Permission to Write: How to Write a Book and Other Myths From the Real World of Writing and Publishing - Paperback

by Patricia J. Parsons (Author)

Part memoir. Part mentor. All tough love.
Permission to Write: How to Write a Book and Other Myths from the Real World of Writing and Publishing is a bracing, often funny reality check for anyone who has ever sat alone at a keyboard thinking, Maybe this is my bestseller.

Writers have always been writing. What's changed is access. In the digital age, it's easier than ever to publish a book-and more complicated than ever to ensure that what reaches readers is any good. The result? A publishing landscape filled with opportunity, illusion, disappointment, and a lot of misunderstood talent.

In Permission to Write, Patricia J. Parsons pulls back the curtain on the myths that keep aspiring writers stuck: the belief that passion is enough, that publishing equals success, and that if you can publish a book, you therefore should. With candour and wit, she argues that real permission to write must be earned-through improving your craft, developing humility about your own work, and taking a clear-eyed view of the industry you're entering.

Drawing on three decades in the trenches, Parsons recounts her experiences with traditional publishers (including Doubleday Canada, NC Press, University of Toronto Press, and Kogan Page in London) alongside her forays into the often chaotic, "Wild West" world of digital self-publishing. Along the way, she offers practical insight, cautionary lessons, and reassurance to writers who are serious about doing the work-rather than chasing the fantasy.

This book is written to entertain anyone who has ever said, "I'd like to write a book," while delivering the kind of advice most writers don't want to hear-but desperately need.

About the Author
Patricia J. Parsons has been a writer and writing teacher for over 35 years. She began her book-writing career with a nonfiction trade book on the ethics and politics of organ transplantation, drawing on her background in medical communication. Since then, she has published multiple nonfiction books with major publishers in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and has gone on to write novels and a memoir.

Parsons spent almost three decades at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, teaching corporate writing, communication strategy, and ethics, retiring early as a full professor to focus on writing and mentoring new writers. Permission to Write brings together her lived experience in publishing, teaching, and storytelling-and her unwavering commitment to helping writers face the truth so they can actually get better.