Monday, July 17, 2006
Never Give Up! says guest blogger Terry Burns
Western author Terry Burns was a recent guest on my radio show, "The World of Publishing," and we started talking about perseverence just in the last minutes of the show... not enough time to get into it in depth. So I've asked Terry to visit here and tell me more. Here's his response:
***
"Expand a little more on what we were talking about at the end of your radio show? I can do that. You asked the one piece of advice that I would give new writers and I responded, "Never Give Up!"
"As a people we've gotten to the point where we want it all, and we want it right now. This same attitude is a real problem in those who are trying to get their first work published. Getting published is like assembling a puzzle, all of the pieces have to be in place or the puzzle can't be completed. There are so many things that have to be there to be successful. We can be at the right place but the wrong time, too early or too late. It could be it isn't formatted properly or meet the submission guidelines. It can be the wrong genre, they just did a book like it, too big or too little, not get in front of the proper person, or our query letter didn't capture their interest and they didn't bother to read further.
"These are just the tip of the iceberg. To get an excellent picture of what can happen to your submission, try going to http://www.caroclarke.com/iamyoureditor.html and read what one editor, Caro Clark has to say about what happens to a manuscript when an editor gets it in their hands. She really tells it like it is.
"The hard news is that 85% of all manuscripts are rejected because all of the puzzle pieces are not there. It probably has nothing to do with the quality of the writing, though that is one of the puzzle pieces, and it surely isn't a personal rejection because they don't know us well enough for it to be personal. Yet too many do take it personal, get their feelings hurt and quit trying.
"If that 85% number is depressing, it's because we're looking at the wrong side of the equation. It also means that we are only up against 15% of the manuscripts being submitted if we are doing it right, formatting correctly, following the submission guidelines and -- most important -- doing the research necessary to insure that we are submitting to the right place, that we are sure the house we have targeted really is in the market for work such as we are submitting.
"Some will disagree with me, but for writers starting out I recommend querying both agents and editors. In a survey of over 600 writers that I did, 87% of them published before they were able to interest an agent. If possible, getting an agent first is highly preferable, but sitting around for years trying to get one without having the writing credentials to interest them has us putting all of our efforts into a 17% chance of success and increases the length of time before we can expect to publish.
"How long is a reasonable amount of time? In the same survey as above the average was six years to publish their first work. Some much earlier, some much longer, but that was the average. Part of this is because we tend to do the process very badly at first and as we are perfecting our craft and writing better, so we are learning from our mistakes, targeting better, and writing better queries. I look at my old queries and proposals and I'm embarrassed.
They deserved to be rejected, and got what they deserved. The odds of finding the right fit where all the pieces are in place is hard enough when we do a good job of targeting and querying, they are impossible when we do it badly.
"As I said on my own blog last week, in a perfect world we'd write a wonderful story and the world would beat a path to our door, pay us an obscene amount of money, and promote our work to the high heavens. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, and although our chances of success are much better of we have a good product to offer, the actual key to first getting published may have more to do with patience and perseverance than it does with the quality of the writing. I mean, all of know some work in print that we wondered how it got there, right? It was the right subject at the right place in front of the right person at exactly the right time.
"We're adults, we know not to expect something for nothing, and we know there really isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The publishing industry rewards those who persevere, who learn from their mistakes, who work to improve their craft and learn how to market their work. We don't want to do it, we want to write our stories and have somebody else take care of the rest of it, but life doesn't work that way even if we have a good agent.
"We have to never give up."
***
Great advice from a super guest, who is definitely Beyond the Elements of Style! Visit Terry's Web site and blog at www.terryburns.net to learn more about the author and his work!
Jeannette Cézanne
customline.com
***
"Expand a little more on what we were talking about at the end of your radio show? I can do that. You asked the one piece of advice that I would give new writers and I responded, "Never Give Up!"
"As a people we've gotten to the point where we want it all, and we want it right now. This same attitude is a real problem in those who are trying to get their first work published. Getting published is like assembling a puzzle, all of the pieces have to be in place or the puzzle can't be completed. There are so many things that have to be there to be successful. We can be at the right place but the wrong time, too early or too late. It could be it isn't formatted properly or meet the submission guidelines. It can be the wrong genre, they just did a book like it, too big or too little, not get in front of the proper person, or our query letter didn't capture their interest and they didn't bother to read further.
"These are just the tip of the iceberg. To get an excellent picture of what can happen to your submission, try going to http://www.caroclarke.com/iamyoureditor.html and read what one editor, Caro Clark has to say about what happens to a manuscript when an editor gets it in their hands. She really tells it like it is.
"The hard news is that 85% of all manuscripts are rejected because all of the puzzle pieces are not there. It probably has nothing to do with the quality of the writing, though that is one of the puzzle pieces, and it surely isn't a personal rejection because they don't know us well enough for it to be personal. Yet too many do take it personal, get their feelings hurt and quit trying.
"If that 85% number is depressing, it's because we're looking at the wrong side of the equation. It also means that we are only up against 15% of the manuscripts being submitted if we are doing it right, formatting correctly, following the submission guidelines and -- most important -- doing the research necessary to insure that we are submitting to the right place, that we are sure the house we have targeted really is in the market for work such as we are submitting.
"Some will disagree with me, but for writers starting out I recommend querying both agents and editors. In a survey of over 600 writers that I did, 87% of them published before they were able to interest an agent. If possible, getting an agent first is highly preferable, but sitting around for years trying to get one without having the writing credentials to interest them has us putting all of our efforts into a 17% chance of success and increases the length of time before we can expect to publish.
"How long is a reasonable amount of time? In the same survey as above the average was six years to publish their first work. Some much earlier, some much longer, but that was the average. Part of this is because we tend to do the process very badly at first and as we are perfecting our craft and writing better, so we are learning from our mistakes, targeting better, and writing better queries. I look at my old queries and proposals and I'm embarrassed.
They deserved to be rejected, and got what they deserved. The odds of finding the right fit where all the pieces are in place is hard enough when we do a good job of targeting and querying, they are impossible when we do it badly.
"As I said on my own blog last week, in a perfect world we'd write a wonderful story and the world would beat a path to our door, pay us an obscene amount of money, and promote our work to the high heavens. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, and although our chances of success are much better of we have a good product to offer, the actual key to first getting published may have more to do with patience and perseverance than it does with the quality of the writing. I mean, all of know some work in print that we wondered how it got there, right? It was the right subject at the right place in front of the right person at exactly the right time.
"We're adults, we know not to expect something for nothing, and we know there really isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The publishing industry rewards those who persevere, who learn from their mistakes, who work to improve their craft and learn how to market their work. We don't want to do it, we want to write our stories and have somebody else take care of the rest of it, but life doesn't work that way even if we have a good agent.
"We have to never give up."
***
Great advice from a super guest, who is definitely Beyond the Elements of Style! Visit Terry's Web site and blog at www.terryburns.net to learn more about the author and his work!
Jeannette Cézanne
customline.com
