Splendid post. Thanks for the pointer towards Lucy's newsletter, Suw. Ross and I will need all the help we can get with publishing our thriller in 2024. All the best for your publishing efforts.
Thanks, Caroline! I'm looking forward to seeing your thriller next year and have no doubt you'll smash it out of the park. If you need a beta reader, let me know!
It's a lot like having children. You ask why noone told you what it would be like. Actually, on some things they did, you just didn't listen quite enough.
On debut author preparation in traditional publishing, my experience was that many things are not spelled out enough, and that authors are complicit in this through their lifetime hopes coming to pass. I see now gentle comments that this hope and that decision were unlikely to be satisfied. Noone wants to burst that 'high' which is definitely a plus, but I am not sure that the balance is right. I have taken to telling authors that 'whether the book succeeds or fails is generally not down to your own launch and publicity activity.'
Yes, I agree that there are definitely multiple aspects to this problem, and that some authors really prefer to keep their eyes and ears shut because they just don't want to hear about all the hard work they're going to have to put in, nor that their dreams of success are unlikely to come true. Authors do need to think and behave professionally. If you want this to be a career, treat it as one. And if you don't know what professional behaviour looks like, see a therapist.
But I don't think that agents and publishers help. The whole system is set up on foundations of amateurism. Being an author isn't a job, it's a vocation, and frankly the same is true of agents and lots of people in publishing. With that vocational attitude and identity comes all sorts of problems that are exacerbated by the overall lack of training and support. In short, the whole thing's a mess.
Splendid post. Thanks for the pointer towards Lucy's newsletter, Suw. Ross and I will need all the help we can get with publishing our thriller in 2024. All the best for your publishing efforts.
Thanks, Caroline! I'm looking forward to seeing your thriller next year and have no doubt you'll smash it out of the park. If you need a beta reader, let me know!
I may well take you up on that, Suw!
Please do! You know where I am!
It's a lot like having children. You ask why noone told you what it would be like. Actually, on some things they did, you just didn't listen quite enough.
Don't have kids, but it's definitely the same with kittens.
On debut author preparation in traditional publishing, my experience was that many things are not spelled out enough, and that authors are complicit in this through their lifetime hopes coming to pass. I see now gentle comments that this hope and that decision were unlikely to be satisfied. Noone wants to burst that 'high' which is definitely a plus, but I am not sure that the balance is right. I have taken to telling authors that 'whether the book succeeds or fails is generally not down to your own launch and publicity activity.'
Yes, I agree that there are definitely multiple aspects to this problem, and that some authors really prefer to keep their eyes and ears shut because they just don't want to hear about all the hard work they're going to have to put in, nor that their dreams of success are unlikely to come true. Authors do need to think and behave professionally. If you want this to be a career, treat it as one. And if you don't know what professional behaviour looks like, see a therapist.
But I don't think that agents and publishers help. The whole system is set up on foundations of amateurism. Being an author isn't a job, it's a vocation, and frankly the same is true of agents and lots of people in publishing. With that vocational attitude and identity comes all sorts of problems that are exacerbated by the overall lack of training and support. In short, the whole thing's a mess.
Yup