Ditch job, become an author!?

[Pigsmummy]

I haven't voiced this in RL, I would love to ditch my well paid job and write some gritty fiction. I read a lot, hundreds of books of different genres, I also really enjoy theatre. I have the outline story of about three books in my head currently and in my day to day life find situations that I would love to write about.

Where do I start? Do I type up my outline and try to enter competitions? Do I write chapters then send them to a publisher? (I work in sales so have developed a thick skin regards rejection). How much might a publishing deal be worth? (kicking myself that I didn't get this nailed before ebooks came along).

I have wanted to write for a long time (most of my adult life) but suppressed the desire, i have a good job, been in this position for 6 years, my colleagues would be astounded by my lack of motivation and enjoyment of my job as i hide it well, I often sit through high level meetings wishing the time away so I can get back to my Kindle.

Is this madness? Has anyone done this?

I am 39, married with one DC btw

If you have these ideas, sketch them out before you forget them!

If you can't eke out some extra hours each day/each week to dedicate to writing whilst still working, can you take annual leave for 2 weeks to "write". See how the reality of it sits with you, see how much you achieve in that 2w. If you work full time and have a child, free time may be family time - but if you take annual leave and child is still at carers/school, you can get a taste for what it would be like to be an author.

I think it is a hard road to make money, but a rewarding path if you don't need the income....

I think the right way round is become an author, ditch job. Lots of valuable advice above. A novel needs to be complete before you submit it.

You really need to love writing first and foremost.
www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/17/writers-earn-less-than-600-a-year

Where do I start?
You WRITE. As much as you can. Join a writer's group, and get other people to read what you have written. Practise your craft.

The publishing world is uber competitive and it is extremely hard for a first-time writer to get a contract with a traditional publishing house, but there are loads of ways to self-publish and sell your books online. (I am a copy-editor and do a lot of work for self-publishers.)

Do not give up your day job!! Just write in your spare time. When you have finished a book, have it read by as many friends and family members as possible for their opinions. make the changes they suggest. Then get a copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook and approach relevant publishers. Good luck!!! And bear in mind that most writers are not JK Rowling. Even if your book is accepted by a publisher, your advance may be pretty small and not enough to live on.

PM me if you'd like any more info.

You have to sit down and write OP, you have to develop a routine.
Once you develop a routine and once you've put down, say, 20,000 words, then you might start to realise that writing fiction is not a straightforward business. At all.

Fiction-writing is in my opinion one of the trickiest artforms there is. It is so completely different to writing articles or other kinds of non-fiction writing. I meet so many people who are skilled writers (as in, they write for a living) and excellent readers, but I think that these people do not understand how hard it is to write fiction, because they have not yet tried seriously to do so. There is a sort of sense that they could produce something wonderful one of these days...if only they had the time, you know?

Wordfactory is correct to say that many would-be writers are still only at the gifted reader stage. They do not yet think like writers. Because thinking like a writer (in terms of this famous scaffolding) only comes from application, daily routine, all of that utterly boring stuff that's quite bothersome when you get down to it. Not that many people actually go through with this part.

I've been at this all my life, and seriously for about 8 years. I learn new things every single day, and the more I learn the more I see how far I've got to go. I've published one book (not an Ebook) and made about a tenner from it so far . My advance was tiny, even less than SolidGoldBrass's. I have a day job. I'll not be giving it up any time soon.

P.S. Tunip I'm keeping everything crossed for you. Feel sure that your agent will produce the goods! Do report back on the CW board :)

Great thread. I am a published fiction writer - one book published with very low earnings from it. Even when you have a book published by a major publisher, it doesn't mean it will sell much - especially if they choose not to put much marketing oomph behind it (they decide very quickly which of their books show signs of selling and switch the budget to those - sensibly from an economics point of view if rather heart-breaking from a writer's point of view!)

Close to finishing my second now. Fiction-writing is a long game, generally it's for those who get some sort of twisted satisfaction from the craft of it.

Have a look at your local university - most of them run inexpensive creative writing 'short' courses which can be really good. I don't just say this because I teach one!

Actually, having spent today doing my tax return, I take back some of what I said - I do get royalties sometimes . I had no idea - but it's about 5% of what I get from advances anyway.

I had no idea there were so many successful writers on MN - damn our anonymity . . .

claudeekishi I agree, I write academic books but could never write a novel, even if my life depended on it. It's a real art and skill all at the same time.

The other thing I would add OP is don't ask all your friends to read your manuscript, pick perhaps one who is already in the business/knows something about literature and really listen. I don't read friends' stuff now as some of it has been so bad in the past and they don't want to hear that, so I just avoid reviewing friends' work (unless its in my own discipline and they already work in the area).

Waitingforflo that's funny, I've been on MN (lurking at first) for about 2 years now, and from the start I had an inkling that there were quite a few professional writers using the site. Many posters are incredibly articulate.

Well, there are certainly a few trying out plot lines claudeekishi . . .

Also very true!

Thanks Claude & Rookiemum.
If I get a contract I will be posting multiple threads about it all over the site, in capitals!

sorry for hijack, OP.

This thread is so interesting. I've recently started writing for fun - just amateur stuff - and doing it badly myself has at least given me enormous insight into just how bloody hard it is to do well: all the stuff about scaffolding, 1st versus 3rd person perspectives and so on is stuff I've picked up the hard way as I've gone along and got it wrong first round. I'd join in the chorus of saying you can't even consider looking for an agent until you have a whole novel in an extensively re-drafted form. I can't stress how different actually writing (even badly, as I do) is from producing a rough plot outline.

Yes, be careful whom you ask to read. At the very least you want someone who can tell you when they were jolted out of the book by something (boredom, disbelief, exasperation), or started flicking through the pages to see how much was left. And grammar and spelling do matter. Because publishers don't have as much time or budget for editing as they did once, this often ends up as a job an agent has to do (according to some of my agent buddies). They simply won't bother if it's going to be fundamental stuff. As far as a less basic but still nuts-and-bolts editing, I recommend a book called Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne. It may be a bit North America-oriented in parts, but it does explain a lot of things it can be hard to pick up.

And a word on agents. I have had three. The first two sold nothing. The third has sold foreign rights to one book, to a publisher who has published two earlier books of mine, so an open door, really. Agents, even very good ones, are finding it hard to sell, so don't be disheartened by setbacks. I ended up selling four of my books to a big UK publishing house without agents (though this might not be a possibility these days).

It may have been said elsewhere on the thread, but some agents are actively scouring e- self-publisher lists to see who's selling. Sometimes they will welcome approaches by people who've done well on their own. Same things apply if you're self-publishing, though: you can guarantee some really vicious reviews if you're not very particular about your grammar, spelling and formatting. Sadly, you can be very particular and still get vicious reviews, and that's something you have to learn to deal with.

Funny old game, but it does take you to some interesting places. I have met some fantastic people through my writing and had a lot of fun. Whether I can sustain it in line of falling revenues is another story.

Tunip if you do get a contract (good luck for that!) , you might like to get in touch with the Society of Authors. They will vet contracts for members www.societyofauthors.org/and also hold interesting seminars etc etc.
Their website has useful guides about various aspects of publishing that are free for anyone (not just members) to read: www.societyofauthors.org/guides-and-articles

I did actually consider putting up a fake AIBU about complicated feelings when someone's brother and close friend marry, for a plot point in my current novel, but no one would have believed it, even though the novel is based on the lives of real people!

Would the other writers on this thread say what genre they write? I write literary fiction, (and academic books in my day job).

Bookroom: It's perfectly OK to start a thread in Chat about that sort of thing. I had two or three like that when I was writing a novel last year (though mine were more for info than about feelings; my heroine ran a pub and I wanted to ask people about aspects of the pub trade) Just be honest about it ie don't pretend it's really happening as that will piss people off.

I write erotica. (Anyone else?)

Agree, flora. The SoA vetted a contract for me and were good. One thing to watch out for is digital rights. I had to settle for 20%, which is risible. 25% is pretty pathetic, as well. Really push the publisher up on this (if you're selling DRs, that is).

I would agree with meeting interesting people. I write for a website and I get to meet famous authors and last week I hung out with a band, who were really funky. No two days the same. It's magic.

Alex is an interesting fellow and a lot of good people have come out of Bootcamp. But it is tough and not for beginners who are sensitive.

On the other hand, if you're going to be a professional fiction writer, you can't actually be too sensitive. Soul of a child, hide of a rhino.

True - but it has to be done in stages. Writers rarely start tough. It's hard putting your stuff out there.

I'm not hugely in favour of writing groups that go in for mutual criticism and would never join one myself. Either there will be too much 'hunnery' from people who haven't got a clue themselves, or there will be at least one overly-competitive type who will be unnecesarily brutal out of jealousy - or cluelessness.