Chris' Christian Blog

Getting published

A Mentor’s Point of View

For the Prepare to Publish Contest

By

Chris Breva

There are many things that come into my mind as I sit here writing this. I have never had the privilege of being a mentor before and I was quite honored when the facilitator of this contest ask me to be a mentor. I am not exactly sure what all that entails but I know I am more than willing to do my best.
I guess one thing that would be expected of me would be to share what it takes to become a published author. My answer to that would be that it takes a complicated mixture of patience, endurance, talent, skill, and luck. The short answer to the question however would be that it takes a certain attitude. That attitude is one of professionalism. A professional writer is both born and made. It does indeed take a lot of inborn talent to be a professional writer. If you don’t have that then it probably isn’t in the cards for you to be published. In today’s publishing world authors have a variety of ways to become published and this levels the playing field a little. In the past getting published was like playing football on a football field that was all uphill! It was a tough row to hoe. Now authors can use self-publishing and e-publishing to publish their work. I personally do not recommend using these. The companies that publish in this manner often do not have the interest of the author at heart but publish simply because the author is paying them to do so. There is so much stuff on the market any more that simply is not worth reading but a self-publishing company published it. I recommend finding a traditional publisher and going through the gristmill to be published. This is where attitude plays a major role. A writer with the right attitude never gives up. It took me 30 plus years to publish my first book. Then I published four in a space of ten years! I published them because I had the attitude that my writing was worth reading and I would not give up no matter how many rejection slips I received! I received enough of them to wallpaper the room I am currently in but I refused to give up. That is the attitude a writer must have. If you do not truly believe in yourself and think you have something special to give the public, you will never be published!
Publishing a book is often the achievement of a lifetime for an author. My wish for all those who cross my path on WDC is that they someday know the pleasure of doing so.