Five Publishing Myths Worth Dropping

Publishing feels mysterious. It isn't. In traditional publishing, a publisher has to believe a book can find readers. That's part of the decision, not the whole story.

The myths live in the gap between what writers know and what they assume fills it.

It's who you know.

Connections can help a manuscript get attention. They do not make a book right for an editor's list.

Treat an introduction as a route into a conversation, not a substitute for the work.

You need credits to get published.

Publishing credits can be useful context. They do not tell an agent everything about the manuscript in front of them. Let the piece do some of the introducing.

You need to be young.

There's no single age at which a first book stops being worth writing. Whatever age you've decided disqualifies you, question that rule.

You need to write to trends.

What's on shelves now began its route to publication earlier. Timelines vary, and the market can move while you're writing.

Write what you want. Maybe you set the next one.

Your book has to earn out.

An advance earns out when the royalties credited under the contract cover that advance. That is a different calculation from the publisher's profit.

An unearned advance does not, by itself, decide whether there will be another book deal. Contracts and circumstances differ. Literary agent Kate McKean discusses why there is no single indicator of an author's next deal in her publishing-myths column in Poets & Writers.

The test worth applying to a discouraging rule: is it a real constraint in your situation, or an assumption you've stopped questioning?

“You'll never get published without an MFA.” That's the shape of a myth. “Sometimes writers get pulled from the slush pile.” That's a possibility worth investigating, not a promise.

One closes the door. The other leaves it open.

Don't let an untested rule decide what's possible for you.