Tips for Teens: How to Become a Published Author

Do you have a knack for the written word and the unique perspectives, ideas, and experiences to go with it? As a teen, writing your story is especially powerful in many ways and can even help shape and enhance your future, academically and otherwise. In this blog, we’ll talk about some important steps involved in becoming a published author. 

Start with an idea

If you’re a writer and want to become published to impress your dream colleges or otherwise, think of what makes you stand out from the crowd. What qualities make you a leader, not a follower? Colleges look for traits like leadership, compassion, perseverance, and dedication. Think of a time when you were the main character. What happened during this chapter of your life? How did this affect you? What trials and tribulations did you have to partake in? What triumphs? Jot these things down and start to craft your story!

Write your story

​​This one may seem obvious to some, but many people have a great idea in their heads of a story they want to tell, whether it be about themselves, someone else, or something entirely fictional, and they never put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). So, the very first step to publishing your story is to write it. Take all of those ideas you wrote down and put them together!

When writing your story, rest assured that there will be more than one draft. You’ll have time to perfect its contents. When initially writing the story, just let the words flow. Try not to let typos or mistakes hold you back—the important part in this stage is to just get your story on paper! 

The rest comes later. 

Read, edit, repeat

When you think your first draft is finished, it’s time for the first editing stage. Read over your manuscript and mark any changes you want to make. This could include grammatical changes or rewriting entire chapters, but this is an important part of the process before you submit your work for publication.

Another tip: don’t be the only one to read your work. After you’ve made your own edits (or before), send your story to trusted family and friends and ask them to read over the story and mark any changes that they notice that should be made. This allows you to have your story looked at with fresh eyes so that you can best impress potential publishers, and later, college administrators, with your beautiful and polished story. 

Build a platform

Before you embark on the search for a publisher, it’s essential to spread the news to your friends and family beforehand. To do this, a good idea would be to create a trendy social media post or video that tells readers a little bit about your story. Perhaps even create a video series with short videos detailing your writing process, what the story is about, your characters (if any), and more. Fellow writers and readers will be interested in what you have to say as well, and you might even get a new follower or two out of it!

Ready to embark on your journey to becoming published and inspire the “wow factor” in your college admissions? Start with your boldest, biggest ideas, then start crafting a story that is perfectly authentic to you, read, edit, repeat, and build a platform to announce what you have in store. 

Happy writing!