This thought comes from a rep comment I received. Originally I was going to respond to just the person, but I realized that this situation comes up quite a bit, and many people on this forum swing one way or the other, and its a bit confusing to the other half. And a fair amount of people that don't think which way they want to swing.
Are you looking for a career in writing or are you looking to just sell the book you're writing? The answer to this question effects how you view your present WIP and the querying process. Because the long-term goals are very, very different.
Let me start with some personal history. I've written quite a few magazine articles and even had a regular column for a while. It was for a specialized subject and and a limited range of magazines, but I was being paid enough to take my wife out to a really good restaurant and have change left over.
Then I had a nonfiction book published by a small publisher. No advance, but the checks every six months paid for quite a few visits to restaurants, and not McDonalds, either. Not enough to buy a car, but hey, not a big market, either. The publisher and I discussed doing a rewrite a few years ago, but we looked at the economy in the horse industry and decided it wasn't likely to fly.
I decided to see whether I could go out to some more restaurants with fiction writing. Wrote STALLED DREAMS and got no where fast. Wrote THE NEXT STEP and got an agent and auditions with the big six publishers. Universally rejected, and mostly because the lack of action didn't seem to be marketable.
Wrote THE PICTURE and no one could decide whether it was YA or adult, but it didn't work as undecided. Wrote MORTON'S FORK which has been read and rejected by several agents. I've still got some agents to try, but it's not looking encouraging. Comments are that it's too quiet a novel to succeed in today's market. Now if this was ten years ago!
Each story has been a learning experience. Each story has been dropped without looking back as the lesson has sunk in that each has had to teach me. And the reason for that is because I'm looking at the career, not the book. Each book is forming a part of the whole, and may be necessary to get to the whole, but it's not essential that each get published.
Meanwhile, other writers here are slogging the same story, year after year after year. Now for the memoir writers this makes sense, but for novel writers, you have to ask. Are they interested in only that one book or are they interested in the career. Because if you're interested in a career, you understand that dumping a book because it's reached its limit is what needs to happen to advance your career.
Meanwhile, I'm taking what the carcasses of my old books have told me that I'm doing right, and trying to fix what I'm doing wrong. I hope the next book I write succeeds, but if it doesn't, I'm sure it will help me advance towards my overall goals.
So, are you interested in the book or the career? You don't have to answer out loud, but the more you answer this to yourself, the more your stress levels will be appropriate to the situation.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
Are you looking for a career in writing or are you looking to just sell the book you're writing? The answer to this question effects how you view your present WIP and the querying process. Because the long-term goals are very, very different.
Let me start with some personal history. I've written quite a few magazine articles and even had a regular column for a while. It was for a specialized subject and and a limited range of magazines, but I was being paid enough to take my wife out to a really good restaurant and have change left over.
Then I had a nonfiction book published by a small publisher. No advance, but the checks every six months paid for quite a few visits to restaurants, and not McDonalds, either. Not enough to buy a car, but hey, not a big market, either. The publisher and I discussed doing a rewrite a few years ago, but we looked at the economy in the horse industry and decided it wasn't likely to fly.
I decided to see whether I could go out to some more restaurants with fiction writing. Wrote STALLED DREAMS and got no where fast. Wrote THE NEXT STEP and got an agent and auditions with the big six publishers. Universally rejected, and mostly because the lack of action didn't seem to be marketable.
Wrote THE PICTURE and no one could decide whether it was YA or adult, but it didn't work as undecided. Wrote MORTON'S FORK which has been read and rejected by several agents. I've still got some agents to try, but it's not looking encouraging. Comments are that it's too quiet a novel to succeed in today's market. Now if this was ten years ago!
Each story has been a learning experience. Each story has been dropped without looking back as the lesson has sunk in that each has had to teach me. And the reason for that is because I'm looking at the career, not the book. Each book is forming a part of the whole, and may be necessary to get to the whole, but it's not essential that each get published.
Meanwhile, other writers here are slogging the same story, year after year after year. Now for the memoir writers this makes sense, but for novel writers, you have to ask. Are they interested in only that one book or are they interested in the career. Because if you're interested in a career, you understand that dumping a book because it's reached its limit is what needs to happen to advance your career.
Meanwhile, I'm taking what the carcasses of my old books have told me that I'm doing right, and trying to fix what I'm doing wrong. I hope the next book I write succeeds, but if it doesn't, I'm sure it will help me advance towards my overall goals.
So, are you interested in the book or the career? You don't have to answer out loud, but the more you answer this to yourself, the more your stress levels will be appropriate to the situation.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
