Ask me anything about college writing

[I_teach_writing]

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Hi, thanks for this, ITW.

How many 18-24year-olds write 150+ page books - novels, nonfiction, whatever - that do not get published? Or, more generally, any comments on the % of people who get published and maybe some distinguishing features between getting published and not getting published?

Any stories about your own experience in trying-to-get-published would be cool.

Any resources you know about re: what kind of books are being published nowadays and what's selling would also be awesome!

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I'm expected to write a "scholarly" book of nonfiction and have it published at an academic press, so I am not a fiction writer. However, I heard John Edgar Wideman read a few years ago (he's a legendary literary novelist), and he told the crowd that it's a lot easier to get bad writing published than it is to get good writing published. Why? There is a bigger market for bad writing.

If you want to make a career out of fiction, I would recommend you think about women. Something like 85% of fiction is bought by middle-aged women--so that's where the money is.