writers.com feature:

Myth Busting: Twelve Fallacies About Writing and Publishing

By Paula Guran

"If you follow THESE STEPS you will get an agent... (or sell your book... or whatever)!"

Ask two dozen debut novelists how they sold their first book and chances are you will discover 24 different ways they managed it. No single formula, plan, recipe, or T-shirt size really fits everyone -- not to mention that how I look in that T-shirt has nothing to do with how you look in it.

"If you know how to talk, you know how to write!"

The underlying meaning here -- that you may be able to accomplish more than you think yourself capable - is true, of course. We need encouragement to attempt new challenges. But extend the metaphor -- it's like saying if you can walk, you can dance. I know how to walk, but it doesn't mean I can be a prima ballerina. Not only that, but I can name at least one professional dancer who is in a wheelchair. Doesn't keep her from dancing.

"You can write and publish your own OUTRAGEOUSLY Profitable eBook in as little as 7 days even if you can't write, can't type and failed high school English class!"

(This one was copied directly off a Web site. Obviously one needn't know standard capitalization or that a number under ten is almost always spelled out in a sentence.) If you believe this claim, please send me $1000 and I'll reveal many such valuable "secrets." Throw in another thousand and you can buy my share of the Brooklyn Bridge.

"The first step to getting your name in print is to prepare a proposal."

Not if you plan on getting your name in print by writing a novel or short fiction. Nonfiction books are proposed, but unless you have an established relationship with an editor, an established or suddenly hot reputation as a writer, or a phenomenal agent, it's highly unlikely a proposal for a novel will get you anywhere.

"The best way to find the publisher for your manuscript is to:
a) find books that like the one you've written (in genre, in style, in tone) and note the publisher
b) If they bought books like yours, the odds are vastly improved that they will buy yours, too."

This is good advice offered with good intention, but, it isn't completely accurate. Sure, there are generalities (probably not a good idea to send your erotic thriller to Scholastic, for instance), but specifics may not be so accurate. There's usually a two or three-year lag between what is purchased and what is newly placed on the bookstore shelves. There may be even more time before you, the consumer, catches up with a particular book or trend. What's hot today, was bought some time ago. Chances are, unless you have more than average knowledge of the field, you aren't going to know what a publisher is currently looking for.

There's another aspect, too. "Cross-genre" fiction has been blurring the lines between who publishes what the last few years. Before, you might not have wanted to send a mystery novel to a science fiction publisher; now an SF publisher may be looking for a future- or cyber-based mystery. Romance publishers are looking for "paranormal" romances with vampires and werewolves, "literary" publishers now appreciate gritty noir...

Better advice: "Research publishers at your local bookstore, but also learn as much as possible about what's happening in the industry from industry sources."

"It's easier for an established writer to get a contract for a novel than for a new, commercially untested writer."

Not always true. There's very little real financial risk involved in publishing most first novels. Authors making their debut usually receive infinitesimally small advances. First novelists can also gain considerable no-cost publicity that repeat writers don't have a chance at and publishers know this. Plus, when you have no track record in sales, it can't be interpreted as a negative.

"If an editor loves your book, you'll get a contract."

If an editor with some power within the publishing house loves your book, you have a better -- but not assured -- chance to get a contract. If that editor can convince others (especially the marketing department) that your book can sell, you have a better chance. If what you've written fits the template of what that company is currently willing to buy, you have...well, you get the idea. There are a few editors still left with the sort of clout that can be exercised to get a book published, but those editors use that clout in judicial and politic manner.

"If a book is good, it will eventually get published."

This truism was commonly spouted and accepted as true less than a decade ago. But even the most optimistic are unlikely to believe it anymore. This correlates with the next point --

"The publishing business goes in cycles, wait long enough and any good manuscript will eventually sell."

Whether publishing and writing professionals want to face it or not (and most face it, they just don't want to talk about it), their world has changed so radically in the last 20 years that no one can define what the cycles are anymore, let alone predict if the cycles will perform as they did in the past. You can't rule such cycles out, of course, but neither can you just accept that time is on your side.

"Luck has nothing to do with selling your work."

Luck, serendipity, kismet, sheer happenstance, being in the right place at the right time, random acts of kindness, maybe karma -- it ALL has something to do with it.

"Who you know and who knows you has nothing to do with getting published."

You can most certainly be "unknown" and not "well-connected" and still succeed. But anyone naive enough to believe that the good (or ill) will of people in the "right places" has nothing to do with many successes should send me $1000 for...

"Books are a form of entertainment just like movies, music, gaming, etc."

Whatever it is that motivates someone to buy or read a book is not the same motivation that sends her to rent a DVD or watch it. A lot of very smart, powerful business people bought into this fallacy awhile back and the "synergy" supposedly involved. Although some aspects of publishing work well under a corporate umbrella of "entertainment," not all do. These associations can even hinder some parts of the game. There's a very good possibility that the bookselling business -- because of the very special (some would say ridiculous) system of distributing, discounting, and accepting returns in the U.S. - simply must be considered in terms that those who expect standard profitability and return on investment will find unacceptable.

The future of book publishing lies in e-books.

Well, not for a long time anyway. E-books have A future, it's just not THE future. Back in 2000, the pundits were projecting sales of about $250 million per year by 2005. The reality is that e-book sales totaled about $5 million in the first half of 2003.

Copyright (c) 2004 Writers on the Net. This feature was originally published in "Writers.com," the monthly electronic newsletter of Writers on the Net. This publication may not be reproduced in print or posted elsewhere on the Web or used in any other fashion, in whole or in part, without written permission from Writers on the Net/Writers.com. Subscribe here or by emailing writers@writers.com.

home:about:classes:enroll:services:instructors:newsletter:tips:store