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Arts & Entertainment

Learn the 'Nuts and Bolts' Behind Getting Published

Area writers will share tips on how they got published, so that you can do it too.

For all would-be writers wandering the world undiscovered, the idea of penning the Great American Novel sometimes seems like the easiest pursuit on Earth. After all, if you can speak English and you’ve got a pen and a sheaf of paper in front of you, what more do you need?

Then the writer sits down with their pen and paper—or their new Macbook, more likely—and finds it’s not quite falling off a log.

Every writer has been there. And this week at East Brunswick Public Library, a few writers who’ve gotten past that point will share their experiences with the rest.

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At 7 p.m. Thursday, the Friends of the Public Library will present “The Nuts and Bolts of Writing a Book,” a 90-minute panel discussion with published authors sharing experiences and advice with their aspiring brethren.

The program is the brainchild of the New Jersey Author’s Network (NJAN), specifically area novelist Jon Gibbs, who will chair this week’s event.

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“I organized it through the NJAN,” Gibbs said, “a free to join, free to use network for published authors and writers based in the Garden State who want to work together to promote writing and sell their books and anthologies. Any NJAN member—in this case, me— can set up an event.”

This will be third panel of this type that Gibbs himself has chaired, and he looks forward to doing so. “They’re always a lot of fun,” he said.

Fun though it may be, Gibbs remembers just how frustrating it can be for unpublished writers, contacting publisher after publisher with their hat and manuscript in hand. He wrote the first draft of his novel “Fur-Face” in 2003, then saw it under go numerous revisions and rejections before finding a home for it at the publisher Echelon Press.

Gibbs says it’s precisely these sorts of common difficulties faced by all new writers that make “The Nuts and Bolts of Writing a Book” an event they should consider attending. “I meet a lot of writers who allowed themselves to become discouraged and even bitter about the publishing industry,” Gibbs said. “They tried so hard to get an agent or publisher but never got anywhere. In almost every case, I believe that’s because they started pitching their work before it was ready.

“I like to use the example of learning to drive. After a couple of hours behind the wheel you can control a car much better than when you first started, but there’s no way you’re ready to take your test yet.  NJAN events give folks a chance to find out important things about the writing and publishing process which, in many cases, they either hadn’t considered important until then or may not have even realized they needed to know.”

Even if you’re fortunate enough to call yourself a published writer, Gibbs thinks you can still glean valuable information from this event. “Aside from folks who’ve written or are in the process of writing a book, we’ve had published authors; folks who only write for themselves; short story writers; non-fiction writers.

“I can’t speak for the other panel members, but looking back, I know I could have dramatically speeded up my learning process as a writer, and therefore gotten published far sooner, if I’d taken the time to study what other people were willing to pass on about what they’d learned from their mistakes instead of floundering about on my own.”

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