Lest we modern writers forget, there was a time when female writers faced a good deal of prejudice when it came to being taken seriously as authors and poets. When Charlotte Brontë sent some of her poems to the then poet laureate Robert Southey, for example, he wrote back: ‘Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation.’

In its winter 2013 edition, The Author magazine published an article entitled ‘Old ways for publishing to be different: Jane Austen in the literary marketplace’, written by EJ Clery, professor of 18th-century literature at Southampton University, which outlines Jane Austen’s path to publication. I found the article fascinating and inspiring for its realistic appraisal of just how hard Austen had to work for her success. It fired me up to think about other classic writers and how their journeys from concept to print may inspire modern writers. Today, then, I’m sharing lessons we can take from the publication stories of great women who, in a male-dominated sphere, had to fight to have their words read.

1.  Take risks

As the Author article explains, after twelve years of trying to get published, Austen took the unusual route of publishing Sense and Sensibility ‘on commission’, which meant, essentially, that she paid a commission to the publisher for it to publish her work (royalties in reverse) and she agreed to cover any losses, risking a total of £180 on the endeavour. Happily, her speculation paid off, and she made a good profit.

2. Put aside the ego

No doubt Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë wished the world would respect their literary works, and they eventually did – but not, initially, with full knowledge of their authorship. For their first publication, Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë created a joint work of poems, found a publisher and put out the book under the masculine pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. They knew that the market wouldn’t take seriously the books were they published under female names, so they conformed to expectations. They put first the work, not their desire for personal recognition. So, too, did Mary Shelley – the first edition of her ground-breaking novel Frankenstein was published anonymously.

3. Write not to be published, but for yourself

Poet Emily Dickinson is today one of the world’s most respected and read female poets. In her lifetime, though, she knew scant publication success, seeing only a handful of her works in print – in part due to who she was, an introverted and reclusive lady; in part for the unique, unconventional nature of her writing which went largely unrecognised as genius in her time. That did not deter her, however, from writing, writing, writing: she was hugely prolific, penning close to 1,800 poems.

4. Write what is in your heart to write, no matter the consequences

When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe during the American Civil War, he reportedly said: ‘So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!’ The book to which he was referring is, of course, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, whose anti-slavery message was widely influential when the book was published. Abolitionist Beecher Stowe had written, ‘I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak… I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.’ She was a courageous woman indeed for speaking out on such a subject.