What Steps Can You Take To Be a Successful Writer?

There is no simple answer to the question, “How do I become a successful writer?” And there we go, that’s the blog. I am just kidding, obviously! In all seriousness, like in any creative endeavor, all you can do is prepare yourself for the opportunities that come your way so that you can give them your best shot. What does that mean for writing? Here are 6 ideas that can help you towards success as an author.

Write Often

Practice makes perfect is an adage for a reason! You’ll never improve if you don’t write, even just for writing’s sake. So many writers get hung up waiting for the “best idea” or “the right time,” but the fact is, neither of those things matter.

Even if you write a bunch of bogus, terrible short stories or scenes, you’re bound to improve simply through the practice of creating them.

No one needs to see the results, so who cares how or what you write? If you’re stuck for ideas, there are plenty of places to find writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing. However you go about it, just write!

How Can You Write If You’re Not Reading?

Make time to read books in your genre. Not only will it keep you abreast of the zeitgeist, but it does also inspire creativity.

I talk about this in my course and masterclass, but just because someone else has written an idea like yours doesn’t preclude you from writing it anyways. Your take will still be unique and exciting, and you can make your own (which could make it better than what you’ve read!)

So long as you’re not committing plagiarism, you’re golden! Plus, you’ll know you’re supporting your fellow authors, which could lead to building relationships, sharing ideas, and even offering reciprocal reviews of your novels, boosting its reach (which I’ll get more into shortly!).

So, pick up an old favorite or explore something new, set goals for yourself to read a new book every month or couple of months, to see what’s out there and inspire yourself.

Get Support

Outside of constantly writing on your own, you may want some additional support. That can range from taking courses like mine to learning about self-publishing or workshops like those offered by my colleague Amber Byers to boost confidence in your writing and help you get started. Of course, there are plenty of schooling opportunities for creative writing should you want to pursue that path, too.

Sometimes our latent skills aren’t quite enough, or we need the validation of higher learning to reassure ourselves that we can write quality work. Plus, these workshops, classes, and otherwise provide valuable tools to help us better organize our thoughts and structure our process as writers.

The point is, you don’t need to pursue your writing craft alone – there are plenty of people, like me, around to support you along the way!

Make Your Manuscript The Best it Can Be

While this topic is closely related to the idea of getting support, I wanted to give editing its own spotlight because it’s so important! If you’ve finished your first manuscript and want to shop it around to literary agents and publishers or put it online on your own, you MUST let an editor look over your work.

Nothing can define your success or failure as an author like quality editing. That second set of eyes will give you a new perspective on your novel.

It’s an editor’s job to make sure your story flows by pointing out unnecessary developments or encouraging elaboration. They’ll catch dialogue that feels stilted, plot holes that don’t make sense and clean up technical errors through proofreading. With that extra level of polish on your manuscript, you can confidently submit or publish it.

Forget What “No” Means

If you’re going to shop around your book to major publishing houses, get used to hearing or reading “No, thanks” often. Your job is to persevere and keep submitting or go back and adjust your story as needed. Conversely, if you self-publish, it’s easier to get your book out there, but the “No” you need to ignore is from the voice in your own head!

As writers, we’re our own worst enemies, suffering from imposter syndrome or apathy. I almost gave up on writing Getting By, but my support network encouraged me to persevere, and I’m so glad they did.

If you ever want a chance to get your story told, you need to find out how to push through doubts and stay focused on the task of writing. Surround yourself with other writers, get a coach, or develop a disciplined routine. And know that, at the very least, I’m rooting for you!

Tell The World About Your Book

Once your book is published, and on shelves, physically or digitally, your work is not yet done. If you want to become a household name or have any hope of doing book tours, signings, or making the bestseller’s list, you need to market your novel.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a publisher backing you, that helps a lot, but don’t be fooled: Even the most successful writers do self-promotion to ensure people are reading their latest work.

As a self-published author, you need to work twice as hard. In both cases, this means sharing thoughts on social media, writing a blog, or making appearances on podcasts and interviews.

You can also use your social network to help garner favorable reviews for your book by encouraging them to read and review your novel on sites like Goodreads (granted, it’s getting a bit more challenging to assure “legitimate” reviews dominate now that review-bombing is a thing…).

The point is that people won’t know about your book if they don’t know about your book! So let them know about your book in any way you can!

As I said at the start, none of this will guarantee your writing success. But by adhering to healthy, helpful actions like the above, you will increase your chances. One final tidbit to remember is to not compare your journey to that of others. Everyone’s path to writing and success is different, so you can’t define yours by what worked for someone else.

If you want any help, you can find various resources on my site to support you. I’m also open to any thoughts or questions you want to share, so find me on social media or email me at jsims@jairesims.com.