DO YOU have the urge to write? Good! Thousands before you have felt this urge. Early in the history of our church James and Ellen White, Uriah Smith, and other pioneers amply demonstrated that the pen is mightier than the sword. And a few decades ago young men such as Carlyle B. Haynes, Roy F. Cottrell, George McCready Price, Francis D. Nichol, and Arthur S. Maxwell began to write. They worked diligently, developed the talents God gave them, and millions have been blessed as a result.
The opportunities are now greater than ever before. God needs good writers, and many are responding to the need. Readers are becoming increasingly familiar with the work of scribes like George Vandeman, Roland Hegstad, Carol Hetzell, Herb Ford, Jan Doward, Warren Johns, Don Yost, Howard Weeks, and many others.
Publishing houses secure manuscripts by two methods---free lance and assigned. Obviously, assignment is usually made only to authors of proved ability. But what about the beginner? What can he do when he has a burden to write?
How a Manuscript Is Processed
Let us first see what happens when a manuscript is received in the mail at a publishing house:
1. A secretary acknowledges receipt of the manuscript in the editorial offices.
2. The manuscript is passed around to seven or more readers. Who the readers are depends on the subject and nature of the manuscript.
3. After the readers' reports are in, the manuscript goes to a publishing committee meeting for final decision to publish or not to publish.
4. If rejected, the manuscript is returned to the author with a brief letter of regret.
5. If accepted, the manuscript is edited and goes to a book-planning committee for specifications--paper stock, type face and size, binding, cover, number and kind of illustrations, and so forth.
6. The manuscript is turned over to the copy editors, who give it a fine-tooth-comb treatment for accuracy; next it goes to the art department for design of covers, opening pages, and layout of illustrations; then to the typeroom and proofrooms, and on through the printing processes to the folding, binding, storage, and shipping departments. The entire process may take a year or more.
First Steps for Beginning Writers
Now, you are a would-be writer, or are giving advice to a beginning writer. What must you do to prepare a superior manuscript, one that will be accepted?
1. Learn all you can about good writing from regular school classes, night school, or correspondence school; or at least read one or more books on the art of writing, such as Creative Techniques for Christian Writers, by Norma Youngberg. When it comes to writing for SDA periodicals, an excellent guide is the new volume Writing for Adventist Magazines, by Don Yost.
2. Inquire about the publisher's needs. Query the publisher something like this: "I have been studying such and such a topic, and would like to prepare a manuscript on it. Would you be interested in seeing a sample of my writing and an out line of the proposed book?"
3. The editor, if interested in the proposed subject, will probably reply, "Send one or two sample chapters plus an out line of the rest of the book, describing briefly the contents of each chapter."
Bases for Judging Manuscripts
DOES IT MEET A NEED? Will it make a contribution? Does it solve a problem? For example, will it draw the reader closer to Christ? Will it help save young people for the church? Will it point the way to better health? Will it arouse a deeper interest in missions? Will it strengthen a pastor's ministry? Examples of valuable, vital, useful volumes are:
Is It the Watchtower? by E. B. Price. A helpful book already winning Jehovah's Witnesses to the Advent message, written by a specialist working for these people.
You Can Trust the Bible, by A. Graham Maxwell. This is a pertinent message for a secular age. It is capably written by an authority on the subject.
His Initials Were F.D.N., by Kenneth and Miriam Wood. An inspiring biography of a great church leader and man of God.
The Work of the Pastor, by Orley M. Berg. Ideas and methods to help the busy pastor be more effective in his ministry, by a specialist in this field.
Is THE AUTHOR AN AUTHORITY? Dr. Alton Ochsner, of New Orleans, could write a book on smoking and lung cancer because he is an authority on this subject. Probably none of us wish to read a volume on lung cancer authored by a plumber, an English teacher, or a housewife. The same goes for theology, science, medicine, education, and other specialized fields. We live in an age of specialization, and we want to listen to one who knows---an authority.
Nevertheless, there is opportunity for those who may not be outstanding specialists in arts or sciences. If a capable writer learns to do sound research and interviewing, consulting those who are authorities, organizing the information intelligently, honestly, accurately, and then has the writ ten product carefully checked by specialists, he may produce a manuscript superior to what even the specialists can write. Why? Because the specialist may know his subject but not know how to set it down intelligibly or readably.
Is THE MANUSCRIPT INTERESTINGLY WRIT TEN? If the writing is done in such a style that its chief result will be to induce somnolence, then it should be entitled Sound, Refreshing Sleep: A How-to-Do-It Book for Insomniacs. If a really boring book deals with any other subject it will not meet the need and will probably interest no publishing committee.
IS THE MANUSCRIPT WELL WRITTEN? Good writing is too vast a subject to explore in this brief article. Be sure to read as many books as possible, or take writing classes, and learn the secrets of compelling writing. If you were to be the first astronaut to land on the moon, you would learn all you could possibly learn about making a successful trip before you undertook the journey. Do no less when contemplating writing for publication.
WILL IT SELL? This is one of the most important questions of all. A manuscript may be expertly written, but it serves no purpose if there is little or no market for it.
DOES IT DUPLICATE MATERIAL FOUND IN OTHER BOOKS NOW IN PRINT or in manuscripts already accepted for publication? This is one of the reasons for querying the publishers before writing the entire manuscript. The publisher may have another manuscript on the same subject and may not be in the market for yours. These types of manuscripts are in oversupply: doctrinal harangues, stories on animals, missions, travelogs, tedious memoirs of the author's childhood on the farm, and collections of doggerel.
If your manuscript is judged superior, and passes the tests given above, you will receive a letter of acceptance, followed by a small advance royalty payment and a contract to sign.
Other Hints for Aspiring Writers
Manuscripts should be neatly typed, with sufficient margins, and free from strikeovers. There is no need to send with your manuscript a recommendation from your teacher, friend, minister, or Aunt Hattie, urging that the manuscript be accepted. These recommendations do not impress editors. The quality of the writing and the relevance of the subject roar so loudly that editors cannot hear the whispering testimonials sent by the author as to the superlative merits of his manuscript.
The market is a buyer's market. Publishers can and must be choosy about the manuscripts they accept for publication. To do otherwise is to commit financial, spiritual, and literary suicide. Publishers do not want to fill the shelves of the Book and Bible House with dead material. Prob ably not more than one free-lance manuscript out of fifteen or twenty is deemed suitable for publication. Yet there is a great need for more truly great and important books among Adventists.
Finally, editors and publishing committees are fallible. To the aspiring author whose pearl is spurned by one publisher, we suggest trying another. It sometimes happens that what one committee labels as unnecessary, uninteresting, and unsalable, is accepted by another publishing house and turned into a whizzing success. This occurs about as often as the visits of Halley's comet, but it is just often enough to remind publishing-house folks to try to remain humble.
