Who Are Your Critique Partners?

Writers always need a second set of eyes. As you write your stories, you will often get into a rut and only see things one way. Of course your story is perfect. You wrote it! You love it! That is to say until an editor or agent sees it and sends you that wonderful rejection letter (if you are lucky they didn't ghost you). So what do you do? You go out and get a critique group together. Your goal as a group is to work together to craft the best damn books ever!

Sounds like a great plan, right? 

You might want to stop for a minute and think before you leap. You see, critique groups are only as good as the members in the group. 

What I have seen, unfortunately, is that many of these critique groups are often nothing more than "the blind leading the blind." In other words, if none of you really understand the craft of writing, or you have people in your group who believe they know everything (but really know nothing), you are just giving each other bad advice.

Don't get me wrong, we need these groups. We need people who are there to motivate us and keep us writing. BUT, if we are looking for advice to make our stories better, we need to always ask if this person we are talking to really knows "their stuff."

I will also add, I see this same thing happening at many conferences lately. Coordinators go out and get people to lead workshops because the proposals sound amazing. What they forget to look at is whether or not these people are really going to give the participants GOOD advice that will advance their careers and their writing, or are they leading them into a brick wall?

As you look to form your groups or to find those critique partners, look for someone who has shown signs of quality success. Don't just listen to what they tell you. Look essentially at their resume. Do they really know what they are talking about? If not, you can always keep them around as the motivators in your writing life, but be cautious of the advice they give to you. It might not be what you need! 

Maybe YOU Are The Person Who Needs To Change

 There's that old expression that says if it's not broken don't fix it. However there's also another thought that says if something's not working for you then maybe you need to do something to change it. Too often I find that authors are stuck in a rut when it comes to their writing. Whether it's their stories not selling or they're getting a ton of rejections, things are just not going the way that they want them to go. So what do they do?

Too often they do absolutely nothing.

I don't know how many times I have talked to authors at conferences where they will complain about how trying everything they can to an editor to pay attention to them or increase sales but then when I ask them what they're doing or if they're changing what they're doing their answers are often “Well you know that it just takes time.” There is this belief that if they just keep doing what they are doing, it will eventually work in their favor. Maybe. Maybe not!

Now, don't get me wrong. I say this over and over again here on the blog that writing is a matter of taking time to get things right and to learn the craft. This is a business that cannot be rushed. And yes there are going to be a lot of rejections ahead of you; however, if you keep getting the same answer over and over and over again maybe someone is telling you something and you need to start to listen.

I remember sitting at a conference talking to an author and we were discussing her sales. She noted that the stories she likes to write are stories that are currently not on the market right now. Of course, these were the stories of her heart she loved to write these stories. She also stated that wasn't going to change this because she'd been told repeatedly you should write what you love. I agreed with her. But then I asked her “What is your ultimate goal are you just wanting to write just for the joy or are you wanting it and money out of this as a career?” She said she wanted to make money out of selling her books. So here is her dilemma: she needs to decide what she needs to do.

She has two options now she could either continue writing the stories of her heart and not make money or she could make changes in her writing while at the same time, sticking true to her own voice and making some small changes and make that will sell. We talked about it for 15 or 20 some odd minutes, and she would continually come back and same thing. She really believed it was a matter of how she was marketing the books and all she had to do was to “find the audience” even though she would come back to state that the current market wasn’t buying her books and the audience was not there. What was even frustrating is that she has a bachelor's degree in marketing so she should know what she should be doing here.

You have to begin by saying to yourself what is it that you want and what are you doing to get it? If you want to make a career out of writing your books and the current genre you are writing in is not selling it is not a matter of just trying to find an audience that doesn't exist. It comes down to having decide how you can shape or shift your genre or even your writing to fit what the market is looking for.

I know that a lot of you are starting to scream at me and say “Scott, I don't we slave this market.  This is my writing and someone shouldn't be telling me what I should write and what I shouldn't write!” Here's something I'm not telling you to what I am saying you can still write any story you want may have to make some changes if your goal is to make money as a career.

 

It's Time For The No Short Cuts Post Again

So, I got home last night and started scrolling through some social media and saw post after post of writing chapters and writing organizations with amazing pitch opportunities to agents. It was as if this was something brand new that no one had ever thought of. I mean, these people went ALL OUT. They put pictures (yes pictures) of the agents on the advertisement (probably done on CANVA) and hyped up how you could pitch your story to all of these people. 

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE !!!!!!!!!

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let's get our feet back on the ground and get into reality for a bit. Let's look at a couple of facts.

First of all, pretty much every conference offers pitch sessions. Some conferences are virtual so "um, no duh, the pitch sessions will be virtual." This is nothing new so don't get overly hyped with this promo.

Secondly, they hype it up as if ALL of these agents are going to be fighting for your story. Sorry to say this people, but it is still going to come down to several factors:

• Is your story well written?
• Is that agent/editor actually acquiring your genre (in other words, did you even bother to research this person)? 
• Is your story something that is marketable?
• Is there a demand for your story?
• Blah, blah blah....

In other words, everything I always talk about here is still going to come into play.

Let me also say that trying to pitch at these shorter versions is actually harder because you cannot take the time to really craft a real letter that sells you and your project. Not only that, you and your nerves are going to come into play.

But the bigger point is this. You see this as a short cut! You think this is your way into the big time, just because of this special opportunity.

I hate to burst your bubble, but it won't.

Now, here comes the bigger thing you are forgetting... we are all available 24/7/365. You don't need to rush it in a situation like this. 

Is Self Publishing The Right Place For You?

I haven't talked about this for a while so I thought I would bring it up again.

I get it. The market is tough. I just saw a post from an editor who noted in the last 8 months she has signed a very small number of new authors. And when I say small, I mean SMALL!!!!! She was excited because she reached that number. For me, if I can get more than one a year, I am excited. Now, a lot of you, this might sound like we are being overly picky, and yes, part of that is yes. But I will also say that a lot of this has to do with the quality of the writing. Now, you might be asking, why I am bringing this up with the title of this post?

The answer is simple. So many of you are impatient. If you don't sell that first book, but your beta readers love it, you jump immediately to the self-publishing route. 

I get it, the alure is great. There are so many authors out there telling you of how great their lives are. What many are NOT telling you is how much they are spending to get to that total. What many are NOT telling you is that many are still publishing traditionally and doing this as a side-gig.

I am not, at all going to say that self-publishing is not a route to take. All three of my books are self-published. Why? Because I knew my market and I knew what I wanted to achieve. That is it. Was I out to make millions of dollars. Hell no! I did this for the first two books because they were poetry and important to me. The last one, NAVIGATING THE SUBMISSION THE PROCESS came from those of you who "ASKED" for me to write it and help you out. I priced it as low as I could. It is there for you. Not me. 

But, if you want to make a career in publishing, you have to ask yourself, do you have what it takes to carry yourself to "make a career on your own." I am talking about quitting your day job. How much do you know about this business? That is, what do you know about the business and do you know enough to carry you through all of this? The taxes? The cover art? The editors? The....god knows what???

All I can say is, think before you leap!