Reading is important and paramount for a published author. It should be continuous for a published author or one trying to be. Lot of ideas can come from reading other people’s works. Reading can also help support your career and can help boost you to the height you want to reach as a published author or an aspiring one. Reading should not be done just anyhow for a published author but methodically. The following are the methods of reading like a published author.

How you should read like a published author?

1. Read works in your field of study

It is imperative to read in your area of study so as to get fresh ideas. This doesn’t mean you should not read works from other fields but make sure you read more works from your field. It makes you understand what is standard in your field and what is not. You will also be able to figure out controversial stuff and also discover works that are in progress. If you read a lot of works from your field, you will be able to learn from mistakes others made and also learn and build up from the good ones.

2. Read works that have been published recently

This makes you learn more about the publishing process i.e. you learn about publishers and what they are publishing at that time. It also helps when you want to publish your own as publishers like when you make a comparison of your work with two or more works that have been published recently in your query letter that you send to them and it is when you read these works that you will be able to make exact and precise comparison.

3. You can use books to make research for yours

It is easy to check up facts on the internet but going deeper and finding out more might involve reading up works offline. Reading up people’s works is a great form of research because the information it contains are more likely to be authentic.

4. Read books that debuted the author

Books that debuted the author is the author’s first published book. First-time authors tend to put more work in writing their work. As an aspiring author yourself, reading books that are newly written by first-timers in your field gives you more information e.g. journals they published in, conferences they attended etc. When you read debut works, you have an idea of what publishers and editors expect you to write and how to write it e.g. lengths of chapters, lengths of the whole manuscript etc.

5. Find out more about publishers

Always notice the publishers of works in your field and try to find out more about them. It is important to find out more about publishers as it keeps you informed and any information might help you understand how publishing works. Knowing about publishers will help you know the right one for your work.

6. Look for books in libraries, bookstores

Go to libraries and bookstores to find out about publishers. You can find out what is current in your field? which aspect of your field is getting more attention? Which isn’t? What do the booksellers and librarians say about a book? What do they recommend? Which aspect is getting more readership? And more information that you might need.