Visiting Author Lists Five Mistakes Writers Make Getting Published

Making mistakes and writing a book, unfortunately, go hand in hand. Just ask Chicago author Keir Graff.

"One of the best things about being a writer is that you get to correct most of your mistakes without people seeing them," said Graff, who will be giving a presentation,  on Tuesday at the .

Graff is a senior editor for Booklist Online, has written four novels (his latest is The Price of Liberty), and his short stories have appeared in the pages of the Portland Review and the Chicago Reader. Given those credentials, Frankfort Patch asked him for the five mistakes writers make when they try to get published. 

"These errors are not a 'top five,' but they are common--and, before I published my first book, I made some of them, too," he said.

1. Submitting Too Soon

"Many authors are so eager to see their work in print that they begin submitting before they're ready. If you send an agent or editor an error-filled rough draft, you've wasted their precious time and they're not going to bother reading your next submission. ... Publishers know that even an accepted manuscript is only a starting point for further revision. But they don't want to teach people how to become good writers--they want to make good writers even better."

2. Waiting Too Long

"You will face rejection, and the longer you wait, the more painful that rejection can be. You can even learn and improve from the process of rejection. So how do you know when your work is ready to submit? When your trusted readers want to read your unpublished book as much as they want to read books by writers who are already published."

3. Believing That Good Writing Sells Itself

"It's often said that good writing will find an audience eventually, and that's true to a point. But no publisher will knock on your door and ask whether you have any good writing to share. That's especially true today, when the ease of self-publishing means that you can't set cyberfoot in cyberspace without tripping over an e-book. ... If you're a brilliant writer, your manuscript won't need much help to find its way to a large audience, but most of us aren't brilliant. Those of us who are merely good will have to work hard to sell our writing."

4. Not Reading Enough

"I am shocked by how little some aspiring writers read. Reading is essential to good writing, and the more you read--and the more carefully you read--the better a writer you can be. (I guarantee you that the writers you admire are voracious readers.) How does this relate to getting published? Reading new books will give you an idea of what is being published and who is publishing it."

5. Staying Home

"You can learn a lot about publishing from blogs, websites, and books that offer advice about getting published. You can learn how to write the perfect query letter and send your queries to perfectly chosen recipients. But the truth is that people rarely get published because they sent a letter, or even a manuscript, to someone. People get published because someone they know helps them do it. Most of us were not born into famous publishing families, so we have to make those connections ourselves--to join what I call the Literary Ecosystem."

How I Kept My Day Job and Became a Published Author--and You Can, Too

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15
Where: Frankfort Public Library, 21119 S. Pfeiffer Road
How much? Free, but registration is required.
More info: Call 815-534-6173 or go online at the library's website.