William Faulkner’s first novel, Soldier’s Pay barely sold when it was released in 1926. Neither did Saul Bellow’s in 1944, Kurt Vonnegut’s in 1952, Cormac McCarthy’s in 1965, or David Foster Wallace’s in 1987. All of these books garnered tepid reviews and bare-minimum sales. Ever since Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1828 debut sold so poorly that the author burned the remaining copies out of embarrassment, flopped first novels have been an American tradition.

Publishers have typically taken the long view, expending great effort and bushels of money to keep struggling authors writing away for years, banking on the hope of eventual literary success. It is to this dedication that we owe America’s status as one of the great literary pillars of the world. Now, that dedication is faltering, and with it, the future of the great American novel. But it’s not too late to save the novel.

The Five Steps to Becoming a Published Author

Step One: Get Published

It may sound like this should be the last step to getting your novel published, but the truth is, it’s almost impossible to get a novel noticed if you’re not a published writer. This means you’ll need to spend many hours away from your masterpiece perfecting short stories and sending them out to countless literary magazines. The most important part of this step is getting one of those literary magazines to accept your story. Then, getting a few more to take notice and publish your work. Once you get a few smaller pieces of fiction published, you can start building your bio sheet. This is sort of like a resume for a novelist.

Grammar Girl here. Today’s topic is how to write your first novel.

Since you’re listening to this podcast, you probably love the English language and the written word. And if you do, you probably have an itch to write that first novel. Well, you’re not alone. The dream of writing a novel, either for personal satisfaction or to make money, has been prevalent in our culture for decades, if not centuries.

But first, speaking of novels, it’s free audiobook time again because we’re sponsored by Audible, the Internet’s leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Audible now has over 50,000 titles for you to choose from. Visit audiblepodcast.com/gg for a free trial that includes a free audiobook download today.