Hunting – Once the client-agent contract is signed, your agent will go on a hunt to find the best editor they can to turn your book into the masterpiece that no publisher would be able to resist.

14. Submission – Armed with a fully edited book, your agent will then create and send a 'submission' package to all suitable publishers, for their consideration.

15. An Offer from a Publisher – If you are lucky, like really really lucky, you could get one or more offers from publishers to print and distribute your book. Reading the contract and both parties satisfied enough to sign it, can take a while. Note: this is the part of your life where you sign away your rights to your most prized possession (your book) and then celebrate doing so.

16. A Million Years Later – Once an author-publisher contract is signed, it can take anything between 10 months to 3 years before your book finally sits on those bookshelves you dreamed of. Which, let's be honest, can feel like a million years.

17. Needle in a haystack – You have finally made it to the end of the biggest, most poignant struggle of your life. This is when it hits you. The chances of your book recovering it's publication costs (let alone turning into a bestseller) are worse than your chances of getting published to begin with. AKA downright laughable.

So there you go folks! This is the journey that I, and countless writers undergo, to fulfil our dreams of one day becoming a published author. If this doesn't rip away the glamour surrounding literary sensations that you envy, then I throw my hands in the air and give up. ;)