Are Writing Classes Good Investments?
Writers’ classes have become the craze of today, leaving many authors wondering if they should or should not invest in them. What are the benefits of taking writing classes, after all, the obvious pitfall is that they are not free. Additionally, many writers’ classes have ten or more students, all competing for the teachers’ time and attention. Nevertheless, as time-consuming and uneventful as these classes may appear to be, they are actually quite beneficial. Let me explain.
In all things, there is a learners’ curb. No one masters a skill on the first try; it takes time, dedication and perseverance to master a trade, and writing is no different. Most first-time authors who consider themselves to be great writers forsake the idea of having their books edited, believing that they are keen and skilled enough to catch every grammatical, spelling and syntax issue that may arise. For this reason, people who don’t have their books edited often end up spending more money and selling less units. How so? One of the most embarrassing ordeals an author can endure is to open up a print copy of his or her book and find it swarming with overlooked errors. Unfortunately, the author does not have the luxury of telling the publisher to pull the book off the market, edit it and re-publish it freely. To pull the book, in itself, can be quite expensive. To-republish it garners a new publishing fee since the book has to be reformatted.
Writers’ classes is beneficial in helping new and seasoned authors to avoid some of the most common and damaging mistakes that more than eighty percent of first-time authors make. For example, the writing style used for blogging is not the same style used for writing books, but the average blogger does not know this. What you do not know can, not only cost you thousands of dollars in sales, but it can decrease your chances of being marketed by large publishers and retailers.
Most writers’ coaches are people who’ve written multiple books and have learned the ins and outs of publishing through trial and error. So yes, writers’ classes are not only beneficial; they are invaluable!