Yeah, the publishing business is harsh, I never doubted. I am readying my first novel to be sent out at the of this year, and polishing my rejection-resistant helmet, which I will no doubt need. I am not an English major, however, I work full time as a business analyst for a private company in Ottawa, ON right now, so writing is my second job :] What genre was your first novel?
I've been doing tech writing for an electronics company for about 15 months now. Primarily I write and design the end-user manuals, installation guides for retailers, and troubleshooting articles for our technicians. I also help write some of the sales literature. More recently I did some copy editing and design for my sister's new online business. Didn't get paid, but I did get that all-important credit. I've also written a handful of articles and stories for local papers and collegiate literary journals. But like most former English majors, I plan on becoming a full-time fiction author sometime in the near future. I tried marketing my first novel in 2006 and received 57 rejections without followups, made it to the editorial board of two publishers who wound up rejecting the book, and zero publishing offers. So naturally, I've been writing another novel since 2007 that I plan on marketing later this year. If you plan on going into writing, learn to do something in addition to writing. Work in campus tech support, volunteer at a hospital, etc. Also write for your local or college newspaper so you have publishing credits and are used to working under deadline.
I was going to ask the same thing. I am a starting writer myself (been writing since I was twelve, but only started seriously about a year ago).
hi :) so you're a writer huh? that's kind of what i want to do. what sort of technical writing and whatnot have you done?