1) Nonfiction-to-fiction-- I was reminded of Jonathan Maberry (http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/aboutjonathan.cfm), whose writers' workshop I attended for a year. He is a now-successful horror author who got his start writing nonfiction books about martial arts. As JMG says, the first big step is getting published-- anything published. Agents and publishers see that and figure you are a better risk.
2) I vote for short pieces in the same universe. You could try submitting them to New Maps (http://www.new-maps.com/). And/or, sign up for a Dreamwidth account, and start posting them as blog entries here. When you post a comment, do so after logging in and post it as you. Your name becomes a link to your blog, and people can go find your "free samples". I've browsed the comment-names of a number of the other posters here and they have some neat stuff up.
3) Your earlier comment was a little long. I tend to go long-winded if I don't watch myself. So I will write something, then go back over it a couple times and condense it down to the essentials as much as possible before hitting "post". Not just here on the blog; I do this all the time at work with emails too.
Re: A follow up to last week's magic/fantasy books discussion.
1) Nonfiction-to-fiction-- I was reminded of Jonathan Maberry (http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/aboutjonathan.cfm), whose writers' workshop I attended for a year. He is a now-successful horror author who got his start writing nonfiction books about martial arts. As JMG says, the first big step is getting published-- anything published. Agents and publishers see that and figure you are a better risk.
2) I vote for short pieces in the same universe. You could try submitting them to New Maps (http://www.new-maps.com/). And/or, sign up for a Dreamwidth account, and start posting them as blog entries here. When you post a comment, do so after logging in and post it as you. Your name becomes a link to your blog, and people can go find your "free samples". I've browsed the comment-names of a number of the other posters here and they have some neat stuff up.
3) Your earlier comment was a little long. I tend to go long-winded if I don't watch myself. So I will write something, then go back over it a couple times and condense it down to the essentials as much as possible before hitting "post". Not just here on the blog; I do this all the time at work with emails too.
- Cicada Grove