10 steps to think about before you publish your work

Writers Ring
Sep 11, 2020
2 min read

Create your own original work whether it be one poem or a full length novel. (Note that fan-fiction is normally not something that you are able to publish. It may be fun to write in somebody else's world, but you cannot publish that kind of work.)
Workshop your piece with other people. It's always good to get helpful feedback on your work. This way you're able to see what is confusing to readers, if your point came across the way you expected it to, and just to see audience reactions.
Revise your work. (Revise! Revise! Revise! Odds are you aren't going to create a masterpiece in your first go. Revising your work is not a bad thing.)
Look into places to publish your work, whether that be magazines, publishing distributions, or websites. (Maybe you want to enter your work into a contest, look into those events too.)
See if those places will pay you for your work or not.^^
Look into getting a literary agent. There are lots of agencies that exist solely for writers, so there's no reason to get discouraged, nor be afraid of this step. *Note: You do not need a literary agent to help you submit your work out to publishers, magazines, etc. You can definitely do all of these things on your own, but literary agents are an option you should not close yourself off from.
Know what you're submitting, who you're submitting it to, and FOLLOW SUBMISSION ETIQUETTE. Check the guidelines for the place you're submitting your work to - and FOLLOW those guidelines. The writing community is quite homey and you do not want to make a bad reputation for yourself. So, address the editor, don't summarize your work, don't be curt - be concise, and
Be honest about simultaneous submissions. If your work gets accepted somewhere (a magazine for example), you need to email all of the other places (other magazines, publishers, etc) you submitted to your work to immediately and tell them that you thank for them their consideration, but that your work has already been accepted elsewhere.
I am human, there may be somethings that I have missed in this quick blog post. So, check out the websites at the bottom of this post that go over submission etiquette as well. (You can also google submission etiquette, or ask your professors, your advisors, the University Writing Center (even authors) how to submit your work. People will help you: you just need to ask.
Don't get discouraged by rejection letters! Keep working. Keep practicing. Keep workshopping. Keep writing. Just keep going!!