A Long Post Full Of Shop Talk From Michael's Brain

[mmerriam]

Over on my Facebook, I noted that I think Dark Water Blues is both the best and worst thing I have ever written. It is a vexing thing, though not necessarily a bad thing. I've been doing a clean-up pass before I start sending it out to readers, and there are plenty of moment where I read what I've written and go, "Huh, I really do seem to be improving." Sadly, there are still too many moments of, "Oh my god, this is such crap!"

Still, if looked at objectively, I seem to moving in the right direction. The problems with Dark Water Blues are different from the problems I had with Last Car to Annwn Station, which were much different from the problems I had with Old Blood's Fate. For the most part, I find myself not making the same mistakes from novel to novel, which I consider a good thing. It means some of the things I'm learning as a writer are taking root. Maybe I'll learn enough to write something sellable. Eventually.



Speaking of sellable novels, I do have some thoughts on the publishing industry's "Black Wednesday" situation. Mostly of these thoughts boil down to: Hunker down and ride it out. These things are cyclical, and while the publishing industry is going through a shake-down phase right now, engaging in wholesale slash-n-burn of employees, titles, and imprints, it seems to me that it will swing back up sooner or later.

What it means for someone like me is: I suspect it will be considerably harder for me to sell a first novel to a major publisher in the current climate. Bookstores are going to want to play it extra-conservative (more so than they typically do) and will be only interested in stocking authors their computers think will sell. If you are just breaking in or are a midlister, these are going to be tough times. I think the bookstores and publishers (especially the accountants who work for both) being conservative and only wanting to publish authors they consider a "sure thing" will handcuff editors searching for new talent. It’s nothing evil or malicious: it's just business.

On the other hand, I think internet retailers like Amazon (despite their POD power grab) will offer a refuge for small and independent presses to keep some of those midlisters (mostly ones with solid and loyal followings) afloat and maybe introduce new talent. (ETA: dmbaird explains in the comments why this won't work. Go read it.) If the small presses can manage to maintain lines of credit and keep their capitol--be it low--flowing, they can be in strong position to carry publishing forward with less staff, lower overhead, less warehousing, and judicious use of print-on-demand technology.

The negative to that is: It means even less money for the author than there is now. Some established writers may have to make a choice: Go out of print with the big publishers and risk losing name recognition, but keep writing and--when the upswing happens--have three novels ready to put in the pipeline, or potentially stay in print with a small press, but work for far less money. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes down.

Another thing I'm starting to see: More and more genre publishers not accepting unsolicited submissions and only wanting submissions from agents. Oh, Baen, DAW, and Tor still take unsolicited submissions, but there is movement away from accepting submissions from "over the transom" as it were. Ace, Bantam Spectra, Del Rey, Eos, Nightshade, Orbit, Roc, and St. Martin's Press are part of this group, and you have to wonder how long before the others follow.

When I first started trying to be a writer, back over 20 years ago, the accepted way to break into SF/F/H novels was to write short fiction, get noticed, make a name, then submit novels. Once you had a publisher, you hired an agent.

In recent times, the advice has been to just write novels, because that's really where the money is at. The "submit your work, get an offer, hire an agent, sign a contract" sequence of events seemed to hold. However, because of the above, writers are finding themselves more often submitting to agents first, who more and more are being used by publishers as slush-readers. The competition for an agent is fierce, and I'm seeing more and more agents saying they prefer the writer to have "an established track record" before they sign them.

So, are we heading back to the "you need to sell short fiction first" days? That would, frankly, suck, because there is zilch money in short fiction. There are also few "pro-paying" markets, and those are the ones (along with a handful of well-regarded small press magazines) the agents look to for credits and talent. In short: If you are trying to break into print, things are going to be hard for the next two or three years, harder than normal.

But I don't intend to let that stop me, and you shouldn't let it stop you either. Nobody said this would be easy. All we, as writers, can control is what we write. So yeah. Write. Write some more. Improve. Reach. Grasp. Fail. Fall. Get up. Dust off. Try again.

Which brings me all the way back around to my own writing! I figured out this morning why I've been having trouble getting words on the page lately. I mean, I'm writing, but I'm hating everything I write. I find myself second guessing and hemming and hawing and spinning my wheels.

I shouldn't be. I have four short pieces and a novel in progress, all of them mostly plotted and sorted out. I should be hammering out first drafts left and right. But I haven't been. Instead, I've been mostly paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. I finally figured out what was causing it.

My stupid brain, of course.

You remember a little while back when I found out I had received an Honorable Mention it the latest YBF&H? Yeah, that's when it started. What happened was, my brain decided (without talking to me about it first) that everything I do from now on has to be up to that standard.

Sure, I want to be the best writer I can, and I want to strive and stretch and grow, and be better, but my Stupid Brain somehow reached the conclusion that everything I write must be up to this new standard even in the first draft! How messed up is that? It's impossible is what it is. I had to sit and remind that part of my brain how that particular story went through four rewrites before I sent it out, and was rejected eight times before it sold. Oh! My silly Brain! Yes, we want that level of quality (and beyond) in every story, but dude, it ain't gonna happen on the first draft! Hopefully, now that we have this sorted out, I can move past it.

Alright, enough blogging. Time to go slop the hogs.

In Peace,
Michael

Comments

[joelarnold.livejournal.com]

Michael -

You're absolutely right to ride it out. Just keep on doing what you're doing, and you'll get there!

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

Question: Is sloping the pigs a reference to feeding porcines on the steep side of a hill? (Nitpickety minds want to know!)

: )

[kmarkhoover.livejournal.com]

Ha, yeah, I saw that on FB, too. Look at it this way. If you have the honesty to look at something and say it needs improving then that's a good thing.

You're right about one thing, though, you have to try and battle wanting everything perfect in the first draft...I have that problem, too, sometimes, but then I realize I'm not that good and a rewrite wouldn't hurt, lol.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Most of the big houses haven't taken unagented subs for years and years and years. Ace/Roc doesn't, btw. Tor and Daw still do, but you mostly get attention if you submit via agent. Dunno about Baen.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

LOL! fixed...

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Ah, last time I had checked Ralan.com, Ace/Roc was still listed as taking unsolicited/unagented subs. I'll fix that in my post.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what Jodi said. The information I have says that only Tor, DAW and Baen still take unagented subs.

And if you do send them unagented subs, you are looking at waiting years and years, and yet more years to hear from them. If you ever hear.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

all I can do is write the best thing I'm capable of writing, right now, then polishing it and sending it on its merry way. Everything else is out of my control.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I've never sold a story that I hadn't rewritten at least twice!

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

And if you do send them unagented subs, you are looking at waiting years and years, and yet more years to hear from them. If you ever hear.

And yet, that is exactly what it looks like I'm going to have to do. Oh well, nothing for it.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Why is that your only option?

I mean, you can send them manuscripts, but you hunt for an agent at the same time. Don't give up on the agent hunt by a long shot.

And I must admit that I was kind of surprised by your comment about agents wanting a proven track record. I never once ran into that while hunting for an agent. The majority of the agents I've seen on panels at cons and talked to don't even know the short fiction market at all. They don't read it, don't look at it and couldn't tell you the name of the majority of the magazines.

It took me 60 queries on one book to land an agent. That isn't counting the 35 rejections on another novel. And it was mostly that I finally learned to write a decent query letter and that my writing reached a publishable level.

Don't give up on agents, Michael. They are the golden ticket in the Wonka bar. They open doors you can't even see.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

My brain FREAKED THE FUCK OUT when "Desires of Houses" got so popular. Freaked. The Fuck. Out.

It's most unpleasant. But my new icon is AWESOME.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not giving up on agents, I'm just running out of reasonable agents to query this particular book to. If I don't land one, I'll have to decided whether to set the book aside and while I try querying with a different one, or submit it to publishers, both large and small.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

That is a great icon!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's going to be hard for unpublished novelists to sell novels in the next few years.

It'll be even harder for the ones who don't finish their books and send them out, though.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Good thing we have finished novels, eh?

[cristalia.livejournal.com]

I find myself...generally somewhat nonplussed about what the economy might mean for people shopping first novels (a group I'll be in once crits come back, I do the last revision, and the queries launch). After all, I do this all on spec anyways. It's not like I've invested in it and have any money to lose here.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

That is an wonderfully healthy attitude to have! I should try to cultivate it for myself (because you know, I'm always perfectly happy to steal healthy attitudes from my friends). I'm going to write the darn things anyway, so if they doesn't sell, while disappointing for me because I write to (among other things) entertain people, it's not like the world is going to end or anything if I can't sell a novel.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Who's ever satisfied with one?

Or eight or nine....

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I know. They're queuing up faster than I can write them. Which, you know, not a bad thing at all.

[ajjones.livejournal.com]

Yep. Too legit to quit.

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

Just an FYI about Amazon.com: they are not really a good option for small presses. Amazon takes a 55% cut of the list price, so unless you're a large publisher or an indivdual willing to self-pub through Kindle, it just isn't econmically feasible.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

55%? Ouch! Well then, I stand corrected on that one. I'm starting to wonder if the small presses are going to have to form some kind of publishing coop.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

or stubborn or silly or something...

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Tyree said SDP would go out of business quickly using Amazon. He and a bunch of other small spec fiction presses sell through an outfit called the genremall. http://www.genremall.com/contents.htm
It's smaller distribution, but the percentage is significantly more livable. :)

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I know about genre mall, the problem is, most fans don't. They need to raise their exposure somehow (how I have no idea. I'm not a businessman).

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

Case in point: the reason why I phrased it; "an outfit called Genremall," was I figured no one's heard of them. ;)
I wish I was a business genius - it's seems like the majority of sucessful authors these days are getting ahead by being fantastic marketers, rather than great writers.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Maybe our partners can be great marketers? Because honestly, I've got my hands full just trying to be a better writer. If I have to learn to be a great huckster as well, I'm probably screwed.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

We do try, and I'm pleased to help how I can, but it's one of many jobs I do, so I don't think I have the time to do it as well as I would like. That's what agents are for, right? You know, if they would.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what agents are for. Which is why I'm working hard to bag one!