Out of your control...

[maestrowork]

Someone said much of publishing and book sales are out of a writer's control. More or less: write a good book, and the rest just happens.

My question for my fellow published authors: What exactly is under our control? And what's not?

(There are always exceptions, of course)

Obviously, things under our control:
1. the story, characters, the way we write...
2. our bylines, where to send the check ;)
3. contract and terms -- at least to some extent, how you negotiate it
4. some promotional and publicity stuff like what you do at book signings and what you say on radio and TV interviews...
5. write a better book and get that published, too...

Now what about the things we can't control:
1. sales number -- as someone said, much of how your books sell has to do with word of mouth, and that's something the writer has absolutely no control over (except writing a darn good book so the word of mouth could be good...)
2. editing process -- usually the editor drives the process; the writer goes along the ride
3. other parts of the publishing process (cover designs, title selection, layout, production, publication, distribution, how the stores shelve or sell your books, etc. etc. etc.) Usually the writer just sits on the sideline, watching helplessly....
4. if you're lucky enough to get a movie deal: how it's adapted and made into a film... etc, etc.

Anything else?

Is it fair to say that once the book is written and edited and galleys are approved, it's pretty much out of our hands? That we should just sit back and see how everything unfolds, show up at occasional signings and interviews, and hope that "if you build it, they will come"?

[Sailor Kenshin]

You really have to go out and slog the book. Radio, TV interviews. Live readings. Conferences. Everything you can possibly think of to boost your sales.

And sometimes you just have to go medieval on an editor.

[Jamesaritchie]

Yes, once the book is published, it's pretty much out of our control. Either it's a book the public wants, or it isn't. If it is, word of mouth will always be the biggest reason it sells. If it isn't, all the marketing and promotion in the word will only wear you out.

[spacejock]

About the editing process being out of our hands: I can only report on my own experience, and we haven't got to line edits yet so I might still change my opinion...

What happened was that the editor posted me a copy of the MS which she'd annotated during her reading, and about 14 pages of hand-written notes, most of which were for her own use, e.g. noting plot points and summarising scenes. They also included pointers to weaker parts of the book, which were mainly to do with the motivations driving characters other than the lead. In other words, the reasons the 'bad guys' were doing things to frustrate the lead weren't always good enough.

My editor suggested a few things, but having pointed out the issues she was more than happy to leave the details to me. I never felt like my novel was being steamrollered into someone else's vision of the perfect book, and I enjoyed the process a lot because of the freedom.

As I said, that's just my experience of the editing process. I'm sure there are horror stories, and I may have some to share when the line edit is in progress. In fact, you might want to add 'copy editing' to your list, right after editing...

[maestrowork]

I guess, with regard to editing, I didn't mean to say the writer loses all control. Much of the writing still belongs to the writer, and the editor is not going to steamroll it to someone else's style (the editor might make suggestions), or turn the story into something else. What I mean is, the editor is the one driving and pushing the writer to make the ms better: sentence structures, plot development, characters, etc. and they must come to a resolve that is satisfactory to both parties. Also, there are publisher's guidelines to follow, for example, that the writer might just have to oblige. It's still a collaborative process, but it's a process that the editor is, if not the driver, the navigator -- telling the writer where the car should go.

As for marketing and promotion, that's where opinions diverge. Some people say it's very important and you must maximize your effort. Some people say it's pretty much out of your control.

[Zane Curtis]

I recently waded through the entire Publish America thread on the Bewares board. That cured me of the urge to organise my own publicity. If you have no marketing experience and little knowledge of how the book trade actually works, you shouldn't try to sell your own books to the general public -- unless you really enjoy pathos.

There's nothing more annoying than meeting people who constantly try to sell you their wares (http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2005/02/propaganda.html). You start to think to yourself, "If they're that desperate to offload their crap onto you, it can't be selling itself on its own merits."

[Fractured_Chaos]

Zane, here's a question, then...

How do you make your book stand out of the mass of every other book being published?