Only 1% is publishable?

Way too high, I'd say, at the risk of agreeing with JAR.

One of my very first posts. Turns out way back in 2005 I was estimating 0.03% was going to end up published.

This might be unrealistic of me, but I know enough writers who are agented and/or published that it seems pretty viable to be published if you write well and are professional and tenacious. I can believe there's enough poorly written work circulating out there that just isn't publishable, from writers who aren't going to spend the time to truly learn their craft, and enough unmarketable stories, to completely skew the statistics and make publishing look like this Big Hopeless Dream when really, it isn't.

Obviously, I'm not there yet myself, so maybe I'll feel differently in a few years.

And there are 'writers' (inverted commas intentional) who give up after three or four rejections because they're too precious to listen to the responses and work to improve. What do these guys know? They're dinosaurs!

Conversely, there are also people who are too chickenshit to sub to agents because they're scared of rejection and the need to improve.

But, meh. More room for me.

Were those rejections all for the same book, though?

For the record I had 60-something rejections for three books spread over a few years. I laughed at people who got butthurt over two or three knockbacks for one book.

I rewrote one book from the bottom up and sold it, am in the process of rewriting another and the third? I'll probably salvage some characters and scenes.

In my case, I cringe when I think of how bad those books were. My God; I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Enthusiasm? Oh boy, I had the stuff coming out of my ears. Talent? You could pour what I had into a thimble and still have room to park a bus.

callalily61 said:

scarlet, I hear ya. My first book? And I queried it. My first query letter?

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Ha! Same here.

I opened that first book file up the other night. I read the first few pages and cringed.

Querying any of my first six books (and seventh until I rewrote the hell out of it) was a waste of my time not to mention the time of the agents and publishers I contacted.

It took twenty rejections until I realised book #1 wasn't good enough to get published. Yeah, I know that's just a drop in the ocean. I got personalised rejections, several partial requests and two full requests.

My next book is so much better. It's almost finished, and I do have high hopes for it. But if I do run out of agents to sub to, then I will go back to the drawing board and write an even better novel.

I've seen the slush pile, and Scarlett is correct the majority is shite.

callalily61 said:

scarlet, I hear ya. My first book? And I queried it. My first query letter?

Fortunately, I learned from my mistakes.

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I queried my first book too. And I will lay a steak dinner and bottle of champagne on my query letter being even more cringeworthy.

But if I can improve anyone can if they want it badly enough.

That very first trunk novel was the one I sold a few weeks back. Very, very heavily rewritten, though. Some characters exited, other new ones were brought in, the setting changed, the MC got a new name, but still the seeds were there and I like to say "One trunk novel down, two to go."

This thread is discouraging and encouraging at the same time. It's making me dizzy.

If only 1% of the slush pile is publishable, it's because 99% is shite.

The answer's simple - don't write shite.

I queried my not-up-to-par first novel with a much better query letter. I should have been clued in by the fact that my novel was ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND words, but not so much (Actually, you can see my query letter- which only makes me cringe a little - here). Re-reading it almost makes me want to pull that novel back out of the trunk. Almost.

I'm taking this one more slowly, and it's actually an appropriate length, so we'll see... I hope I'm not still deluded like I was the first time around.

scarletpeaches said:

don't write shite.

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Which is, I think, the same thing I said here:

Terie said:

If you write a publishable book, your chances of selling it are extremely high, and if you write an unpublishable book, your chances of selling it are zilch.

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Except in fewer words and much more pithily phrased.

AlwaysJuly said:

I queried my not-up-to-par first novel with a much better query letter. I should have been clued in by the fact that my novel was ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND words, but not so much (Actually, you can see my query letter- which only makes me cringe a little - here). Re-reading it almost makes me want to pull that novel back out of the trunk. Almost.

I'm taking this one more slowly, and it's actually an appropriate length, so we'll see... I hope I'm not still deluded like I was the first time around.

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I actually liked it. If it landed on my desk I would ask to see more.

LMILLER111 said:

It always surprises me how many people want to write, think they can write, actually sit down for hours on end and write, and are so blind to the fact that they really, really suck. It would seem that if you read books, you should be able to tell if your writing is comparable. I know people who have received 200+ rejections from agents for books and they keep going. I mean, give up already! Not everyone can be a professional writer.

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I had over 200 rejections for my novel when dreamy agent read it overnight and offered the next day. Glad I didn't give up.

Got a belated rejection letter today, which said, "You certainly can write, and this is intelligent and imaginative, but I'm just not madly in love with it, which an agent needs to be in this climate."

Good book, not madly in love is as valid a rejection reason as This sucks. Not all those who wander are lost.

Of the 1% that is publishable, the quality of the writing is still subjective...

thothguard51 said:

Of the 1% that is publishable, the quality of the writing is still subjective...

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Makes me think of a book I read last year which was so poorly written, I wondered if it was supposed to be a joke. Based on it being from a respected horror publisher, I don't think it was. But on the plus side, I figure if such a terrible book got published, so can I.

seun said:

Makes me think of a book I read last year which was so poorly written, I wondered if it was supposed to be a joke. Based on it being from a respected horror publisher, I don't think it was. But on the plus side, I figure if such a terrible book got published, so can I.

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I really, really try not to think like this because it leads to writing 'just enough' to get by. "This is good enough." "This will do."

But there have been many books that have made me wonder, "How the hell...?"

Don't get me wrong. I'm always trying to do my best. Good enough doesn't come into it. The best I can do is what it's all about.

And thinking about it,, I should have said if such a terrible book got published, so can I if a publisher offers me a contract which isn't crap.

Here's my take on why these stats are probably not too far off the mark .....

* 87% amateurish and unpublishable

* 3% targets the market well but is too poorly written or researched to
be fixed --Somebody came up with a damned original idea for a story in an under-explored genre, yet they simply did not possess the skill to execute it well.

* 4% pretty good with virtually no market --Consider the novel from the movie Sideways.

* 4% pretty good with a saturated market --This likely represents only the really good specimens from the endless parades of Twilight-wannabees, Harry Potter-wannabees, Lord of the Rings wannabees, National Treasure/DaVinci Code-wannabees, the really really good zombie stuff, and the really really good urban fantasies. Some of these are probably quite exceptional, but there's just too darned many of them already.

* 1% good potential if revised and polished

* 1% with excellent potential that is ready for submission -- Okay, maybe more like 0.25%, but I suspect that these DO exist.