I *know* there is something I have to do on February 24th, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it is. I feel like it’s a party or some other event. Does this ever happen to you? If one of the readers of this blog knows what it is, can they please contact me? It’s driving me crazy.
Regular readers of the blog know how annoyed I get by the whole “statistics” method of career planning. My go-to quote on the issue is care of Tor editor Theresa Nielsen Hayden:
Aspiring writers are forever asking what the odds are that they’ll [sell their books]. That’s the wrong question. If you’ve written a book that surprises, amuses, and delights the readers, and gives them a strong incentive to read all the pages in order, your chances are very good indeed. If not, your chances are poor.
A few days ago, agent Kristin Nelson (who is not blogging anonymously, despite what certain newspaper articles recently insinuated) posted about how many authors don’t sell their first manuscripts. More often than not, they don’t sell until somewhere around their fourth manuscript. (Or, you know, their 36th.) The point of the post is, as she said, “you shouldn’t give up or lose faith if novel number one doesn’t go anywhere.” But a bunch of folks in the comments thread took it to mean (and I quote): “So, in other words, it’s not even worth my time (or anyone’s time) to even bother shopping novels #1 through #3 around. Just write them and move on and forget ever trying to shop them.”
Um, no. What she said (and again, I quote) is: “you shouldn’t give up or lose faith if novel number one doesn’t go anywhere.” Yes. I’m repeating it, as many times as it takes for it to sink in. I can tell you that it was most definitely worth my time to not only write and revise, but to shop all four of the novels I wrote before selling my first contract, and not only for the obvious reason that they may have sold. Quickly:
MS #1: Formed a relationship with an editor who invited me to submit to her again.
MS #2: Further cemented relationship with that editor, gave me experience handling editor-requested revisions.
MS #3: More editor-requested revisions, in-depth work with an editor, taught me the value of marketability in pitching, helped me hone my query-writing skills, showed the agent I’d later sign with my writing chops, garnered request to submit to said agent again
MS #4: Formed relationships with several agents, some of whom eventually passed but invited me to submit again, taught me more about synopsis and pitch-writing.
And that’s not even including the rejection I received for a proposal where the editor kindly suggested that though the writing was great, maybe I wasn’t exactly a romance writer. Brilliant woman, she.
So it was worth my time, and I learned a lot from it, and I don’t think I would have known exactly what to do when I had written the proposal for Secret Society Girl if I hadn’t formed these contacts. Because I’d dealt with certain agents before, I felt comfortable writing them and saying, “Hi, remember when I pitched you that other project and you said if I ever had anything else, to contact you right away? Well, here it is.” It’s all worth it. It all teaches you something. And, when you publish, it makes no difference whether it was your first manuscript or your fiftieth. It’s still your debut.
So! No more useless stats. Your first book is no one else’s. Neither is your fourth. Neither is your agent, or your publisher, or your enormous film deal with Steven Spielberg. Write your books.
And if you don’t believe me, because you’re one of those lovely people who think all published authors are out there lying to you* (or you just don’t believe me because it’s hard to let this go, and as I say here, there’s a good chance you feel that way and I sure as heck did), my friend Erica just posted a fabulous pep talk on the subject as well. Everyone should go read her blog post right this very minute, because it’s brilliant and inspiring, and Erica (a Miss Snark Crapometer Winner) is not going to be unpublished for long.
Plus, she’s really cute.
Okay, let’s give away some books. I thought I was going to have special news today, but I don’t, so blah. Maybe next week? And, in the meantime, the winner of this week’s giveaway is…
HEATHER HARPER
Wow, Heather. You tend to get lucky on my blog. Or are you just playing the stats? 
Have a great weekend, everyone!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:10 am
Thanks for this, Diana. Thanks very much.
It’s hard not to get discouraged sometimes, but if writers in general could drop this stupid “competition” act and realize that we’re all commiserators at least…I think, as a subspecies, we’d probably be happier.
Congratulations, Heather!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 am
Yay me!
And I don’t play the stats because I’m allergic to anything involving arithmetic.
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Diana,
I haven’t commented in while, but just had to write to say I think this might be one of your best posts yet.
And congrats Heather!
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 am
Congrats Heather!
What a horrible allergy.
I’m allergic to PORN.
I can’t describe it, but I nose it when I sneeze it.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am
Good stuff, Diana. It’s so important to hear when you’re frustrated and ready to give up.
Not that I’m ready to give up, but you know…
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I’ve posted about this topic often and think it’s important to show struggling new writers that yes, some do publish quickly– but there are those of us who are uh, slower learners.
I wrote six books, got discouraged and stopped. And I received very similar feedback from editors about being good, but maybe not as a romance writer.(g) I jumped back on this path recently and have since sold short fiction and have another, better book length project nearly complete.
I really believe some people need that extra time to grow thicker skinned… and to grow in strength as writers. And no, that doesn’t mean a writer shouldn’t work hard on that first, second or third project and submit. You never know, you might be ready! You won’t know it unless you try.
Yes, I do wish I hadn’t grown discouraged and yes, I do think about where I’d be now if I hadn’t… but I love where I am now, love my CP and have all kinds of hope for my career now. That time off taught me how badly I did want it. And to me, that’s the key. Heather posted a great quote the other day on her blog about interest vs commitment that’s along these lines. Uh, sorry this is so long. It’s a subject close to my heart–as you can tell. heh heh
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Congrats, Heather!!
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Congratulations, Heather!
Diana, thanks for saying what you did here. I REALLY cringe at the whole statistics thing, because it seems like some beginning writers use it to discourage themselves, without even realizing they’re doing that. They think they’re just trying to figure out all aspects of the business, but they’re really building a case against themselves.
I learn how to write novels every time I write a novel. I just finished my eighth one. Have I sold all eight? No. But I agree with you a hundred percent that writing those first several and trying to sell them was a vital part of my career. I made contacts, I learned how to pitch, but more important, I learned how to write novels.
Because I wrote and finished one novel, I had the confidence to know if I began another novel I could finish that one, too. And although the first novel took EIGHT YEARS (don’t get me started on the whirlpool effect of endless rewrites), I made an experiment of the next one to see how fast I could write it. Five weeks. Next one, six weeks. So those two books–which haven’t sold–taught me I could write quickly and yes, could finish novels.
Statistics don’t answer anything here. If you walk into Barnes & Noble, you will see how much room there is in the world for all of our stories. We aren’t competition for each other, we’re peers. I don’t tell the same story Diana or Heather or Miri or anyone will tell. And that’s wonderful. Because I already know my stories–I want to read everyone else’s.
Don’t mean to go on and on about this, but I’m just so glad that you’ve pointed out that first novels can sell or not sell, and they still need to be written. We still need to mail our work out into the world, we still need to talk to agents and editors, and every time any of us does anything like that for our careers, we become better writers and business people.
So don’t hide behind statistics. You’ll be published because you kept going and because you took yourself seriously and believed in your talent and skill.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:54 am
Ditto what Diana said!
Although I’m unpubbed (*scary music* For Now!) I don’t in the least regret shopping my first novels.
Book 1 taught me a ton about both pitching and querying. Book 2 got me a “not this but maybe something else?” which was as good a rejection as I could hope for. Jury’s still out on book 3, and book 4’s *almost* done.
My writing AND my pitching/ querying/ synopsising (yes I made that up) get better with every story. I wouldn’t want to cheat myself by skipping any of it! =)
P.S. You’re cute, too! =)