Presentation - Don't Sell Your Work

It may be an unusual concept to many writers, especially those new to the field or for some who have been in the field for a long time with no or little success, but you do not sell your work, you allow the work you have written and submitted to an editor, agent or publisher to sell itself. If you must explain what you mean by phrases and ideas, if you must first lay down ground work in order to get the reader to understand what you are delivering then you need to seriously consider reworking the submission, because by the sounds of it, the work isn't ready.

To get the most out of your work you have to develop a critical mind, one that has spent a lot of time deconstructing and reconstructing your work. If you create a story, or a concept for a novel it is wise to consider how many variations of this one story you can create, how many differences you can add and subtract to get to the final conclusion. This goes for lineal and abstract stories, it goes for all genres, all styles and all the weird and wonderful variations in between. No story you write today is set in concrete, at any time you can turn it back into dust and start again.

NEVER, EVER - tell a reader how they are supposed to read your work, or how they are supposed to understand the concepts involved, to do so tells the experienced reader you know very little about the industry and perhaps even very little about what it means to be a writer, period.

Many writers believe they are infallible when it comes to their words, they are the best and only judge of what is good, bad or indifferent. Note, all writers journey through this, but very, very few actually get to the other end - the majority stop when they feel they are the best and only judge and what they write is perfect. It comes down to what you want to be as a writer, do you want to explore and journey through everything with editors, publishers or readers, or do you aim to become a writer that simply tells readers and others what to read and to like it or lump it. This latter position is quite common amongst the writers of today. Is it a good position to be in? Does this mean you need to be in this position to express your confidence in your own work? Interestingly, confidence has nothing to do with sticking to your guns over an editorial decision - though many might argue this.

Confidence in your work comes from the ability to make change and knowing you are not only able to flex and bend with your mind and materials, but you are able to do it at ease and with expert precision. The lazy confidence is the unalterable position, the’ I am right and you are wrong’ position, and many an editor will have more than a few hundred stories about managing writer egos over this very issue.

In the presentation of your work allow it to sell on its own strengths and weaknesses and allow yourself the luxury of flexibility and exploration within the possibilities presented to you via outside sources. If you, the author, display a confidence that even comes close to resembling dogged thinking and rigid positions many editors just won't work with you, they don't have the time or resources to deal with someone who has worked themselves into a position of possible righteousness.

This may all sound rather harsh and extreme but if you the writer can get over yourself, get over the preciousness of your work and attitude, you will become a good writer - if you are able to listen, learn, adjust and accept different views (not all will be right for you, but search the reason behind the view before dismissing it) then you will become a great writer.

How does the writer of this blog treat his own work -
As a novelist I have completely deconstructed novels to make them better than what I thought was already good - I listened to some commentary, and though I disagreed with it, I followed it, as it was made for a reason. The eventual outcome was my novel Uttuku -- I did what I had to, I adjusted and manipulated things to get a different outcome, and thus a superior novel.

All my published work has had some editorial input and I have made those alterations and been confident in my ability to be flexible in this way. People want to work with me, even when they get a story that might have some issues; they know I can make the alteration quickly, efficiently and without complaint. This is perhaps why I have a little more success than some.

The message is, yes, feel confident about your work, feel excited about your writing and your materials, but don't try to sell it through your open enthusiasm, the work must speak for itself at all times.

Right, get back to it, edit and rethink what you wrote yesterday, rework what you think is brilliant and make it better. The day you stop learning and growing as a writer is the day you should just give it away.

Getting the Process Right

There are a lot of websites, free advice services and paid advice services all giving expert advice on how to submit everything from short stories, articles and novels to publishers; some of this is good but most of it is not so helpful.

Here is one key element most seem to go light on; or no mention at all. The publisher, no matter what some tell you or even feel experienced to tell you, do not actually care about you and your book, story or article. This is not a shock to some, and then there are others who will stand up and say this isn’t so -'my publisher is wonderful'. This is where things have to be considered carefully and in context. If you have no publishing record, if you do not already have a book deal in place and are selling copies of your latest novel, you do not actually exist and will not exist until some, if not all of these things are achieved. Is that being overly harsh? perhaps, but ask any first time author in short or long how many professional editors have called them for a chat, or to shoot the breeze? How many new writers have ever rang a publishing house or magazine and actually spoken to an editor? I would say very few, if any.

I am not saying editors don't care about what they do, on the contrary, they care very much, but they do not have to time to nurture someone new and unprofitable through the whole writing/submission/publication process; so you have to learn all of this second hand and even anecdotally.

How important is your work to the editor? It has no importance at all until they see it making money, or in short stories, if they will please the readership, only then does the work take on any real value and the editor starts the first suggestions of even caring who you are. New writers biggest mistakes come when trying to treat editors as long lost friends; this doesn't work very well unless you have a vibrant and engaging personality to back up this approach. Let's face it, writers, in a general sense, are not the most vibrant of people.

Am I making all this sound grim? Have there been some readers already fly of the handle and scream rubbish? They will, and so to will some established writers, who sadly have forgotten how difficult it really can be. There is something to be said to always present the positive, bubbly and encouraging front, but when the rubber hits the road (oh the cliché) most of the bubbly effervescence vanished in a cloud of stinking soot.

Right, prepare yourself with the idea the industry doesn't care. Instead of then going to 'why bother then?' you move to this position and the one all new writers need to move to. 'I will make them care', 'I will make them see me by becoming the best I can.'

Use this one truism of publishing to fire you up to achieve and know, when you do start selling stories, or even novels that you are quite privileged and in that thought never forget how tough it was to make someone care about you, or more to the point to get someone to see there was profit to be made in caring for you and your work.

When you are popular editors love you, do anything for you, call you just to say hi, but until that day comes you do need to slug it out in obscurity. Don't make the mistake of thinking you have made it and no longer need direction; that has brought down more writers than the plague.

So, how do you submit work to publishers and editors, or even literary agents? First you find their guidelines and find out exactly how they want their submissions and you follow these directions to the letter - you are not different and you are not special. If you fail in your first submission then look at your work again, examine areas that could be improved; the writer who simply flood the market with their very first version of a work is ignorant and even deserves to be ignored. The idea is to send something out, work on something new and if rejection comes, which is more likely, you examine the materials and make those improvements. Don't expect and editor to tell you what is wrong, it rarely happens, and if by chance one does make a suggestion then I say you'd better damn well listen up.

There is a great deal of professional talk about how long to wait, when to nudge and publisher or magazine and how to cross examine them to get what you want. Let me remind you of the first thing I mentioned. They don't care about you, and will not care unless there is profit to be made. So, you send and forget and move on. If your writing world is focused on one work then your focus is misdirected. You need to have multiples working for you, different stories; different submission targets all working together to create one break. You put the eggs in one basket (another cliché) then you will most certainly remain in the same spot you started out in ten years ago.

Why listen to me on this subject? Am I an expert? Do I have credentials to splash around?

If you have to ask this before you need to follow basic instructions then don't let me stop you moving through the maze of publishing nightmares. Now, I am sure there are plenty of experts in the world that will sell you their knowledge.

Your task is to make the editor care and in that caring you will find success.