The technical review is usually done by three technical reviewers. Sometimes the publisher will decide to get the book reviewed by a single reviewer. The technical reviewers would be experts in the author’s field and would be familiar with the publishing process and the market. Most technical reviewers would also be successful authors or people who command respect in their field of specialization and who can verify the technical accuracy of the author’s claims and make sound predictions and estimates regarding the book’s sales.

The main objectives of the technical review are to determine whether:

1. the author is qualified to write the proposed book.
2. the book will have a market as indicated by the author.
3. the book covers all the relevant topics that the target audience need.
4. the author’s claims regarding books salient features, USPs, competing titles, etc. are true.
5. the author’s writing is clear, error free, and is suitable for the intended audience.

The technical reviewers would also give suggestions for improving the marketability of the book—addition of new topics or more coverage of existing topics, omission of certain topics, inclusion of illustrations, etc. They will also comment on the organization and may suggest reorganization for better clarity and continuity. They will be sometimes asked by the publisher to guesstimate the minimum and maximum number of copies the book would sell, the ideal price for the book, etc. Usually the publisher will give a questionnaire which the technical reviewers have to complete after reviewing the book proposal.

The publisher will also do an editorial or internal review. The internal review will be done by the commissioning editor with inputs from the production and marketing departments. Here the editor will consider the factors like number of page, number of illustrations, type of binding, paper quality, cover details, cost of production, competition, marketability, etc.

After completing the editorial review and after getting the feedback from the technical reviewers, the commissioning editor will collate the information and present it during the editorial meeting—a meeting attended by the publisher, editors, production personnel, designers, marketing personnel, etc. One purpose of the editorial meeting is to discuss the various book proposal reviews and reach a decision about publishing them.

The fate of a book will mainly depend on the inputs given by the technical reviewers regarding the quality, price, and sales volume. Once the editorial board is sure that the book will make money or at least break-even, the decision in most cases would be to go ahead with the publication. But many times the predictions have been proven wrong! Published books with huge expectations have fared poorly in the market while books that were rejected by many publishers before getting published become bestsellers. So, the ultimate purpose of the reviews and editorial meetings is to mitigate the risk as one cannot, like in any other situation, predict future with absolute certainty. Thus in the publishing industry also, all one can do is do the homework well, estimate as best as one can, and hope for the best.

If the decision is to publish the book, the publisher signs a contract with the author(s) and if the decision is to reject the proposal, then the author (in most cases) will get a rejection letter. Sometimes, if the reviewers have commented on the potential of a book in a new format with major revisions/additions/omissions, the publisher will convey the details to the author and ask him to submit a revised proposal.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]

In this section we get an overview of what all goes into a book proposal. Even though, different publishers would have different requirements, all them will need to know certain basic facts. These form more than 90% of the book proposal and we will concentrate on those. To get an idea about what the different publishers need in their book proposals you can go to the publishers’ websites and download their book proposal forms (BPF).

The book proposal will contain the details on how the author would like to go about writing the book. It will contain a synopsis, detailed table of contents, expected time for completion, approximate number of chapters, pages, and artwork. In many cases the proposal will also contain sample chapters of the proposed book. The book proposal will also contain the authors resume and will explain why she is the best person to write the book. It will also contain the unique selling points (USPs) of the book, the targeted audience, and other marketing information.

We will see how to collect information, collate and organize them, and how to convert the information into a winning book proposal later. We will also see the structure and contents, the dos and don’ts, tips and tricks and more. We will also see a few sample book proposals.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]

Today, when we think of writing, the image of a man sitting in front of his desk with sheets of paper before him, a quill in his hand and an inkwell on the table, rarely comes to mind. But that was how writers practiced their craft in the olden days. In those days, the only tools a writer needed were an imaginative and creative mind, a powerful vocabulary, flair and passion for writing, a quill (probably many of them), an inkwell, ink, and sheets of paper.

Quill was the writing instrument that dominated the early years of writing — for more than 1400 years. Even now, some calligraphers use quill pens for their craft. Later, the quill was replaced by the fountain pen. Lewis Waterman invented the fountain pen and got a patent for it in 1884. With the invention of fountain pens writers could spend more time thinking and writing rather than preparing their writing instruments and inks. The ballpoint pen made its appearance in 1938; it was invented by Laszlo Biro, a journalist from Hungary. The writing instruments continued to evolve and got better thus making writing less cumbersome. But the power of the words still remains unchanged and the pen still plays a crucial role in shaping and changing the history of mankind and the lives of many.

Writers inspire, motivate, inform, engage, excite, empower, and take their readers through a range of emotions from absolute bliss to utter dismay with their words. Wars start and end, treaties and pacts get signed, people become famous or notorious, heroes are praised and villains punished, courtships start, love bloom and blossom, lovers get married, and some marriages end in divorces, authors are born and influence generations, people gossip, spy on each other, countries flourish and perish, all at the stroke of the pen. The Islamic prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying “The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr.” It was in 1839, the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton coined the adage “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Truer words were never spoken!

The power of words cannot be overemphasized. According to Lord Byron:
“Words are things; and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.”
Writers should master the words and should learn everything that will make their writing more accurate, effective, captivating, attractive, and influential.

The modern writers need all the skills their predecessors possessed. The skills remain the same — an imaginative and creative mind, powerful vocabulary, and flair and passion for writing. But the tools have changed. The quill got replaced by the pen long time back. Now even the pen is slowly being replaced by computers.

Stewart Brand, the famous American editor and writer, once said “once a new technology rolls over you, if you are not part of the steamroller, you are part of the road.” This is very true in the case of computers and information technology. In today’s information age, knowledge of computers is a must. We use computers, either directly or indirectly, in each and every aspect of our lives. We use computers on many different occasions in our day-to-day life. Computers, Internet, and Information Technology (IT) are changing the way writers write, copy-editors edit, reviewers review, and even readers read.

Today an author can publish what she has written in a matter of seconds. She can upload it to her blog, which will be read from people all over the world who can comment about the article, recommend it to friends, and so on. All this can happen in a matter of minutes. Writers can work from anywhere in the world and the audience is the entire world. For example, I wrote this article from my home in Cochin (India), which I uploaded to Blogcritics website in San Francisco (USA). It was edited by the Books Editor at Blogcritics from his home in Southern California. He then published it and you are reading it from wherever you are in the world.

The availability of new tools that can improve productivity and accuracy of writers, reduce the time-to-publish, improve accessibility, and provide access to a world-wide audience are changing the rules of the game and if you want to be among the successful, you have to learn the new tools and embrace the new technology.

Nothing can replace your writing skill, creativity, imagination, flair, and passion as there are no substitutes for those. But a mastery over the tools that improve the writing — search engines that will help you in finding facts faster, on-line dictionaries and thesauri that will help you find the right words and phrases, tools that will check the spelling and grammar mistakes, etc. – can give you an edge over the competition.

Anybody who wants to succeed in today’s world cannot afford to ignore computers and information technology. Computer literacy does not mean that you should take a degree in Computer Science. It does not mean that you should know programming and computer architecture. It only means that you should know how to use the computer for your day-to-day activities.

Today’s writers need to be proficient in the use of computers — they should know how to create and edit documents in a word processor, enter and manipulate data and produce graphs and charts in an electronic spread sheet, manipulate photographs and images digitally using image editing tools, create illustrations and flow charts using a diagramming software, use the editing and proofing tools, etc. They should also know how to access and use the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). They should know how send and receive e-mails, search the WWW to find the required information, create a blog and post blog entries, upload text, files, and images to the Internet, use mobile devices like laptops, notebooks, and smartphones to do all the above mentioned tasks while on the move.

Lois Horowitz, the American librarian has said it well. According to Lois “Not having the information you need when you need it leaves you wanting. Not knowing where to look for that information leaves you powerless. In a society where information is king, none of us can afford that.” Thus, for the modern writer, knowledge of computers and Internet is not a luxury, but a necessity.

“You are writing more than you are reading… Surely the sign of an amateur!”

This is a line from the movie Quills, which is the story of Marquis de Sade. Quills is a wickedly funny and sexy movie, which is full of violence and gore. But the above words could not be truer.

If you want to be a professional writer, rise above the level of ‘amateurs,’ make money out of your writing, achieve fame and name, and be respected and admired as a master of your craft, then you should practice the craft and practice it rigorously with dedication, concentration, and determination. You must read more and you must write more. You must do this on a regular basis — as regularly as you eat and drink.

You must read a lot and while you are reading try to learn the new words and phrases that you encounter. Learn how the word or phrase is used in different situations to convey different meanings or different shades of the same meaning. Improving your vocabulary will enrich your writing. You will have more than one word for any given situation and that knowledge is power. Sometimes the apt word is not the one that comes first to your mind. But the knowledge that you have others in your repertoire will give you confidence and make your writing richer and attractive.

While reading, spend time to ponder about the writing style of the author. Think of the reasons why the author chose a particular style, word, or phrase to express his ideas. Try to find out what makes the writing tick. Learn the techniques that the author uses to capture your attention from the first sentence onwards and keep it till the end and keep you thinking even after that. Find out what makes the writing great.

Reading for writing is different from reading for pleasure or casual reading. There is nothing casual when you are reading to learn the craft of writing. Take notes while writing. Write down the words, phrases, and sentences that are interesting. Practice using the words and phrases in your writing. Three books that will help you in improving your reading and teach you how to read for writing better are:

• Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
• How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
• How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom

A book that will give you daily material to read each day, a book that contains excerpts from books that are examples of great writing is The Daily Reader: 366 Selections of Great Prose and Poetry to Inspire a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life by Fred White.

As you start reading regularly you should also start writing regularly. Make writing a part of your daily routine. Find a fixed time and space where you can sit undisturbed and write. Write about anything you want. But it is better to have a list of topics that you want to write about. Keep the list on a notice board and keep adding topics to the list as and when you get new ones. This will ensure that you are never short of ideas.

Think about what you are going to write for any given day well in advance. If you want to refer books, visit places, or do something that will make the writing more interesting, this will give you enough time to do that. For example, if you are planning to write about the evening life at the beach, then a few evenings at the beach will help a lot in making your writing interesting as you will be able to infuse a lot of color, characters, situations, and energy into your writing.

When you go for such ‘experiences,’ take a notebook or recording device and a camera with you. Notebooks are ideal as you can write and sketch on them. Recording devices are useful, if you are interviewing someone, which is a very good idea as the inclusion of a small interview in an article will give it a real feel. Photographs serve two purposes. It will help you to recall all the details. It will also provide pictures that could be included in the article. Today a reasonably good digital camera is very affordable and you can take as many pictures as you want and download it to your computer. The camera has become an indispensable tool for the writer.

There are many books that give hundreds of topics from which you can choose. Some of them are:

• The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life by Fred White
• The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron
• The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing by Bonnie Neubauer
• 4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley

When you sit down to write, write without thinking too much about grammar, spelling and sentence quality. Write fast and write whatever comes to you mind. Only after completing the first draft you should think about spelling, grammar, quality, and correctness.

Once you have finished writing, set it aside. Take the previous day’s writing and start editing it. When you edit or revise your first draft, you should do it slowly looking for mistakes — spelling, grammar, and usage — and also for the appropriateness of the words used. A dictionary, thesaurus, and a style and usage guide should be kept within easy reach for reference. Read aloud what you have written. This will help you in identifying the words that don’t sound nice or that doesn’t go well with the other words of that sentence.

As the days go by you will find that your writing is improving and your reading is helping you in becoming a better writer. As you read more, you will write better and as your writing improves you will get more time to read!

The idea or spark for the book usually comes to the author. It can be the desire to share your knowledge or to teach others the things you have learned the hard way. You might have seen many books on your area of expertise and have the confidence that you can do a better job. You must have collected information for your own use which you think might be useful to others like you. We will see some typical scenarios.

You are an expert on a subject. You have spent years learning the ropes, becoming proficient and mastering the subject. You have years of real- world experience. You are considered as a guru in that subject by your colleagues and peers. You are consulted whenever there is a problem. In the years you have learned and practiced the subject you have encountered almost all situations and challenges that possibly could occur. You know that you can contribute to the field by sharing the knowledge. You know that you can write an interesting book as you have more than enough funny and interesting anecdotes that will hook the readers. You know that you can explain things in a jargon free manner which people understand, as you have been doing that all along. You have enough credentials and professional standing to make people want to read your book when they hear you are the author. So you decide to write a book on your subject of expertise. A book idea is born.

You have completed several projects that involve developing high-technology products. You know how to successfully manage such projects where new advances happen every day. You know how to hire brilliant people and how to manage them, and how to make them work as an efficient team. You have experienced the challenges, fallen into the traps and pitfalls, faced the obstacles—human and technological, and you have learned how to look for them, steer clear of them and bring the projects to successful conclusion. Your experience—both successes and failures—could help young project managers to avoid the traps, pitfalls, and obstacles. You think you can write a book that will shorten the learning curve for beginners. Another book idea is born.

You are a teacher and you are not satisfied by the textbooks that are available in the market. In your opinion they don’t do justice to the subject and don’t explain the concepts clearly. You know that your combination of practical and teaching experience makes you an ideal candidate for writing a book that will explain the concepts with the help of real-world projects. It will be a textbook that will help the students to learn both the theory and its practical applications. So you decide to write a book mainly to teach your students, but could be used by other teachers and those who want to learn the subject. Yet another book idea is born.

You might have collected a lot of information during the course of your career. The information is hard to find and is from many different sources which are not readily accessible. You have collected, collated, and organized the information so that it is easy for people like you to get all the information needed to complete your job from your compilation. You know that no such book exists in the market. You are sure that it will be well received by people in your profession. You decide to turn your work into a book. Another book idea has come to life.

You have written a book on a general subject. But each chapter of that book is broad and deep enough to be a separate book. For example, you have written a book on Database Systems. But the different chapters of the book like Relational Database Management Systems, Data Normalization, Relational Algebra, Data Mining, Data Warehousing, etc. are topics can be written as separate books. In the general book, you have given a condensed view of the important topics. But in a separate book you can be more comprehensive and include all the advanced and complex topics that you have left out. The audience of the general book and the advanced book will be different. But writing one general book can ignite the spark for several books. Similarly, writing an advanced book can kindle the idea for a general book or a book on the same topic for a different audience.

Once the author has an idea and has the confidence of turning the idea into a book, then he/she will have to find a publisher who is willing to publish the book. With the popularity of Internet and WWW and the availability of new publishing media and technologies, one can write, publish, market, and sell the book. We will see about this later.

Sometimes the idea for a book will come from the publisher or one of the commissioning editors or the editorial board at the publishing house. While browsing the catalogue the publisher or editor finds that he/she does not have a book on a particular subject or for a particular market segment. For example, a publishing company who specializes on Computer Science books might want to publish a book on Software Project Management or Software Configuration Management, if it doesn’t have a book on that subject. Sometimes the company might have a book on a particular topic but it is targeted at advanced readers. So the company might want to publish books for the beginner and intermediate markets. If the book idea has idea occurred to the publisher, then the publisher will have to find a suitable author.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]

Click on the image to see the enlarged view.

Most writers, artists, and inventors,
Often use their Moleskines to
Live, love, dream, draw, and write.
Energize their lives and motivate them to
Strive harder to achieve their goals,
Kindle the mind and ignite the creative spirit.
Inspire and get inspired to create and develop,
New ideas, inventions, and innovations that,
Emerge from their Moleskines!!!

You will become an author only after you get your book published. For getting your book published, first you will have to convince a publisher or an acquisitions editor at some publishing house that your idea is worth their time, effort, and money. You will have to make them believe that your manuscript or idea, once published will at least recover the money they have invested in the project.

If you can convince the publisher or acquisitions editor that your idea will make a bestseller, then you have more options. If you are a published author with a list of bestsellers, your job is easier and you have got more bargaining power.

In this aspect, in convincing that you have a bestseller, the author of a technical book has an advantage over the author of a fictional work (for example, a novel). In your case, you can leverage your claim with your knowledge and standing in the technical community. You can find out the competing books and do a comparison and explain how your book is different and superior. Your educational qualifications, your knowledge, your work experience, and your professional affiliations will help you in winning your case.

But for a writer who has completed his first novel, neither his educational qualifications nor his work experience is going to help him. He has to persuade the publisher by his manuscript. He cannot compare his work with competing books as in the case of fiction each book is unique. Good books get rejected while mediocre ones get accepted. Getting you fictional work published involves a lot of luck, timing and meeting the right people. But the rewards are also significantly better. Once the novel makes into the bestseller list, then the money he earns and the publicity he gets is overwhelming.

Coming back to technical books, the money is not bad if not great, you will get publicity, but not in the scale of a fiction writer. Doug Lowe has written more than 45 books on various computer-related topics. Jerry Weinberg has written more than 22 exceptional books on computer programming, programmer productivity, quality assurance and consulting. But none of them come anywhere near Elizabeth Gilbert [1] who must have made more money and who is definitively more famous with just 5 books among which only one is a major bestseller. Steig Larsson [2] who has published just 3 books (all after his untimely death) is more popular and his books have made more money than either Lowe or Weinberg.

Why is this? Why are writers of fiction more famous? The answer lies in the size of the target audience. If you compare the number of people who read legal thrillers with the number of people who read books on software quality you will realize why. Writers of fiction and non-fiction (memoirs, travelogues, etc.) enjoy have massive markets, while technical writers have a limited audience.

But only a fraction of the thousands of fiction writers becomes successful and famous. Many fail to even publish one book. And of those who have succeeded publishing their first not many publishes more, especially if the first one failed. So the life of the non-technical writer is more challenging, adventurous and risky. So it is only fair that the successful ones get rewarded handsomely and become world famous.

So, what is there for the technical author or writer of technical books? Is he wasting his time? Of course not; he also gets paid; he also becomes famous. But his earnings are far less and his fame is limited to his area of specialization. But he still have a well-paying job; he will get promoted; he will become a subject expert; he will gain the respect of his peers; he will get invitations for presentations and speeches at various seminars and exhibitions; he can go on a lecture tour where he can meet people and dine and stay in style. This too is exciting and the bonus is that you still get to keep your privacy!

You have seen the advantages and benefits of becoming an author. So if you have expertise in a technical subject and you feel that you can contribute to the existing body of knowledge, then you should seriously think about writing a book. If you love your subject, like writing, and can explain the highly technical subjects with real-world examples, anecdotes, and figures, then do give a shot at writing the book.

To all the non-technical writers: we are aware of your struggle, the effort you make, the nights you stay awake to bring us stories, memoirs, travelogues and so on, to entertain and enthrall us; we certainly appreciate your effort and wish you the success and fame that you rightly deserve.

References:-

[1] Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir EAT PRAY LOVE, published in 2006, chronicled her journey alone around the world, looking for solace after a difficult divorce. The book was an international bestseller, translated into over thirty languages, with over 7 million copies sold worldwide, and a movie version in the making, starring Julia Roberts. The book became so popular that, in 2008, Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

[2] Prior to his sudden death of a heart attack in November 2004 he finished three detective novels in his trilogy “The Millennium-series” which were published posthumously. Altogether, his trilogy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide (summer of 2009), and he was the second bestselling author in the world 2008.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]

Earnest means “serious in intention, purpose, or effort”. It means serious in the pursuit of one’s goals. One of the qualities all successful writers have in common is the earnest desire to write. It is a quality that every writer, who wants to become successful, should acquire.

Like any other creative profession, writing too is 90 percent perspiration and 10 percent inspiration. Every successful writer will tell you the importance of making writing a part of your daily life—a routine activity or habit like sleeping, eating, or bathing.

The amount of time, the exact time of the day (or night), the place, the writing material—all can vary depending on the individual.

Some people choose early mornings to write. Some others write late in the night, after everyone has gone to sleep. Yet another group of writers write both in the morning and evening. Some of them use mornings to write and evenings to revise and edit. Some write for 4-5 hours at a stretch. Some others write for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night. It is a matter of individual preference.

Some people use pen and paper; some use computer; yet another group writes their first drafts or outlines on paper and then key-in the work once they have got their ideas in place. Some writers use a Dictaphone to capture the ideas and later transcribe them on to the computer or notebook. Again it is a matter of preference.

One important thing every writer needs is a writing space—a quite place where he can practice his craft without interruptions and disturbances. It can be a well equipped study, it can be a table in corner of your room, or it can be the dining table when it is not used. You can use any place as your writing space as long as it is comfortable, you can write without interruptions and disturbances, and it is available every day at your preferred time. Some writers have the gift or ability to write whenever they want and wherever they want. But for most writers, writing space is a must for producing quality output.

Irrespective of the location, duration and mechanism of writing, one factor that separates successful writers form others is that they show up to write; day after day, week after week, month after month, and no doubt year after year.

Some days you won’t be able to write anything. You just keep staring at the blank page or the empty screen. Don’t get upset or become frustrated. It happens to all writers. There are good days and bad days. But the important thing is to show up for work—to write, to read, to research, to edit, to revise, to rewrite and to write again.

You can do many things to hone your craft on your bad days. You can read, learn new words and new usages of words you know, read books on the craft of writing, solve crossword puzzles, play word games, and so on. So even if you are unable to write on a particular day, it won’t be a waste of time. You are improving your craft, learning new skills, practicing the ones you already know; all with the aim of improving your writing.

If you are stuck or you don’t have a topic to write about, you can use the prompts available in many books on writing and idea generation. But for a person who keeps his eyes, ears and mind open, I don’t think there will be any shortage of ideas.

It is not very important whether you write or do some activity related to writing. If you write, what you write is not very important. The important thing is to sit in front of your computer or notebook at your allotted writing time every day without fail. Some days you will be able to write and some days you won’t. Some days you will write pretty ordinary stuff; some other days you will write exceptionally well and on a few occasions you will create magic. But for creating the magic, you have to show up and be prepared to capture it.

As they drove away, Gallagher asked, voice slightly muffled, “How did you manage to do such a difficult task so naturally and this fast?”
“Practice, Sean, that is what it takes. Lots of practice,” Martineau told him and turned into the road that led towards Red house.
- Jack Higgins in Night of the Fox.

Once you start and continue practicing your craft day in and day out without fail, your writing will improve and there will be more days when you could write brilliantly and create magic. Once writing becomes part of your daily routine you will find a lot of things to write about as your subconscious mind is always working in the background generating ideas and crafting stories for you. So, as you progress, your writing will become effortless, the ideas will flow smoothly, the words will come marching out and arrange themselves into beautiful sentences and most of the days you will be able to write something worthwhile.

Once you become a ‘daily writer‘ your output—the amount of quality material that you can produce—will improve and soon you will have something substantial to share with others—an article, an essay, a story, a poem or even a book! Happy writing…

Are you a writer or are you one who thinks you are a writer. According to Random House Dictionary a writer is a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession.

A person does not need a published book or article to be a writer. And one does not become a writer just because he or she has published a book or story. The definition of a writer is someone who is passionate about writing, who lives to write and who cannot live without writing. So are you a writer?

Given below are a few tips given by N. M. Kelby in the wonderful book The Constant Art of Being a Writer. These tips helps you in identifying whether you are a writer or some sort of hack working on a pipe-dream. I really think that we all can learn a lot from these tips:

Real writers know that there is a market for all good writing, and so they hone their craft. Hack writers know they’ll be rich and famous if only they make the right connections.

Real writers revise and revise again. Hack writers say that the famed Jack Kerouac never revised and so they don’t have to.

Real writers understand that editors who reject them have made that decision based on their own taste and the marketplace. They know that somebody else will fall in love with their work; they just have to keep trying. Hacks know the editor has no taste and is stupid—and isn’t afraid to tell her that to her face either. Or send her an e-mail to that effect, or twelve e-mails. More is better.

Real writers work, even if they don’t feel like it. This is a job after all. Hacks work when they feel inspired. Writing, after all, is a calling.

Real writers know they can always learn from their mistakes and grow. Hacks know that they are right and refuse change despite what everyone tells them.

Real writers write because they love to write. Hacks write because it is an easy way to get rich.

Real writers know that sometimes you write a weak book. Hacks know there’s a cabal of publishers plotting against them.

Real writers know brilliance when they see it. Hacks know they are brilliant.

Real writers understand publishing is a cooperative and flawed industry. Hacks feel their talent makes them the exception to every rule.

Real writers know it’s easy to get discouraged and sometimes do.

Real writers are leery of praise and know that a publishing contract is the only true sign that the work is good.

Real writers define success by being able to write and know that sometimes that big paycheck never comes.

Real writers follow their hearts.

Hacks bellow, curse, blame, gossip, and snipe. They do anything they can do to hide their broken hearts—except work.

Source: The Constant Art of Being a Writer by N. M. Kelby.