Jessica Rosevear

This weekend, I’m taking a writing workshop with Susan Shapiro, author and professor of journalism.  I’ve heard rave reviews about her courses and I can’t wait to meet her.

I’ve looked up a few interviews with Shapiro and found the following question in one of them:  What’s your advice to writers who are trying to get published in this difficult publishing environment?

Let me preface this by saying that I am so tired of talking to people who have succeeded in the publishing industry and then tell aspiring writers, “You’ll never make it.”  At a recent publishing conference I attended, the opening speaker actually tried to dissuade the writers in the audience from pursuing the traditional publishing route (i.e., querying agents), saying that it’s better start with the less-prestigious self-publishing route.

I also remember meeting Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of three books starting with her bestselling debut memoir Prozac Nation at age 26, when I was a senior in college.  I told her I was writing a novel for my senior thesis and did she have any advice?  She looked at me dead in the eyes and said, “Don’t do it.”  And then she signed the copy of Prozac Nation for which I had just paid $15.  In my friend’s copy of the book, she wrote:  “Another writer doomed to misery.” 

Susan Shapiro, however, is a breath of fresh air.  In her response to the above question, she said the following:

Even in this economy I have students publishing in newspapers, magazines and getting book deals every day. There were more books published in 2008 than 2007, so there are still plenty of opportunities. Maybe the work just has to be even better.

My advice:
• Read what you want to write.
• Take classes with authors you admire.
• Hire a great ghost editor (If you email me I can recommend excellent ones.).
• If you can’t afford classes or ghost editors, start your own writing workshop.
• Never give up, no never means no. Keep writing. As my mentor Howard Fast (author of Spartacus and 80 other novels) used to tell me when I’d say I had writer’s block: “Plumbers don’t get plumbers block. A page a day is a book a year.”

I’m not saying that a writer’s life isn’t hard.  Of course it’s hard (hello, Sylvia Plath).  But to succeed at anything, you need to believe that it’s possible to do so.  I like Susan’s advice here.  It embraces reality, yet it still inspires.  In fact, I think I’ll go revise another one of my chapters now.  See, she’s inspiring me already, and I haven’t even taken her class yet!