As writers seeking publication, at some point, we all face similar challenges that have little to do with the craft of writing. For young writers specifically, I hear many of the same questions and concerns. Today, I want to take a look at six specific lies many authors believe in regards to getting published.

Lie #1: We need a degree or mentor to teach us how to write.

You do not need a degree to become a published author. Nor do you need classes that equal the equivalency of a degree. There are published authors with degrees and published authors without degrees. And among those with degrees, not all have degrees in a writing-related field.

You do not need a mentor to become a published author. I did not have an official mentor. Now, I did read a lot of books on the craft of writing, so you could argue that those authors mentored me through their craft books. I also followed Randy Ingermanson’s fiction writing blog back when I first started out, and I learned a lot from him. I never paid him to mentor me, though. When I got published, my editors certainly mentored me through my edits. That is different from paying someone to mentor you. There are authors out there who do pay mentors. And I suppose if money is not an object for you, a paid mentorship might be a valuable experience. But you don’t need it to get published. You need to write a book and finish it all the way to the end. You need to get feedback on that book. Then you need to rewrite that book and edit it until you feel it is ready for publication. Then start writing another book and repeat the process. This is something you have to do whether or not you are paying for college or a mentor. Writers become better writers by writing. Everything else is extra.

Stephanie wrote a great post on what types of things writers should expect to pay for in this journey to publication. It’s a great post. Click here to give it a read. This leads me to Lie #2.

Lie #2: I will have to pay to get an agent or to get my book published.

You should never have to pay an agent or publisher for:

-Reading fees

-Editing fees

-Copyright registration

-Promotional services and marketing fees.

-To be listed in the publisher’s catalog.

These are all signs of a vanity press. Usually, whenever you hear commercials on the radio or TV that say they can help you get published, those are vanity presses. They are businesses that help authors self-publish and often for an exorbitant cost.

If you’re not sure about a publisher, first do your research. Look them up. Do they have a website? Also, do an internet search that looks something like this: “publisher name scam complaints”. That should help you find some information on the publisher and anyone who might be unhappy and why.

I did a search and found an article on publishing industry scams. Click here to read it. You might find it helpful.

I also found this website that offers advice about how to tell if a self-publishing company might be taking advantage of you.

So, how do you know if a publisher is legit?

There are two main sources that can help you find legitimate publishers. First, The Writer’s Market Guide, which is put out by Writer’s Digest. Second, and only for those writing for the Christian specialty market: The Christian Writer’s Market Guide. Both of these books have lists of publishers, agents, editors, contests, and more. The publishers make sure to check everyone listed in these books, so you should know exactly what you’re getting into.

When in doubt, ask someone who knows. If you have a publisher offering to publish your book, but you’re not sure if it’s a good choice, you can ask any of us here at Go Teen Writers, and we’ll take a look.

Lie #3: Being a writer is easy

When you decide to pursue publication, whether you seek traditional publishing or self-publishing, you are becoming a small business owner. That in itself is a shock to many writers. The business side to this job blindsides many writers.

The craft of writing is also a lot of work. It’s an art form. If you decided to become a concert pianist, you’d still have to start learning to read music, playing your scales, and learning chords. And it would take you years to get to a level of skill that people would pay to listen to. Writing is no different. Yes, writing can be fun, but trust me… Every writer reaches a point where it stops being fun and it starts being hard work. If you want to be a novelist, you have to train yourself to push through that hard work. Only by writing and rewriting one book after another will you grow your craft to become a great writer. It is not easy.

Author Michael Crichton said, “Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.” This coming from the author of Jurassic Park and many other bestselling novels. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. And still he rewrote his books over seven times each, striving to create in each one, a masterpiece. Writing takes dedication and hard work.

As I mentioned before, writers also have to wear many hats. Besides being small business owners, we are also marketing and advertising professionals; we run our own publicity and PR; we often build our own websites; we learn graphic design to create ads, social medial images, bookmarks, and postcards; we build street teams and train people to help us promote; we write newsletters and build social media campaigns to promote our work; we learn how to create online ads at places like Amazon, Facebook, and Bookbub; we set up in-person events and book our own travel and tables at conferences; we teach at conferences; we sell books online and ship out of our homes; we sometimes record our own audiobooks.

The list of hats we wear can be unending. Truly, it seems, we can never do enough. So, we have to set boundaries to keep from becoming work-o-holics in our pursuit of publication and ongoing success. It’s a lot of work. And if you’re not careful, you can spend far more money than you ever make.

Which brings me to Lie #4…

Lie #4: Once we are published, we will be making a decent living.

When I started writing my first book, my husband had a job that paid the bills. This meant I was fortunate enough to start writing when I was also a stay-at-home mom. It was not easy. I didn’t write fast for many years when my kiddos were little. But financially, I had the freedom to play and learn. This is when I spend four years learning to write. I was greatly fortunate. That didn’t last forever. We moved a couple times, and the last time we moved, my writing income had dropped a great deal. I wasn’t making enough to justify staying home anymore. My family needed a full-time income from me. So in 2019, I went back to grad school, earned a masters-in-teaching degree. Now I teach fifth grade and write on the side.

It’s a bit maddening because I keep trying to write as much as I did before, yet I have 40 hours a week less to do it.

I know. I know. Jill, anyway, right?

The truth is, most writers are bi-vocational or supported by a family member. This means, if you are still young, you will need to be thinking about how you are going to pay your bills and survive while you work to become a published author. It’s also no guarantee that when you do get published, you will have “arrived.

Below is a full-disclosure graph of my writing income over the past ten-ish years. I had some pretty good years. But you can see how much it fluctuated. Then there is the recent years when I ended up going back to school, so I wasn’t able to pursue a traditional book contract. Now that I’m through grad school, I think my writing income will start going up again, but who knows what will really happen. I cannot predict the future. No one can. Writing income is extremely unpredictable, and unfortunately, hard work does not guarantee success.

As you look at my income chart, I want you to keep something in mind about how writers get paid. Advances are split into 2-4 pieces. You get half when you sign the contract. You get the other half when you turn in the book. This means you get half one year, then it’s often the next year before you get the other half. Let’s pretend you earned 10K on a deal for one book. That means you’ll get $5000 when you sign the contract. And you’ll get another $5000 when you turn in the book. If you don’t have an agent. If you have an agent, the agent gets 15% of what you get. That is all you will get unless your advance “earns out,” which means you sell enough copies that the royalty rate of 12-15% per copy sold adds up to surpass the amount of your advance. Once you’ve sold $10,000 copies worth, you might start earning extra royalties quarterly. Keyword: if. I’ve never met anyone who can live off $5000 a year.

For those of you interested in indie publishing, you will likely get paid monthly, though it will be about three months behind. Some indie stores will only pay monthly if your royalties are over $50. Otherwise they might wait a few months until you reach that threshold. Indie royalties make you more than traditional royalties, but you’ve put all your money into making the product. Also, if you pay for ads, you have to be careful about cash flow. You pay out money for ads, and maybe it shows that you had some big sales. But that sales money won’t come into your bank account for three months. So, you have to be careful not to spend too much.

Lie #5: The odds are against me.

James Scott Bell was one of the first writers I would consider a mentor. I took his mentoring clinic at the Mount Hermon Writers’ conference in 2007. I’ve since heard him talk at a half dozen conferences and read a handful of his writing books. He’s quite brilliant and entertaining. Oh, I read his fiction too. He’s a great mystery/suspense author.

At one conference, Jim shared the picture of the publishing pyramid that I’ve inserted below. When writers ask, “What are my chances of getting published?” This pyramid is Jim’s answer.

On the bottom is all the people in the world who want to be writers. You’ve met lots of them. You’re telling someone that you’re a writer and they say, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to write a book.” Or, “I’m going to write a book someday.” It’s a lot of people, which is why it’s on the bottom of the pyramid. The biggest population is here.

Next up you have the people who’ve not only started to write a book, they’re actively learning how to do it. There are much fewer of these people in the population. The next level brings us to an even smaller population of people who have actually completed one novel. Think about it: lots of people talk about writing a book, but not as many actually manage to complete even one book from start to finish. If you find yourself on this level, congratulations! You’ve done something that a lot of people dream about doing.

The next tier brings us to authors who’ve completed multiple novels. Not as many people here.

Then we have the “published” level. Far fewer people ever reach this level. Indie publishing has made this a larger population than it used to be. In fact, you could probably add two more tiers to Jim’s 2007 model. A multi-published indie level for those who have published multiple books, then a level for author’s who’ve been traditionally published, and another level for authors with multiple books published traditionally. This is where the numbers really shrink, but the cool thing is, you can work hard enough to reach success here, eventually. This kind of thing is in your control. Whether or not you become a multi-published, award-winning author with multiple movies and TV shows and your books printed in a dozen languages and sold at airport bookstores… That is not in your control. That “breakout hit” level is a spinning wheel of fortune at the top of the pyramid that stops for some and will never stop for others.

All this to say, you can control whether or not you learn to write, complete multiple novels, and eventually manage to sell those, whether you go indie or traditional. But the rest is up to chance.

Lies #6+: Lies we tell ourselves.

My last lie is really more of a category. These are lies we tell ourselves that threaten to derail us from our goal.

“I’m not _____ enough.”

“I’ve been rejected too many times. I don’t have what it takes.”

“I’m not as (famous author). So, why bother?”

I know the waiting game is super hard. I also know this comparison thing can be crushing. Writers must train for this. Just like people train for a marathon, train your heart for the pain of waiting, or rejection, of bad reviews, of haters, or not winning contests, of not finaling in any contests. You must prepare yourself for this. Build up a thick skin, and learn when to unfollow or mute anyone who causes you to go into a downward spiral. There is no rule that you have to follow every author out there.

This is a hard and brutal industry. Rejection is part of the job description. Publishers judging us based on our sales numbers and reviews and whether or not we finaled in or won contests is going to happen. And it’s painful. But we need to get used to it if we want to be published authors. We need to train ourselves to work apart from all that. Because if we let it, it can make us crazy.

Another lie that some of you might have thought about revolves around the idea of quitting. I’ve thought of quitting a lot. And the like goes like this: “If I quit, I’m a failure.”

Did you hear me say that was a lie? It is a lie.

You might love writing a lot, but you might someday decide you don’t love it enough to commit yourself to this lifestyle. It’s not for everyone. And if you find it’s not for you, that’s okay. Maybe life has something else in mind for you right now. Maybe you’ll come back in a few years and decide the time is not right to pursue writing again. Or maybe you won’t.

Or maybe you just need a break. Maybe you need a season to step away from the pressure of writing to “succeed.” Maybe you just want to write because you love stories. So do it. Write for you for now. Maybe the “get published” bug will bite again later. Maybe it won’t. Either way, that’s okay.

When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. People told me I couldn’t, and that only made me want it more. So, I went after that dream. And I made it. I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York. Then I worked as an assistant fashion designer on Los Angeles for two different companies for a five year period of my early twenties. Turns out I hated it. It was way too cutthroat for me. But if I hadn’t chased that dream, I’d always wonder what life might have been like had I risked everything to try.

So, if you love writing and you love the dream of having your book published, give it your all. Keep that writing pyramid in mind and track your progress on it. Remember what is in your control and what is not. Remember to train for the hard parts of the industry and learn how to protect your heart and your love for stories.

But if you find you hate it, that doesn’t make you a failure. If you learned to write, you trained yourself in a new skill. This has undoubtedly made you a better communicator and a more talented person overall. And if you have learned that this career path no longer interests you, that’s a success in itself! There are so many interesting careers out there. Learning which ones are not a good fit will help you discover the ones that are the right fit for you.

Your life story isn’t over. Many of you are in Act One, and you have a long way to go. There will be more ups and downs along your journey for all of us. Inspired by Dory from Finding Nemo, I’m going to leave you with this mantra, “Just keep writing. Just keep writing. Just keep writing.”

Which of these lies are you tempted to believe? Where are you on the writing pyramid? Share in the comments. I want to cheer you on!

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms, and the author of several young adult fantasy novels including the Blood of Kings trilogy. She loves teaching about writing. She blogs at goteenwriters.com and also posts writing videos on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. She grew up in Alaska without running water or electricity and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids. Find Jill online at jillwilliamson.com or on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.