When Your Baby Becomes A Trunk Novel

[TheWritingRunner]

I already mentioned this somewhere else, but I thought it might be interesting for a general discussion since so many of us have been "here" before.

Today I officially took the novel my agent has been shopping for the last 18 months and dropped it in the "trunk", so to speak. You can read my reasons here:

http://thewritingrunner.wordpress.com

It's always sad when you work on a book for a couple of years and then realize you're reaching the point of diminishing returns with your publication options, but it's part of the business, eh?

What's especially sad about this one, though, is that this book is clearly better in so many ways compared to the more commercial novels I've already sold! :)

And at one point, we had at least two different editors at major publishers who wanted to make offers, but they were vetoed by the marketing department or someone higher up the food chain.

Which just kind of sucks. :)

But all you can do is write the next book and go from there. And who knows when a trunk novel will come in handy down the road, right? :)

-- TWR

[Ken Schneider]

None of my writings are babies. They are work for sale. I like them, I enjoyed them but I'm not going to form some emotional attachment to them.

Write a new book, and go on.

[scarletpeaches]

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

I'm certainly attached to everything I've ever written. Not to the point where I can't see my baby's ugly, but they were all fun while I worked on them.

Some, though, just ain't gonna see the light of day...

[Ken Schneider]

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

I'm certainly attached to everything I've ever written. Not to the point where I can't see my baby's ugly, but they were all fun while I worked on them.

Some, though, just ain't gonna see the light of day...

The emotional attachment is made while writing, am talking about after the book is finished. After the writing is finished I'm treating it as a sales product. The emotional portion is finished.
Anyway, by that time I'm on to another ms and am enjoying a new adventure.

[Stunted]

I still love my trunkie, but, yeah, I'm moving on.

[TheWritingRunner]

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

Absolutely! I guess I just can't churn out "product" like some authors. :)

I try to write something new and different each time, not the 1,000,000th mystery in which the butler did it, or yet another Harry Potter knockoff, or the 10th book in a row that's just like the last 10 I already wrote.

I mean, it's great if you enjoy writing that sort of thing and make a good living -- good for you and congrats! -- but that's just not the type of writing *I* happen to enjoy. If I know where the book is going on page one of the manuscript, so will the reader, and what's the fun in that? Let's try something different this time, eh?

(Of course, if I had written another book like my previous books, then it would have sold like those books did since my publisher was very happy with the returns on their previous investments... so maybe I'm just an idiot! ;) )

It's hard to break into this business, but it's even harder to "change course" once you're known for something. That's why pen names exist.

I certainly have no problem setting this book aside -- I did it many times when I was starting out -- but it's especially disappointing when you had TWO different offers from major publishers evaporate because the marketing department or some executive said "nope" after an editor fell in love with your book and fought for it.

Like I said, that kind of sucks. ;)

-- TWR

[DMarie84]

Yeah, I am trunking my first novel. It wasn't finished--but the problem was I couldn't seem to figure out how to finish it no matter how many times I would try writing different scenarios. Too many pieces didn't fit together. Yes, it was 3 years of effort and it hurt a little, but it was time to put it away. :(

Perhaps someday I'll revisit it. For now I'm working on my new one and hopefully it has a bit more promise to it.

And I'm sorry it didn't work out for you--mine was still in the development stage--I can only imagine how hard it must be to have it put away after being so close.

[Me&BacchusGoIntoABar]

TWR, I'm really very sorry to hear about the trunking. Hopefully you'll be able to resurrect it at another time.

If you're up for it, either here or by PM, I'm curious how you would classify the book and if you could say more about what specifically kept it from being outside the publishers's comfort zones.

[Canotila]

Sort of random, but I don't see writings as equal to babies.

Babies....all you have to do is have sex and 9 months later, poof! There is a baby! You can't stop in the middle and say, "Gee, this baby is really hard to grow right now, I think I'll put it in a drawer for a couple of years and then come back to it", then forget about it forever. No matter what, that baby is coming, no matter how little or how much you prepare for it. Novels are much harder to produce than children.

I see writing as more comparable to a dog. I adore my dog. I spend a lot of time training and socializing him so he can be awesome and go places in public without humiliating me. That is a bit like taking a lot of time and effort to write a story well, something you have an emotional connection to.

Then there is my husband's dog. I also adore that dog, but don't spend as much time working with him. As a consequence, he gets shut away when people come over so they don't get a slobbery cow manure coated face shoved into their laps. We still have him and love him, but because he hasn't had the time put into refinement like the other dog...well, he is a bit embarrassing and only comes out when the in laws visit.

[Straka]

I'm in the process of moving and I found a new use for one of my trunk's WIPs; packing paper.

[Nakhlasmoke]

Ah that sucks, writingrunner.

Maybe you can dredge it up out of the trunk in a year or so, when the market is different?

[SarahMacManus]

Look at it this way, if two, three and four become huge sellers, imagine the delight on your descendents faces when it's "untrunked" and goes to print as an undiscovered work of genius by the late, great...

Yeah, I know, small consolation.

[OpheliaRevived]

KenSchneider's advice might seem jarring, but he's right. Feel passionate about the book as you're creating -- you really can't help that - and then let go. Again, I'm a newb and have never been published, so take it with a grain of salt.

[motormind]

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

Those are, of course, completely unrelated issues.

[scarletpeaches]

No they're not.

[Priene]

They're really, really not.

[scarletpeaches]

Did you just agree with me?

[DeleyanLee]

I've written over 30 novels. I've trunked all of them. One got untrunked when a small press publisher asked for it out of the blue, but other than that, I've always trunked what I've written.

In your case, I think it has more to do with the market than the book. I've talked to other writers who just wrote the book ahead of the market. When the market shifted, they were ready and in the forefront. All the better for you.

Hope the market shifts its way for you.

Sort of random, but I don't see writings as equal to babies.

Babies....all you have to do is have sex and 9 months later, poof! There is a baby! You can't stop in the middle and say, "Gee, this baby is really hard to grow right now, I think I'll put it in a drawer for a couple of years and then come back to it", then forget about it forever. No matter what, that baby is coming, no matter how little or how much you prepare for it. Novels are much harder to produce than children.

I'm another one who doesn't equate writing a novel to having babies, honestly.

While I am emotionally wrapped up in writing my stories, I see it more as a hot torrid affair than raising a baby. At the start, the flames burn hot and passions run high. I'm totally infatuated with the story and what I'm doing with it and would love to share it all with everyone, it's still private and I want to keep it to myself. At some point, the flames start to cool, I start seeing the flaws, I know it needs work, I realize that it can't last forever. The book wraps up. Sometimes I try to keep it going longer, sometimes I'm happy to let it go. Then I move on with my life, with those cherished memories. Occasionally, I revisit those memories, I'll reread the book and smile to myself. I get mad when someone says bad things about something I cared very deeply about, may even still care deeply about. But each book has its time and, at some point, another story will spark my passions and capture me all over again.

I don't want books to be babies. Babies are work and responsibility and far more commitment than I'm willing to give anything that's not human. I'm really happy with my torrid affairs, thanks. ;)

[Charlie Horse]

Ah that sucks, writingrunner.

Maybe you can dredge it up out of the trunk in a year or so, when the market is different?

I agree with that approach. If it was good enough for an agent to champion and two editors to fall in love with, I certainly wouldn't give up on it. When I think of a trunk novel, I think of something that is not written well enough to ever become fully developed into something other people would want to read.

[James81]

Sounds like a fantastic candidate for an ebook. :D

[The Lonely One]

I haven't even bought a trunk yet.

I was thinking of going to Pier One. Maybe they have something on sale.

[lucidzfl]

Someone once asked, if I were in a building that were on fire, and children and books were strewn about, which would I take.

The books.

I hate.

Hate.

HATE

HATE

HATE

HATE

CHILDREN!!!!

[motormind]

No they're not.

A lot of art has been made purely as a way to make money for the creators. That doesn't mean that they won't be enjoyed by the public. And once you have sent a novel out the door, there is not that much you can do about anything anyway, so you'd beter concentrated on the next work.

[cwfgal]

I can relate. I have a novel I finished two years ago that my agent loved as much as I did. But we couldn't find any takers. For now it's trunked. But the one I have coming out in a few days was trunked for a long time, too ... 7 years, in fact. so you just never know.

Beth

[The Lonely One]

A lot of art has been made purely as a way to make money for the creators. That doesn't mean that they won't be enjoyed by the public. And once you have sent a novel out the door, there is not that much you can do about anything anyway, so you'd beter concentrated on the next work.

Of course I'm probably wrong, so keep that in mind.

However,

I think both what you are saying and what SP is saying are equally valid points.

For one, I understand someone who writes for a living. Someone who enjoys the play of fiction but doesn't hold emotional attachments to characters or scenes.

On the other hand, and I am one of these, there is an emotional and/or philosophical connection for some writers during the process of writing. It doesn't mean you can't step back when query time comes, or sale time, or whathaveyou. It just means you're a bleeding artist versus the equally proficient but I'll-keep-my-blood-in-my-veins-thank-you-very-much artists.

Anyway that's my take.

I'll take my response off the air. :)

[OpheliaRevived]

LOL @ Lonely One. Pier One is too pricey, unless you have a multibook deal. For the unpublished author, I would suggest Big Lots.

[DeleyanLee]

LOL @ Lonely One. Pier One is too pricey, unless you have a multibook deal. For the unpublished author, I would suggest Big Lots.

Even cheaper is to go get some pegboard and a couple of 2x4" from the local home improvement store and make your own. When I built mine back in the early 80's, it cost me all of $12--and that's only because I splurged and put wheels on it. ;)

[seun]

I'm sadly getting close to trunking a recent book which I consider one of the best novels I've written. I know it could go through many more rejections before it gets anywhere but I have to ask myself how much of my time I want to dedicate to a book that's going nowhere.

[AJ Clare]

I just dug one out of the trunk after about 15 years. It's terrible, but with a completely new plot, characters and style I think it might just work.

[Wonderlander]

I'm totally emotionally engaged in my books while I write them. However, when they're written, they are potentially commercial works.

I'm prepping a new one for submission to publishers, but as brilliant an opportunity as that is, it hurts my soul to do that and neglect my half-written one, which is where all my psychic energy currently lies.

I agree with the love affair analogy. Each book is an ecstatic passionate engagement, while I'm writing it. Once written, it becomes its own artifact, if that makes sense, with its own independent life.

[Nateskate]

Your situation just doesn't sound right. I don't believe we should roll over and play dead because of the market.

Since you've already published, found an agent, had interest in this novel, it sounds like it just needs some alternative venue. (If it's a finished piece)

I'd try marketing it in India or some other country first. And if it sells there, bring it back home and it will find it's audience.

In fact, I'd never trunk something like this. At the worst, I'd give it away as a free online book, but as a serial, and I'd sell advertising space for when you build a monster fanbase.

Treasure should never be burried. Only junk.

[job]

I have a half dozen trunk novels.
Discarded skins of a growing snake.
Or something.

I'm not 'attached' to any of the writing. There's connection, of course, but it's not warm fuzzies.

I love the characters, who seem very alive to me.

But the writing itself reeks of the frustration and turmoil and bloody damn hard work and dissatisfaction of the later drafts.
I'm glad to kick the writing out the door and not think about it.

I never re-read old work.

So, yes.
Trunk novels.
But no,
not my babies.

Just a general thought --.
If you're making good progress on Manuscript Two the whole time you're submitting Manuscript One,
it really puts rejection in perspective.

[eyeblink]

If a novel is a love-affair, then mine has just suffered a painful break-up and the former object of affection is due to have a major but hopefully life-saving operation.

Meanwhile I'm having it away with another novel right now. How fickle I am.