How important are previous credits, really?

this is a question that's gone the rounds rather recently (if i can remember it, it couldn't have been *that* long ago, heh heh). from what i recall of the general consensus, obviously having some magazine background won't hurt, but it usually won't make or break a deal.

i'm with you. i have no inclination whatsoever to submit to magazines. i would, though, if i truly felt it would have a significant impact on whether or not i got published in novel form. but, i don't write short stories except very, very rarely. if anything, i'd be more interested in writing articles, but i figure that would carry even less weight.

as a career path it's probably only a good thing. i'm sure plenty of people would advocate this way strongly as a way of providing a track record of buyability and having somewhat some name recognition.

no offense to anyone out there, but does being published in an ezine have any credibility with novel editors whatsoever?

Credits

WSB said:

Hey everyone! I'm fairly new here, been lurking for a couple of weeks and enjoying the discussions. I'm working on my first novel (which may end up being a trilogy, we'll see), and have a question for you all.

I've had a few non-fiction articles published in ezines and one print mag, and of course in my own weekly newsletter. But I have no fiction credits whatsoever. (Just never had the courage or desire to submit short stories for publication.)

Will this hold me back when submitting my novel? Or should I whip up the effort to have some fiction published before submitting my novel? Does it really matter? I've heard SO many stories of authors who've never been published and it didn't hold them back.

What do you think?

Wendy

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It really isn't so much that having no credits will harm you, it's just that having good credits can help you in a couple of ways. The first way is that if you've sold short stories to top magazines that are in the same field as your novel, you'll almost certainly have your novel manuscript read by someone higher up the food chain. Good credits can move a novel manuscript past first readers and assistant editors and into the hands of someone who can actually make a decision about it. This can be important.

Good credits tell an agent or editor you can write well enough to be paid good money for your writing, and also tell them you may well be bringing along something of a fan base who may well buy your novel.

I've beat out other writers twice with book deals because I had credits and they didn't. I sold my first novel over some good contenders because I had matching short story credits and they didn't. The editor liked all our novels, but because I had credits, which might bring some readers along, and the other writers didn't, she chose to buy my novel for the one slot she had open.

I had the same thing happen in the mystery field. The editor told my agent that my list of short story sales in the mystery field was the deciding factor in filling one of her slots with my novel, instead of with a novel by another writer who had no credits.

My agent, and a sister agency, choose almost all their new clients from the pool of writers with good credits who submit queries and manuscripts to them. Why wouldn't they? At most, they can take on only three to five new writers in a given year, and sometimes only one or two writers. They receive queries from seventy-five to a hundred writers with decent credits, and there's only enough time to read and evaluate so many manuscripts in a year, and they almost always find more good writers than they can handle in this pool.

This in no way means writers without credits can't get a novel published. It happens many times each and every year. But good credits are a real advantage in several ways. They will open some doors, they will move you past first readers, and all things being equal, they can be the deciding factor.
Especially when submitting queries instead of manuscripts. For the most part, one query reads pretty much like every other query, and no one can tell how well you write fiction from reading a query letter. A list of credits in a query letter, however, can tell an agent or editor that you write well enough to be paid for what you do.

But many writers don't like writing short stories, many good novelists write lousy short stories, and when this is the case it's better, I think, to concentrate on writing a really good novel. In the end, it's the writing that matters most.

Some creds will help

Regardless of the venue, having some publishing credits will help, at least with getting your foot in the door.

However, if you're looking to submit a novel, publishers (and agents, to a lesser degree) are not too interested in your short fiction or non-fiction, unless the previous stuff is pertinent to the subject.

For example, if you're writing a novel about fishing boats, and you've had some articles published about "life on a fishing trawler" then those will help.

That being said, no previous credits will boost a bad novel sufficiently. It may just allow that bad novel to get read by more people, and rejected. ha ha

In the end each novel will have to stand on its own. Top name writers have had their novels rejected in favor of no name nothings with a superior story to tell.

Having credits, like having friends, may get your novel read sooner, and by people with more prestige -- Credits may even get your novel published over someone else's that is just as good as yours -- But it will never get a novel of lesser value published and not having credits will not slow a superior novel from being sold over a lesser novel no matter how many credits the writer of the lesser novel has.

The best route to publication is to write a superior novel.

Credits

Writing Again said:

In the end each novel will have to stand on its own. Top name writers have had their novels rejected in favor of no name nothings with a superior story to tell.

Having credits, like having friends, may get your novel read sooner, and by people with more prestige -- Credits may even get your novel published over someone else's that is just as good as yours -- But it will never get a novel of lesser value published and not having credits will not slow a superior novel from being sold over a lesser novel no matter how many credits the writer of the lesser novel has.

The best route to publication is to write a superior novel.

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True. The biggest problem with lacking credits is simply finding someone to actually read your manuscript. This is the big hurdle. It doesn't matter how good a novel is if you can't get anyone to read it.

This is where credits really help the most. It can be a long, frustrating process trying to find a good agent or editor who will read a novel by a new writer who has no credits. Sometimes I think the best route to publication is to learn how to write a superior query letter.

All that publishing credits mean is that some other editor thinks you're writing on a professional level.

When you're writing on a professional level, the credits will come. Until then, don't sweat it.

The usual rule for cover letters is only to list your three most recent/most impressive credits. (Small 'zines that no one's ever heard of, or stories that came out ten years ago ... don't fill the editor's heart with hope.) Making up credits is Stupid Beyond Belief.

Credits may get a faster read, or a longer read (two pages instead of two paragraphs, maybe).

At the end, your story stands on its own. Magazine readers won't be happy to say "Well, this story was crap, but Joe Writer has great credits!"

Jenna, James,

Do you all know what's going on in the PA forum? I just got bomb barded with about 50 popups trying to get in there and it's full of guest talking about something unrelated to the thread. What's going on?
No one is answering me....

Not a clue, T. Can you drop me a note telling exactly what you saw, where, and what you were doing at the time? What browser are you using?

Hi James, I just now went into the forum and there are a bunch of guest in there. I went to previous and could not find anything that we were all talking about accept the guest. I'm on internet explorer if that is what you are talking about. Sorry, I'm not really smart about computers.

Am I just freaking or what? Where did all the guest come from and who are they? Am I the only one that see's this or think that it is weird?

t42, I think you wandered into the wrong thread. The people in it are listed as guests because their posts were archived from the old forum. The pop-ups are likely a different problem altogether - spyware or adware perhaps?