Your Future Is Controlled By You, Not Others

I want to keep this short for a Monday, but I do think the message is important.

Too often, I hear authors blaming everyone else for a lack of success in publishing. Now, I do admit that this is a business about sales. You do need your readers out there to buy your books, so, on that level, there is some outside influence with your success, but with that said, there is still a lot more that you have complete control over.

Consider these thoughts. You have control over:

• How many books you write a year.
• How you want your books to be written.
• Which agent you want to represent your books.
• Whether or not you want an agent to represent your books.
• Which publishers you want to submit to.
• If you want to sign that contract with an editor or agent.
• etc., etc., etc... I think you can see where I am going to with this.

No one is out there forcing you to take any particular approach. You get to dictate what you want your career to look like. The key is to know where you want to go with your career.

A common question agents are frequently asked is how much "career planning" we do with our authors. I have always said that I can make recommendations based on what I see in your writing, or where you want to go, but as far as career planning goes, it is entirely in your hands as an author. Agents and editors are just there to help you get there.