Kay Kenyon on "Publishing Jitters"

[deborahjross]

I love Kay's down-to-earth perspective.

Amidst all these considerations, I have just one sure prediction for you. You will do better in this transition age if you manage, despite all the uncertainty, to write great stories.

If your novel isn’t salvageable, start anew. Never consider your time spent on a failed novel lost. It may feel like a divorce, like the death of a pet, but it’s not that bad. It will toughen you. It will teach you your weaknesses as a writer so that you can improve. Putting a weak novel in the trunk may save your career from a painful detour.

Moving toward stronger stories should be a writer’s main trajectory. And, the good news is that fresh, powerful stories have a better chance than ever of selling.

So with great relief, we can let go of publishing angst, the numbers game, and the blog debates and get back to what we presumably do best. Write. Tell extraordinary tales. And tell them well and frequentl

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I wish I believed I could do what she advises in that last paragraph... But it's a good article: thank you.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I think that none of us can be truly objective about our work. We love it and we hate it, and that's the way it should be. If we don't have spasms of doubt, it probably means we aren't taking risks.

For me, the key is whether, at some point or all the time, I'm enraptured with the story I'm telling. Is the inside of it, the heart of it, the coolest thing ever? (And if not, why am I wasting my time on it?)

The transformation of that coolness into prose is another matter entirely. If we're paying attention, if we keep pushing ourselves, then we'll grow and stretch and improve. At least, I like to think so, even though from time to time we may fall flat on our faces.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That's a very sensible way of looking at it. Thank you.

[robinbailey.livejournal.com]

In the Age of Ten Thousand Publishers, and with self-publishing and POD so common, it's hard to convince new writers that sometimes their work really is better "in the trunk." They look at you in horror.

But I've still got two file cabinet drawers of failed stories or pieces of stories that will never see the light of day.