Hi Reader,
I’ve got a hot take for you today:
Getting published isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Hear me out.
Book publishing is a passion industry. I have yet to encounter a book professional who doesn’t deeply care about the books they publish and the authors they support. Those who choose a career in books do so because we love it.
But . . . it’s still an industry.
Publishing is a business, like any other. A business where there’s a constant tension between creative ideals and the bottom line.
When you release your story from the safety of your writerly haven and send it into the wilds of publishing, the stakes change.
Agents, editors, publishers, the sales department—the list of interested parties goes on. While they’re generally well-meaning book people who are invested in your success, it’s a big shift from the time when your writing process was all about you and your book.
If you’re self-publishing, you might have fewer stakeholders to please, but you’ll also be running your own business. You’ll be responsible for all the steps that go into bringing a book to market.
And if the dream comes true? If your book breaks out and reaches hundreds of thousands of readers who love it?
Well, on the one hand, you’ll achieve a marker that many authors define as success. But on the other, you’ll now have attention—and pressure—from a crowd of fans eager for your next book.
Here’s what editor Gerald Howard wrote about the perils of achieving authorial success:
“What the showy early success removes is the possibility of a slow, even fitful progress toward artistic maturity, well away from the harsh spotlight and the demands of an impersonal star system. . . . for many writers the most precious gift of all is not a big fat book contract, but the space and time to find their unique style and subject, to learn from an honorable failure, perhaps, without being tossed on the ash heap for it.
“It is certainly impossible for an editor to expect his young author to make the complete spiritual and artistic commitment the creation of a masterpiece demands when he has previously ascribed cultural authority to the system of hype. The masterpiece, almost by definition, is written outside this system.”
So what’s a writer to do? If publishing isn’t all it’s cracked up to, where does that leave you?
It leaves you with the joy of writing and editing now.
It leaves you with the thrill of developing your skills and your stories outside of the public eye.
It leaves you with the beauty of that safe writerly haven.
When I say “writerly haven,” I don’t mean a specific physical place (although it can be that, too). But the heart of it is less tangible.
It’s freedom from pressure, from the expectations and demands of other people.
It’s permission to pursue your interests and ideas, regardless of what publishers or readers think.
It’s safety to practice, to try and fail and try again, without fear of judgment or negative impacts on your career.
It’s the support that comes from sharing your writing and process with only those who will “get it,” who put you as a writer ahead of any sales numbers or publishing deadlines.
If you feel impatient, if you want your book to just be published already so you can move into that next stage of author “success,” I get it. You’re so very not alone.
But my encouragement for you is this:
Relish this stage of your career. Learn to love this pre-publication time, when it’s all about you and your story, and no one is putting pressure on you. Enjoy editing your manuscript at your pace and to your vision and no one else’s.
There’s green grass on the other side. There are a lot of weeds there, too.
So before you rush into publishing, sure that that’s where true creative fulfillment lies, look around for the joy of this stage, too.
As I say to my writers in just about every editing call, when we’ve uncovered a new sticky problem in their story and I’m bouncing in my seat, I’m so eager to see how we’ll solve it:
This is the fun part!
Happy editing,
Alice
P.S. If you’d like the kind of support that comes from inviting a passionate book editor into your writerly haven, I’d love to support you. Click here and tell me about your book »