My First Story Ended Up Going No Where After I Published It

This was an overheard statement from the conference this last weekend. Now, you will need a lot for context for this statement for it to really make sense. But before I dive into this, let me just say that this is a cautionary tale of "learn how to do something before you dive in head first."

As I have said before, there are a ton of writers who self-publish and fail horribly (note my comment I ALWAYS make. People can succeed in self-publishing so this is in no way a negative slam against this approach). These authors fail because they have not gotten what they want from sending things to editors or agents OR, when they get on sites such as Query Manager or read books with lists of editors and agents, the come up with no one representing their work. Clearly, these people are not open to creativity, they will say.  So they self publish.

You have heard me talk about this before.

OK, so back to our author. When the author sat down at a table with another author, they were talking about what each wrote. This author state, "I write a mix of Cyber-punk, mystery, thriller, sci-fi and fantasy all rolled into one story." Hmmm, intriguing. This alone should start to tell you a lot. 

But wait, there is more. 

During the conversation, the author stated "I have a character that was only supposed to be there for one chapter. In the end, that character ended up being the main character." Um what?

In both of these situations, it came down to the author not planning ahead. Not knowing what to do. Not knowing the business. And simply put, running blindly into brick walls!

So why did this author fail? I think you can see it!

Have The Guts To Try

This last weekend, one of the sessions I was a part of was a group blind critique of authors' first two pages. Myself and 2 other authors read their stories out loud and then gave them honest and straight forward feedback. It really is a fun session and for those people in the audience, it is a great way to really learn about what is going on in our heads either as a reader or as a professional receiving your writing. 

I have always found it interesting of the number of writers I hear who will make statements of "there is no way on earth I could ever do that." 

But here is my question... Why?

A lot of authors have a complete fear of sharing their writing with other people. I get it. Writing is personal. It is often private. In fact, when I am writing this (yes, I am writing this at the conference so my reference to this last weekend is a bit of time shift), I am watching people sitting in this large room. There are 14 tables, with 4 seats a piece and no one is talking to each other. This is a conference to network and share ideas (see my previous posts) but no one is talking. OK, there are two people with legitimate reasons. Me, and the one person who has her computer plugged into the wall.

But think about this. If you are not showing other people your work, or you are not getting feedback from other people, who will read it first? Editors and agents. 

"But Scott....," you whine, "I have my critique group!"

Of course you do. These are your friends and I am sorry to say, they are your protective shield. They are the people who will, like your mother, always give you those encouraging words of kindness and sugar coat things with that wonderful Oreo cookie approach to critique. Come on! Remember your mother hung all of your "great work" on the fridge?

I have always found it interesting that after I have been a part of any of these sessions, I am flooded with authors thanking me for the honesty. They often make comments such as "I knew something was wrong and I am glad that you pointed that out." I have also had authors say things such as "I am glad that you told me this now because I had planned on sending this out to editors and agents next week." 

Whew! Saved the day again!

Remember, we learn from failure. We learn from making mistakes. If you don't try, you will never learn and grow.

Trust me!

Quit Trying To Justify Bad Decisions

I was at a conference this last weekend and once again, I was talking to writers about the concept of writing the book of your heart vs paying attention to what the market really wants. I have talked about that here before as well as on my other social media channels. And sure enough, I ran into several authors who immediately launched into what they believed to be "rational" reasons why ignoring the market was fine. Each of these statements were "yeah but..."

Here is what it comes down to. We see the world through blinders. Writers in particular see the world that way. We are so focused on our stories that we don't see anything outside of that world.

Except, we need to.

We need to stop and think if that story will really sell.

We need to ask if people will really care.

We need to ask if there are enough people out there. 

In one of the author's cases this weekend, his comment was, "Well, I guess I can always just always hope that it works out."

Sure, that is an approach you can take, but honestly, I don't know about you, but I just do not have a lot of free time on my hands to just throw away months on a gamble like that. When I work with my authors, we discuss just that. Sure, a publisher might say they are interested in seeing something that they have, but that author has to decide, if they want to give up their writing time that they are making money on for a gamble of something that may not succeed.

Again, I want you to write what you want. I want you to enjoy writing. But if you want to want to do this professionally and make money out of this, then you do need to think rationally about this and not just live wishfully.

Thoughts from a Conference

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Don't Rush Into Self-Pubbing

Yes, I know, you are all thinking, "Here goes Scott again on another rant against self-publishing!" No, this is not the case. This is just a small thing to consider BEFORE you decide to make the jump. 

Let's say that you are still on the fence of publishing traditionally or going on your own. Obviously, there are pros and cons either way (that is not the point of this post). In any case, you have a story that is finished and it is pretty dang good. You have gotten some good feedback from critique groups and beta readers, but for some reason, it has not gotten any significant traction with the editors and agents.

So...

You decide to throw caution to the wind and self-publish it. Of course, you still have it out there with some editors and agents. Hey, you have heard that they take previously published works, right?

Now, here is where it gets sticky (or could get sticky).

If you come to me, for example, and you tell me the work is self-published, I want to know your sales numbers, AND more importantly, I want to know ALL of the people you have attempted to send it to. See, here is the problem. If you have already sent it to specific publishers, and they rejected your story. that bridge is now burned. If your sales figures suck, that is telling me that your story might not be good. Sure, you may tell me it is marketing, but let's look at the optics. You have sent it to a lot of editors and agents who have passed on it, AND you have not tried to sell it on your own and your sales numbers are ugly???? You have heard the phrase? "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck????"....

Here is another scenario. Let's say you do start the process of self-publishing, get the ISBN but never actually follow through. IF an editor now is considering your book, things get a little sticky because now they see the book is already published. Having to work through the logistics if they want to sign you to a contract, especially if you are not strong on publishing contracts can get pretty dang ugly.

Look, it doesn't matter what you do. Just think. That temptation may be too great and exciting. I just don't want it to bite you in the butt later.