In which our hero dusts himself off and rides again
July 3, 2013
So several years ago I set out to write a book, in part just to see what it was like to complete one. Then I continued to discover what it was like to try and get it published. The final leg of that journey was to see what it was like to self-publish. I’ve learned a lot. Now one journey ends and I find myself considering where – or whether – next.
Along the way I received a lot of helpful advice and opinions of those in the publishing industry, and others who aspire to be*. Advice is always welcome but remember – it is up to you whether to take it or not. I find that most advice is based on the experience, bias, and aspirations of those who give. Whenever deciding on advice you have received always ask yourself: where does the advice come from? Most advice is well-meaning, but it is coloured by the giver’s worldview. It’s human nature.
I read one refreshing exception lately, with some level-headed and unbiased advice, as given by Tobias Buckell here. In short, he says most of the success stories in writing (and the consequent advice on how to succeed) are driven by the tiny percentage of writers that do succeed, that make it to the top, and therefore have the social exposure to get those gems of advice splashed far and wide, listened to, and believed. There are far, far, far more writers who have had little or no success trying to follow the same path.
The main axiom from these denizens of publishing success is that you must keep trying, that only through utmost faith in yourself, your determination, and your abilities will you succeed. Try hard enough, for long enough, without falter and you will succeed. You will achieve greatness. It makes for great copy. However, there is also a flip-side to that argument that doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result is the definition of madness. Do I really want to spend my remaining years churning out novel after novel in that hope that one will “be the one”?
Well, to answer that one for myself, let me add some advice of my own, garnered from my own actual experience. It is advice I have not seen posted anywhere else.
Firstly, what few will tell you, is that you can do everything that seems right to try and get published, follow all the how-to guides of writing and submitting and PR, putting in all the hard work, and still you could just have no luck. That’s right – luck. There are no “rules” on how to rig that particular game that pervades all of life. Many successful writers may just have had the right story at the right time to the right agent. Or perhaps they just had the right contacts in life that gave them the advantage of skipping the queue. It’s not sour grapes on my part, honestly. It is truth. I once had the right book to the right agent … at precisely the wrong time. And there’s nothing I could have done about that. It was just bad luck. That is life.
So try again – maybe I will be more lucky next time. There’s the rub. It would take another 6 to 12 months to create a new novel. That would be another year of my life given over to this flippant quest. Is it worth it? No. Because another thing I learned along the way is that a first novel would probably earn an eye-wateringly small amount of money. It would take another couple of novels after that to approach minimum wage, and even that isn’t guaranteed because the publishing industry is so awash with competition and the ubiquitous commoditising race-to-the-bottom price mentality that is slowly destroying every creative industry in the world that I can’t see myself jumping on-board.
My writing began as a hobby. To continue to enjoy it, I will keep it a hobby. If some serendipitous luck strikes me because of something I write, great! But I won’t spend the rest of my life standing in a field holding a lightning rod.
I have learned that there is a deeper aspect to my writing, that just doesn’t fit well with commercial fiction, so I’ve started a different blog solely to address that part of me – the most rewarding part. In time, it might make a good eBook itself.
I learned that I am better at dialogue than prose and that my writing is very visual. Those facts combine to confirm something I have always suspected – that I would be a better screenwriter than novelist anyway. I’m writing a screenplay and enjoying it immensely.
One day I might put down the first words of one of the other books sitting in my head – the next installment of the Geniform legacy, or the prescient cybercrime novel Zero Day, or the as yet untitled YA book about the alternative dimension. So many ideas in just one head; and so little time gifted to it.
So I’ve started on a new journey. For now, writing a script is refreshingly quick, and burns up less time to get to the next roll of the dice. When it’s done, I’ll sent it around to a few places. I might be lucky; I might not. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m just writing out of pure enjoyment and curiosity … you know … just to see what it’s like.
(*) I am sad to see the Litopia Writers’ Colony is now defunct. It was a unique and very helpful resource for budding authors.
Entry Filed under: Publishing Industry