Like many writers, I belong to several writers groups on social media.
This past weekend, someone posted this article written by Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency: No, you probably don’t have a book in you: A literary agent on why your good story isn’t likely to be a
bestseller.
McKean elaborated on the following points:
1) Every story is not a book.
2) Writing is hard.
3) Publishing is a retail industry, not a meritocracy.
4) Just because you are fluent doesn’t mean you can write.
Comments on the group ranged from respectful to upset, with some not-so-good opinions about traditional publishing to some lauding of self-publishing or seeing self-publishing as a last resort if an author can't land a traditional publisher.
Part of the confusion, I feel, lies in the difference between writing as art and writing as business, or the difference between creative and commercial art.
Writers: although overlap may occur, they are not the same.
Here's what I posted:
I'm the entire features section of a daily, a self-published
author of several series, and the co-leader and co-founder of a writer's group.
I stress the above points to those hoping to "get picked up" by a
literary agent.
Being published traditionally does not equal validation of good
writing. All it means is that the author has written a book a publisher thinks
it can sell. The writing can be good, bad, or indifferent. But it can be edited
into a salable product that can be targeted to a specific market. I do this all
the time with news releases and story pitches in my section.
I've seen bad
writers sign traditional contracts and some outstanding writers struggling to
find readers for their outstanding novels. I tell writers all the time:
"If you have an idea for a story burning inside you and will dedicate the
long hours required to shape that story into a mesmerizing, believable read,
you're a writer. Enjoy the process! You may only find five readers turning
somersaults over your work, but that's OK. Write your story for them."
With so many self-publishing options available now, it's an exciting time to be
a writer. If you want to be a commercial fiction writer, study the market and
write to it. But here's the thing. By the time a commercial work is ready for
publication, the market may have changed. And no one, including literary agents
and the top five, can predict what book will sell a surprising amount of
copies.
So write the book inside you, the book only you can write. And make it
the best book it can be. A truly great book never goes unread.
And also this:
An agent only makes money with the sale of a manuscript. If
I was a literary agent, I would not accept a project I could not sell. As far
as publishing houses and blockbusters go, the blockbusters give new authors a
foot in the door. Many, perhaps most, books do not earn out their advances.
Many houses survive on blockbusters, making it possible to accept other books
they know won't sell as well. Publishing is a business.
And finally this:
Once upon a time (get it, LOL), a midlist author could enjoy
a quiet comfortable career. Publishers had larger staffs and worked with
authors they felt had promise. But things change. Where I work, the features
section had two editors, one staff writer, and a bottomless freelance budget.
That was 1998 when I started writing for this newspaper.
Today, I am the entire
section and have no freelance budget. When I freelance and wrote stories on
local authors "published" by vanity presses, I swore never to become
one of the them. But as I learned more about what constitutes true
self-publishing, I found another adventure.
Every era in publishing brings its
own opportunities and challenges. Let's seize the first and navigate the
second. Who knows? Instead of bemoaning the changing of the game, we can become
game - changers, and all these comments will sound quaint in ten years.
Writing a book takes knowledge, time, discipline, and persistence, and writers often (maybe usually) receive very low return for that effort. Writers, no matter how they publish their works, struggle to find readers for their writing.
True, a writer may sell more books through a traditional house, and true, some self-published authors do very well.
But most books, published or not, sell only 250 to 2,000 copies in their lifetimes (depending which report you read), very discouraging to fierce dreams of becoming the exception.
I've written and self-published several books, and I doubt any of them will hit even 250 in sales. I remarked at a recent WriteOn Joliet meeting that Before the Blood, this five-volume prequel to the BryonySeries trilogy that's consumed nearly ten years of my life, will likely only sell five copies in its lifetime.
And yet, I'm so very glad I wrote it.
If you haven't guessed, I agree with each of McKean's points.
However this does not mean writers should not write that book. Good God, YES, they should write it.
Write it to develop your talents.
Write it to entertain your imagination.
Write it for your own set of five people who will savor (or devour) it and clamor for more.
If every book was a bestseller, bestsellers would not exist.
If every book received a traditional publishing contract, publishers could not afford to publish books.
But that doesn't mean the process isn't valuable or that a writer's words don't have the power to change someone's life, even if it's the writer's.
So if you have a story or a topic burning inside you: write!
Here's the link to the complete article if you'd like to read it.
