Risk…
Every soldier risks his life on the battlefield. Every NFL player risks doing damage to his body and his brain. Not long ago, a group of young men in a bachelor’s party; four of them and a guide lost their lives in a raging river in Costa Rica. We can argue about the logic of taking those risks, one for country and two for sport.
Although it’s not nearly in the same category as those listed above, every fiction author must face risk too. It’s the risk any creative person takes: the risk of rejection. Will the agent or acquisitions editor like my manuscript (MS)? Will readers like my published book?
The first step is to finish the MS, of course. There’s a risk there, but the potential failure is more personal and not so public. I don’t think NaNoWriMo helps much there, unless a writer takes some comfort that a lot of other writers are sweating and suffering (sounds a bit sadistic). There’s an analogy between novel writing and running a marathon: the main risk is giving up. The failure is mitigated by putting that story aside and working on a different novel or turning it into a short story or novella. The writer has still failed to finish a novel, but it’s not too terribly embarrassing.
Rejection is harder to take. Authors who self-publish don’t have to worry about this prior to publication, so I’ll return to them later in this article. Authors who want to traditionally publish have to either risk rejection with an acquisitions editor or with both agents and editors. Some publishers only “read” an MS offered by an agent, and, even then, the publisher’s editors still might not accept the MS.
Entering into the traditional publishing process are ancillary criteria like marketability and genre popularity, not just the quality of the MS (i.e. a good story well told). And because fiction reading tastes are always subjective, agents and editors’ choices are too. Of course, rejection at this level might also occur because the quality just isn’t there. And part of the author’s pain is often not knowing why the rejection occurs.
Authors keep risking these bruises to the egos, or they self-publish. Now comes the second question above: Will readers like the published novel? Every author, self-published or traditionally published, risks rejection by readers. Again, there are ancillary factors beyond the quality of the storytelling: editing, formatting, and cover art are the most important, but blurbs and reviews are other ones. Sometimes everything is perfect, but readers just don’t know the book exists. After all, more new books are published every year than can fit in a B&N book barn.
Again the pain is not knowing the reasons for failure. That pain’s intensity depends on our definition of failure, of course. I saw one stat (it might be worse now) that said most books, no matter how they’re published, sell fewer than three hundred copies. (I think that stat came from Amazon, so maybe they’re only counting sales on Amazon. No matter.) Whatever the stat currently is, most writers trying to live off book sales would be below the poverty level!
We have to take these risks and learn to live with our failures. In the early years of this century, I received over one thousand rejections from agents and acquisition editors. I kept honing my skills and self-published with POD publishers (many are still around, trying to survive—they have stiff competition from Amazon’s Create Space, now part of their KDP, although it has nothing to do with Kindles). I then went the ebook route with Carrick Publishing—I received lots of good TLC from them. But the upfront costs of editing, formatting, and cover art caused me to add traditional publishing with a small press to my business model (and to continue the TLC).
While I’d like to think I’ve improved since my first novel, modesty aside, those first books still look good and are current as ever, maybe more so now than before. With every new book I continue taking a risk. That’s part of the fun! Maybe publishing isn’t warfare, but it’s a contact sport. And I consider every book I write to be a success if at least one reader is entertained by it.
***
Comments are always welcome!
Goin’ the Extra Mile. #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries,” this novel returns to the heart-pounding action of #1 and the intrigue and suspense of #2. The U.S. created the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), Russia stole them, and now China wants them…and will kidnap Mary Jo and her family to get them. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (Apple iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).
Reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are all five-star ones so far. Here’s one: “I was captivated by the end of the first chapter, and I couldn’t stop reading. The author did an incredible job with character development and storyline. The twists and turns of this suspenseful read will have you turning pages as fast as possible. I was trying to guess what was going to happen next, but the author kept surprising me. I enjoyed every chapter of this book and look forward to reading more from this author”.—Valerie, in her Goodreads five-star review
In libris libertas!
