How long did it take you to get published?

Beachgirl

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I'm probably not the typical story. I received an acceptance eight days after my first submission. I think my head is still spinning from the turnaround speed.
 

Kevans

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My wife and I are not typical, we were recruited. We had an agreement before our first attempt.

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Kevin
 

Jo Zebedee

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Publication as in first short accepted - about three years.

To book publishing it will be about five years but I had a publishing offer on it two years ago. As far as I can see, compared to others who started about the same time, five years is quick. Rejections at three years are not unusual - some of it depends on output (if you've written only one book in three years vs eg three you've got a smaller pool of potential success).
 

popgun62

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I've been writing for 3 years and have nothing to show for it but rejections.


Is that for one book, short stories, magazine articles, or what?

I wrote magazine articles at first, and then worked for a newspaper for five years before my first novel was published. It took me five years to write the novel, a year to find a publisher after about 100 agent rejections, and another year for it to actually go into print. That was in 2010.

Now, after four books published with small presses, I finally secured an agent. So as I slowly climb the ladder of literary success, I consider each rejection just another rung in the ladder. Eventually, I'll get to the top, and so will you. Just keep climbing.
 

Bloo

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I'm a playwright, so my publishing experience is a bit different. My first play was written in 2007 (and I've never submitted it for publication anywhere). i continued to write short scripts (again that I've never submitted). My first play I thought was "worthy" of publication, Allie In Wonderland, was written and produced in early 2010. I did a revision and started querying play publishers around the Winter/spring of 2011 (about a year later-I wanted to "sit on it" and see if it held up). I got a call from a publisher in October of 2011 and had it published in January of 2012 (I wasn't working at that time and had plenty of time to do edits). My Tom Sawyer play was produced in summer of 2011, submitted in 2012 and published in 2013. My collection of short plays was written between fall 2012 and winter 2013, queried in 2013 and published in 2014.
 

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This is a difficult question to answer as there are so many different forms of writing, and getting published in one area is a lot different to being published in another; and then there's the issue of how you count it: do you start from when you start writing? If so, that could add years to the end number if you're talking about a novel, for example.
 

Undercover

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This is a difficult question to answer as there are so many different forms of writing, and getting published in one area is a lot different to being published in another; and then there's the issue of how you count it: do you start from when you start writing? If so, that could add years to the end number if you're talking about a novel, for example.

OH has a good point here. It all depends on how you're looking at it. I wrote my first novel in 10 days, but received nothing but rejections. Then I stopped for a year and then had an editor ask me if I've revised it. This led me to rewrite the whole thing and resubmit, I got an offer in 12 days.

NOW, I wouldn't advise submitting so fast and getting an offer so fast and taking it too. Some offers that go too quick may be a red flag. Not always, but sometimes, yes.
 

J.S.F.

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I'll just give my own personal experiences. I wrote a story in 2009, got rejected a jillion times, and it found a home at the end of 2011. Digital only (The Tower). My first, not my best, but it will always have a special place in my heart.

Second novel (digital only--Death Bytes) came out in 2012. Last year, first papperbok, Twisted, out, and this year will have two more papperboks, Lindsay Versus the Marauders (already out) and the sequel, Lindsay, Jo and the Tree of Forever. Catnip (digital only) is a novel I'm rather proud of although I loved writing the Lindsay/Jo trilogy.

Next year, who knows, although I am expecting at least two more. As for what UC said about taking a quick offer, that's good advice. At the outset, I didn't know who was good and who wasn't. I was just thrilled to have been published. Now that I'm a little jaded, I'm a tad more careful with who I go with and who I want to go with.
 

Old Hack

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Eternity. Clock continues to tick.

caw

There are good reasons why talented writers fail to be published.

The first one is that the writer stops writing new stuff and focuses instead on the first novel, short story, or article he or she ever wrote. Getting locked into endless revisions of the same piece or endless submissions of the same piece guarantees you'll not get published. Often that first novel never gets published, and nor does the second, third or fourth. You have to keep writing new stuff, learning more about the craft and your own talents, and leave your early work behind you.

The second reason is that the writer doesn't submit to the right places. It sounds obvious: and yet the majority of the slush piles I've worked was stuff which I couldn't commission. I edit non-fiction, in a very specific genre: and yet I'd get poetry, novels, short stories, children's books, and when I did get a non-fic proposal it was rarely within my area.

The third reason is that the writer is not working in the genre which suits them best. I have a friend who wrote books for the YA market, and failed quite spectacularly to drum up any interest in them. She did this for years and then decided one day to try her hand at flash fiction. She intended it to be a way of giving herself a break while she was feeling downhearted. She has published almost everything she's written since, and her writing is winning prizes.

I'm not saying this is the case with you, blac: just that these are things I've seen happen over and over again, and it's worth considering.
 
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Thanks everyone. If you were wondering, I was referring to fiction of all kinds. I have written two novels (the first was garbage) and a myriad of short stories. It feels impossible to get published sometimes.

I have sent my novel to many agents and submitted my short stories to pro markets. Do you think I should try submitting to semipro markets?
 

Motley

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Semi-pro markets pay between 1 and 4.9 center per word. Pro markets pay 5 and up. Token pays less than semi-pro and non-paying, obviously, pays nothing.

My first short story (that I submitted, not wrote) was accepted 37 days after I submitted it. I haven't submitted a novel or novella anywhere yet.
 

etherme

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I started writing when I was 15, and just self-published my first novel in February of this year (after many, many, many years of rejection).

Last month it was picked up by Thomas & Mercer publishing, so for me, 20+ years in the making.

Moral of the story? Never give up, because you never know what will happen!
 
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gingerwoman

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There are good reasons why talented writers fail to be published.


The second reason is that the writer doesn't submit to the right places. It sounds obvious: and yet the majority of the slush piles I've worked was stuff which I couldn't commission. .

I've always done an immense amount of research before choosing to submit somewhere. In fact the first short story I had published was probably the only thing I have written that I didn't write with a specific target in mind. ie...I write to what I think publishers are looking for.

That doesn't mean there isn't still plenty of room for creativity and enjoyment while targeting a market, but I generally don't write things I might not be able to sell, so I didn't have much problem getting published.

I do have one literary 4000 word short story that I wrote for a literary contest here in New Zealand that didn't place, and that no one who pays money for literary short stories seems to like, (lol) so that one remains unpublished.
 
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gingerwoman

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Thanks everyone. If you were wondering, I was referring to fiction of all kinds. I have written two novels (the first was garbage) and a myriad of short stories. It feels impossible to get published sometimes.

I have sent my novel to many agents and submitted my short stories to pro markets. Do you think I should try submitting to semipro markets?


I was chicken to try pro markets when I first started, so I aimed at semi pro markets and had some success with them. It's still a nice little whack of money.
 

Jinsune

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It took a couple of months for me to get some short stories published, and I've got about 12 rejections from an 85k manuscript, so no luck yet in the book publishing department.
 

Barbara R.

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It took me a few years, because the first book I wrote (over the course of a year) didn't sell. Then I wrote a second novel, and within a month or so I had an agent. That book sold pretty quickly to Doubleday and a few foreign publishers.

Old Hack is right: if a book doesn't sell, and you've given it every opportunity, it's time to move on. My attitude was that the first one wasn't good enough, but I learned a lot writing it, and the second one will be. It was. What's not useful, I think, is that response I hear from a lot of frustrated aspiring writers: that the game is rigged. I know it's not; I've seen the system time and again identify talented newcomers and publish them.

That's not to say every good book finds a home. There are factors other than quality that play into the equation. But I'd estimate that 10-20% of my writing students find publishers...and invariably those that do are among the best in the class.

I knew one writer, Ted Whittemore, who wrote 7 novels before selling one. But that one was genius, as were the novels that followed.
 

Old Hack

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Old Hack is right: if a book doesn't sell, and you've given it every opportunity, it's time to move on. My attitude was that the first one wasn't good enough, but I learned a lot writing it, and the second one will be. It was. What's not useful, I think, is that response I hear from a lot of frustrated aspiring writers: that the game is rigged. I know it's not; I've seen the system time and again identify talented newcomers and publish them.

It's far easier to say that the game is rigged than to accept that there's a problem with the book you invested so much of your time in.

I knew one writer, Ted Whittemore, who wrote 7 novels before selling one. But that one was genius, as were the novels that followed.

Most people need to try out their skills on a few novels before writing the one that gets them onto shelves.

Katie Fforde told me that she wrote ten novels (I think) before getting published. I don't have the bandwidth to listen for myself but you can hear her talking about it here: go to series one, episode three. (And yes, I am the Jane Smith who mumbles a bit about publishing in that episode.)
 

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What genre are you writing in?

There are different paths that work for different genres/sub-genres. I've never written SF/F or literary, but my impression is that both of those areas have active short story markets that can be a good place to get published early on. In romance, there are lots of e-first publishers of varying quality where a lot of writers get their start. I expect there are other paths for other genres as well.

Have you had your work critiqued? What steps have you taken to be sure it's as good as it can be?

My own path was in romance, first book accepted by the first publisher (e-first) I submitted to. But I spent three or four years in the e-first field before I got an agent (for YA, but she's also gotten me a NY romance deal). So not long to get published at ALL, but quite a while to get a NY deal.

Everyone's different. But don't think there's just one path to publication. Depending on your genre, you can try different strategies. Most important, I'd say, is to keep writing and keep working to improve.
 

Red-Green

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A quick check of ye olde spreadsheete shows some less than cheering news from this particular writer (writing primarily literary/mainstream.)

Started writing seriously in 1995, but didn't submit anything for years. Starting subbing short stories in 1999, mostly to small literary markets. Sold a few. Queried my first novel in 2001, then another three novels before I got an agent. Book that got my agent never sold. Without an agent, I sold my first novel in 2011 to a small press. Sold another novel to same small press in 2013. This year, I got another agent who sold a novel to a Big 5 publisher.

I know this is not what anyone wants to hear, but it took me 10 years to sell the first novel, 13 to finally get a deal with a big publisher. I spent those years writing, reading, sharing critiques, making writing friends, so they don't feel like wasted years. If you really want to be a writer, you just keep doing it until it happens.
 
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Fuchsia Groan

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Sold a literary story in 2008. The pay was actually decent for that kind of journal, but I never got another short-story acceptance. Realized I might need an MFA or impressive workshop credit to break into the lit-fic field; decided to write spec and YA instead.

Started querying seriously around the same time. Queried three novels, with many rewrites. Got agent for one of them, lost agent after book didn't sell. Got second agent for third book, which sold last summer. No pub date yet.

Still can't believe someone wants to pay me for my fiction. That feeling is worth years, nay decades, of effort. I've always written primarily for myself, while trying to find that sweet spot where my tastes overlap with the market. I can't claim to have approached writing like a business, and I'm all the happier for any success I get.
 

Cwright

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I'm still in the rejection phase. I do agree with Old Hack though regarding your first works. I got hung up for quite some time on my first novel because it was a story I really came to love for a long time and wanted to make it work. I was just forcing something that just didn't work. It was too early in my writing career.

I've now written one more novel and several short stories. Looking back at my first novel is astonishing. It is amazing the skills learned in just even a little more writing. I am now rewriting that entire novel. Will it get published? Not sure yet, but I am passionate about the story enough to give it another go now that I've learned so much about my writing style.

I don't see three years as being too long a time from what I've seen. Just don't let that hang you up. Keep crafting your pieces and creating new ones. Return to the old ones later and improve them. You'll get there :)