On Getting Published-Educational Requirements

I am in the process of writing a novel. I want the novel to be of publishable quality, even though I don't plan to publish it, at least not just yet. However, I have hit a roadblock.

I don't know if a college education is required for having a novel published. I have done some research online, and while most people seem to say no, a few others-some successfully published authors-state that it's very important to have a college education (or higher) in order to sell a novel to an editor, an agent, or a publisher.

Right now, I am also struggling with depression, and going back to college for more education seems to be out of the equation for me, at least for now.

Do agents and publishers strongly consider educational credentials?

I have a BA from college, though not in English literature.

I hope that someone can be frank with me on this issue. Just think about it. A lot of authors I have researched have master degrees or higher. Some of them (probably a lot of them) have Ph.Ds and are college professors. How could I possibly compete with others that have several prestigious degrees and positions?

The only reason most authors seem to have a degree is because going to college is a good idea and helps with writing, but you can't teach creativity. If someone has a degree and are a terrible writer, they might be willing to publish it because they might think the writer sucked on purpose, but if you're good at writing and have an interesting premise then it shouldn't matter at all. Hell, there have been published authors who were still in highschool, and some even younger.

If the publisher is asking to see your credentials, scrap them and look for another one. The only thing that a credential does is provide you some fancy piece of paper and something else to throw in your "About the Author" blurb. What you should be focusing on is the writing and story, and if it's good, or may I say great, then the publisher should recognize that and (though it may take a while and a lot of rejections) eventually publish it. And as TheBnf said, there are people published that are under 18. I can think of two right away, and I know there's more.

Depending on your genre, then going to college for a specific non-Literature degree can help. If you are writing literary, then a Literature degree will help you get published. For every other genre out there--it won't.

For genre writing every sector has specialized workshops that look shinier and are cheaper than an MFA. They will also tell you if you really want to become a writer.

Clarion, for example is one for SFF. There are other equal ones for the other genres--double check though before paying for anything.

Beyond that, yes, College can help with writing if you aim to increase your knowledge. For example, a degree in criminology has to help with mystery writing--psychology probably will help too.


Anthropology can help with Fantasy and Science Fiction. Computer science or a hard science probably will help with science Fiction and so on--they will look shiny on a cover letter.

That said, there are authors that don't get a BA in a related field at all and still end up being published. Look up Stephen King. He worked as a Janitor when Carrie was published.

So no, you don't need an MFA, and an MFA might actually hurt you.

The only other credentials you need are the pro magazines stories/books you've published. And that does not mean college newspaper or magazine that no one has ever heard of.

Being a fiction writer doesn't require a degree. One of the few profession that doesn't. However, it does mean you need a day job.

No, an education isn't required for publishing a novel. Knowledge and education are always beneficial in life, but no one is going to ask about your highest level of education when you submit a fiction story for consideration. When I sold my first book I had no publishing or professional credits. My query didn't have a biography section because I had no professional bio to give. All I had was a good story and that was enough.

Publishing non-fiction is different. There, you are expected to have credentials which show you are qualified to discuss the subject.

I'm having my third book coming out this summer. I only have a BA, and not in English. For fiction, it isn't important. As someone who worked reading slush piles, I can honestly say I never really cared if someone said they had a MFA or anything else...

The fact is, people who go to college might have a slight edge over those who haven't based on the skills they have learned while in college. Note that I said MIGHT, not will. And note I said based on SKILLS they learned, not because of their resume.

(Skills can include, but are not limited to: learning to finish a project on time, learning to work under pressure, learning to deconstruct or put together a good paragraph, etc. Not necessarily How To Write A Book. But all small skills that inevitably add up to helping someone write a good book.)

I can tell you right now, as someone who is published through 5 different publishers and also has an agent (whom I love and adore) ... not a single editor has any idea:

a.) how old I am (other than the fact that I am clearly at least 18, since I can sign contracts on my own)
b.) my level of education (did I finish high school? college? masters?)
c.) my job outside of writing, if I even have one
d.) my professional resume


My agent knows how old I am and she also knows my job. My job is writing. Outside of writing, I am a stay at home mom. But she did not know EITHER of these facts until about 6 months AFTER signing with her, and only because they came up in small talk, not because she felt she had to know. My agent still has no clue if I went to college or what I studied, and she has no clue what my previous jobs were before writing. They've never come up in conversation before, so they are not relevant. What she DOES care about is that my next book is the best work I can turn out. The end.

But my editors know none of those things.

Why? Because what we write is fiction. It doesn't matter if you didn't finish high school. If your book is a good work of fiction, it's a good work of fiction. When querying a novel, I can't think of any good reason at all for you to ever give details about your educational background.

If you were writing a non-fiction book, then education is a much bigger deal. But that's not the case here, so we'll ignore that.

Long story short: You write the best darn book you can possibly write. You edit, you shine, you polish. And then you query. End of story.

Some authors acquire degrees after they have been published, out of interest or curiosity. The mystery writer Michael Craft, after publishing about ten books, took two years off to get an MFA. He obviously didn't need it to be a published writer! He did it just because he felt there were still things to be learned. I have read most of his books, and I never thought they needed to be improved; I figured this was his way of growing and testing himself. He's now branching out into film. By the way, he was an art director for many years. No writing-related degrees until he got the MFA from Antioch.

So, long story short, stop feeling inferior! One of the finest short story writers I know drove a bus until recently. I have no idea what her educational background is. I don't know what other jobs she has had. All I know is that her work is jaw-droppingly good, and reading her stories always makes me want to work harder on mine, because she sets the bar so high.

A publisher is interested in the writing, not the writer's degrees.

As a former used bookstore owner I can tell you that the most popular fiction books were by authors who started out as housewives or working Joes. Very few of the popular authors list writing degrees in their bios.

Personally, I tend to be hesitant about reading a fiction book where a bunch of degrees related to writing are being listed to encourage me to read the book.

Tom Clancy was selling insurance when The Hunt for Red October was published. His first book.

I've read writing books by Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Dean Koontz (two of his), and lot's of other big name and best selling writers, and not one recommended a degree of any kind as a recommendation toward getting published. They all only spoke of getting good at writing by writing and reading. A few even discouraged writing degrees because they would take time away from you actually writing. The only time they didn't discourage degrees was when someone was wanting to get a degree in some field other than writing, like law or medicine or technology, if the writers wanted to become experts in writing about those subjects,

Robin Cook had a degree in medicine, not literature.

Go ahead and get a degree in a field you happen to be interested in, but don't get a degree just because you think it will help you get published.

A publisher is more interested in a stay-at-home-mom who writes a thriller that will hold readers' interest than a Doctorate in Literature who has trouble keeping the publisher awake as he's drinking his coffee.

My two cents.

I'm an English major and I definitely can say that to write a great work of fiction, you don't need to have a degree, period. LIke they said before, it does help some folks to get published because college gets more tools into your bag of tricks, but it can also hamstring you if you want to write creatively. I would have to say the creative writing courses I signed up for (just one actually) I felt cheated on because half the stuff we read was the professor's own work (major hard-core science fiction nut that seemed like he was still stuck in the cold war era) and he really didn't teach us anything, just lead a bunch of guided discussions on why we think stories worked and didn't work. The only enjoyable classes were the ones where I learned about the time-periods and stories that I enjoyed reading.

I think the reason you see a lot of authors with degrees is because they love learning and passing it on, that's a fundamental reason why we tell stories. They have something to say, and that comes out in the passion they have in each yarn they weave. What was Tom Clancy's degree in, John Grisham, Steven King (okay, he was a high school English teacher while Carrie was being published), JK Rowling (French Teacher by trade), and others. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Love what you write, write what you love. Most important, never stop learning; run and find out (like Rudyard Kipling's mongooses).

I have never even heard of this concept. Of course you'd need educational credentials to publish a nonfictional scholarly work, but I don't know why a publisher would care in the case of a novel. My current publisher just wanted to see the book; they didn't ask me a single thing about my education.

Well, I have a college degree--a BA-though it's not a degree in literature or the fine arts. Nor is it an MFA. It's a degree in the social sciences.

I am currently writing a fantasy novel. I slowed down on writing my story because I have become frustrated. I completed over 71,000 words thus far, and I still have a while to go before it's finished.

There is no problem with having a degree, we're just saying don't go after a degree just because you think it will help your chances of being published.

Any degrees to increase you chance of a better position in your career or anything like that is fine. Let's face it, it's easier to write if you're not having to worry about paying the rent in two weeks.

The story is the main thing. If you have a good story that others want to read, the degrees after your name are irrelevant to publication.

If you are writing a medical novel, like Robin Cook, a medical degree is a plus. But I've also read great medical novels by writers with no science degrees at all (at least they weren't mentioned). I've also read medical novels by doctors where the story wasn't very good, even if technically accurate. Robin Cook is a popular writer because he knows how to write a good story, not because of his degrees.

My two cents.

I just thought I'd chime in here... I'm kind of on the other side of the fence :)

I have an MFA (gasp!). Yes, it's true.

Has it helped me become a better writer? Absolutely.

Getting my MFA let me spend three years of my life absolutely dedicated to learning craft, to reading, studying theory, and attending workshops. Now, post MFA, I've been fortunate enough to get a decent job teaching college English, so my day to day life is pretty condusive to writing. That is, when I'm not swamped with grading essays!

Could I have learned all this without the MFA? Sure. It would have taken a lot of gumption on my part, but it's possible. In fact, still, a lot of what I know is self taught, but that's the way it always is, isn't it?

As far as publishing -- has it helped? Well, I haven't started shopping around my fiction manuscript yet, so I can't tell you either way. BUT, the cool thing about an MFA is that you have to do a thesis manuscript, and you have a lot of beta readers (your committee!) and it's kind of important to do a good job, make it the best it can be. My main genre is poetry, so my thesis was a poetry collection. And guess what? It's gotten picked up by a publisher! My editor loves me -- he says my script is one of the most polished he's ever seen. Why? Because it had gone through so many darn edits with my thesis commitee, of course.

So I think it helps, sure. Is it required? Obviously not, we've seen plenty of exceptions to the rule. But! If anyone here has the desire to go for an MFA, I'd say do it! It was a fantastic experience for me.

In that sense I agree with you! But absolutely there's value in putting forth the effort to learn your craft, whether you go to school for it, or you're self taught. That's what I meant. "Other side of the fence" as in I see a lot of value in getting that higher education. But maybe that's because I'm a professor! And my job kind of depends on having students to teach ;) ;) ;)

I think I just wasted at least 10 years or so of my life crafting this novel, and I don't think it's any good, yet. I wish I knew more about writing and publishing books when I was in college. I would have chosen the BFA/MFA program. I should have done some research on the subject earlier on in my life. I have read on a blog that about 90% of novelists have an MFA or other upper level degree. School is not an option right now because I simply don't have the money to afford an MFA or other graduate degree. That, and I'll probably do a poor job on the GRE. My SAT scores weren't all that great. I could only imagine what my GRE scores would be.

Maybe I should stop deluding myself and give up writing for now. The novel so far is 73,000 words. I planned on making it to over 100,000 words. Now, I'm not so sure.

If most authors have degrees, it's probably because they never thought they'd make enough money writing and wanted to have a backup option. Either that or they hadn't planned on writing and then became a writer later.

The only times it would really matter are if you're writing nonfiction, in which case most publishers would probably want to make sure you actually knew something about the subject you're writing about. I can't say that it's a requirement, but that's the only time I can imagine that having a degree would help you.

I have an English degree, and while the writing classes I took in college were helpful in some respects, I can honestly say that I would have tried to become a writer even if I hadn't taken them.

Writers write, they don't worry about degrees--it's as simple as that. I have several degrees, did they help me write? No, not at all--just helped me put off writing (fiction) to a later time. There's a story that when Robert Frost was asked why he never pursued an MFA in poetry, he answered, no thanks, they just would have made a professor out of me.

As much as anyone has said, yes it doesn't matter where you come from, a degree is hardly necessary. It will help.

beyond grammar and formatting it will also help expose you to subject matter you might not have otherwise picked up. Personally, I'm a voracious reader, I expect my book count since I began reading (I'm in my thirties now) is easily in the tens of thousands. I spend a few hours per book simply due to literary appetite.

I still end up studying things in my degree program I would have never otherwise even picked up, or at the least, gotten around to. It's an excellent way to read up on different authors, approaches and to help "get the juices flowing" so to speak.

Will my degree in literature help me write? Yes.. but that's a happy side effect more than anything. Study what you're interested in, if you plan for post secondary. There's a whole wide world out there, learning does not begin nor end in the classroom.

(aside: I'm taking my degree to teach literature, since I think it's a damned shame how many people "don't like to read"-not to write)