If you are hoping to become a successful writer of fiction, I have a couple of suggestions for you.
1. Start a blog. This will allow you to see how many people might be interested in reading your stuff for free. If you can’t get anybody interested in your writing when it’s freely available online, ask yourself how many individuals will actually want to pay to read it.
2. Don’t give anybody any money to promote you or help you make a recognizable name for yourself. The only person who can make a name for you is you. And that takes a lot of time and effort. It is also something you can’t purchase with money unless you are extremely rich.
3. Identify your goals and consider how realistic they are. If all you want is to see your book in print and share it with your friends, that can be done very easily through all the self-publishing services that exist nowadays. If, however, you hope to make a living from your writing, expect to invest years of your life and every ounce of dedication you have got. Even if your texts are brilliant, this will be a long struggle. Everybody writes and publishes nowadays. The market is over-saturated with all kinds of writing. Making any money out of it is extremely hard. Making a significant amount of money is next to impossible. Writing has to be its own reward.
Clarissa's Blog 
Also get yourself a good editor.
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
(three is enough Gerty ā ed.)
LikeLike
But never pay for editing services. They get their cut off the top of sales.
An agent is good, too. Don’t pay for them, either. Watch out for scams. Always check Preditors and Editors first before taking an offer.
LikeLike
“Start a blog. This will allow you to see how many people might be interested in reading your stuff for free”
This is a very good idea, but, two things: One, readership does not only depend on content. You have to find a way to get readers to come to your site. Readers of my previous blog were very kind, and they always told me it was a fantastic blog. I didn’t have any kind of visitor-tracking system so I can’t give you exact figures, but despite accolades and several requests to write fiction, I don’t think I had upwards 50 regular readers.
And two, even if you have a big readership interested in what you write, when you do get offers, they might be for things that are completely different. Like, my offer was for writing romance novels, which were starting out then in India.
So, good idea, but not exactly foolproof. Especially with the romance novels š
LikeLike
Are you writing romance novels now?
LikeLike
Good lord no! I turned down the offer. But I do have a draft. Might publish it for free on the blog someday.
LikeLike
I, as author of more than 10 books, would like to add:
you will get success if you discover something new: new idea or new genre or new style. May be, you will discribe topical burner matter, it is interrsting too.
LikeLike