Building a Publishing History
Want to write? REALLY, competitively write? You will need to build a publishing history. Play in the Literary Magazines. Submit short works to them – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, essays, whatever your “bent.” Literary Magazine acceptance of your work ranges anywhere from a 2% to a 20% chance of acceptance and publication. You will be COMPETING for the typical “two copies upon publication.” But...
...if you DO publish in the “little mags,” you will have learned how to use and edit English at the level required in a novel.
Some little mags will do reprints if asked. I was glad to pubb in non-paying mags, just to find out I was writing stuff that somebody else was willing to put in their mag. Tons of the little mags are published by the English Department of a College or University. Serious people working on their MFA. Some other mags like the now defunct Fleas on the Dog just love to see the strangeness of what people will send them(I mean, I did). Their caveat for what you submit, “not-previously-published,” is a lot to ask, but don’t you care. You will be build a publishing history.