The worst kind of talent is the unteachable kind. Of course, being unteachable is not an artistic death sentence. Plenty of talented folks have excelled while remaining stubbornly resistant to critique or rejection. In fact, in some ways stubbornness is a virtue for someone seeking publication. The problem is when an aspiring author or artist is obstinate, rejects advice, scoffs at criticism, and becomes self-deluded.
Along with many of you, I have frustrations with certain aspects of the Christian publishing industry. The previous conversation was about some of those frustrations. Frankly, I think Christian authors should talk more openly about these things. But these discussions can also have a downside.
I received this email from a reader regarding some of the comments in that post:
Mike, I cringe a little at responses like _____’s. I remember thinking that my rejects were all about my genre and not about my writing. Not a good place to be. What can you say to someone who’s thinking that way? Or do you just let [them] figure it out on [their] own? (emphasis mine)
That same day, in one of my email loops, another author vented about the Christian publishing industry:
In today’s publishing market, standards are controlled by a limited number of folks who have no more interest in flexibility than the movie moguls did when George Lucas wanted to produce his first Star Wars movie. Quoting standards and “learning the craft” often become the knee jerk response instead of the truthful answer that although a story is well crafted, the author is unknown and the publishing company doesn’t want to take a risk on a new author… (emphasis mine)
Both of these comments reminded me of how our rage against the machine can sometimes lead to delusion. Face it: The “industry” may not be the reason you are unpublished. As such, some of your rejections are NOT about your genre, the Christian market, or inflexible publishers — they are about your writing.
One of my favorite writing posts of the year is Rachelle Gardner’s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. She says this,
There is no magic bullet, there’s no advice I can give you that is somehow different than what I tell everyone else. If you want to get in the game, you’re going to have to keep doing the work.
When you’re getting lots of rejections with no feedback, it usually means you’re not even close. What are you going to do to change that? You can’t keep doing the same old thing and expect different results.
Let go of excuses. (“They don’t like my topic” or “I’m an unknown.”) If your writing is terrific and you’re telling a compelling story, somebody is going to recognize it.
Will ALL good writing be recognized. Probably not. But I believe that adage is worth holding on to: “If your writing is terrific and you’re telling a compelling story, somebody is going to recognize it.” There’s two simple reasons why some authors hedge against this axiom:
- They refuse to believe their writing is NOT terrific
- They refuse to believe their story is NOT compelling
This is called “self-deception.”
Yes, I believe there’s some screwy things going on in Christian publishing. Nevertheless, I cannot let that be an excuse to stop “learning the craft” and striving to tell a more compelling story. I cannot let my frustrations become a smokescreen, a rationalization to blame someone or something for my publication woes. In fact, blaming the industry can become our own personal “knee-jerk” reaction. Instead of remaining teachable and open to critique, we make the Man and his Gatekeepers the scapegoat. Friends, this is self-defeating.
Am I saying we should stop pointing out problems with the Christian publishing industry? Nope. (Heck, I do it every other week!) I’m saying we can’t stop looking in the mirror. Sadly, I think a lot of aspiring authors get trapped into complaining about editors, markets, or some ethereal “bad guy” instead of just doing what’s in their power to do — become the best possible writer they can be.
Okay, so there’s a lot working against us. Go ahead and vent. But at the end of the day there’s really only one thing we can do: Get that chip off our shoulder and get back to work.
It’s better to be proactive than to complain, that’s for sure.
Mike,
I think it is important to uncover the publishing industry (both CBA and ABA) in order to illuminate the landmines both for potential authors as well as readers. But there is, indeed, a fine line between between complaining about system flaws (like great books that languish in the wrong section of the store or are marketed wrong) and complaining about publishing as if it has a vendetta against X.
Take Wil Wheaton’s “Just A Geek” for example. It had everything necessary to become a very hot seller, but it didn’t, largely due to system errors. Though well written by an author with plenty of platform and fame, on a topic relevent and certainly trending at the time, it was marketed to a niche: Star Trek fans. It wasn’t, in any way, shape or form, a Star Trek book, but a funny and moving personal memoir about the weird territory occupied by geeks.
Geeks who weren’t Star Trek fans (i.e. millions of potential readers) never gave the book a second thought, assuming its marketing message was on the mark.
This was a system error. It didn’t help that Wheaton’s deal ended up being worse for him than if he had sold the books himself – which he promptly did with his next ones, quite successfully.
On the other hand, for every “book debacle” (and Just a Geek wasn’t so much a debacle as a less-than maximum success) I can name ten “author debacles” where a writer self-destructed his career (either prematurely or at his peak) because of his self-righteous hubris.
Readers can be complete buffoons, too. Its not the industry’s fault that its consumers wander up to the store’s help desk with questions like: “Do you sell books here?” “I want to return this book because I dropped it in the toilet” or “I’m not buying books from you until you stop selling [book x which offends me for some reason]” Often, we can’t find books we really want to read, not because we aren’t looking in the obvious place for them, but because we are organizationally illiterate!
Ultimate, the advice to the industry is the same advice to authors and agents and readers – keep trying, keep improving, keep seeking.
Coming from the music industry, this is a new concept to me, mostly because there’s ALWAYS a record label out there that would be interested in the most “unlistenable” of music. If somehow an artist cannot connect with them, there’s is always the independent route, which seems to be far more acceptable for musicians to do than writers.
Are vanity, do-it-yourself publishing firms generally disdained in the writing community?
When I stepped from music to writing, I wondered the same thing, why isn’t “indie writing” cool? Then I realized indie writers often put out their work with little to no feedback. In indie music, most artists have done live gigs, some tour for months or even years before putting together an album. Big difference. Nothing like a live crowd to humble you and teach you what does and doesn’t work. In other words, indie music may be quirky and not have broad appeal, but it’s often good. Indie writing is frequently just plain bad writing. Or more correctly, so-so writing that was put out there too soon.
This is (inadvertently?) one of the greatest arguments I’ve read for self-publishing. I’ve written a book. I’ve edited it 5 times, including 2 complete rewrites. The book is in the best shape it’ll ever be, yet I can’t find an agent to represent it.
How will I improve if this book sits on a desk and no one sees it? How will writing another book (with the same mistakes, since I haven’t improved) make me better or more able to find representation later?
I’m getting fed up with agent rejections. I’m not done yet… I’m going for 100 rejections before I give up and try self-publishing. I think I’m longing to hear some angry crowd feedback, like an indie musician, those things my friends/peers must not be telling me.
I don’t envy your position, Jaimie. I’m almost done with my book and I’m not looking forward to all the rejection letters from agents.
Rondi, I think that is a terrific analogy. Too many aspiring authors do not play in front of “live audiences” enough. And when they do, they just dodge the tomatoes and move on.
“Are vanity, do-it-yourself publishing firms generally disdained in the writing community?”
Jay, things are changing so rapidly in publishing it’s hard to find a definitive answer to that question. Generally, yes — self-publishing is still “disdained” by the mainstream (although “disdained” is probably too strong a word and the “mainstream” now has “tributaries”). For an overview (and more reading than you probably care for), check out my agent’s posts on Self-publishing, especially THIS POST which she closed comments on after 196 of them. So, yeah, it’s a big issue in the publishing industry.
Thanks Mike. I will check out those posts.
To answer your question Jay, “Yes.”
Okay, it isn’t that straightforward. Clearly there are independents with platform and fan following who sell a good number of books that are self-published or go the independent route.
However, it comes down to gigs. Musicians have them, book writers don’t. For the majority of indies (correct me if I’m wrong) but if you were going to break the revenue down, the recordings either primarily or in some large part must serve as marketing for the shows. Obviously, they are a source of revenue in and of themselves, but most musicians are looking to perform in front of an audience first, and maximize revenue and marketing by also having CDs available and selling the music online.
For writers, public gigs are extremely rare, and more important – are more often revenue losers than gainers. They are primarily marketing and networking in nature. Of course, there are exceptions: Neil Gaiman, for example, must charge huge amounts of money for speaking engagements so that he doesn’t lose time focusing on his main job: writing stuff. Gigs make him plenty of revenue, but they actually get in the way of creating new books.
This is a very long way of saying that musicians get their chords right by playing, writers generally get their chords right by going through the editing and publishing process.
Does that make any sense? I think I just confused myself.
You make sense, however I would have to mention freelance writers. I am one of them, semi-professionally (I get paid for one site I write for…the other two are pro bono, if you will). Whether a writer gets paid or not, they help you advance but it can get in the way of the book writing process, much like Gaiman’s public speaking engagements. Interesting….
Good post, Mike! Though it’s true that not every good book will be published by a major house, you’re also correct that many authors blame the industry when they should instead work on their writing. Only a very few truly outstanding novels will fail to earn contracts.
My first novel earned me representation from Rachelle, but while it was under submission, I wondered if companies would take it. They didn’t, though there was some interest.
When Rachelle submitted my second, we both knew that this second novel was different. We knew that it deserved publication, without a doubt. And sure enough, that was the novel that earned my contract with Thomas Nelson. I had grown tremendously as a writer between the first and the second novel, and that took a lot of hard work, personal struggle, and dedication.
Of course, it helps that I write in a highly-commercial genre (historical). So I don’t want to understate the difficulty of placing unusual work, and I respect authors who are willing to take on that challenge. But dogged persistence, talent, and humility will often overcome the obstacles.
Jamie, I’d qualify your last sentence by saying dogged persistence, talent, and humility may overcome the obstacles. The truth is, we don’t know what God has in store for us, and we can’t take him out of the equation. He may have us write for some other reason than for us to publish. Ultimately He is the one who orchestrates the events (such as historical fiction being hot right now—when five years ago it was one of the not-at-our-house genres) that lead to contracts and even to sales.
Becky
Uh, sorry, Rosslyn, I was planning this next comment to Jamie, and inadvertently addressed yours to her.
NOW, Jamie, you said: I’ve written a book. I’ve edited it 5 times, including 2 complete rewrites. The book is in the best shape it’ll ever be, yet I can’t find an agent to represent it.
How will I improve if this book sits on a desk and no one sees it? How will writing another book (with the same mistakes, since I haven’t improved) make me better or more able to find representation later?
First, let me debunk the idea that your book is in the best shape it will ever be. Let’s suppose it really is the best writing you’ll ever do. I can’t help but think an editor will spot things you didn’t and can make it even better.
Which means, whatever the editor knows, you can also learn, so you really CAN make it better. Thing is, right now you probably don’t know it needs to be better.
Without having read a word of it, I still feel confident in saying that after only five edits and two rewrites it can probably get a lot better.
Jamie, how many critiques has this manuscript had? How many test readers? Have you read writing instruction books, worked through any writing exercises, entered your manuscript in any contests? How many writer blogs to you visit regularly?
The point is, there is sooooo much to learn about writing, but also there are sooooo many writing helps available today. In other words, there are lots of ways to improve without having a bad book published and finding out no one will read it (though, of course, I have no way of knowing if your book is ready for publication or not).
Many authors testify to having stored their first, second, third, even fourth novels in drawers. They just keep writing and they get better. Logically, what you said seems true, and in part it may be—that we’ll keep making the same mistakes—but I think the process of telling a story might get better. Making great characters might get better.
Another thing, reading is one of the best ways to learn to write. Find great books in your genre, and look at what the author did to make you love the story, characters, beginning, or end. Then see how your work measures up.
Here’s what I learned. Having taught English, complete with creative writing units and novel studies, I felt confident I could write a novel. When I began to learn writing from the inside, however, I found out it is no different than any other profession—you have to put in the time to learn, either by study or by apprenticeship, and preferably both.
Nobody wants a heart surgeon whose best qualifications are that he has a heart and has read a book about heart surgery, and even watched a few heart surgeries in person. He needs to study, learn, take his exams, do his residency, pay his dues.
Too many writers want the path to be shorter. They hear about the handful of authors who were over-night successes, and think, How hard can it be?
I think it’s Randy Ingermanson (author of Writing Fiction for Dummies) who says a writer needs to write at least a million words before being ready to publish. That’s a lot of writing!
Becky